Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
TYNAN
S he doesn’t turn around, and she doesn’t need to for me to know how furious and trapped she feels. It wafts off her like cheap perfume, and it’s not something I want to smell ever again.
“I’m sorry.”
“If you’re apologizing for cutting a hole in the wall, don’t bother. It might be okay for you lot, but…” She takes a deep breath.
We get interrupted by Maeve being dragged in by Daisy.
“Tally.” Daisy smiles up at me like I hung the fucking moon, but her big hazel-green eyes fly over to Tally. Not before I didn’t see the hero worship in them. Daisy’s got it bad for Tally.
Tally turns around and looks down at Daisy, waiting for her to do the introductions. Such an Omega thing to do. Rafferty does the same, giving his whole attention to whoever needs it the most.
It used to drive me crazy, the way he’d cut off the rest of the world. She drives me crazier, for about a thousand other reasons.
And right now, I’m staring at her interacting with Daisy, who really is the apple of the family, and not only am I jealous and envious and all those shitty emotions, I’m also seeing Tally’s injuries again.
I move into autopilot, taking over and making tea and toast for the girls. I know it’s annoying the hell out of her, but I can’t stop this building pressure that I have to care for Tally.
Despite getting everything set up for them, the three girls make it more than obvious I’m not welcome at their catch up. Not that they’d say anything. Well, Maeve would, but she’s on her best behavior and keen to have the chance to speak with the woman who saved her daughter.
How Tally was the person to rescue Daisy defies logic. I’ve been trying to figure out how the hell it happened since I woke up, but it strangely makes sense too. To see destiny in action, and to be a key player in fate's plan, is as scary as it is beautiful.
I feel restless in my own skin and pace until I end up sitting on the floor in the second bedroom.
Right next to the huge fucking hole Keegan cut earlier today.
It wasn’t hard to do. The apartments were always meant to be dual occupancy, and initially, this side was meant to be for me if, and when, we used Raff’s apartment.
But like always, we seem to have a hard time finding any sort of separation from each other.
He says it’s because we’re the same peas in the same pod.
I’ve got no other explanation that doesn’t make me sound pathetically weak.
But from the day we were born, it’s always been Raff and me.
That bond is hard to break. Not that I want to, but sometimes life gets cramped with two Alphas and a twin, even though it was always going to be the four of us.
There was also a time when I was meant to be an Alpha, same as Raff, until fate and destiny stepped in and changed our plans.
I can hear the girls all talking, Daisy leading the way in her sunshine-filled chatter.
Fuck, it’s hard to believe how close we came to losing her. Our world would have crumbled.
We came even closer to losing Tally, and our world would have blown apart.
Quite literally. Not just because we can’t let bullshit go unanswered—we’re O’Connors, for fuck’s sake—but on a personal level, the one woman who’s been a constant between us since we were bloody kids would vanish, and even the thought has me ready to rage.
“Ty,” Raff whispers from his place, no doubt picking up on my cloudy mood.
He flatly refuses to step foot or even look at her space, which is why he’s sitting in pretty much the exact place. Next to me but not really too.
“On a scale of one to ten, how pissed is she?”
I drop my head back, my own exhaustion starting to kick my arse. But I answer him. I’d give him my last breath if I had to. “You’re gloating.”
I hear a chuckle under his breath, confirming he is. “Told you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not the one who suggested opening the sealed entry.”
“You helped, though, which makes you just as guilty. Still pissed at you for that, Ty.”
“Pissed at myself, thank you. Although it’s no match to how pissed she is.”
“With reason.”
“Didn’t suggest she wasn’t entitled to be upset. Don’t put words in my mouth,” I whisper back, feeling better already. I’d feel a hundred percent better if she wasn’t quite so mad. “We fucked up.”
Keegan walks through and sits on the spare bed, facing me. “No, we didn’t.”
I study him, unsurprised by his lack of guilt or shame. Keegan’s never been one to second-guess himself. His cognitive distortion works well in a lot of situations where things are brutally black and white, but not today. “Kee, you can’t be serious.”
And from his point of view, and Ronin too, because those two bounce off each other, they’ll argue what they did was necessary.
I get it, I truly do. There was a risk she’d suffered a medical episode or had slipped and was injured, unable to answer the door.
We could have used the front door, like Ronin did once she’d fallen asleep.
Any further discussion on what we should and shouldn’t have done gets cut off when Daisy skips through.
“Hey, what are you doing in here? Can I stay here too? Mam?” she asks hopefully, flopping onto my lap, her faith in the world restored already.
