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“Why do you think that?’ Louie asked.
“Because Dylan was afraid of Stefan. It’s why he used the Aryans to try and kill her, instead of doing it himself,” I explained. “But with Stefan gone, I wouldn’t put it past him to try and gain allies to overthrow Maura.”
“And because he is the next male Quinn related to Stefan, people will side with him,” Maura added.
“Then we need to stop him before he does that,” Louie said.
Maura headed back over to her hospital bed. “I’m already working on that.”
“The alliance with the De Lucas,” I said, understanding Maura’s actions tonight a little bit more.
Maura climbed back into the hospital bed and lay down. “Yes. If Nicky agrees to it, I’m going to owe him a lot of favors.”
Louie stared down at the floor. “I thought…”
“You thought I stopped caring about myself again,” Maura finished for him. “I knew I was taking a risk going there alone, but in my gut, I knew I could trust Nicky. With Stefan being taken and not knowing who took him, it gave me doubt. That’s why I had to test him.”
“You could have gone about it a safer way,” I said.
She shrugged. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.” She let out a yawn. “How much longer do you think they’ll keep me here?” Her voice came out sounding sleepy.
“I can go see,” I said, taking a step toward the door.
“You’re not going out there to hunt down my goon, are you?” she asked with a tone that warned me that she’d do everything she could to stop me, exhausted or not.
“Your goon is safe for now, Maura,” I grumbled.
“Good,” she mumbled tiredly as I opened the door. “I just want to go home and hold our baby.”
I froze before leaving the room. Glancing back, I saw that her eyes were closed. Louie was staring at me, seeming just as surprised as I was. It was not only the first time she had admitted that Kieran was hers without Stefan forcing it from her, but the first time ever that she had referred to Kieran as mine and Louie’s.
CHAPTERTWENTY
“Are you ready?” Dean asked.
I’d just finished stepping into gold Manolo Blahnik pumps. My suit was black, formfitting, and the jacket was very risqué. It was meant to be worn without anything underneath. The opening was a deep plunge and secured closed with one button. I had a lot of cleavage on display. My hair was curled, my eye makeup was dark, and my lips were red.
“I’m ready, Grumpy,” I said as I stepped out of my bathroom, connected to my bedroom in the main house.
Brenna and Asher were waiting for me in my bedroom. I took in Brenna’s suit. Her black slacks were high-waisted and wide-legged. Her top under her open, black suit jacket was a white bustier corset crop with thin white straps and a lot of push-up. It showed off a good section of skin from the bottom of the corset to the top of her pants.
“Don’t bend over in that top,” I said to her.
Her eyes dropped to my chest and smirked. “Don’t sneeze in yours.”
We both grinned at each other.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a key attached to a clover key chain. I held it out to her. “Happy eighteenth birthday.”
She took the key from me.
“Our gift is your lessons to ride it, which start next week,” Asher said, pointing at Dean and himself.
Her eyes lit up. “You got me a motorcycle?”
I smiled. “Your matte black Kawasaki Ninja 650 is in the garage.” It was the exact bike she wanted according to Dean, who I’d made talk to her about it so I would know which one to get. He hadn’t been thrilled with my little mission I’d sent him on, but he hadn’t let me down.
Brenna threw her arms around me tightly and thanked me.
