Chapter 15
GIO
“Anything new on Bryce since we last spoke?” I clench my jaw, hand wrapped around the glass of scotch in my hand.
“No, nothing,” Grant replies from beside me, while my eyes jump to the two women who just walked into the small bar.
I’m instantly on my feet, rushing over, almost walking into someone else’s table.
“Gio, where the hell are you going?” Grant’s voice trails but all I see is her.
Red.
Even after all this time, I’m physically unable to rip her out of my mind, like she’s permanently sewn herself into my flesh.
But as soon as I get right in front of the women, I realize that the redhead is not my Red at all.
“Um, excuse us?” Her head turns uncomfortably.
And with raised palms, I apologize and head back to Grant.
As soon as I sit back down, he grips my arm. “What the hell was that? What’s gotten into you lately?”
“Nothing,” I grumble.
Everything.
She’s gone. I can’t find her anywhere. I’ve tried hospitals. Morgues. Grant has done everything he could to find her too in this past year, but she either covered her tracks well or she’s truly dead.
Throwing back the rest of my scotch, I slam the glass on the bar top.
“Fuck. It’s her again, isn’t it?” He shakes his head on a laugh, lifting a finger to the bartender, who pours him another scotch. “What the hell happened to the Gio who fucked around and had fun? Now you’re miserable to be around.”
“He met his wife and then he lost her,” I mumble.
How could she do this? We had something. I felt it. I know she did too. And instead of facing it, she just left.
“You barely knew her.” He shakes his head, not getting it.
Why would he? The only thing he ever cares about is money.
“And? I knew enough to know I wanted to know her.”
“Do your brothers know how pathetic you’ve become?”
I shrug. “Michael’s too busy trying to keep the Irish from killing Raph to worry about my problems.”
“Well, if they knew, they’d tell you you’re a jackass.”
“What the fuck kind of friend are you?” I quickly order another drink and throw that one back too. Maybe if I’m hammered, I won’t think about her.
Grant is right. I have become pathetic.
“I thought you were supposed to be good at finding people,” I chastise. “How the hell can’t you find one woman?”
He picks up his glass and empties it, dropping it back down on the bar top. “What can I tell you? She’s good at disappearing. If you find her, I’d like an introduction.”
My fist curls. He’s not getting anywhere near her. Not with his reputation. Not that I think he’d try to screw her, but either way, I don’t want any man near my Red.
“You should see your face right now.” He chuckles. “I get it. You pissed on her and now she’s yours. All I meant was that I’m impressed. I want to shake her hand on a job well done and maybe ask her to come work for me.”
Now I’m the one who’s laughing. “Believe me, you don’t want her working for you.”
I told him how we met. He knows everything.
“Why not? I could use her skills. Not many women out there doing that job these days.”
“Because…that woman is her own boss. And she’d probably kill you.” I give him a long look, and he returns a smug one. “Nah, she’d definitely kill you.”
He snickers. “Well, I will say you need to give up the idea of finding her.” A hand runs casually through his rich black hair. “You need to let her go.”
“Never going to do that.”
I won’t stop until I get some damn closure. I’m not going to rest until I’ve found her, dead or alive.
And if she’s alive, I’m going to make her pay for breaking my heart, the one I never knew could break until I lost her.
ISEULT
“Hey, Red.”
I gasp internally, stopping mid-stride, my heart beating so fast I almost grow dizzy.
But when I turn toward the voice, I realize it was Tiernan, one of the instructors at the academy.
With agitation seeping through my pores, I’m marching across the grass to where he’s eating a sandwich. Kora walks close beside me.
The back of the training building, where Tiernan sits, has a high brick wall. That way the trainees and instructors can get fresh air, away from the prying eye of those who come to the estate to meet with my father. No one knows this place exists unless my father wants them to.
As soon as Tiernan sees my expression, he drops his sandwich and raises his palms in the air. “What did I do?”
I grab a fistful of his thick mahogany hair, his piercing hazel eyes assessing me like a wild animal let out of her cage. And I may as well be.
“You call me Red again and I’ll take your balls.”
Rian, his good friend and fellow enforcer, chuckles under his breath.
I turn to him sharply. “Something funny?”
“Not at all.” He bottles a laugh, and it’s a good thing, because I’m in a fucking mood.
Kora’s chuckling her ass off. “Oh, boys…” She pats Tiernan on the shoulder. “Way to piss her off.”
I drop my hands off Tiernan and start marching away. I hate that in one split second, he reminded me of the one man I have been fighting to forget.
