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Cameron looked from me to Louie. “Weren’t you two in a shoot-out with Aryans recently?” Then he looked to Maura. “And weren’t you and your cousin, Rourke Murphy, attacked by the Aryans in a parking garage about nine months ago?”
“Sounds to me like tonight’s incident on the bridge might have been retaliation by the Aryans,” Brooks said as he stared intently at Maura.
“The attack earlier today could have been, too,” Cameron added.
“If you believe that to be true, why aren’t you speaking with the Aryans?” Maura asked, knowing that there weren’t any Aryans left to speak to.
Cameron frowned. “We’ll be speaking with them when we’re done here.”
“I’d love to know what they say,” she said with a little spark of wickedness in her eye.
Before they could respond, I asked, “Are there any other questions we can answer for you, Detectives?”
They repeated a few questions to see if we’d change our answers. When we didn’t, they decided to leave.
Cameron was the first to walk out. Brooks, though, lingered in front of Dean. “You haven’t been returning my calls,” Brooks said to him.
The shock that took over Dean’s face was unmissable. Brooks took it in with a smirk. “Have a good night, Officer Gallagher,” he said and walked out.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Louie stood from where he was sitting. “Officer Gallagher?”
I glanced at Maura. There was true worry in her eyes, which told me that what Detective Brooks had said was true. Ice began to pump through my veins. “He’s a cop?”
Maura ignored my question. “Asher—”
Before she could get out the order, I stormed toward Dean. Asher stepped between us, blocking me from reaching Maura’s precious goon.
“Jamie!” Maura yelled.
“Christ, Maura, don’t rip out your IV,” Louie said.
I faintly heard Maura’s bare feet slap on the linoleum before she stood with Asher to block me.
Maura put her hands on my chest. “Look at me,” she begged me. When I couldn’t look away from the fucking threat to our family in the room—the threat that she’d known about—her voice turned firm and authoritative. “Look at me.”
Obeying, I met her eyes. Without looking away from me, she ordered, “Asher, get Dean out of here, now.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Dean said to her as he glared at me. Through my rage, I respected that he’d risk me killing him to stand with her rather than run away like a coward.
Maura ignored him. “Asher.”
Asher put his hand on Dean’s shoulder. “You being here right now will only make things worse. Let her handle this,” he said to Dean in a low voice.
Dean’s jaw clenched as he looked from me to the back of Maura’s head. I could see the battle between want and reason in his eyes. Reason seemed to win, because he stormed out of the room with Asher right behind him.
I stared down at Maura and it took effort not to roar at her. “You’ve known.”
She dropped her hands from my chest and took a step back. Not out of intimidation, but to stare me down. “I’ve known for a while.”
I took a few steps away from her before I lost it. I ran my hands through my hair and began to pace to calm myself.
I could feel Maura watching me as I did. “This right here is the biggest hurdle of our relationship, Jamie.”
“Your precious goon?” I snapped.
“No, your lack of trust in me, in the decisions I make,” she said. “You say that I am the right person to lead this family, yet you are losing it over the fact that I’ve known Dean was a cop without any more information than that. You can’t know that I’m the right person to lead this family if you can so easily jump to the conclusion that I would put us at so much risk.”
“She’s right, Jameson,” Louie said calmly. “Maura wouldn’t allow a cop around us without reason.”
