Chapter 31
Rory
“Why the fuck did you bring the truck with the weapons to our home?” Declan roared.
I flinched at Declan’s thunderous voice, my head throbbing from the crash. We’d barely made it through the estate gates when he stormed out of the house. Once we pulled up out front, I could see his face twisted with rage.
“I didn’t have a choice,” I shot back, climbing out of the truck. “They were onto us. Everyone in the barn was dead.”
Kat cut the engine and joined us, her eyes darting nervously between Declan and me. “What’s going on? Who were those men?”
Declan ignored her, stepping closer to me. “You’ve put everything at risk. Everything we’ve worked for!”
“I saved our asses, that’s what I did,” I growled, my patience wearing thin. “If I hadn’t taken out those two, we’d all be in body bags right now.”
His eyes widened. “You killed them?”
“I had to,” I said, my voice dropping. “They would have killed me, then Kat and then come for everyone in this house.”
Declan ran a hand through his hair, pacing in agitated circles. “This is bad. This is very, very bad.”
“We need to move the weapons,” Kat interrupted. “If they traced us here—”
“They didn’t,” I assured her. “I made sure of that.”
Declan stopped pacing and fixed me with a hard stare. “How can you be so sure?”
I met his gaze steadily. “Because I recognized one of them. It was Cameron Finn’s crew. They work alone, and they don’t leave loose ends.”
A heavy silence fell over us as the implications sank in. We’d just made an enemy of one of the most dangerous crime families in Ireland… our own Clan.
“Get the weapons inside,” Declan finally said, his voice tight. “We need to regroup and figure out our next move.”
I touched the dried blood on my forehead, suddenly aware of how I must look. “What about the bodies at the barn?”
Declan’s eyes hardened. “I’ll make a call and send in the cleaners. You two stay here, lay low. And for God’s sake, don’t answer the door or your phones. They have both of your phone numbers.”
As he started to walk towards the house, I grabbed his arms. “Why the fuck would you tell them anything about us?”
He looked pointedly at my hand. Under normal circumstances I would take a bullet for that man, but this wasn’t normal. It was uncalled for.
“They insisted on knowing who was handling the situation,” he said, shaking my hand off. Without another word, he walked into the house, and I caught Kat’s worried gaze. “What have we gotten ourselves into?” she whispered.
I wished I had an answer for her. Instead, I took hold of Kat’s hand and led the way to the library straight to the liquor cabinet and poured two generous glasses of whiskey and handed her one.
Kat
I took the glass from Rory, my hand trembling slightly as I brought it to my lips. The whiskey burned a fiery trail down my throat, but I welcomed the warmth it spread through my body. It helped dull the edge of fear and adrenaline still coursing through my veins.
“Hey,” Rory’s voice was soft as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “You okay?”
I opened my eyes to find him watching me with concern. The gash on his forehead had stopped bleeding, but dried blood still caked his skin and matted his hair. He looked as shell-shocked as I felt.
“No,” I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t think I am.”
Rory pulled me into his arms, and I buried my face in his chest, inhaling his familiar scent of leather and cedarwood. For a moment, we just stood there, holding each other as the reality of our situation sank in.
“We need to clean you up,” I said finally, pulling back to examine his wound. “That cut looks nasty.”
We started down the hall to the bathroom but could hear Declan in the kitchen “...wasn’t supposed to go down like this,” he was saying, his voice tight with frustration. “I don’t care what you have to do, just clean it up... No, they’re here with me... Of course they don’t know a thing.”
Rory took hold of my hand and led me to the bathroom and closed the door. “Wonder what he’s up to.”
Instead of answering him, I rummaged through the medicine cabinet for supplies and caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. My face was pale, eyes wide and haunted. I barely recognized myself.
With gentle hands I pushed him to sit on the toilet and started to clean the cut on his forehead, applying antiseptic and a bandage. He winced slightly but remained still, his eyes never leaving my face. When I finished, he caught my wrist, pressing a soft kiss to my palm.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
My eyes found his and my breath caught in my throat. What I saw was a man with love in his eyes, and it was for me.
“I’m done,” I said barely above a whisper.
His brow furrowed. “Done what?”
I stepped back and waved a hand around the room. “This.”
Clearly, he was puzzled. “The bathroom?”
