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Cormack Quinn was a god among men, and we weren’t ready to lose him. He was strong and lethal in a way that made the rest of us marvel. He could take care of himself in any situation. He was a fighter. He was smart.
And in the end, none of that mattered.
The echo of my own harsh breaths follows me as I ascend the stairs, each step weighed down by the night’s grim work.
At the top of the stairs, I tip my head back and take another long swig of whiskey to numb the visceral reality of the monster within.
A woman’s scream pierces the night, slicing through my soul like a blade.
It’s Laine.
I race down the hallway, her scream cutting off as quickly as it started.
“It’s fine,” she gasps. “It’s only a nightmare.”
I stop, ready to break the door in if I have to, but I don’t.
It’s only a nightmare.
I suppose that’s to be expected, given the evening she had: the shooting, me chasing her through the streets, and then dragging her here and locking her in the family estate.
And yeah, the last thing I said to her was that she shouldn’t try to escape or she’d be hurt.
I press my ear to the wood of the door.
Each gasping sob is a sharp stab of guilt in my chest. “It was only a nightmare,” she whispers in a repeated mantra.
Fuck. Maybe Aiden was right. Maybe I brought her here for entirely selfish reasons. There’s no ‘maybe’ about it. I know, deep in my cold dark heart why Laine is sobbing in that bedroom down the hall.
My gaze falls to the macabre sight of my hands and clothes.
This is why I can’t have nice things.
I step back from the door, the whispers of her sobs lost in the quiet of her room. No matter how much of a monster I can be, the Quinn Laws are our guiding tenet to business and life.
No innocents are to be hurt.
Tomorrow, I’ll set it right. No matter how curious I am about the woman, I’ll help her find her mam and any kin she might have in Brittas Bay and I’ll return her to her life.
Continuing to the end of the hallway, I step into my old room. Technically, I’m supposed to be in the king’s suite in the other wing, but I have no interest in tackling that tonight.
Leaving the lights off, I strip out of my clothes and toss them into the bin meant for things too soiled to be saved. With each bare footfall across the plush carpet, I tighten my rein and lock down my emotions.
I leave the vanity lights off and only turn on the overhead light in the shower.
Setting it on dim, I turn on the shower and let the spray warm up while I take another long drink. Once I’ve downed a quarter of the bottle and the buzz of sweet relaxation is creeping in, I step into the shower.
Under the stream of water, I tilt my head back and let the sluice of hot and steamy run through my hair, down my back, and over my ass.
Fine. If I’m being honest with myself, I know why I don’t want Laine to leave. Because, for the first time since Da died, someone looked at me and saw me.
She looked at me from across Jimmy’s bar and her gaze wasn’t filled with fear or disdain, not even with animosity. She looked at me with genuine attraction and when I took her into my office, the attraction grew deeper.
We talked about the loss of her mam and my da, and we she shared the pain of it. It was in that moment that I realized how empty my heart has grown.
I’m a leader. I’m a brother. I’m a source of both hatred and admiration. But no one that looks at me truly sees the man.
Emotions. I’ve been trained my entire life to lock them down and keep them hidden, but twenty minutes with Laine cracked the façade.
