Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
RAFFERTY
I hang off of Ronin. My feet aren’t on the floor, and even vibrating in shock and rage, his hands are on me, ensuring I don’t hurt myself or fall.
Because that’s who he is. Always protecting those he loves. Although right this second, I am seriously worried for Paddy’s safety.
“Ronin, baby, look at me,” I whisper against his ear.
Behind us, Keegan is close to losing his shit too. Ronin’s energy is frantic and ballistic, his usual humor so far away, it’s like he’s never smiled before. His scent has lost all its lush decadence and is currently so bitter my mouth is dry.
But I’d walk through fire for this Alpha. Despite his scent, his presence, the warning pulsing off him like an emergency beacon foretelling disaster, I am not going anywhere.
“Something isn’t adding up,” I tell him. “You and I know that. So do Keegan and Tynan. And our pack is all that matters.”
Tynan takes over, since both my Alphas are currently about to go postal.
“With all due respect, Paddy, we want to see with our own eyes the evidence. There’s no way Tally is responsible for Arthur Kelly’s killing.”
“My order stands. I can’t afford any weakness right now. And if my son was thinking proper, he’d see that.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Tynan insists.
Ronin snarls, and it’s a sound I hope I never have to hear again.
“Let’s go, Ro.” Using all my weight, I swing in his arms, forcing his feet to move to steer us out of Paddy’s office.
Keegan is close behind. His own designation is high alert. On top of his need to protect, I can feel how worried he is for Ronin.
“We find her before anyone else can,” I say, keeping my voice low so none of the people watching over Paddy can hear me. “We find her, and we get her to safety. Then we come back here and tie your father up until he rescinds his shoot-to-kill order.”
Ronin starts heaving, but at least he’s walking, and each step we take, I can feel him returning to me. Rubbing my face over his, I scent mark him and blow my scent in his face, so each breath he takes is a reminder that we’re pack. So is Tally.
Tynan’s hand is on Ronin’s shoulder, too, helping me steer our Alpha out of his family home before Ro does and says things that will tear this family apart all over again.
“I know a part of you is worried for Paddy, Ronin,” Tynan says.
“There’s none of Arthur Kelly’s associates here.
All the men guarding your parents and your sister’s families are people we ourselves trust. I’ve locked the house down and put Maeve in control.
What he did was necessary but very wrong too.
That’s not me supporting Paddy’s instruction, but he’s the Head of the Irish.
He needs to protect the empire we’ve all spent years building, and once we return, he can spend the rest of his life apologizing to our wife.
” Tynan’s words also reach Ronin, even though Ronin stays quiet.
I feel it in the way Ro’s shoulders don’t feel like they’re about to snap.
I press my cheek to my Alpha’s again. “The four of us will save our Omega.”
His whole body vibrates, but his voice is distant, so telling of his emotion. “Should have scarred her throat, the first chance I had.”
“You adore her too much to have taken her choice away. There’s a reason we’re not seeing that stopped her from being ours, Ronin.
” Keegan’s voice is unlike his usual too.
Right now, it’s like an arctic wind; cold and hurting, straight to the point.
“Whatever it is, we discover it together. Before we each scar her dainty white throat.”
“Noinin will guide us,” Ronin says with a certainty that makes me take the first full breath of air since we walked into Paddy’s office.
Jeanie is at the door, her posture making it impossible to ignore that she’s Paddy’s first, and last, line of defense. She keeps her eyes away from Ronin and Keegan but reaches out for her son’s hand as we storm past her, giving us her quiet support, which is eerily similar to Ronin’s.
“Noinin will guide you.”
When the door shuts and locks behind us, the sense of loss I was expecting to feel doesn’t eventuate. Instead, the four of us take a huge sigh of relief, and I know with every bone in my body that us walking away from Paddy O’Connor is the key to figuring all this out.
I wiggle out of Ronin’s arms and drag him over to our SUV. Opening the rear door, we start piling back on all the weapons we had to remove before we entered. Well, not all—that would be stupid—but we all walked in with a lot less than we left home with.
Grabbing Tally’s backpack, I lift it up to my nose and bury my face in it, chasing the smallest hit of my Omega’s peachy perfume. And I find it. Weirdly, though, I also catch the lingering touch of Johnny.
Emptying her bag again, although we’ve done it a few times, I search the inside for something we missed.
It’s more a feeling than anything else. Digging around inside a small tear in the lining, my nail catches on a small, hard object.
You’d think it was a paperclip or something, but when I tug on it, it makes an audible click that has everyone looking up.
My hand falls through the bottom of her backpack.
“Why would Tally have a secret compartment in her backpack?” I ask before I turn her bag inside out so we can each see the space.
Ronin takes one sniff at it, his eyes narrowing. “A better question is, why can I smell that Johnny’s had his fucking fingers inside a space we didn’t know existed?”
“He’s got something of hers,” Keegan hisses.
My brother looks off strangely, and it gives pause to the moment. Because if any of us were to go off at someone having something of our wife’s, it would be him. He’s obsessed with Tally and everything about her.
“She said something once about trusting her.” He swings to face us. “She’d never betray us, like Noinin never led us astray.”
It’s like a clap of thunder and sends us into action. The rear door gets slammed down. Tynan and Keegan move to the back seats, and I’m about to offer to drive when Ronin claps his hands, pushing me towards the passenger’s door.
He somehow beats me to the driver's seat, pulling the door wide open. The interior light hits on a small gift box. A pale pink glittery bow on top should make the box pretty, but it’s like a taunt from the devil himself.
“Don’t get in the car,” I shout, stopping everyone mid-movement. And then, one by one, they ease back. “They’re fucking with us. Someone has the central remote to our car still, and…”
“A car bomb?” Tynan snarls, crouching down and pointing his gun into the shadows.
Keegan tugs me behind him before he’s searching the night for our enemies.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ronin says. I pop my head up to check on him. His voice sounds weird now. Floaty, even, for my stressed-as-fuck Alpha, which has all the alarm bells in my head ringing.
He’s checked out on us. Instead of running or screaming his frustrations, he’s quiet as he reaches in and grabs the “gift” someone left. I remember the last time he was like this. It was when we first discovered Noinin was missing.
Ronin closes his eyes. His knuckles run over his chest, and his lips are moving as if in prayer. Before anyone can object, he opens the box.
The sound he makes when he sees what’s inside breaks my heart.
The scent of her blood pierces my soul.