8. Cormac
Chapter Eight
CORMAC
I’m starting to regret suggesting we hold this meeting in Kieran’s basement office, considering the walls are lined with loaded firearms that I know my brother wouldn’t hesitate to use if his temper were to get the better of him.
I lean back against the edge of the desk, watching Fiona across the room as she lays everything out before my brothers.
Her skin is pale, and there’s a faint sheen of sweat on her temple, which catches in the dim light of the overhead bulbs.
But despite her obvious fear, she doesn’t falter. She stands tall in front of my brothers, holding herself together enough to speak the truth.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Kieran hisses once she’s finished, the rage in his voice barely contained.
I sneak a look at Ronan, who leans against the far wall.
He’s deathly still as his eyes flick between me and Fiona. His presence alone acts as an invisible leash, restraining Kieran from doing anything stupid.
Not that I would ever let it get that far.
Brennan stands closer to me, his fists clenched and his jaw tight. The bruises on his face are stark, and the skin around the stitches on his head is still crusted with dried blood, a constant reminder of the nightmare we’ve all been living inside of.
As he listens to Fiona admit to lying to all of us, I watch every emotion pass over his face, from hurt to anger, to pure disbelief.
“I—I didn’t choose this, not really.” Fiona looks at me with panic in her eyes, but I don’t step in. This is her mess to deal with. “I did what I had to, for my family. I didn’t know how to get out once it started. I wanted to tell Cormac, and I… I tried—”
“You didn’t try hard enough!” Kieran slams his fist into the wall so hard I wouldn’t be surprised if the impact cracked some of his knuckles.
“Kieran,” Ronan warns.
Kieran turns on him. “How can you be so calm about this? She’s a fucking snake—”
“I’m waiting to hear the whole story before I form a judgment.”
Kieran looks like he wants nothing more than to take one of the guns off the wall and put a bullet in Ronan’s skull.
I take a breath.
Right now, I need to focus on the facts and try to ignore the innate urge I feel to step between Fiona and Kieran, to protect her from every insult he hurls her way.
“She's been working with Lorcan this entire time!” Kieran’s voice breaks in a growl. “After what he’s done to us, you’re willing to sit back and let her tell us some fucking sob story?”
Fiona looks desperately at Ronan. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I only did what I thought I had to.”
Kieran scoffs. “How fucking convenient.”
“My sister was in trouble, and I was trying to fix it. I thought you of all people would understand.” She folds her arms over her chest.
Despite the situation, the corner of my mouth twitches with a hint of a smile at the glimpse of the woman I was coming to know, hidden beneath the layers of pain and guilt.
“You thought I would understand?”
“About needing to do whatever it takes to keep the ones you love safe? Yes.” Fiona makes a point to look at each of us in turn, though she lingers on my face the longest. “I didn’t know how else to protect her, and when the day came for Lorcan to call in his debt, I…
I didn’t know how to say no. I didn’t know who to trust. I thought if I kept my mouth shut, I could protect everyone—”
Her voice cracks, and she quickly snaps her mouth closed as she fights to keep control over herself.
But Kieran is not making it easy for her. He steps closer, making a point to brush his fingers over the rifles mounted on the wall. “Protecting everyone? By giving Lorcan information? By lying to us for weeks? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Fiona swallows hard before lifting her eyes to meet his gaze.
“I only gave him what was absolutely necessary to keep my niece alive, I swear. Then I tried to warn Cormac when he caught me with the laptop—”
Ronan turns to me. “How long have you known about this?”
I scowl, gripping the edge of the desk, as all eyes turn to me. “Since the night Scout was taken.”
Kieran curses.
“I was upstairs in the office, confronting Fiona about it when…” I don’t need to finish the sentence. We all know what happened next.
Brennan looks like someone just shoved a knife in his chest.
“She put us all in danger,” he mutters, more to himself than anyone else. “How could you not tell us? After everything that happened to Scout—”
I give him a sharp glance. “What’s done is done. What we need to do now is decide how to use the information we have.”
“So, that’s it?” Kieran demands, turning on me. “She gets to walk free because you say so? Well, fuck that, Cormac. Not when my wife and child could be next—”
Ronan roars, finally stepping out of the shadows. “Enough! This is exactly what Lorcan wants.”
“God knows what she’s been feeding him while she’s been under my roof,” Kieran accuses, ignoring Ronan completely.
“I didn’t feed him anything he didn’t already know. Again, I only gave him what was necessary to keep my niece alive. Nothing else.”
Ronan narrows his eyes at her. “And you didn’t consider simply coming clean? That maybe we could have helped protect her?”
“I didn’t want to take the risk,” she says quietly.
“Bullshit—” Kieran starts.
I don’t give him a chance to finish. “Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same?
” I push off the desk and stalk toward Kieran, only stopping when our noses are practically touching.
“Tell me that if it were Aubrey or Riley’s lives on the line, you wouldn’t have thrown us all under the bus in order to save them? ”
Kieran flinches as if I just slapped him. “You’re actually defending her.”
