Chapter 73 Impose – Koen
IMPOSE
KOEN
It’s late at night by the time I pull my bike up to the lake house, every muscle in my body aching and raw from the freezing ride.
I’d been doing recon with Mac and Jace all day, trusting Aidan, Liam, and Alex to keep shit locked down here. My father purchased this cabin years ago as an escape from the violent chaos back home. It’s a secret—one of our safe house locations.
The house itself sits perched on the edge of a lake, nestled deep in the woods of northwestern Massachusetts, far away from everyone and everything. As kids, we spent summers cannonballing off the dock, and winters playing hockey out on the ice until our toes went numb.
We have other safe houses, but this one will always be my favorite.
Word hit the streets that the Irish Devils, the O’Rourke brothers, are dead. That the warehouse blast took us all out.
I let it ride for now. It buys us time; nobody goes hunting for ghosts. My uncle Seamus is doing a good job holding things down, stepping up in our absence to keep everything running.
Someone had to have given up our warehouse location.
We chose an industrial park outside of Boston for a reason.
No one outside of the Irish should know about it.
But yet, someone has been feeding the Russians intel for weeks—months even.
Whatever information Briar gave Giovanni, he’d turned around and sold it to the Volkov, but even she didn’t know about the warehouses.
And the Volkov aren’t wasting any time.
The house is quiet.
It’s been a while since the last time I was here, but the familiar scent of cedar and wood smoke is an instant comfort, and I feel a little bit of tension ease out of my shoulders.
I spot the massive stone fireplace as soon as I walk in.
Someone’s lit a fire, casting the entire floor in a warm glow.
Alex looks up from the book he’s reading on the couch, giving me a silent nod before his attention falls back to the pages. His relaxed stance tells me he clocked my arrival minutes ago when I first pulled up the driveway. He must’ve drawn the short straw for first watch.
I make a beeline for my room on the lower level, exhausted, in desperate need of a shower, and ready to pass the fuck out for a few hours.
I tread lightly down the stairs to my room.
It’s tucked into the back corner, where the sliding glass doors open right out onto the stony back patio overlooking the lake.
I shove the door open, ripping off my shirt, only to stop dead when my eye catches on the dark hair spilled out across my pillow. Briar, passed out, asleep in my bed—she and the kid, curled under my blankets like they belong there.
Briar looks like she fell asleep attempting to keep up her own version of a watch, half propped up on the pillow, her face to the door, her body curled protectively around her little girl.
I stare at the two of them for another beat. The unexpected sight hits me deep in my chest, sharp and unexpected, before anger flares.
My bed.
I know without a doubt this is Liam’s doing. My brother knows better. I clench my teeth, quietly turning and stalking back out of the room while cursing under my breath.
“I’m going to fucking kill him.”
Storming back through the living room, I narrow my eyes at the smirk I catch on Alex’s mouth as I hunt down my target.
My boots thunder on the stairs heading to the upstairs bedrooms, not bothering to be quiet now.
Liam wakes with a start when I kick open his door, his hand relaxing off the gun he grabbed on a reflex off his nightstand, when he recognizes me glowering at him from the hall.
“Jesus fuck, Koen. Can’t a guy get a wink of sleep around here?” He groans, burying his head under his pillow and rolling away from me.
I cover the room in just a few steps, glaring down at him just before leaning over to grip the underside of his mattress. The corner of my mouth ticks up when I lift it, dumping my brother’s ass onto the floor.
“Argh.”
Liam faceplants onto the hardwood with a groan, and I’m not the least bit sorry, crossing my arms and watching him flail about, tangled in the sheets.
“You’re an asshole,” he grumbles irritably.
“Why the fuck is Briar in my bed?”
My brother sighs deeply, pressing his forehead back into the floor. “That’s what this is about?” Grumbling out a few more obscenities, he pushes himself up, crawling back onto the mattress, the look on his face meant to warn me off of dumping his ass again.
My fingers twitch at my sides.
“The little one didn’t want to sleep alone, and Briar wasn’t about to leave her side. Your bed is the biggest.”
“Why didn’t you put them in the guest room?”
“The guest room is across the hall from Aidan and Rory…”
“So?”
He levels me a look. “You’ve clearly never had to share a wall with them.”
I roll my eyes. “You still could’ve put them there.”
“Aye, I could have. But I didn’t,” he replies flatly.
I glare at him, my gaze dropping to the gun he’s left sitting out on his nightstand.
“Put the fucking gun away; there’s a kid in the house.”
Liam grumbles something about being a moody asshole as I stalk back toward the door.
“And why don’t you relieve Alex on watch while you’re at it?”
The corner of my lip twitches at the colorful string of curses he shoots at my back, dodging the incoming pillow he hurls at me before slamming his door shut.
Liam had no right putting them there, in my room—in my bed. But yet, I can’t bring myself to wake them in order to drag them out of it.
Irritation courses through me as I shove open the guest room door—the bedroom, across the hall and over one from Liam.
I drop onto the mattress, staring up at the dark ceiling. I’m so fucking exhausted, but my chest feels tight, and my blood hot, my jaw aching from clenching it so damn hard.
I’m angry. I’m mad at Liam, furious at Briar, but most of all… I’m angry with myself.
I let her get too close… I know better. I told myself to keep her at arm’s length, and then I let her break all of my rules, strike a match, and light them on fucking fire.
I pride myself on being prepared for every scenario before it happens, but nothing—and I mean nothing—could have prepared me for finding out I have a daughter. And what the fuck am I supposed to do about it?
I’m not handling this well, and I know it. My head is a mess of emotions I haven’t even begun to untangle. And instead of dealing with it—dealing with her. I did what I always do…
I walked away.