Chapter 39
CHAPTER 39
W rong One
Ronan
I’m sitting on this plane ready to come out of my skin. I couldn’t even enjoy Noah’s wedding. I wanted to tear my hair out.
The last few days without Danny have been driving me crazy. The only thing keeping me sane is Tadgh’s hourly updates. It went against everything in me to leave my wife behind, but I heard her plea.
She needs to do this. She ignored her sister being in trouble for almost two years. She couldn’t have known, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was too angry to notice.
After reading everything in that box, I was floored. Den’Nisha still doesn’t know she has a son who’s still alive. Danika doesn’t know how she’s going to tell her.
I’ll be there with her when the time comes. I’ll give her family all the support I can through all of this. Phoebe Romaine is the reason Dayton was able to find Lyric and rescue him from the monsters raising him.
Byron isn’t even Dayton’s biological son. Marlow was sleeping with his wife, and they had the twins. There were a few holes in the information.
However, what has me on this plane rushing back is the most diabolical part of all of this. Byron Hughes is actually Myron Hughes. He’s been posing as his twin brother since he was ten.
I would have left right after the ceremony if there hadn’t been an issue with fueling the jet. It’s a good thing I wasn’t in the air to miss the call that revealed the treacherous truth. I had decided to use my own resources to do some more digging and the madness was uncovered.
When my father saw my pale face when I returned from the pub after getting the call, he demanded to know what was going on. After I filled him in, he and Joe made some calls and got me a flight out along with my brothers’ sons and Brooklyn, Kate, Connie, Jamie, and Dylan, who came along since Logan isn’t speaking to them.
I had expected to call in Rory and Lochlann on my way back, but having my family with me to go help my woman means everything to me. We’re going to make it to be by Danny’s side and when we get there, I’m going to make sure that psycho motherfucker pays.
“We’re going to get to her, Uncle Ro. Ya hang in there,” Dylan says.
“Aye.” I nod.
Carrick crosses the aisle and places his hand on my shoulder. I glance around and see the determined faces of my family. My heart swells.
We’re going to make it, love. I’m coming.
* * *
Dean
“Ya sure ya don’t want to wait for the boss?” Oisín asks nervously.
“He’s your boss, not mine. I have this guy comfortable. This is my moment,” I reply.
I know what he’s thinking, Ronan is going to have his ass for this. He has been up his and Tadgh’s butts about what I’ve been up to.
When he finds out that I pretended to go for a walk with Oisín and the dogs just to get out from under Tadgh’s watchful eye, he’s going to lose his shit. I didn’t give Oisín any choice but to get in the SUV and drive.
I have somewhere I need to be. I’ve been making Byron feel at ease. I’ve invited him over to the brownstone to hang out a couple of times since Ronan left.
We’ve been talking and reminiscing. The more we talk, the more I see I’m not talking to the boy I once knew. If I’m right, Byron is gone.
He didn’t survive the accident. Myron is the brother who wasn’t in the car. The funerals were closed caskets, but I didn’t need to see the bodies to know what I know. As if reading my sadness and anger, KD barks from the fourth row and begins to whimper.
“It’s all right, girl. Mommy’s going to get your auntie back and I’m going to make him pay.”
I climb out of the vehicle and jog across the street to the bar where I’m meeting Byron. It’s not far from the brownstone. A smile comes to my lips as I feel the weight of my guns bouncing against my back.
I walk into the bar and spot Byron sitting toward the center of the bar. He stands and waves me over. I take note of the other patrons as I saunter to the high table he’s at.
“Hey, I wasn’t sure you were still coming.”
“I had to check in on my mom. She’s been worried about Anika,” I say and watch for his reaction.
His eye twitches, but he remains expressionless otherwise. I nod to myself. I’m going to torture him before I kill him and hang pieces of his body around his daddy’s home.
“Is everything okay? Have you spoken to Anika?”
“I’m not interested.” I shrugged nonchalantly.
“She’s your sister. Can you really be this cold? I mean, if your mother is concerned, shouldn’t you be?”
The fucking audacity on this one. He has taken over his own brother’s life. He’s been a piece of shit for years.
