Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
ava
I repeat the license plate number to myself as I sink onto the ground next to a tree.
It’s not so that I remember it. My memory’s excellent and I’m always able to recall things like numbers. It’s the reason I could get into Iosif’s safe without issue.
No, I do it so I don’t give in to the murderous rage coursing through me.
I carefully open the bloodied pillowcase, hating the fact that a couple of the tiny bodies inside are cold.
Arnold and the cat bound over to me. They both pull at the fabric case, and with gritted teeth, I have to dig through the dead animals inside to carefully pull out the warm ones.
There are only two.
A small floofy thing, a little caramel-colored puppy that shivers on my lap as Arnold prods him with his nose, and a small kitten.
I swallow past the huge lump in my throat as noise erupts around me.
Even the cat is taking interest, sniffing them and reaching out with his paw.
For a moment I expect claws, but he has them retracted even though his fur’s on end.
Arnold growls when he lifts his head, barking twice before he licks at the puppy.
My eyes burn.
Behind me Declan says, “Put yer gun away, Seamus.”
“Sweet thing, what…? Fuck.” Seamus appears, kneeling down next to me. He picks up the puppy gently in one big hand. “Get the car, Cal.”
Oh hell, this family. I don’t know what to do. I didn’t have any clue what to make of them at dinner, when they were loud and loving and not at all the monstrous people I’ve been trying to paint them as in my mind.
I know they’re not.
But it’s safer to believe that they are.
I gulp in air.
Seamus looks up. “Did you see, Dec?”
“No, I’d just gone inside when I heard the engine rev and tires squeal,” he says to Seamus.
Seamus, cradling the puppy in one hand, carefully takes the kitten and stands up.
“The rest are dead.” My voice comes out dull, like everything going on in my life has suddenly retreated, and this is the only moment that matters. “We have to… I…”
“Get up, Ava.” Seamus meets my gaze, eyes hard.
A car pulls up and Declan helps me up while holding Clawzilla.
“Come on,” he says to me. “Cal and Seamus’ll take them to the vet… we know one who’ll open for us.”
Now I rise.
“I’m going, too.” I’m gripping the bag. “We need to do something, bury these poor little things.”
But Dec eases the bag from me with his free hand. “We’ll make sure they’re buried. Plant a tree for them.”
To anyone else, it might sound flippant, but I believe him. I get in the car and Seamus passes me the live animals and takes over the driver’s seat.
There’s silence as we head to this special vet friend they have. I can’t think of a thing to say, and for some reason, this man I hate, this man I pretty much want to kill half the time, calms me just by being there. I don’t know why.
It’s not far to the vet, and she’s waiting when we get there. A light on the porch flares bright.
The little animals are breathing shallow and fast and seem so weak that I fear for their lives.
There’s really only one person I’ve ever feared for before and that’s Tatiana.
The vet takes one look at them once we’re inside.
There’s a man with her, and based on the matching rings on their fingers, I assume he’s her husband.
He takes the kitten and she takes the puppy.
“Probably rejects from a puppy and kitten mill,” she says with a hard edge to her voice.
“Do you want to stay in the waiting room, Seamus?”
“Of course, Dr. Tan.”
And as the doctor and her husband take the animals into another room, we sit.
After a while, he breaks the silence. “You don’t seem the type to be bothered by this.”
“Fuck you, Seamus.”
“And there she is.” He pauses. “I guess it’s easier to show emotion over animals than it is over people.”
“I’m not that much of a monster. I just don’t have anyone in my life.”
“There’s me.”
I just look at him, my heart suddenly throbbing. “You?”
“You’re stuck with me for a year, unless you’re planning to kill me now?”
I wince and let out a shuddering breath. “I am greedy, I guess, if you think it’s greedy to want what’s mine.”
“That’s fair.” He stretches out his legs but doesn’t touch me.
And there’s that strange part of me that wants him to both touch me and keep his hands where they are.
“But if you’re honest with me, then maybe we can work this out.
Because right now I’m at a fucking loss.
So maybe you are ready to fess up and tell me what you were doing with those jewels. ”
I sigh, slumping against the back of the chair. Does it matter anymore? We don’t have to like each other to work together, and I need him if I’m going to get my bratva back.
“If you want to know, I was trying to buy information about whether or not anyone was close to finding this long-lost relative of mine,” I say. “But then Olaf killed the guy who was going to help me. I didn’t know him, I didn’t know any of them, really. You think I was in with Paddy, but I wasn’t.”
