56. Cian
Cian
T he truth is I love my wife, otherwise I would have killed her too. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Gun pressed to her head, finger on the trigger, I couldn’t go through with it.
I love her too much to harm her, even though she betrayed me in the end. I knew she would—eventually. Why would she choose me when she could have a whole man? One who’s not scarred and ugly. One who can give her a family.
I’m not that man. These past few years, I’ve fooled myself into thinking I was, or that I could be what she deserves. But I’m not.
That truth hurts.
My phone floods with Ravenna’s voicemails and text messages. I delete one after another without reading or listening to them. The thought of hearing her voice is more torment than I’m willing to put myself through.
She gutted me. I’m lost without her. I’ll never recover from this, from her. So I push her from my mind.
I have other problems to worry about right now. Wolfe and I eventually found Kody and Finn’s bodies in the garage beneath the agency’s building. I went looking for them as soon as I left that office. Wolfe met me there, and we eventually found them. Dead.
Did Ravenna know her lover slit their throats and left them there? How cold-hearted is she to let him do that to those boys? Goes to show that you never really know a person when they can surprise you like that.
Wolfe helps me remove Kody and Finn’s bodies from the trunk of the car, and place them in a walk-in refrigerator where they’ll stay until funeral arrangements are made. I need to break the news to everyone about their deaths.
As for Devlin? Fuck him. His corpse can rot in his office for all I care. I made that mess but I’m not cleaning it up. The cops can piece together that scene and do their investigation. I don’t care.
Luck was on my side last night. Somehow, the building’s security camera system was offline. My guess is Devlin took it down so there’d be no footage of him murdering Finn and Kody, then forgot to reactivate it.
His oversight worked in my favor. Anyone can guess as to who killed Devlin, but without evidence no one will know for sure. His death will be filed as another senseless office shooting. Probably by a disgruntled co-worker or vengeful ex.
I didn’t leave any DNA or prints behind. As for Ravenna, hers have every reason to be all over that place, since she works there. Although she may be questioned, since she was the last one to see him alive. If she even shows up to work this morning.
Not that I care. She’s not my responsibility anymore.
“I’m calling it a night,” Wolfe says as we head back to the car. We’ve both been up all through the night. Dawn spread its gloomy glow across the sky hours ago.
I nod. “Drop me at my motorcycle and I’ll drive myself home.”
“Sure thing.” He sends a worried glance my way. “Do you want to tell me about what happened last night?”
“No.” My firm tone puts an end to this conversation. I don’t want to talk about it. It’s humiliating enough that Wolfe saw me through the fallout after Fiona. I’m not putting either of us through that a second time.
The best thing I can do is pretend Ravenna’s dead. She died last night, taking my heart with her. Good thing I don’t need that organ.
We ride in silence to where I left my bike near the modeling agency.
As expected, the place is crawling with cops.
Paramedics load a body into the back of their vehicle.
Onlookers gather round to gawk. Even the news crews are in full swing, reporting on what little they know, sensationalizing every bit of it.
Vultures. I’m sure the Big Apple Buzz will make a mint off this story.
I’m about to get on my Ducati when my phone chimes with a different sound from Ravenna’s tone. This time, it’s Brendan texting me, so I don’t ignore it.
Brendan:
Urgent. Meet me at the compound. ASAP.
I scowl at the message, tired. What the fuck is going on now?
Starting up my bike, I head north to the compound. Brendan always gets straight to the point, no filler needed, so I don’t demand an explanation. If he states it’s urgent, then it is.
Security lets me through the gate and I drive around back to park in my sprawling garage. I plan to swap the motorcycle for a car on my way home, especially now that it’s raining. My clothes are soaked through.
Crossing the distance of the garage, I enter the house through a side door and head straight for my office. That’s where Brendan will be waiting.
I hope to fuck whatever the problem is can be sorted quickly. I’m dead on my feet with exhaustion.
As soon as I enter my office, an odd sensation crawls beneath my skin. On instinct, I reach for my gun.
But I’m too late. Some big fucker hits me in the side of my head. The brief disorientation gives him enough time to disarm me, then hold me at gunpoint with my own weapon. Motherfucker.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I snarl, facing him. Only to realize he’s a stranger. “Who the fuck are you?”
In answer, he tilts his head to the other man in the room. Brendan.
He sits behind my desk, a gun held casually in one hand. “Thank you for coming so quickly. Please, sit down.”
I glower at him, remaining right where I stand. I wasn’t expecting an ambush this morning. “What’s going on here?”
“Your time is over, O’Rourke. This is the way of our world when the strong overcome the weak. I’m taking over your empire. All that you had is now mine.”
“My men would never put you in charge.”