“Not my monkey, not my problem. I don’t fuck with thieves. You know this.”
“Yeah, don’t I. Let’s get a couple of beers,” he says.
“Nah, I’ll have water.”
He nods and gets up to go to the bar. I watch him as he goes. However, a blonde woman in a corner booth catches my attention. She’s staring right at me.
I give her a look back as if to ask, What the fuck are you looking at ? She keeps glaring until Byron returns to my side. I now have an uneasy feeling about this situation.
There’s not enough natural interaction happening. I count about twenty others here. I reach for the glass and the bottle of water Byron sits on the table and twist the cap off.
I’m glancing around, assessing the room as I pour the water into the glass then take a sip. The blonde gets up and leaves, but a brunette takes her seat. I try to follow the blonde with my gaze, but my vision becomes blurry. I shake my head, and the room begins to feel heavy.
I snarl and reach for my guns. “You motherfucker.”
I pull both guns and aim. All hell breaks loose. The brunette pulls a gun and aims at me.
I start to blast and back out the way I came. I catch the brunette in the forehead and hit Byron in the shoulder as he tries to run.
I take a hit to the chest—thank God for my vest. The bullet knocks the wind out of me, but I grit my teeth and bear it. I keep shooting.
I’m in trouble. My body feels so heavy and I’m starting to lose focus.
This is not the way I go out. I can’t die like this. Suddenly, my life flashes before my eyes.
I remember things about Uncle Freddie and his brownstone. There’s a soundproof basement. Myron locked me and Byron in it once while Uncle Freddie had to run out on business.
I shake my head clear and keep aiming. I know where she is, I can’t die here. I know where my sister is.
“I’ve got ya, love. I’m here,” Ronan says in my ear as he catches me before I collapse.
“He drugged me. Had to shoot my way out. I’m not hit, just drugged,” I say as I look up into his panicked eyes.
“I know where Anika is. She was right under my nose. We have to get to the house. She’s there.”
* * *
Ronan
I get Danny into the SUV and check her over frantically. I close my eyes and sigh in relief when I see she has on a bulletproof vest. When we entered the bar, I started shooting first.
Danny was holding her own, but I could see something was wrong. I thought she was hit when she started to tumble to the floor. When she told me he drugged her, white-hot rage tore through me.
“He got away,” Tadgh growls.
“She hit him. He’s not going to get far. We need to get to the house before he tries to. Danny thinks Anika is there.”
“Danny?” he says in confusion.
“Aye. Dean. Just get us to the house. Now.”
* * *
Anika
The worst part of being here is the soundlessness and the lack of sunlight. I didn’t know it’d been two years. Not until Myron mentioned it.
I’ve given up on anyone finding me. I’m only here waiting to die. I can only hope that my sister avenges me. That is, if she ever finds out what happened to me.
I’m too weak to fight. I can barely lift my own body. My lips are so chapped it hurts to press them together. I close my eyes and begin to tell myself one of Danny’s stories.
My sister is a beast when it comes to writing. I know her books by heart. Playing them in my mind like a movie has kept me going.
Raf. Raf.
I snap my eyes open as the bass of deep barking fills the air. I squint my eyes and sit up with renewed hope as a tall redhead stands before me with two huge black dogs. He’s holding their chained leashes as he stares back at me.
“I have her. Carrick, bring me a blanket and some water,” he says through a thick accented voice.
Another redhead appears a few minutes later with a blanket and two bottles of water in his hands. He races forward and gingerly wraps the blanket around my shoulders.
“Ach, we have ya, love. No one can hurt ya now.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Danny’s husband, Ronan,” the one with the dogs says.
“Husband?”
“Aye, I’m yer brother-in-law. This is my nephew, Carrick. We’re going to get ya to Danny and yer ma. It’s okay, we’re not going to hurt ya.”
“Where’s my sister?”
“I sent her home to be seen by a doctor. She just risked her life to find ya. I think we should get ya looked at too. Let’s go. Ya’ve been here long enough.”
I burst into tears. I’m finally free. This nightmare is over.