“That’s an easy answer.”
I turn and look at him and my heart contracts. “It is, isn’t it? Because he told me you killed Stan. And it was easy… to believe him and to hate you. But all I’ve ever wanted is my heritage, my bratva.”
“The Semtex?” he presses.
“I didn’t do that.” I clench my hands. “I wouldn’t even know how. I did the flash bombs and the small one that was going to blow up a car and cause a distraction. Because guess what? I’m pissed off with Romanov, too. I don’t trust him and he—”
I stop, swallowing the words that were just about to tumble out.
“He what?”
Has my little sister who’s more his kid now than she ever was my father’s, and she doesn’t even really know me.
But I can’t tell him any of that.
How would it sound?
I already know Seamus doesn’t think much of me, but to be the person who admits it’s better to leave the child with my maybe enemy?
Even I wouldn’t like me.
“Nothing,” I say, my voice tight.
“I don’t trust him, either,” he says quietly. “Anything you have would help.”
“There’s nothing.”
His sigh says it all.
“Seamus…” I stop and swallow, unsure of what it is I want to say. “Do you think we’ll find whoever it was behind the killing of my friend?”
Maria hasn’t called me. And Onyx… he doesn’t have my number.
“Selena Diaz didn’t seem to have family here. But the police are searching, according to what Torin traced.”
I frown, heart thumping. “Selena? No, her name was Claudetta. Her sister Maria’s a fighter. I don’t… Wait, Selena?”
He looks at me, very carefully, eyebrow raised. “Explain why you went to meet her.”
“She sent me a text to meet. So I went.”
“And this Claudetta, did she do that often?”
I still can’t wrap my mind around Selena. What the hell? Was that actually her body outside of the diner? I didn’t see it so I can’t— “She worked there when we were teens, and we kept in touch. Before she died, Mama thought I should have some kind of real-life job, even if it was after school.”
“And,” he says, “now?”
“Sometimes she’d drop by to see me. It wasn’t often she’d want to meet, but… I didn’t think…” My heart jumps. “I haven’t gotten a call from Maria asking if I’ve seen her. And she hasn’t called to let me know she’s dead. Seamus, do you think she could be alive?”
“After last year, anything’s fucking possible,” he mutters.
I frown, but he just shakes his head.
A story for someone he likes and trusts, I guess. Not that I care.
“Here’s what I have so far,” he says. “A mystery bomber and Semtex with some Irish involvement. This means either zero or something. There are a lot of people out there who sell explosives, from the Italians to the Serbians.”
He gets up and paces the room. “The man I killed in the diner was X gang. Some man with a scar seems to be of importance and we’ve seen him. He’s the one identified as Hank, whoever the fuck he is, and then there’s whoever attacked you in the little park.”
His green eyes focus on my darkening with each word.
“Not to mention Romanov and the cartel that’s making moves. And also, according to him,” he continues, “is that your little bratva has a lot of other people interested in making moves because of us. You and me. So you see why I have so many questions.”
“I do,” I say.
“Does it make any sense to you?”
Seamus is a very clever man. He says all of this like he’s thought it all out, after hitting me with the bombshell that Claudetta wasn’t the one killed. He says all this like he’s trying to extend an olive branch, like he wants to work with me to try and find out what’s going on.
But he’s watching me carefully.
He still doesn’t trust me.
Not at all.
For some reason, that twists my insides. It shouldn’t. We don’t like each other.
Even though it makes sense to be uneasy allies, we still don’t like or trust each other.
I think about everything that’s happened. All of it.
From the men on the grounds of Romanov’s mansion when he caught me. Then Olaf. Then the threat of the man who grabbed me today.
“What if this is really about the bratva?”
“Seamus?”
I stop talking as he looks at me.
Dr. Tan comes out before I can say anything else. “The animals are hurt, I won’t lie. I think someone tried to beat them. But they’ll be okay. We’re going to keep them for a few days to run tests and find out what they need.”
Seamus nods and shakes her hand. Then he pulls out a wad of cash from his pocket and hands it to her. “Thanks, Doc.”
“Clawzilla and Arnold are due for their shots and checkups,” she says, “so make sure Declan or Callahan brings them in soon.”
“Will do.”
