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“I had a hunch.”
“You didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t think it would amount to anything.”
I restrain myself from punching Arnie in the balls. His flat tone discusses me as if I’m nothing more than an overdue delivery. Bastard.
“I amright here.”
Connor’s eyes flicker over to me immediately, a forlorn smile spreading on his lips. Still looking like he doesn’t quite believe that I’m real.
I snap my fingers at him. “I will punch you again.”
“I’m just glad you’re safe,” he says softly, reaching for my hand.
I jerk out of the way again. “Safe? You’re joking, right? I find out you’re some big mobster from the guy who murdered Douglas Jones - who, by the way, has been like a father to me these last few months - and you think somehow I’m safer here?”
Connor glances over to Arnie again. “I thought you didn’t disclose your targets either.”
“How is that the point right now?” I groan before Arnie can answer.
“Roshe, I understand you’re upset. I do,” Connor tries to rationalize. “But there are so many things you don’t know about.”
“Then explain them to me.” I snap stubbornly. “You told me you’d explain everything.”
“We’re in the middle of a war.” There’s an edge to his voice that tells me his patience is wearing thin. “The Duffys have been gunning for our family since our ancestors sold them out to the British to feed our own.”
“The famine was like a hundred years ago. I’d hardly call that ‘the middle.’”
“They have your sister.”
My stomach drops.
“What?”
“Jack Duffy announced their engagement a month ago. I tried to stop him, but…” He gestures to the fading bruises on his face. “It didn’t exactly go according to plan.”
Arnie had shown me a picture of Jack that fateful morning at Juilliard. Told me he knew where my sister was. I never thought…
“She’s getting married to him?” My voice breaks as I turn to Arnie. Hoping he might deny it. But the sorrowful look in his endless, dark eyes only confirms the truth.
The childish part of me begins to cry. The part that spent hours with Aimee planning our weddings. A wedding I’m now only just finding out about and will probably not be a part of.
“You know him?” Connor asks, reading my expression.
“We met… briefly. Before Aimee disappeared.”
“And all I’ve been trying to do is get her back,” Connor explains. “All of this is so that I can keep our family safe.”
I frown, not taking my eyes off Arnie. “But… you said you formed your alliance months ago?”
“Roisin…” Arnie begins. His voice is soft, a warning that I’m about to be hit with another emotional blow.
But Connor is the one to deliver it.
“The Duffys are the reason our mother was in that car accident,” he says slowly. “This war between our families is far more complicated than you realize. When Father died, I had to take precautionary measures.”
I digest this information with a gulp. My mother has been dead for almost ten years. Losing a parent, accidentally or not… that grief doesn’t just disappear. It only becomes more manageable. So, as much as the news shocks me, it doesn’t change anything. I’ve processed her death enough now to realize that.