Every time I see her, it’s a reminder of how close we came to never having this again. Too fucking close. And the only reason Daisy’s here is because of Tally. The only reason my twin is still alive is also because of Tally. And Tally didn’t answer the door when we came to check on her.
I wrap my arms around Daisy and bury my face in her red curly hair, getting lost in the reality of our world. Split decisions made by smart people keep others alive.
Maeve appears, with Tally in tow, refusing to look at me or Keegan. Maeve opens her arms up for Daisy, who is way too old to be carried, but we all need the reassurance she’s really with us.
Daisy settles in her arms and drops her head against Maeve’s chest. A sweet gesture that has my body twitching to do the same to Tally.
“We’re saying goodbye to your uncles. And Tally is going to rest.” She purses her lips, like she does when she’s about to argue with any, or all, of us, but her focus goes to Tally.
Tally brushes her hand over Daisy’s shoulder and gives Maeve a final look. “Thank you both for the visit.”
“And we will only use the front door next time,” Daisy promises loudly before she swings around to glare at me, then Kee before she’s out of Maeve’s arms again and racing through the door.
“Rafferty, are you sure you’re okay? I could stay and look after you.”
There’s an awkward moment when Tally realizes that Raff is also with us without being actually with us.
She kind of looks like she’s talking to herself, then in the next moment, after another small smile towards Maeve, she walks out of the bedroom we’re all in and back into the rest of her apartment.
She gets on and does her thing, making it painfully obvious she’s deliberately ignoring us. Her thing involves walking to and from her bedroom, to the kitchen a few times. But a few times becomes too many, and both Keegan and I get up to see what she’s doing.
My stomach drops. Her suitcase is on her bed, and she’s collecting all her things, basically throwing them into her bag.
Keegan growls under his breath before storming back into our side, his phone at his ear.
I can hear Ronin’s voice echoing, loud as always, through the handset.
It’s only seconds later that Maeve and Daisy yell out their final farewells.
Not that Tally responds, since she’s absorbed by what she’s doing.
She disappears into her bathroom, shutting the door behind her. At the same time, the key code to her door beeps, and a beat later, Ronin walks in.
Keegan races back into Tally’s place, an expression of determination on his face and the master access card in his hand.
One swipe over the state-of-the-art computer screen on the kitchen wall, and it comes alive.
His fingers fly over the touch screen, and even from here I can see what he’s doing; he’s disabling her access and locking us together.
He walks past me, slower. The cocky smirk on his face only gets bigger when he walks back into Raff’s side, no doubt to do the same thing there.
It’s a brave, and stupid, move, locking us all together. Goddamn, it’s brilliant too.
Ronin stops next to me. “Where’s our wife?”
“Packing.”
Ronin pulls his tie loose, letting it hang, and his suit jacket goes next.
I totally forgot it was Sunday. Ronin’s ma is going to slaughter us for missing church. “How was Mass?”
“As you’d expect after the granddaughter of Paddy O’Connor was taken. Father O’Leary spent a lot of time talking about God’s plan and leaving vengeance to God himself.” Ronin laughs.
“How’d that go down with Paddy?”
Ronin shrugs, a wicked smile on his face getting bigger the longer he doesn’t answer.
Eventually, though, his eyes drift back down the hallway to where Tally’s gathering frustration is wafting.
“Sometimes what’s important is that you get the blessing you need.
Whether it’s Father O’Leary who blesses you or Paddy O’Connor, it’s the same. ”
If push came to shove, I have no doubt Father O’Leary would twist his sermons so he didn’t offend any of the O’Connors. The Father knows who holds the power of life and death in his hands, and on these streets, it’s Paddy O’Connor who’s God. And one day, it will be Ronin O’Connor.
“And how upset was your ma?”
“Well, we’ve got a week to make good again.” He takes a step away before he stops and looks over his shoulder and clarifies. “Seven days to convince our wife she really is our wife and that being our wife means she’s expected at Sunday Mass and lunch. Since she’s family and all.”
“Ronin…” I groan, though it turns into laughter when I find him smiling again.
“Ma wants to spoil us, considering we caught the guard as quick as we did.”
“Luck was on our side.”
“It was.” And it was pure luck one of our trusted soldiers saw the Alpha trying to get a ferry over to London. Ronin and I were there within minutes, and not long after, the guard was locked in Paddy O'Connor's basement. We were home, showered, and in Raff’s nest again within an hour.
“Right, then, we may as well get the yelling started.” He passes his jacket over, rolls his shirt sleeves up. With a wink and a crack side to side of his neck, like he’s going off to battle, he charges. “Angry fucking sorts everything out.”
I probably should have told him to take off his shoulder holster and leave behind his guns.