“So…no Red, then?” he shouts with a laugh.
I swear I’m about to keep my promise and make him choke on his own tiny balls.
Kora jogs after me, her soft footfalls catching up until she’s throwing her arm over my shoulder. “Um…what was that?”
“Nothing,” I mutter.
“Seemed like quite a bit of something.”
“Just quit it.” I glare.
“Alright.” She shrugs.
I can’t tell her that the stupid nickname reminds me of him, the man she knows nothing about, and that no one else is allowed to call me Red.
It remains his.
Like it’s sacred.
Oh my God. What’s become of me? Sacred? Am I even hearing myself?
I need to get over him. He’s gone. I moved on. He moved on. He was just a guy who gave me the best orgasms of my life. That’s all he was.
So why haven’t you stopped thinking about how concerned he was about you the night you had that nightmare?
Momentarily, I shut my eyes and force myself to stop this madness.
I haven’t stepped foot into my New York City apartment since I left. I knew he’d keep looking. I stayed off cameras and wore disguises when I had jobs to complete in the city. I knew he wouldn’t give up. He’d keep looking for me.
I tried to search for him online, but came up empty. I had barely anything to go on. What did I expect? I gave up months ago. It was better to forget him. Though forgetting him has been impossible.
“Want to grab dinner off-site later?” Kora asks.
“Can’t tonight. Our father instructed all of us to be here for family dinner.”
“Oooh. Sounds exciting. A Quinn family dinner.”
“Yeah, real fucking exciting.” I scoff. “Dinner with my annoying brothers.”
Fionn and Cillian are always trying to get under my skin. Kinda remind me of that someone who I’m not supposed to be thinking about.
“You mean your very hot brothers?” She shoots off a flirtatious grin.
“Really, Kora?” I stop and pivot toward her. “You’re not fucking my brothers.”
“Well, not all three of them. At the same time. Obviously.” Her lips curl. “Unless they’re into that…”
“Oh my God!” I cover my face with a palm. “I will never get that visual out of my head.”
She purses her lips and laughs. “I said what I said, and I meant every word.”
“That’s gross.” I shake my head violently starting down the road again. “They’re my brothers, and you’re not touching them.”
“Okay…” She side-eyes me and pops a brow as though to say, right, sure I’m not.
She starts toward the main building of the academy and I follow. The red brick construction spreads across the lawn, like a looming haunting mansion.
My father’s house is a short distance toward the left, which is where I’m headed. I promised my sister we’d grab lunch together.
“I swear, Kora,” I add when she reaches the entrance. “If you bang any of my brothers, I’ll kill you.”
“No, you won’t,” she laughs.
No, I won’t.
That bitch.
She strides up the three cobblestone steps, and disappears inside. The top level is dining and leisure, while the underground is reserved for sleeping quarters and additional training facilities. We have a total of fifty recruits at the moment and about fifteen instructors.
I shake my head at the prospect of my best friend and any one of my brothers. No. Absolutely not. The visual alone is nauseating.
Minutes later, I’m entering my father’s home, the grandeur of the foyer too gaudy for my taste.
A large, sparkling chandelier hangs high above the cathedral ceiling, which is filled with painted angels floating in the blue sky, like one would find in a renaissance painting.
My father had it commissioned and I will admit it is kind of creepy.
I like things simple, and my dad isn’t always a simple man.
“Eriu!” I call. “I’m home. Are you ready?”
I stalk off toward the spiral staircase only a few feet away.
Her footsteps register above me and then rush down before I see her, brown hair in a sloppy ponytail, her bright green eyes appearing panicked.
“What’s wrong?” I ask once she’s down, a black handbag slung over her shoulder. She closes the buttons on her black peacoat.
“Shh,” she says, glancing up the stairs.
“What happened?” I place a palm on her shoulder.
Her face crumbles like she’s about to burst into tears.
Instantly, my body reacts with a hammering pulse. “Someone hurt you?”
“No, it’s not that,” she whispers, swallowing nervously. “I overheard Dad talking to a man on the phone and…”
Tears well in her eyes.
“Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
“He’s going to marry me off, Iz,” she cries, her words falling out faster. “I heard him talking to someone named Michael about it, and it’s going to happen soon.”
“What?” I grit my teeth.
Blood rushes into my head. Son of a bitch. He couldn’t even wait a month? She just turned eighteen! She just started college. Her whole life is ahead of her. Rage boils over in my chest.