41. Brady
Brady
My wife’s brother is a fucking traitor. He never stopped working for Seven. Cora’s been texting him, calling him, checking up on him, looking after him. Fucking doting on the kid.
All the while he’s been feeding information to our greatest enemy.
I ought to kill him with my bare hands.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. We can’t risk an open war with the Muloneys. I’ll need proof that’s more concrete than a circumstantial leak of fake intel. But before I can discuss any of my vindictive plans with Liam, Mam calls.
It’s after ten p.m., which isn’t unusual for a meeting summons, but she’s more curt than normal about it.
“Pub in thirty minutes. Bring your wife,” she adds before hanging up.
I don’t want to bring my wife. Her closeness to Connor throws her under suspicion as well. I barely slept last night, too aware of the potential threat lying in my bed beside me.
I need to be more involved, she’d demanded.
And I’d agreed. More fool me.
She’s too much like myself. It’s what made me believe in her, but it should’ve made me wary. I should’ve chosen distrust over love, whatever the fuck that word means. But she outplayed me. Which heightens my suspicions all the more.
She has no true reason to be loyal to me or my family. She’s proven, time and again, that her only loyalty is to her brother.
I can’t tell my family about Connor yet.
I don’t present problems without solutions.
When Liam and Finn asked how the fake drop went, I told them I have the situation under control.
Which is true. Connor has no contact with our family apart from Cora, so for now he has no other source of damaging information.
And I’m keeping a very close eye on that source.
She changed the lock on her phone, but it was easy enough to hack while she was asleep. Her texts with her brother appear innocuous. Appear being the operative word. Their straightforward-seeming conversations involve no O’Sullivan business, though Connor doesn’t hold back about insulting us.
When I scrolled up, I found an unsettling exchange from a few days ago.
Connor: They’re thugs. You say you hate Dad but the O’Sullivans are just as shitty.
Cora: You’re wrong. Whether or not you admit it, the O’Sullivans treat their women with respect. There’s a thousand other reasons why they’re better than Cormac, and the most important one is that I’m one of them now.
She’s part of us now, I’d thought. Part of me.
Then I shook my head clear and got my fucking priorities straight. Distrust over love.
If she’s a threat, then my feelings about her don’t matter. And if she turns out to be the enemy, then I will show her no mercy. My rage will be all the greater for having been duped. And she will feel every ounce of it.
Fuck love, and fuck feelings. It was a liability to have them in the first place. A weakness.
It’d be weak of me to continue following her demands. Involving her. But, infuriating as it is, I can’t cut her out just yet. I need to keep her close, and now I need to bring her to this goddamn meeting.
Any order from Mam has Da’s power behind it.
Cora perks up when I tell her we’re going to the pub. I know she’s sensed my suspicions. She’s smart, and she can analyze me disturbingly well.
“I’ll go get changed.” She dashes off, her shortened yellow skirt flying behind her.
She’s taken to wearing her extravagant dresses around the penthouse, the ones I purchased for her. When I saw how much she enjoyed her sexy red number, I bought her one in every color. And had them all custom tailored short, of course.
Now I feel like even more of a fool for showering her in expensive gifts.
And I do not enjoy feeling like a fool.
* * *
We use the back door to bypass the main pub. Mam, Da, and Liam are already here, and the room is tense. For now, Cora’s place is at my side, so I pull out the chair next to mine, and she sits. It’s Finn’s usual seat.
When he joins us three minutes later, my younger brother isn’t happy about being usurped. But at least he flares his nostrils at me rather than at Cora. It’s an unpleasant look with his broken nose. Keeping his mouth uncharacteristically shut, he thunks himself down in the chair next to Liam.
As soon as Finn’s seated, Da begins without preamble, looking directly at me.
“Seven’s planning an attack on the high-rise. Full assault before dawn.”
Cora’s in danger. It’s my first coherent thought. Because no, my priorities are not in fucking order. She could be a traitor, and still, my wife’s safety means too much to me.
Our greatest enemy intends to eliminate me and devastate our family’s strength. My focus cannot be on a single person. No matter how stupidly important she is to me. I need to be at my most ruthless.
Cold metal pours over my body, encasing me in hard resolve.
I’ve known something like this was coming. When I destroyed Seven’s warehouse, I took out tens of millions of dollars of his product, as well as half a dozen of his personnel. Retaliation was inevitable, escalation guaranteed. And I’ve readied myself for it.
Although Da addresses his announcement to me, the heightened tension runs through all of us.
“The building’s being evacuated as we speak,” Mam says.
“Where is this intel from?” Cora asks, surprising the room. Her voice has only the slightest tremor, so faint I don’t think the others notice. My brave wife is afraid.
“A reliable source,” Mam says.
Cora purses her lips in frustration. She asked the right question, but Mam’s stingy about her sources. As usual, the rest of us are left to deduce for ourselves.
I’ve been trying to link Seven’s high-rise assault to Connor’s betrayal, but the kid wouldn’t put his sister in danger like that. There’s a gap in the details. Within that gap, there’s a miniscule chance that Connor isn’t in league with Seven.
And I now have the perfect life-or-death stakes to test him.
“I’m going back to the high-rise,” I announce. “If I’m there as usual, Seven won’t suspect that we know his plan. I’ll be able to set an ambush.”
I’ve been prepared for this for years. My home, under attack. I am the steadfast soldier, ever training and drilling and planning. This blare of the air raid siren is my call to arms.
Beside me, my wife stiffens in her chair. I cannot bring myself to look at her, to see her beautiful face pale with unease.
My duty is to keep her safe. And I always abide by my duty.
One by one, the moving parts of my plan click into place.
“It’s a good plan,” Liam says to me. He doesn’t know the half of it. “It’ll provide a decent distraction while the rest of us attack Seven’s place.”
Da raises his eyebrows. My older brother must hear the same call to arms that I do.
“Fire with fire,” Da says. “Good. Finn?”
“The high-rise is my home too. I’m defending it with Brady.” My younger brother gives me a nod that’s more confident than his expression. But I’m glad to have him on my side. I give him a nod of solidarity in return.
“It’s my home too,” Cora blurts. I can’t help but turn to her now. She’s not pale like I’d expected, though her hand is sweaty when I take it in mine.
“It is your home,” I agree. But that doesn’t mean I’m letting her anywhere near it while it’s under attack.
If Cora’s at the high-rise when Seven’s men come to kill us, my sole concern will be getting her out alive. I can’t have that. This catastrophic threat spans too wide for me to concentrate on my wife alone. I’m responsible for keeping my entire family safe from this danger. Not just her.
“So be it,” Da says with a frown. “Brady, get Blackbird in position. If Seven’s making a statement, he’ll use the front door.”
Da’s right. And it’s welcome news that he’s assigning me our sniper. I squeeze my wife’s hand before letting go, her sweaty palm her greatest tell. Then I stand up and let myself out of the room.
Out in the back alley, the night air awakens every cell in my body. As I tap through my phone to call Blackbird, my fingers are steady. I do not acknowledge the churning in my guts. I do not acknowledge the worry I feel for Cora’s safety. I’ve already taken it into consideration.
My plan to keep her away from the high-rise is flawless and absolute. And I don’t just make plans.
I execute them.