AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Morning, all,” I say, setting my mug on the table.
“Morning, T,” Brendan says, standing to help himself for a second plate. “How goes the battle?”
I grunt. “It goes.”
After mounding my plate with a heaping portion, I settle into Da’s place at the head of the table. It feels all wrong and I hate it, but I’ve been thinking; if I can’t even fill Da’s shoes in the privacy of our home, how can I convince the outside world that I’m every bit as in control of the Quinn family businesses as he was?
Sipping my steaming cup of coffee, I let the bitterness settle on my tongue. “Good morning, Laine. Did you sleep well?”
She slides a slow glare over to me and dips her chin. “Not especially, no.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?” She pegs me with such a murderous glare I freeze, my fork hanging mid-way to my mouth.
“You can give me back my mother’s urn, the money you stole from me, and let me the fuck out of this elaborate prison for a start.”
I blink, my mind stalling out on that. Casting a glance around the table, I see that Bryan, Brendan, and Finn are all wearing equal looks of surprise.
“I told you I called over to Jimmy to search for your mam’s urn. He’ll find her and I’ll get her back for you. As for your money—I don’t know what you’re talking about. What money?”
Her gaze narrows on me and I know she’s searching for the lie. She won’t find one.
“Seriously, Laine. I have all the money I could ever want or need. I wouldn’t steal from you. We’re not like that.”
“Right. You just kill men and shove them into vans under the cover of three AM darkness.”
“Well, fuck,” Bryan says, sitting back in his chair.
Well, fuck is right. Laine had that nightmare right when we finished with the McGuire men last night. Brenny, Bryan, and I came up to go to bed, while Grady and Aiden were heading out to return them to the McGuires.
“If it calms your fears any, those men weren’t dead. After a little applied pressure, they told us what we wanted to know, and so we returned them to the south side, back to the McGuires.”
“I don’t believe you.”
I shrug. “Whether or not you believe me, I’ve never lied to you and have no intention of starting now.”
She shakes her head. “Well, I don’t believe you. I saw those men get thrown into that van and they weren’t moving. And I know you stole my money. You may be stupidly hot as fuck, but you’re also controlling, manipulative, and dangerous.”
I press my hands flat against the linen tablecloth. “First, thank you for the hot as fuck acknowledgment. Second, you’re new to Dublin, so I’ll let you in on a fact that everyone around here knows. The Quinns live dangerous lives—I don’t deny that—but we also live by a code. The locals call them the Quinn Laws.”
She sighs. “And what does any of this have to do with me?”
“When you’re hurling libelous comments about me—everything. You are both a woman and an innocent outside the sphere of our world. That makes you precious to me, my brothers, and everyone in our organization. You’re off limits.”
“First, it’s slanderous, not libelous. Libel is defamation in written form, slander is oral. Second, if you didn’t take my money, where is it?”
I pull my phone free from my pocket and find Aiden’s contact. He picks up on the second ring. “Oi, mate. I’m still not used to this number popping up on my screen.”
“I’ve got a new phone being delivered. I’ll be off the burner by this afternoon. Where are you now?”
“Outside doing a security sweep on all the cars.”
“Good. I need you in the dining room.” I hang up and meet Laine’s feisty fury with a smile. “Stop looking at me like I killed your dog. I didn’t steal from you. Give me a chance to figure out what’s going on.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Laine
What is happening? I was in the middle of ripping a strip off the man currently ruining my life, and now I’m not even sure I’ve got the right guy.
