Chapter 32 #2
Bullets tear through the air, ricocheting off the walls. Ronan’s men fire. Cillian and I take out as many as we can from our position. And Adriana… she’s right there with us. She never cowers, never wavers, not even in the face of death.
I fucking love her more than ever right now.
“Where the hell is Eamon?” Cillian grunts.
I jerk my head around. His Russian bodyguards are down but he’s nowhere in sight.
“Fuck!” I scan the chaos again. Nothing. He’s gone.
“We need to move,” Adriana grabs my arm and shoves me toward the opposite end of the warehouse. “More will come and we’re running out of ammunition.”
She’s right. Kozlov soldiers keep pushing in. One of Ronan’s guys goes down in the fray, clutching his leg.
“Ronan,” I yell. “Which exit?”
“Side door, twenty yards left,” he shouts back over the exploding bullets. “Get out now. We’ll hold them off.”
I grab her hand and run hard, my calf muscles tensing with every step.
We weave through the gunfire, covering our heads and staying as low to the ground as possible. A bullet whizzes past my ear in a blast of heat. Another punches through a crate, spraying splinters in our path.
Ten feet to the door. Then five.
I kick it open and we’re out. Balmy brine-infused air of the harbor consumes me. Sirens screech in the distance.
Cillian tears out of the warehouse behind us, his feet pounding the cracked concrete as he passes us and skids to a stop next to my truck. His shirt sleeve is caked with blood, and he’s bent over, his chest heaving.
“C, you hit?” I ask, slowing down next to him.
“Nah, it barely grazed me.” He looks at Adriana. “You okay?”
“I’m alive.”
Ronan’s voice comes over my earpiece, “We’re pulling out. Lost two guys, and the Kozlovs are falling back. No sign of Dad anywhere. He must’ve gotten away.”
My pulse pounds hard. Of course he did. The bastard always has a way out. Same shit, different day. Always has zero regard for anyone but himself.
“Let’s get back to Gavin’s,” I say. “We need to regroup.”
The sirens are louder now. “Ronan, let’s go. The cops are on their way,” I say over the comms.
I turn to Adriana. She’s standing apart from us, arms wrapped around herself, staring at the harbor. She’s still got the gun.
“Adriana. We’ve gotta go.”
She looks at me. And the expression on her face—
Nothing. No anger, no relief. Just empty. Vacant. Void of any emotion at all.
A shudder runs through me. It’s the cold CEO mask I saw in the very beginning… until I was able to chip away at it and uncover what lay underneath. But now it slides back into place like it never left. Like it was waiting just below the surface to take over once again.
Her defense mechanism.
Against the world. Against me.
But she turns and walks over to the passenger door.
We pile into my truck without another word. I put the truck in reverse and peel out of the concrete lot, heading in the direction of Gavin’s apartment.
“This can’t continue,” she says, her voice low and tight.
“All of this bloodshed, brutalizing people in an attempt to claim territory and power and control.” She shakes her head and stares out the window.
“It doesn’t work. It just makes the hatred fester until the next blowout where more lives will be lost. We need to find a new way forward. ”
I sneak a look at Cillian in the rearview mirror and he gives me a shrug.
Find a new way forward.
Just like us.
I know I hurt her so badly, but I almost feel like that last part was meant for me specifically.
She has to know I’d never intentionally hurt her or her family, that I was tangled up in the web of my father’s threats, that I had to protect my brothers from him.
She knows exactly what Eamon is capable of…
and that he wouldn’t think twice about hurting his own family if it lined his pockets.
What the hell else was I supposed to do?
But I swallow all of that down. We need to talk, but now’s not the time.
“How would your father feel about that?” I ask instead.
“He’s awake, obviously, but he put me in charge. He knew I’d have to make hard decisions. This is one of them.” She gives me a sidelong glance, her lips pursing. “And it’s not the only one, either.”
I want to press her on that but something in my gut warns me to let it go… at least for now. She has to know I’ll support her however she needs; that I’m always going to stand by her side.
The rest of the ride to Gavin’s is silent and thick with tension.
When I pull in front of his building, Cillian jumps out.
“I’ll see you upstairs,” he calls out. The door slams shut.
I turn off the engine and turn toward Adriana.
My heart dips low in my chest when she continues to stare out the window.
“Your father was right, you know.” A shiver slips down my spine. Why does her voice sound so damn distant right now? “You are sentimental. You walked into that warehouse trap knowing you might end up dead. It didn’t stop you.”
“I wasn’t leaving you there.”
“No. You weren’t.” She finally turns, meeting my eyes. “But it doesn’t change anything. Too much has happened. That shouldn’t have happened. Too much that could have been stopped.”
“Adriana, we can talk about—”
“No,” she says, her sharp tone eating my next words. “I watched Vincenzo die today. Your father was going to kill me next, all part of his grand plan to decimate my family, since he already tried to take out my dad at the gala.”
I scrape a hand down the front of my face. “I fucked up by not telling you what I found out about the attack and your dad being a target. But you have to understand what was at risk.”
“You knew something.” Her jaw tightens. “You chose not to say anything. Even though I told you to never lie to me. And you lied to me every day since.”
I swallow hard. “Don’t,” I say, my voice cracking.
Because I know what’s coming next.
“I know you love me,” she whispers. “I believe that. But I can’t trust you.
And I can’t be part of this sham anymore.
I wanted so badly to be wrong about you.
I wanted you to be the man you promised me you were, the man I fell in love with.
But you are exactly who I thought. Your secrets and your lies destroyed what we were building, Lochlan. ”
“Adriana—” Air abandons my lungs, the blood roaring in my ears.
“This marriage is over.” Her eyes shine with unshed tears but her voice is clear and controlled. “I want a divorce.”
My heart cracks open. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do.” Her jaw sets, her fingers now clenched into fists that rest in her lap. “I need to get back to my family now so I can figure out how to fix what your father destroyed.”
“Let me help you,” I say, desperation creeping into my voice.
I reach for her, and when she pulls away, it’s like a kick to the chest. “You don’t have to do this alone.
I made a horrible mistake by lying to you, and I will regret it for my entire fucking life.
But don’t leave me. Don’t do this. Please.
Give me another chance to show you how much I love you, how much I need you. ”
“No.” Ice glazes over her dark eyes. “I don’t want your help. I don’t want anything from you. It’s over.”
She pushes open the door and steps onto the sidewalk. Without another look back, she walks toward a restaurant across the street and ducks inside.
Numbness weaves through my insides, the ache of what if slicing into my heart like a jagged blade.
So many fucking ifs.
But none of them matter. Not anymore.