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“You need to get in the truck and on the road, Mr. Quinn.” Laine laughs, shoving at me in the driveway. “You’re already going to be late. If you don’t go now, you’ll miss the fight. Bryan and Brendan won’t forgive you if you miss their big moment.”
“Bryan and Brendan will be two of the last matchups, luv. Don’t panic. The night is still young.”
Laine laughs and though I hate leaving her behind, it does my heart good to see that she truly isn’t bothered by my decision to err on the side of caution tonight.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather lie around naked all night and indulge in ourselves? I haven’t shown you the hot tub. We could enjoy that.”
She holds up her finger, pointing toward where Aiden waits in the SUV. “We lounged around naked for the past two hours. Now it’s time for you to take this fine ass of yours and strut your stuff for a good cause. Go raise money for street kids.”
Aye, there is that. I don’t want to let down the kids. “All right, but don’t forget your promise to be in my bed waiting for me after a long night of schmoozing.”
“I won’t forget, but I won’t get the chance if you never leave.”
“A good argument, counselor. All right. Consider me gone.” I lean in, kiss her cheek, and then climb into the back seat of the SUV. “Call me if you need me, luv, otherwise, I’ll see you in a few. And if anything happens, Andrew is at the front gate. Hit the panic button inside the door and he’ll send a team running.”
She blows me a kiss. “I’ll be fine. Good luck. Give Brendan and Bryan my best wishes.”
“Aye, I’ll do that.” I close the door and sit back as Aiden pulls away. I can tell by the scowl on his face that he’s still got a bug up his arse where Laine is concerned, but I don’t care.
He’s wrong. Whatever he thinks she’s up to, he’s so far off base he’s not even in the damned ballpark.
“Do we need to do this again?” I ask. “Or can we skip it and have a nice night?”
Aiden grunts and meets my gaze in the rear-view mirror. “So, you’re giving her the run of the house for the night? Did you at least lock your office and set the alarm for the basement?”
I roll my eyes. “The alarm on the basement door is always set, but no, I didn’t lock Laine out of any part of my home.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“Obviously I don’t think it’s a problem or I wouldn’t have done it.”
Aiden lets off a sound that is closer to a growl than a grunt, but I don’t let it affect my mood. “Laine and I are in a good place. Maybe if you spent some time with her, you’d see what the rest of us see and ease up on her.”
Aiden shakes his head. “Why can’t you see that she hits all your weaknesses? You feel responsible for her because she was swept into your unforgiving world. You consider her an innocent that needs your help. And she’s dealing with the loss of her mother, who, by the way, died over a year ago.”
I don’t like the callous way he says that, but rein in my annoyance. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that she’s playing the dead parent card. Your Da dying is a raw wound. From what I’ve been able to find, Laine and her mother weren’t even all that close at times.”
Laine told me that her mother wasn’t happy about her marriage to Marco Moneta and it made waves in their relationship, but when she got sick, they set everything right.
“What do you mean—what you’ve been able to find? You’re not to be looking into Laine’s past. Finn is working on it.”
“And he’s getting nowhere fast. Shit, Tag, one night on my laptop and I dug up as much or more on her than your little brother has.”
A cold dread hits the pit of my belly. “I didn’t tell you to do that, mate. In fact, I told you to let Finn handle it.”
He changes lanes as we head into the city proper. “And if he was handling it, I would have. But all of you are tiptoeing around her and leaving yourselves open to whatever she’s got planned.”
I grip the headrest ahead of me and lean forward. “Why the fuck have you started thinking outside the box? We’re going slow because Laine’s husband and the father-in-law were into something with a Chicago crime family. They think she’s dead, so we didn’t want to tip our hand.”
He has the good sense to look stricken. “I didn’t know that.”
“No. You didn’t. But it shouldn’t matter if you knew it or not because I told you Finn is handling things.”
Aiden curses. “I’m sorry. Siobhan was worried?—”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I told you I don’t want that bitch anywhere near me and Laine and you let her get under your skin about overstepping? It’s not me who is being led around by my cock, mate—it’s you. Siobhan is poison, and you need to make a choice. Are you with her or with me? It’s clear you can’t handle being with both.”