“They already have.”
How in the fuck did I not see this coming? Brendan, my security guy, has been scheming to overthrow me? For how long? He’s been with us for years.
“They’d never make you their leader.” I sound more confident than I am about that statement.
“No? Let me explain why they chose me. Let’s see…
there’s the bit about you paying too much attention to your Italian bride.
You negotiated peace with the Monahans when you should have taken their turf before they had a chance to settle in.
They were weak without allies and you have the Italian mafia at your back, and therefore no good reason not to use them.
So disappointing that you didn’t. Last, but certainly not least, is your unstable mental health.
Not the good kind of unstable where you might make a bloodbath out of the Monahans or anyone else who oversteps.
No, unfortunately, you’re simply incompetent. ” He sneers.
Did I really fuck up that badly?
Brendan smirks. “Though I guess I’m to blame for some of that.”
“What do you mean?” I cautiously ask. I need to keep him talking until I get a clear idea of what the fuck just happened, and how this came to be. Why now?
“Let me enlighten you. You don’t know me, not really, but I know all about you. My sister told me even the most intimate details. Driving you insane was actually easier than I thought it’d be.”
His sister? A lead weight sinks to the bottom of my stomach. “Fiona?” I guess.
Brendan nods. “Very good. I see you’re catching on quickly. My name’s Brendan Gallagher, but I changed it to Dunne before I left Ireland.”
So he’s Fiona Gallagher’s brother. She told me about him a few times, how he was mostly away at a private school in Switzerland. The last thing I’d ever expect is some rich boy showing up here to join the Gaelic Devils.
Brendan sits back in my chair, making himself comfortable.
“My sister and I were close. She confided in me about everything, all the way down to how she and Shawn trapped and then tortured you for their pleasure. Then one day, I never heard from her again. When I learned that you were alive, I knew what had happened. You murdered my sister.”
I have nothing to hide, so I nod.
“I dropped out of school, changed my name, then came to New York. With bits and pieces of information I had from Fiona, it was easy enough to befriend those close to you. Pledging, then proving myself to you was easy, considering I’d do anything to get inside the Gaelic Devils.
After that, all I had to do was wait for my chance.
In the meantime, why not torment you with my sister’s memory? ”
All at once, the pieces fall into place and I see the complete picture. “The perfume and the pendant. That was you.”
“They were a start. Did you know that olfactory memory recall is often the most vividly emotional kind? Spraying my sister’s perfume all over your house was one of my more brilliant ideas.
The pendant you gave her, resurfacing around Ravenna’s neck, I thought to be a poetic touch.
But the real fun and games started when I put Devlin into play. ”
My gaze narrows on him. “Devlin was your man?”
He snorts a laugh, but I don’t see what’s so funny. “You could say that. He was sick, dying of a terminal illness. So when I offered him a quicker death, and his family a million dollars, he jumped at the opportunity.”
If that’s true, then it was all a lie, a setup to drive Ravenna and I apart. The confrontation in the office was orchestrated to remind me of Fiona and Shawn. Brendan’s been pulling the strings all along.
“What have you done,” I snarl at him. He’s destroyed my marriage.
“It’s called vengeance.” He sneers. “Since the day I found out you strangled my sweet sister to death, cutting her life way too short, I vowed to take you down. It’s taken years of planning.
I thought I had you when I stole your bride-to-be, but I didn’t see the whole identical twin swap coming.
That was my bad for not thoroughly doing my research.
That set me back years . I had to regroup and find another way to get to you.
Finally, I did. Do you have any idea how much power and control your security administrator has? How much access?”
It’s a rhetorical question so I don’t bother answering him. I clench my teeth and seethe.
“I’ve dipped my fingers into almost every aspect of your life—until that too smart wife of yours caught on.
She wasn’t on to me specifically, she thought it was Wolfe.
Even so, I had to step back and play my other angle.
Devlin. He did such a convincing job. To think he failed to make his career as an actor.
Anyway, we’re finally arriving to the moment I’ve envisioned for years . You, alone, and at my mercy.”
“Fuck you.”
He smirks. “You’re not my type. Your wife however…
I love a feisty red-headed beauty. Did you know the poor thing spent the night on the streets?
” With his free hand, he pulls out his phone and sets it on my desk.
“Thanks to those tracking devices you insisted I put in her handbags, I have her location right here. She’s in an alley, out in this weather all alone.
Don’t worry, I plan on coming to her rescue.
I’m taking everything from you, Cian, and that includes her. ”
“If you lay a finger on her—” I take one menacing step forward.
“Spare me the threats. You’re in no position to threaten me.” He nods to his man. “You’ve lost.”
A fist flies at my face, then all I know is darkness.