“That’s not what I’m saying—”
“That’s exactly what you’re saying!”
I growl. “Answer the fucking question.”
“ENOUGH!” Ronan roars as he storms toward us, digging his fingers into my shoulder as he forces Kieran and me apart.
We glare at one another, our chests heaving as we both fight to keep hold of ourselves.
“If what you’re saying is true, then you’ve been walking a razor’s edge.” Ronan glares at Fiona. “One misstep and all of us, everything we’ve built, could have come crashing down.”
Brennan moves to collapse into a chair and runs his hands over his face, looking weighed down with exhaustion. “We could have lost Scout. You realize that, don’t you?”
Fiona is on the verge of tears. “I know. But you have to believe me, I’m still on your side. I swear.”
“You swear?” Kieran spits.
I automatically go to step in front of Fiona, but Ronan tightens his grip on my shoulder, a silent warning to stay out of this.
“You really expect us to believe that when you’ve been the enemy’s eyes and ears for weeks?”
For a split second, the anger I feel at her betrayal clashes with the possessiveness I can’t ignore.
Yes, she betrayed me. Yes, she endangered Scout. But…she’s mine. And right now, that thought sharpens my focus.
I flex my fingers at my sides. “Walk away, Kieran. No matter what Fiona has done, you don’t get to lay a hand on her. Right now, we need her alive, and we need her willing to help. That’s all that matters.”
Fiona swallows hard as she glances anxiously between the two of us.
“I’ll do whatever you need me to do. I won’t screw this up. I won’t. Just…tell me what to do.”
Kieran scoffs. “Do you honestly believe that you could be useful to us?”
I brush Ronan’s hand from my shoulder. “That’s exactly what she is. Because we’re going to use her as bait.”
Fiona’s head snaps in my direction, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“What?” she breathes.
I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.
It’s risky, maybe a little insane, but this plan could be the answer we’ve all been looking for.
My mind races ahead, weighing the risk of each potential outcome.
“Lorcan thinks Fiona is still loyal. He thinks she’s feeding him information. So, why not use that?” I pace a little, the plan forming quicker than my mouth can keep up with. “We let him believe he still has an ally, and we use her to draw him out.”
I pause mid-step and look at Kieran.
His eyes are wide. “Are you insane? You want to put her in front of him?”
“Yes. Because it’s the only way to control this without destroying everything we’re trying to protect. Fiona is already involved with Lorcan, which means she can be the key to taking him down.”
Ronan finally speaks, his voice measured and cold. “If Fiona is compromised, we risk more than just the operation. We risk everything. She could double-cross us in plain sight.”
“I promise I won’t—”
“Your word means nothing,” Kieran spits, but I hold up a hand to silence him.
“If you waver from this plan, we can’t protect you. Do you understand that?” I say to her.
Fiona swallows hard, her eyes flicking between us all, until finally, she nods.
“Good. That’s settled, then. You won’t speak to Lorcan without our approval. Everything you give him, every word, every movement, it goes through me first. Understood?”
“What if he figures out the truth?” she asks.
“The only way that will happen is if one of us tells him,” I remind her. “You trust us, don’t you?”
Fiona hesitates for just a second, and I can see the doubt flicker in her eyes.
“You have my word,” I add. “And unlike yours, my word actually means something.”
Her cheeks heat as she bows her head.
I can feel Ronan’s judgment as he looks at me, as if I’m being too harsh to the woman who has been lying to me since the moment I met her, but I push on before the doubt can creep in.
“The plan is set. Fiona will continue conversing with Lorcan, but only feeding him information that we approve. Any deviation, and it’s over. Is everyone clear?”
Kieran snorts, and I turn to glare at him.
“One misstep—” he starts.
“One misstep, and it’s on us, not her,” I finish. “We can’t waste time doubting each other now. The stakes are too high. So, are you in?”
I look at Ronan then, who silently dips his chin.
“I don’t like this,” Kieran mutters.
Ronan looks at him. “You don’t have to like it. But it’s the best chance we have of taking Lorcan down.”
Kieran glares at Fiona, his shoulders stiff with tension.
She braces herself for another explosion, but it doesn’t come. Instead, he stalks over to his bar and snatches up a bottle of Macallan.
“I think that means Kieran’s in,” Brennan mutters.
My eyes go to Brennan. “What about you?”
Brennan shrugs as he keeps his gaze on the floor. “I agree that the plan is solid. I just… I don’t know if I can forgive you just yet.”
I don’t know whether he’s talking to me or to Fiona, but either way, he’s on board.
For the first time in hours, the air feels a little less tense. Not because we’ve forgiven or forgotten, but because we finally have a plan, and I can see it on Fiona’s face that she’s fully in this with us, no matter the cost.
My hands flex at my sides, the weight of what’s coming pressing down on my shoulders.
This won’t be easy, but if we play this right, Lorcan doesn’t stand a fucking chance.