“No! This life, the house, all of it I don’t want to be Captain, and I hope you don’t either.”
“Kat, what are you talking about?”
Before I could answer there was a knock at the door.
I stalked over to the door and tore it open. “What?! ”
It was Declan, and he was smiling at me. “It’s all been fixed.”
I stared at him in disbelief, my mind struggling to process his words. “What do you mean it’s all been fixed? What exactly was ‘fixed’?”
Declan’s smile widened as he stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. The small space suddenly felt claustrophobic with the three of us crammed inside.
“The job,” he began, his eyes gleaming with an excitement I’d never seen before. “It wasn’t exactly what you thought it was.”
I felt Rory tense beside me, his hand instinctively reaching for my waist. I covered it with my own and squeezed it tightly, bracing myself for whatever bombshell Declan was about to drop.
“You see,” Declan continued, “the shipment wasn’t guns at all. It was supplies for a very special occasion.”
My heart raced as I tried to make sense of his words. “What kind of supplies? What occasion?”
Declan’s grin grew impossibly wider. “Supplies for a swearing-in ceremony. Not for one Captain, but two.”
The room seemed to tilt as his words sank in. I gripped the edge of the sink to steady myself, my knuckles turning white from the pressure.
“Two Captains?” Rory’s voice was barely above a whisper.
Declan nodded, his eyes shining with pride. “You and Kat.”
The world around me blurred as I tried to process this information. Captains? Us? It seemed impossible, yet Declan’s face held nothing but sincerity.
“But... the men tonight at the docks, the chase, the shooting...” I stammered, my mind reeling.
“All part of the test,” Declan explained. “We needed to see how you’d handle a high-pressure situation. And you both passed with excellence.”
I felt like I was drowning, struggling to keep my head above water in this sea of revelations. “The men Rory killed... the ones in the barn?”
Declan’s expression sobered slightly. “Ah, yes. That was... an unexpected complication. But as it turns out, Cameron Finn had been looking for an excuse to get rid of all of them for a while. You did him a solid favor, really.”
The casual way he spoke about the deaths we’d caused sent a chill down my spine. I looked at Rory, seeing my own shock and confusion mirrored in his eyes.
“So, all of this... it was just a test?” Rory asked, his voice tight with barely contained emotion.
“Yeah,” Declan nodded, oblivious to our distress. “The way you worked together, protected each other... it’s exactly what we need in our new leadership.”
I felt sick to my stomach. The adrenaline, the fear, the guilt - it had all been for nothing. Worse yet, it had been planned to deliberately manipulate us.
Rory was off the toilet in a flash and had Declan by the throat up against the wall. Through clenched teeth he said, “You mean to tell me that Kat almost died because of a ‘test’?”
Declan’s eyes bulged as Rory’s grip tightened around his throat. For a moment, the bathroom was silent except for the sound of Declan’s labored breathing. Then, with surprising strength, Declan grabbed Rory’s wrist and pried his fingers away.
“Did you forget yourself man?” Declan growled; his voice raspy but filled with authority. “I am still Captain. You’re lucky I consider you like a brother.”
“Sorry,” Rory stumbled back, the color draining from his face as the gravity of his actions sank in. Assaulting a Captain was the gravest offense one could commit within the Clan. Men had been killed for far less .
“As for your question, only tonight’s job was staged. An idea concocted by Connor and Wren,” Declan explained. “I needed to see how you’d manage a high-stakes situation with limited information. The shipment of guns was fake, yes, but the danger was very real. Those men at the docks? They were Cameron Finn’s crew, and they had no idea this was a test. If you hadn’t taken them out, they would have killed you both without hesitation.”
I felt my knees go weak, and I leaned against the sink for support. The magnitude of what we’d been through - what we’d survived - crashed over me like a tidal wave.
“Why?” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “Why put us through all of this?”
Declan’s eyes gleamed with a mixture of pride and something darker, more primal. “Because leading this Clan isn’t for the faint of heart. We needed to be sure you could handle whatever comes your way. And you have, time and again.”
I marched over to him, my tone laced with bitterness. “You can stick your precious Captain title up your ass, Declan. I only agreed to do it because Rory pissed me off. I never wanted it then, and I certainly don’t want it now.”
I stormed out of the bathroom, leaving both men stunned as they watched me leave.