30. Cormac
Chapter Thirty
CORMAC
“Fuck!” I hurl my phone across Kieran’s office, where it smashes against the far wall.
How the hell did I end up here?
I know the answer, but I don’t want to face it. I don’t want to acknowledge the fact that even after all the careful planning, Lorcan was one step ahead of us the entire fucking time.
I should have killed him when I had the chance.
That thought has been circling my head all day, relentless as a vulture. It picks at every moment I hesitated, every second I convinced myself I was being smart to wait for my brothers.
I should have known, from how calm he was, that he’d been indulging our plan.
He might not have known everything, but he knew enough to be the one to walk away smiling.
I drag a hand down my face and laugh under my breath, the sound sharp and humorless.
I told myself waiting for Ronan and Kieran was strategic, but all it did was give Lorcan time to get away. Even now, when I shut my eyes, I see him behind my eyelids—his mouth bloody, his smile crooked, and his eyes wild and locked on mine, daring me to pull the trigger.
You don’t know who to trust.
I clench my jaw until my teeth ache.
He’s wrong about a lot of things, and I just have to hope he was wrong about that too, because if he wasn’t, then this isn’t just a setback.
It’s the beginning of the end.
The office feels too small for the amount of fury clawing around inside my chest. Every breath scrapes on the way in, like my lungs are protesting the effort.
I straighten a stack of papers on Kieran’s desk even though there’s no reason to, my hands needing something to do before I break something else.
Lorcan isn’t just gone. He’s watching. I can feel it in my bones.
Men like him don’t disappear without leaving traps behind. They pull back, and then they strike where it hurts most.
And the worst part?
He knows me.
He knows exactly how much restraint it took not to pull the trigger when I had the chance. He saw the hesitation and banked on it.
That knowledge burns hotter than the rage because it means he’s counting on me to make the same mistake twice. But I won’t. I refuse to let indecision be the thing that costs my family everything.
I press my palm flat against the desk and bow my head for a second, letting the anger sharpen instead of explode.
Rage is useful when it’s focused, and when I lift my head again, my resolve is set like steel.
If Lorcan thinks I’m done hunting him, he’s made a fatal miscalculation.
All day I’ve been trying to track him down, but so far it’s been nothing but dead ends and smoke trails that vanish the second I get close.
Every lead collapses, and every informant goes quiet.
Cameras have been glitching, and accounts have gone cold, leaving me with nothing to show for the past twenty-four hours.
But I refuse to feel beaten.
At the sound of the door unlocking, I turn my head just as Kieran appears.
He takes one look at my face, then at the chipped plaster in the wall and my cracked phone on the floor, and raises a brow.
“Things going that well, huh?”
“Get out,” I mutter.
He ignores me as he strolls over to the bar, snatching up a bottle of liquor and a rocks glass.
“Were you aiming for something in particular, or just being dramatic?”
I straighten and stalk across the room, scooping my phone up off the floor. The screen is cracked, but it still works, which is my only win of the day.
I pocket my phone. “It’s been a shit morning.”
“I take it the leads went nowhere.”
I don’t bother answering.
It’s laughable how much of a wild goose chase Lorcan has sent us on in the past twenty-four hours. Considering I had him in fucking chains, and he still managed to run circles around us… Our father would be turning in his grave if he knew how badly we had managed to fuck this up.
“That and the fact that Adrian Smirnov is breathing down my neck.”
That gets Kieran’s attention.
He pauses mid-pour, glancing at me over his shoulder. “What about him?”
“He’s been calling. I’ve been dodging him.”
“That’s a bad move.”
“I know.”
Kieran watches me too closely. “You’re wound tight. Even for you.”
“You would be wound tight too if you had let the wrong man walk out alive,” I snap.
He sets the glass down on the marble bar top. “That’s not what I meant. You’re spiraling.”
I bark out a laugh. “I’ve got Lorcan on the loose, and Smirnov circling me like a vulture. What part of that suggests I should be calm?”
Kieran studies me for a long beat, and I see the usual sharpness in his eyes dull just a fraction.
“I’m not saying you should be.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying…” He exhales before reaching for a second rocks glass. “You don’t get extra points for carrying this alone. You never have.”
I look away as I grind my teeth.
If Kieran was hoping to give me some kind of pep talk, it’s not working. The last thing I want is his sympathy.
“You think I don’t see it?” he continues when I stay silent. “The way you take the hit first and absorb the blame and then act surprised when it nearly breaks you.”
“That’s leadership,” I mutter.
“No. That’s martyrdom, and it gets people killed.”
I meet his gaze again, and something unspoken passes between us.
He sighs. “Look, I know we butt heads. But don’t confuse that with me wanting you to fail. If you go down, we all do.”
The words land heavier than he probably intends, but I appreciate them nonetheless.
“I don’t plan on going down.”
“Good. Because neither do I. But if you carry on like this, you will.”
“What do you suggest I do, Kieran? Lorcan doesn’t sit still. Every minute I hesitate, he recalibrates, and I’ve already given him too many.”
Kieran’s eyes narrow as he sets down the liquor bottle. “I get that, but I don’t like watching you gamble like this. You think you’re the only one Lorcan wants to hurt?”
“I know exactly who he wants to hurt,” I growl. “And it's everyone I love. Fiona. Scout. My family.”
“It’s my family, too. And Ronan’s and Brennan’s.”
“I know—”
“Do you?”
I fall silent.
“Cormac, you know I’m on your side, right?”
“I know. Even if I don’t act like it.”
Kieran huffs a laugh. “Yeah, well, that’s because you’ve got a temper, and I’ve got an even bigger one.”
“I’ve got two ticking time bombs out there, and I’m supposed to keep them contained.”
