Page 9 of Bound Lies

Ronan levels me with a look. "You? You keep your damn head down."

I stare at him, stunned for a second. Then I laugh. "You're joking."

"You’ve been targeted twice in the past month, Kieran. Whoever’s pulling strings is aiming for you. You need to start locking your doors."

"I am the fucking door."

"This isn’t about pride. This is about staying alive."

"You think I give a shit about dying? Let the fuckers come. In fact, I want them to come. I'm not afraid."

"That’s exactly the problem."

"What about Declan’s crew?" Brennan, always trying to keep the peace, steers the conversation back to business. "Any noise from his kid?"

Ronan shakes his head. "Oscar’s been silent, and I expect him to stay that way. He won’t make a move."

I look him straight in the eye. "Are you sure about that?"

He shrugs. "Oscar’s not built for war."

"I wouldn’t be so sure. The death of a parent changes you."

The silence that follows is heavier than before.

They know I’m right. We all felt that in our soul when our father was murdered in front of us. Well, not Cormac. He wasn’t there, of course. Apparently, he is too good to stay close to us, and as soon as Dad dies, he waltzes right back. Like we’re supposed to just let him take his place as if he was here all along.

Brennan lowers his eyes. "I still hear him, sometimes.”

Cormac doesn’t speak, but his expression turns solemn. He might not have been here, but he feels the loss, too.

Ronan stares into space, as if lost in his own grief for a moment.

A familiar weight settles on my chest, and as grief swallows me, an even more suffocating pressure that I can’t seem to shift pulls at me.

I carry this family on my back just as much as Ronan does, but it’s never enough. I’m never enough.

Never will be fucking enough.

I look around the room at my brothers, at the maps and lists and half-drunk whiskey glasses, at the cluttered violence of our lives, and something twists in my chest.

This used to be easier, but lately, it feels like we’re barely keeping our heads above water.

"If we’re done here, I’ve got shit to do." I climb to my feet.

Ronan doesn’t stop me. After all, he's given me my orders and expects me to just blindly follow them.

But at some point, he’s going to learn that he’s not always right, and I just have to hope that I’ll still be standing when it all falls apart.

Chapter Three

RILEY

I’m living in a nightmare.

If it wasn’t bad enough that my uncle wants to marry me off to some middle-aged mob boss, the fact that my brother is also in on the arrangement makes me sick to my stomach.

I expected such behavior from Rion, but Oscar? He was meant to have my back.