We leave and head back to the car. It’s late, and this part of the city is quiet. I reach for the door handle but Seamus stops me from getting in. He cages me in with his hands, and I can’t deny the shivers of need that race through me. “You were saying something before the vet came in.”
“You should text Torin. I got the license plate number of the car that threw the animals out the window.”
He nods. “Not what I asked.” But he pulls out his phone, opens up a text, and hands it to me.
I type in the plate number, then he takes the phone, writes something to his brother, presses send, and puts his phone away. He brushes his body against mine, leaning toward me. “What were you gonna say, sweet thing?”
“I can’t remember,” I say.
And he moves even closer so he’s pressed into my chest, forcing me to breathe in his intoxicating scent. His cock hardens against me.
“I’ve done a lot of idiotic things in my life,” he says. “But the one thing I’ve never done is be an eejit over a pretty girl, and I’d say you’re the prettiest fucking girl I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet, sweet thing. But lose my mind over you? I don’t think so. You know why?”
“No.” My voice comes out a whisper. “I don’t.”
“It’s because we’re a lot alike. I know you.
Clever, cynical, driven. Great at deception and surviving.
But the difference? You pretend you’re cold as fucking ice, but you’re not, are you?
Inside, you care. Not about a lot. But about a few things.
I give you points over the kitten and the puppy.
And I’m betting you want to fucking go to town and murder the bastards who did that.
You loved your mom. And your dad which, I think, is why you want your bratva so badly. ”
I glare, struggling against him. “I want it because it’s mine.”
“It’s all you have of him,” he says. “That cookbook’s all you have of your mom. So I think you’ll lie to protect it from me and from others. But hiding whatever the truth is won’t help.”
“I’m not.”
“You don’t remember? I don’t believe you. A girl like you who remembers the number of a license plate she sees once can’t remember something she was saying only a few minutes ago? No. I’m not that into you to buy your little lie. What if it’s not really about your bratva?”
I can’t breathe. “That’s all.”
“No, there’s more.”
I try again to push him away, but he wraps his arms tighter around me.
“That man outside Iosif’s place said his boss wanted the Murphys out of the way. And I wasn’t Pakhan yet. He told me I’d make a good sex slave.”
He abruptly steps back, his expression twisted violence. “Were you meeting him?”
“Who?”
“The fucking guy I brained with the brick.”
He comes back at me, fingers digging into my upper arms as he shakes me, and for the first time something dark slithers through me as he does so.
Seamus has never unleashed his full lethal nature on me, but I can see it now, peeking from his hypnotic green eyes.
Fuck, I forgot the rest of that man’s threat about midnight and knowing where the Murphys lived.
“No, I just… I went for a walk. Your brother followed me. Quite loudly. He had the dog with him. I needed to think. I knew he was there, Seamus. I… he went in, and I was following when that car—”
I stop.
“Let go. You’re hurting me.”
He releases me immediately and the anger on his face dissipates. Then he opens the passenger door and motions for me to climb inside.
Seamus gets behind the wheel and clicks the ignition button. I stare out the window as he drives down the one-way street.
“Put on your seat belt.”
There’s something in his tone that makes me look up.
A bright flash of high beams blinds me as a car flies down the one-way coming straight toward us. And fucking Seamus… he puts his foot to the accelerator and drives at them, too.
I bite down on a scream as this insane game of chicken ensues. Someone needs to swerve or we’re all going to die.
“Seamus, what—?”
“Hold on. Have faith.”
Fuck.
I can see the driver just through the glare of lights and catch a glimpse of fear before the car just clips us and swerves, slamming into other cars at the same high speed.
Seamus slams his foot on the brake. He gets out, running for the crashed car, and as the horn of the other car shatters the air, I twist around to get a glimpse of who was driving.
The windshield’s shattered and the driver must have been thrown from his car because he’s now sprawled on the hood of another nearby car.
Seamus blocks my view as my heart pounds so hard, it nearly ruptures my rib cage. And then he runs back, pushes me into the car, and gets into the driver’s side before taking off down the street.
“Are you all right, Ava?” he asks.
“I…”
“Are you fucking all right?” he demands.
“Yes. But what…?”
“He didn’t have ID. But I know who he was.”
“Who?” I push out.
“He was Irish, with the Freedom Army based on the tattoo I spotted. My da ran with them once, back in the day.” His jaw tenses, fingers wrapping tight around the steering wheel. “And I think we might have a big fucking problem.”