Chapter 29 Seamus
TWENTY-NINE
seamus
I catch her halfway down the path as she storms over to a group of cars lining the driveway. “You can’t fucking just take off, Ava.”
“I can’t stay here,” she cries. “I need to do something. I have until three a.m. tomorrow to get Tatiana back.”
She shakes me off and continues walking.
Fucking Cal told me I’ve got it bad, and the fucker has no idea. But knowing that and doing something about it are very different things.
She isn’t my biggest fan, and at times I want to string her the fuck up. It’s been a wild journey and here we are, back where we started. I snatch her arm and drag her to the nearest car. Inside, one of Romanov’s men is on the phone. I don’t know who he’s talking to and I don’t care.
“Get the fuck out. I’m taking this car.”
“But—”
“Look me in the eye. Look her in the eye and think about whether arguing with me or just doing what you’re told is better for your health and general breathing situation.”
He’s a big guy, a tough son of a bitch. But thankfully, he gets the fuck out of the car and moves out of our way.
“Go up there and help your Pakhan.” That’s my bride.
I shove her in the car, unlock my phone, then toss it to her. “Tell Cal we’ll see him at home.”
She slides me a glare but texts him and tosses the phone back at me as I start the engine.
We’re halfway to our destination before I can even figure out what to say. I take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, okay. I’m… sorry. I had to make it real. Get you upset, make you think we were taking the damn bratva.”
But she just presses her lips together. “Give me the papers you took.”
“I don’t have them.”
“You do.”
“Tor has them,” I say, which is the truth. I wanted copies, I want everything checked and verified. There are ways to play this hand, and with the Estevez Cartel involved in all of this, we need to be careful about our next moves.
“What did Hanlon say to you?”
“He… He has a bomb he wants me to use to kill you all, and I just might.”
For some reason, her petulant, snappy tone makes me smile. “Maybe I’ll let you. What did he say?”
“He said a lot of shit,” she mutters. “About the cause and freedom and how he doesn’t want the Murphy clan dead, but you know, I’m sure he’ll learn to live with it.”
“Ava…” I take a breath, gripping the steering wheel tight, the nightline of Manhattan growing larger as we approach the city.
“He said other things, too.” She looks at me, her eyes flaring with pent-up rage. “That he’ll kill my sister if he doesn’t get those papers about the cartel.”
“If he gets them, he’ll likely burn you down, too.
He’ll wreak havoc and start wars. He’s got a cause all right, and he doesn’t care if most of it is moved to political grounds.
He’s the type of zealot my da warned us about, the kind we should never turn into.
Da was never like that, but he did believe in a free Ireland.
And he also believed in doing what was right, even when it was wrong.
He’s in prison for keeping his mouth shut and taking the brunt of things for the higher-ups. He’s a good man.”
“He sounds like the rest of you. Dangerous as fuck.”
I start laughing. “You’re no lamb, sweet thing.”
“You annoy the shit out of me.”
“Look, we need to find a way to end this. We’ll get your sister back and—”
“You’ll take my bratva. I only have the bratva and Tatiana. And she isn’t even really mine. She’s more Romanov’s than mine, now. I’m not her sister. I’m just someone she sees sometimes.” She stops talking.
There are things I could say. And while some of them might be true, like the fact that she could have given up that dream of running the bratva and just taken the kid and run, or that she could have just handed everything to Romanov and got to share her little sister’s life, she didn’t do any of those things.
I keep forgetting that Ava’s young. She stopped being a kid when her mom died. When she took her first life.
Then again, what life would it be under Romanov’s thumb? Or on the run with a small kid?
So I stay quiet, because I get it. I get her.
When we get back home, I’m more than ready for the fight that’s quietly brewing inside of her.
But she doesn’t say a thing. All she does is hold out her hand. “I need that key and my crest.”
“Fuck no.”
“We’re done. Seamus. I’m out of here. Your friend took my sister, and you took those papers.”
“I told you I don’t have them.”