“And yet, you act like you’re the only one going up against them. You think you’re the only one who has stakes in this game? Because we all do. Every move you make impacts us too, Cormac.”
“I know. I just… I hate feeling this powerless.”
“We’ve got the weapons, the intel, and the manpower.”
“And so far, it hasn’t been enough.”
“This is exactly what Lorcan wants you to do. He wants you to panic, which means you’re more likely to make a mistake. Right now, everyone is safe, which means we have time to regroup.”
“I’m counting on that, Kieran. Because if we don’t win—”
“We will.”
My phone buzzes again, and I curse as I see Adrian’s name.
I want to silence the call, but ignoring Adrian will only sharpen his appetite. I’ve dealt with men like him my whole life, men who mistake access for ownership, and that’s exactly what he’s going to try to do if I let him near Scout.
I flash Kieran the screen. “Speak of the devil.”
“Want me to answer?”
“I’ll deal with it,” I swipe to answer before I can change my mind. “What do you want, Adrian?”
He doesn’t bother with pleasantries, not that he ever does. “I’m done being patient. This situation has gone on long enough.”
I snort. “You don’t get to decide that.”
“I do. Because Scout is my grandson, whether you like it or not.”
My grip tightens around the phone. “You don’t get to say his name.”
“I’m no longer asking to be part of his life. I’m asking for custody.”
For a second, I think I misheard him. Then I laugh. I can’t help it.
The sound bursts out of me, raw and bitter.
I see Kieran stiffen out of the corner of my eye.
“You’re fucking joking.”
“I’m deadly serious.”
I can hear the certainty in his voice.
He’s not bluffing. The amusement instantly drains from my body, replaced by something colder.
Custody.
The word tastes like ash in my mouth, sour and bitter, and it doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to me.
Scout isn’t just part of my life. He’s the center of it. Every careful plan, every sleepless night, every fight I’ve survived, it’s all been for him. And Adrian thinks he can just claim that? As if blood alone gives him the right to tear my family apart.
I see Scout’s face in my mind. His messy hair, the way he scrunches his nose when he’s concentrating, the sound of his laughter when he’s lost in a video game. That boy trusts me completely, and Adrian wants to rip that trust away.
Every muscle in my body goes feral, coiled and ready to snap.
I won’t let him.
The anger I feel is immediate, but underneath it is something darker.
Fear. The kind that seeps in at the edges, whispering in my ear…
What if he succeeds?
“You murdered his mother. You think any court on this planet would hand him over to you?”
“For the right price.”
My vision narrows. “He’s my son.”
“You kept him from me.”
I slam my hand down on the bar top. “I protected him!”
Silence stretches between us, heavy and suffocating.
I glance at the closed door, suddenly grateful Scout is nowhere near to hear this conversation.
“You really want to do this? You want a war?”
“I want my grandson. But if you insist on framing this as a war, I’ll finish it.”
My jaw clenches so hard it aches. “You won’t get him.”
“I will. Because I’m not rushing this. I’m prepared to be very patient.”
And that’s the part that scares me.
Adrian doesn’t need to win fast. He just needs to outlast me.
But when it comes to my son, he is severely underestimating the lengths I will go to in order to keep him safe.
“Do you think dragging Scout through the courts won’t damage him? Do you think he’ll forgive you for that?”
“I think that children adapt, especially when they’re told the truth.”
The word lands like a blade between my ribs.
“What truth?” I demand.
“That you lied to him. That you kept his grandfather away. That you’re not who he thinks you are.”
I close my eyes for half a second, long enough to picture Scout’s face if he ever heard that.
“You’ll never touch him.”
“We’ll see… I’ll give you some time to think, but just know my patience isn’t endless, Cormac. I will come for what is mine.”
The line goes dead.
I lower the phone slowly, my hand shaking despite my best effort to steady it.
My pulse roars in my ears, drowning out everything else.
For a second, the room feels too small. Too quiet. Like the calm before something catastrophic.
Kieran doesn’t say anything at first, and he doesn’t have to. The tension in the room is thick enough to choke on. He watches me like he’s tracking a live wire, waiting to see which direction the explosion goes.
Finally, he grabs the liquor bottle and slides it across the bar. “What does he want?”
“He wants custody of Scout.”
Kieran barks out a laugh. But when he sees that I’m being deadly serious, he quickly sobers up. “He’s not bluffing?”.
“No. He’s not. He’s willing to fight me for him.”
I sink onto one of the stools, bracing my elbows on my knees, staring at the floor like it might offer answers if I look hard enough.
My thoughts fracture, spinning off in a dozen directions at once.
Lorcan wants my blood.
Adrian wants my son.
I’m fighting two different wars, but both have the same stakes.
“I should have killed Lorcan,” I mutter.
“Killing Lorcan won’t stop Adrian,” Kieran says carefully.
“No. But letting Lorcan breathe won’t help either, and at least that’s one enemy taken care of. It feels dangerous having my attention so divided.”
I scrub a hand down my face, trying to rein in the rage clawing its way up my spine.
But it’s not just anger. It’s terror that is strong enough to make my hands tremble.
Scout has no idea how close he is to being dragged into a war that has been going on long before he was born.
I picture him asleep upstairs, his limbs sprawled out across the bed, his stuffed dinosaur tucked into his side, blindly trusting me to keep him safe.
The image brings something feral alive inside me.
I won’t let anyone near him.
Not Lorcan.
Not Adrian.
No one.
I straighten, suddenly feeling a cold sense of calm wash over me. “Get Ronan. We’re done waiting.”
Kieran watches me, then nods once. “About time.”
As he turns to leave, I glance down at my cracked phone.
Adrian can think he’s already won, but he has no idea how far I’m willing to go to protect my son.