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Outside, the sirens were getting closer.
“We have to go.” Pulling out my phone, I tried to call Torin, but it went straight to voicemail. “Fuck!” So I called Trigger.
“Grayson?” he answered.
“We need to get out of here.Now.”
In the background, an engine roared to life. “I’m thirty seconds out.”
“Pick us up in the back.” I hung up and started toward the staff door that led out into the alleyway. The cops were closer now—maybe only another minute away at best—and we couldn’t afford to be arrested.
Trigger pulled into the mouth of the alley thirty seconds later. Finnan took the back seat while I rode shotgun.
“Make us disappear,” Finnan told Trigger, who put his foot down and got us the hell out of Dodge.
As we moved out of the city of Athlone and back toward Galway, tension gnawed at my gut.Where in the hell was Sloane?
“Call Torin again. See if he got her out.”
I made the call, cursing when it went straight to voicemail. I tried again, the phone not even ringing once this time. I punched the dashboard. My breath was rattling out of my lungs, and when I turned my head, I could see Finnan staring at me through narrowed eyes.
I said, “No answer. What’s the plan?” I hoped to God he had one because my idea to burn the country to the ground in order to find her had too many fucking moving parts.
“We return to Oranmore. Rally the clan. Sweeney fucking started a war.”
“What about Sloane?”
He cocked his head to the side. “What about her?”
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “What if Torin didn’t get her out?”
Finnan didn’t have an answer for that, so we sat in silence on the way back to Galway. When we arrived at the compound, I left Finnan there and took the Rover back to my house. If shit was about to go south—if there was a war on the horizon—I needed to see my sister before that happened.
* * *
Twenty minutes later,I walked in the door of my house to find Fallon pacing in the living room in front of the television. In one hand, she clutched a rosary and was reciting a Hail Mary prayer under her breath while her gaze remained fixed on the screen. She spun, though, when she heard the door slam behind me. As soon as she saw me, she threw herself into my arms, burying her face against my neck.
“I thought you were dead.” Her words came out muffled.
I peered over her shoulder to see what they were reporting on the news—the firefight that had erupted.
“They said that a dozen people had been killed or injured. I thought it was you.” Tears tracked down her face, and I wiped them away with my thumb. “I’m fine,
Fallon, but I have to go. What happened tonight—” Fuck, I couldn’t even finish that thought. I was likely to tear the whole world down if I did. With my jaw tight, I said, “I have to go.”
As I stepped away to go to my bedroom to pack, she grabbed my arm.
“I’m afraid you won’t come back,” she admitted in a trembling voice. Her fingers tightened around my arm. “I’m afraid you won’t come back, and I’ll have no way of knowing if you’re dead or alive.”
“Fallon.” I loosened her grip. “The clan would take care of you if I were gone.”
More tears, and my heart was getting ripped from my chest with every single one.
“Maybe, but what the hell am I supposed to do without you?”
I wrapped her in my arms and kissed her forehead. “You’re stronger than you think you are, Fallon. You know that. I know that. I believe you willalwaysmake the right decision when it comes to your sobriety.”
Even though it killed me, I eased her away from me, gripping her by her upper arms to keep her from clinging to me again. “Fallon, I have to go.”