“Well… maybe one more for the road, then.” She comes up to me, pressing against my body, fluttering her eyelashes at me. And I’m so turned on by her that when she moves, I fuck up.
I don’t stop her in time.
Now she has my gun, and she steps back, pointing it at me.
“Here we are again, Seamus.”
“Just put the gun down,” I say carefully. Because there’s a coldness in her eyes, one I don’t like.
“No. Give me the papers.”
“I. Don’t. Have. Them,” I say, not moving. “And even if I did, the answer would be no.”
The coldness shifts. There’s fire now, sparking in the depths of her hard gaze.
I don’t think she’ll shoot me, but she’s definitely hovering on the brink.
“You know, Ava, there will come a time when we need each other.”
“I don’t need you.”
“You do,” I say softly. “What’s worse, you want me, too. Know how I know? Because I need you, too. And I want you so much it drives me insane.”
“You mistake me,” she bites out, “for someone else… someone who gives a damn.”
“No, I know you’re the woman who gets off on fighting.
The one who wants to see which of us will dominate the other.
You like me chasing you and hate fucking you.
You want me to make you get on your knees in a bathroom and blow me.
And I want to go down on you whenever I want, feel you up wherever I want. I don’t even care who’s watching.”
“That’s sex,” she says, her voice steely. “Nothing more.”
“With us, Ava, it’s everything. Because it isn’t just sex, is it? It’s life blood. It’s love. All mixed together.”
Her hand shakes, and she adds the other one to steady it and keep that gun trained on me.
“You even fucked me thinking I killed your cousin.”
“Be careful, Seamus,” she says, “I might start believing it again.”
“There comes a time, sweet thing, to let things morph into what they really are. And our hate isn’t that. It’s a slow burn, balls to the fucking wall love story, and you know it. Not a pretty one, but ours. Blood, bruises, slugged-out fuckfests that leave us torn to pieces and wanting more.”
She blinks, her eyes shimmering, and she swallows hard. “That sounds horrible.”
“It is. To the wrong person. But admit it, you live for what’s happening between us.”
“What if I want gentle?”
“We can have gentle when we want.” I pause. “But, Ava, we need to trust each other.”
“I can’t. How can I?”
“I told you that I lied to you about taking your bratva. I want it, yes; of course, I do. But I want it with you at the helm. I need you, my mad, sweet thing.”
Ava shakes her head and a small sound gurgles in her throat. “I don’t care. It’s too late. I need to get my little sister. She’s only four. And… I don’t trust you.”
We’re at some kind of crossroads. And I just stand there, letting her point that gun at me.
This time there’s enough space. I have a chance to dodge a bullet and take her down, then turn that gun on her.
But I won’t. I can’t. I’d never. I love her.
“What if we finally choose to trust each other?” I ask.
The gun shakes in her trembling hand.
“What if we work together on this? Save your bratva, get your sister.”
She stares at me and says, “How?”
“I’ve got a plan.”
Her eyes narrow into slits. “What if I just shoot you dead?”
I grin and take one step. She doesn’t pull the trigger.
I take another.
I’m still alive.
And then I’m there in front of her. I take the gun away, cup her face, and kiss her. Ava clings to me, kissing me back, and we move and sway until her back hits the wall. Her mouth is warm and wet and so fucking sweet, I almost collapse.
When we’re both breathless, I lift my head. “That’s the plan.”
“What is?”
I kiss her throat. “You shooting me.”
“You’re insane.” And she kisses me once more.
Suddenly, reality slams into me as Dec slaps my back.
And Ava goes bright red, burying her face in my shirt.
“I see you’ve been working on a plan there,” Dec says.
“Actually…”
“We’ve got until tomorrow, three a.m.,” Ava says.
“No,” I say, looking at my brothers. “We should act now. He’ll be watching the storage place. But Ava gave me an idea, and I’ve actually got a plan.”
“And what’s this plan?” Cal asks.
“I think we manipulate this situation…”
Cal sits in the back of the van, smoking. “This really is the dumbest plan in history.”
“I thought you were quitting.”
