Page 54 of Then We Shatter

When I activate the vibrator, there’s a sharp hiss on the other end of the line.

“Tell me it feels good.”

I increase the frequency and I swear we must have some freakish bond because a sudden jolt of pleasure brings my cock to attention.

“Switch it off, Killian.” Her barked command loses its authority when emotion catches in her throat. There’s no power at all in her words when she adds, “Please, just tell me. If this is your way of saying goodbye, get it over with.”

My stomach hollows and I quickly deactivate the vibrator. This long goodbye is killing us both. “I’m not going anywhere, lovely,” I say, slumping into an armchair, “but if you want to take your new toy with you when you leave, it’d be a novel way of keeping in touch. I could send you messages in morse code.”

“Or you could just let me move on,” she whispers. “When we sever ties, it has to be clinical. You know that.”

“I do.” But I’m not sure I’ll ever accept it.

Her footsteps stop. “Your family comes first,” she reminds me. “And it’s time you rejoined them.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You have other business to attend.”

“Do I now?” Nothing and no one is more important than the precious little time I have left with Katarina.

“I have information, and if your father isn’t aware of it yet, he soon will be,” she says. “Diego Valera has been spotted in Boston. And wherever he is, his father and brothers won’t be far.”

I lean forward in my chair. Could our four-year hunt for the severed branch of the Valera family tree be drawing to a close? “You tracked them down?”

“Call it a leaving gift. Here…” Long fingernails tap her screen and a second later my phone vibrates with a message. “That’s everything I have on Diego’s activities.”

I take a moment to absorb the information she’s sent. They’ve been active in Boston for months. “Your sestra hasn’t located their base yet?” I ask, knowing she’ll be Katarina’s source.

“Not yet, but she’ll keep looking.”

“Thank you.” It makes my gift to her look embarrassingly puerile in comparison. This information means more to my family than she could possibly imagine.

In the silence that follows, I’m already making plans. Surveillance, phone calls, mustering our best men, relocating our resources. I should also talk to our allies to help tighten the net around our nemesis, but first I need to speak to Dad. Justice is within our grasp.

“When will you leave?”

Katarina’s question hits me like a bucket of ice-cold water. This mission will take weeks, or possibly months depending on how deeply underground Ignacio has burrowed. Very deep I should imagine given how long he’s gone undetected.

This isn’t going to be wrapped up in two weeks. And Katarina can’t put off her planned departure any longer. The risks are too great for her and Duke’s family too, now I know the duress he’s under.

“Malachy can do the legwork,” I tell Katarina, quickly revising my plans. He can take one of the twins while my other brothers keep things ticking over in Las Vegas. Lorcan would have been my first choice to partner Malachy, but I don’t want him anywhere near the men who held him captive. Not without me.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” asks Katarina.

“Yeah, I know,” I say, already wondering how the fuck I’m going to sell my plan to Dad. “I’m the one who’s closest, but you underestimate my powers of persuasion.” Which my family have become immune to, but it’s still worth a try.

“And your explanation for staying in Chicago would be…?” She leaves me to finish that thought.

Shit.

Ignacio is supposed to be my excuse for being here. Or so Katarina believes.

“Your search is over,” she says glumly. “Job done. There’s no valid reason for you to stay.”

“I have every reason.”

“Not one you can tell your father.”