Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Bryan
S itting in the back seat, I check my Sig Sauer, snapping the mag back into place with a sharp slap. In the front seat, Kieran does the same, his expression carved from stone. We’ve done this a hundred times before—clean, fast, lethal—but tonight feels different.
Because this is personal.
Because Siobhan killed my father.
Because not even taking her life can fix that.
I scan the quiet strip of numbered doors from across the lot. “I’ll take the guard at the door. You have the second man in. Given the arrival of the first aid kit and towels, he’ll likely be in the toilet tending to his wounds.”
Kieran nods. “I’ll find him and put him down.”
“You’re going in to get her right now?” Harper asks.
“Aye, it has to be now. If they stopped and booked a room so the injured one can clean up, we haven’t got much time. If they stopped and are waiting for reinforcements to help them get Siobhan back to Ireland, we haven’t got much time. And if Sentinel is tracking Siobhan and registered the breach, they’re either coming or have contacted the authorities who want her to testify. No matter what, we haven’t got much time.”
I open the door and am about to roll out into the shadows when a thought strikes me, and I turn back. “Stay in the fucking vehicle. You saw how this could go on the camera feed. These guys won’t let us in that room without a fight.”
I peg her with a glare until I see my words sink in and she nods. “Fine. I’ll stay in the truck until it’s all over.”
Good enough.
Kieran and I slip out and vanish into the shadows.
It’s the middle of the night and the motel is dead quiet. The streetlamps cast pale light over the lot, but we hug the edges, moving fast and low along the concrete wall until we’re outside the target room.
I count down from three with my fingers.
Three… two…
We go on one.
Kieran kicks the door and I’m through the opening first, gun raised, sight locked.
The big man turns—but not fast enough.
I put two in his chest and follow with one to the head. He flies back against the wall, then drops.
The second guy comes limping out of the bathroom, gun in hand—but Kieran’s already there.
One shot, straight to the forehead knocks him against the wall and he crumples in the doorway. By the time I’ve stepped inside, blood from both bodies has begun the slow seep into cheap carpet.
Doesn’t matter. We don’t plan on cleaning this up anyway. I step over the bodies without hesitation and move to the bed.
Fuck yeah, Harper was right.
It’s Siobhan-fucking-Daley.
“Alone at last.”
She’s awake—sort of.
Siobhan blinks up at me, dazed and slow, her eyes glassy with whatever sedative they tagged her with. Her red hair’s a tangled mess against the pillow, her limbs sluggish as she recognizes me and tries to drag herself away.
Not fucking likely. Rage roars through me, hot and absolute. I grab her by the shoulders and give her a rough shake. “There’s nowhere left to run, bitch. We know you killed Da for the McGuires and now you pay for what you did to my family.”
Her lips part. “Wait, Bryan, I?—”
I don’t listen. I don’t care.
I yank her into my chest, wrap my arms around her fragile frame, and twist.
The crack of her neck echoes in the room and I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a more satisfying sound.
She goes limp in my arms, and I drop her back onto the mattress like the garbage she is.
It’s done.
It’s fucking done.
My heart is thundering, and yet everything inside me is silent—still. I take out my phone, snap the picture of her lifeless body, and send it with a text to the family group chat.
Bryan: It’s done.
Sean: Well done, B.
Brendan: Fuck, yeah!
Tag: Safe home, B. Time to celebrate.
Satisfaction curls through my gut. A dark triumph. A ghost buried. But then?—
“You killed her?” Harper’s voice cuts through my buzz like a blade.
She’s standing in the doorway, eyes wide, mouth open, and face pale. She looks like I just ripped her soul out and crushed it beneath my boot.
She stares at Siobhan, her eyes welling up with tears, then at me. “But… your code. Oh, god… I helped you. She’s dead because of me.”
My victory turns to ash in my throat.
Fucking hell.
* * *
Harper
I back out of the doorway, my pulse pounding so hard in my chest that the world is spinning around me. The woman is sprawled on the motel bed, her body limp, her neck twisted at a sick angle, her eyes half-lidded in death.
Bryan shifts around the end of the bed, his palms up. “I told you to stay in the truck!”
Of course he did. He didn’t want me to see.
I meet the cold fury in his emerald gaze and fear clamps around my heart with an icy grip. Reality hits me like a right hook to the face.
This is my fault. I found her for him.
Something inside my heart shatters like glass. I look at him and my gaze drops to his hands—so big, so strong.
How could those hands be so gentle and bring me so much pleasure and then be so brutal as to snap a woman’s neck to end her life?
The world swims as I sway on my feet. I can’t do this. I stumble when I turn away, my steps uneven and sloppy as I cross the parking lot.
I fight against the tremble in my hands, the nausea crawling up my throat. I can’t breathe. My fingers scrape against my throat, expecting to find something restricting my airflow, but there’s nothing. I’m wearing a loose-fitting hoodie and an unzipped raincoat.
I bend at the waist, bracing my hands against my knees, and fight to pull oxygen into my lungs. My eyes clamp shut, but I still see her, the brutal image etched into my mind’s eye.
I can’t wrap my head around it. He killed her.
He broke her neck.
The man I’ve been flirting with, trusting, maybe even starting to feel something real for… just killed a woman in cold blood.
No remorse. No pause.
The heavy footfalls of boots catch up a few steps behind me, even louder than my heartbeat thundering in my ears.
He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t try to touch me. Just waits with that infuriating calm he oozes.
Straightening, I whirl on him, my entire body trembling. “You killed her.”
He dips his chin. “I did.”
“You don’t even look fazed by that.”
His brow furrows as his mouth curves up in a smirk. “Why would I be? That bitch was dead the moment she crossed us. I just made it official.”
I stare at him, jaw slack, my chest heaving. “Then why not tell me? I never would’ve helped to find her if I knew all you were going to do was kill her. ”
He steps closer and a chill runs down my spine. I take a step back, suddenly questioning everything I thought I knew about this man—the Dublin Beast.
Stupid me, I didn’t take his title seriously enough.
“Because it was none of yer fucking business. We made a deal to trade services. Yer investigative skills for my criminal insights and connections. Don’t pretend ye didn’t know who ye were getting in bed with.”
Does he mean that literally or figuratively—or both?
He takes a stalking step closer, towering over me now, his voice low and lethal. “I don’t owe any explanations. If ye convinced yourself I’m an outlaw with a heart of gold, that’s not on me. I never lied. My family is at war and that woman was a brutal enemy. She lied. She betrayed. And she killed.”
Another round of dizziness hits and I drop my head to keep from blacking out. I’m deafened by the thundering of my own heartbeat in my ears. How could I have been so blind? I’m smarter than this.
Anger simmers hot in my blood, at him and at myself. “You’re right. I thought you were different, but you’re not. You play a good game but when it comes down to it, you’re a thug and a killer.”
His jaw clenches as his glare hardens. “Grand, well it’s good to know where ye stand. The only question that needs answering now is—what will ye do about what ye just saw? Because if ye intend to go to the police or write me up in a story, we have a problem, trouble.”
Before I can respond to his threat, tires screech. The sound tears through the parking lot as three black cars whip in from the main road.
They fan out to box us in, engines growling.
Doors fly open.
Bryan grabs my arm and yanks me behind him. He raises his gun, shielding me as a dozen men spill out of their cars, guns drawn, voices barking orders.
We’re surrounded.