“Gobshite,” Cal mutters.
Inside, right about now, Ava’s opening that locker.
Torin turns around in the front seat. “These papers won’t hold up under scrutiny. Not even the ones she’s putting in that locker.”
“Those are just a taste. A bank account he can access with a small amount of cash in it, to see what’s coming is real.” I tap my thigh and adjust my shirt.
Dec sighs from the back. “Our money.”
“Did you want to go to the cartel and ask them if we could give their funds away?” I snap.
Ava emerges and I snatch up my binoculars, adjusting them.
Nervous but determined. She’s wearing jeans and a hoodie to conceal her gun.
She slings a bag she didn’t have before over her shoulder.
Tor’s hand comes down on my shoulder. “It won’t be on a timer. And we made sure she checked. It’s Semtex most likely. And—”
“Things could go wrong,” I say tersely.
“They won’t. Hanlon wants this too much. We know the type,” Cal says, handing his binoculars to Torin.
“Two cars. We’ll wait until they go.” Then he hands the binoculars back.
I move mine around, but while there are cars parked in the lot, I can’t tell if any are occupied. But Torin’s got the sniper instinct. He clearly picked something up.
Her phone must ring because she answers it and holds it to her ear. I can’t hear what she’s saying, or what Hanlon’s saying, but he’s around. Or, more likely, his people are around. As long as she sticks to the script, we’ll be golden.
Then she stalks off and hails what looks like a cab.
“Ready for phase two?” Cal asks.
“No, but let’s get this shit done.”
Twenty minutes later, I see her, just ahead on the street. She walks out of the bar where Brad the Mad conducts business. And I follow her.
I shake my head and look at the condemned building.
“Goddamn it, Ava. What the fuck are you doing?” I mutter just loud enough.
She slips into a side alley and opens the bag, making a show of setting the timer on the bomb before putting it back in the bag. Then she looks at the papers before she stuffs them back in with the bomb. I wait until she exits back onto the street.
My brothers should all be in position, and this needs to happen exactly according to plan. If it doesn’t…
I don’t want to think about that if.
“Ava.” This time, I say her name loud enough for her to hear.
She whirls around under the light of a streetlamp and her anger hits me. She’s holding a gun in her hand. And in her other hand, she hits the call button on her phone.
“Hanlon. I’ve got the papers. I’m also setting the bomb to go off in one hour.”
“Ava,” I call out.
“I’m sorry, Seamus, but I want my bratva and my sister…” Then she says into the phone, “I’ll meet you where you shot Anton on the Lower East Side. Be here in ten. The Murphys? They’ll be here in time for when the bomb goes off. But first, my sister.”
She keeps her gaze and the gun locked on me as she listens to whatever he’s saying. Finally, Ava just cuts him off.
“You should have some money by now. And the rest of the papers are here. You don’t get them until my sister is safe. Mikey of the de Rosa organization will collect her, and when he has her, he’ll let me know.”
Hanlon must say something because she speaks again.
“If you try anything, you won’t get the papers. I have them, but if you kill me, you’ll never see them. Trust goes two ways. You’ve got ten minutes.”
She hangs up. She motions me into the shadows. Anyone watching can see, but only if they’re watching.
After five minutes of silently staring at each other, our words locked tight, her phone rings. I hear Mikey’s voice.
“I’ll call your family so they can get you,” he says.
“In time for you to kill them?” I ask, purposely using as few words as possible.
“The bomb’ll kill them.”
The conversation doesn’t include everything we want to say. But we can’t say those words. And there’s so much danger in this, so many things that could go wrong.
She knows that, too. And a tear slides down her cheek.
It almost kills me that I can’t kiss it away.
“You know,” she says softly. “I really could fall for you, if I had a heart.”
“I think I just did fall for you. Completely.”
“Seamus…” My name’s a broken whisper on her lips. But it’s time, and we both know it. He’ll be here soon, and she motions me into the doorway. “Goodbye.”
She pulls the trigger.
And this time, her bullet hits the mark.