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“Lilianna James,” she said.
“As in Cillian’s little sister from Ireland?” he asked.
“The one and well, not only, since my ma had a bunch of us kids,” Lil said.
“She’s the youngest,” Cillian offered.
“We met when you were just a baby then,” he said. “When your family first came to America. I was a friend of your father’s.”
“Yeah—she was probably a year or so when we got here,” Cillian said.
“Okay, can we stop talking about me as if I weren’t here?” she asked.
“I like your sister, Cillian,” Bowie said. “I’ve got to get these guys some beers. It was good to meet you, Lil.”
“You too, Bowie,” Lil said.
“I’d like to hear more about the danger you are in,” Savage said.
“I don’t see that it’s any of your business,” she sassed. Savage threw back his head again and laughed.
“Bowie’s right,” he said. “I like her too. And it is my business what happens to you, Lil. Cillian is like a younger brother to me and that makes you family. I get involved in all my family member’s business. How about we use my office for a littleprivacy?” he asked. She looked around the bar, wondering if she had made a huge mistake looking for her brother there.
“Just give him a chance, Lil,” Cillian asked. “He helped me out when I was in prison. Da trusted him, you should too.”
“Fine,” she agreed. She needed help and if the big guy wanted to give it, then she’d take whatever he offered.
Lil followed the two men back down a dark hallway to a door with the word, “Office” written on it. “You get lost a lot, Savage?” she asked, nodding to the sign.
“Naw—that’s mostly to keep the barflies out of here when they come looking for trouble. My wife, Dallas, didn’t want anyone stumbling into my office claiming to be looking for the ladies’ room.”
Lil smiled and took a seat on the sofa that spanned most of the back wall of his office. “I like the way Dallas thinks,” she said. “She sounds like a smart woman.”
“She is,” he agreed, “hot too.” Cillian rolled his eyes and sat on the edge of Savage’s desk, while the big guy took a seat behind it. “How about you tell us what this danger is that you claim to be in,” Savage ordered.
“It’s trouble I had back at home, and I think it followed me here,” she said.
“It?” Cillian asked.
“Well, more like, ‘He’,” she admitted. “You remember Cian Walsh?” she asked.
“Yeah—he was just a kid when I went to prison. I remember Ma telling me how you followed him around like a lovesick puppy,” he teased.
“Did not,” she grumbled.
“Is he the one putting you in danger?” Savage asked.
Lil sighed, knowing that she might as well start from the beginning if she was going to get it all out. Playing twenty questions wasn’t getting her anywhere. “Let me tell it and then,ask your questions,” she ordered. Both guys sat back and waited for her to go on with her story.
“Cian got himself mixed up with a bad crowd back at home,” she said. “Kind of like you here, Cillian, but he didn’t end up in prison. Instead, he pissed off the wrong people, and well, he had to take off for America to keep one step ahead of them. The gang he went up against threatened to kill him and everyone he cared about if they ever crossed paths again. He left Ireland, but he also left someone behind whom he cared about.”
“Let me guess—you?” Savage asked.
“Right, but I had no idea that he felt that way about me. I mean, maybe I did have a little crush on him, but he barely spoke to me outside of school and all that. I thought that he didn’t even know that I existed until the leader of the gang showed up at my job. I worked for a local doctor, as a receptionist, and I really loved that job. Anyway, this guy—Sid something or other, came in and told me that I was the only link he had to Cian and that I had five days to produce him, or I’d be dead.”
“Shit,” Cillian grumbled.
“Right,” she agreed. “Well, I didn’t want to go to any of our siblings back home. They all have families and such, and until a few minutes ago, I had no idea that you were in the same boat. I would have never come here if I had known, Cillian. I’d never want to put your family in peril.”
