26. Wolfe
WOLFE
It’s been twelve minutes since I left her, and my brain won’t shut up.
That’s the thing about Eva. When she’s next to me, my head goes quiet. Not the forced kind I get from music or code. Real quiet. Like my brain finally has something steady enough to hold onto and it can stop spinning while she’s close.
She’s miles behind me now. And the spinning is back. Every thought fights for space. Every part of me that she somehow managed to calm down is wide awake and screaming bloody fucking murder.
Cillian drives fast with the radio off because he knows me well enough not to add noise to the mess already happening between my ears.
“You good?” Cillian asks, glancing over.
“Yeah.” The damn stress knot at the base of my skull has been throbbing ever since I put that damn extraction plan together.
“You’re lying. But that’s fine. I’ll accept your bullshit for a few miles.” He adjusts his grip on the wheel and shifts in the seat. “You think she’s okay back there?”
“She agreed to stay. But no, she’s definitely not okay with it.”
“Of course she’s not okay with it. You basically asked her to sit in the woods while her brother’s life hangs in the balance and the people she cares about go to war without her.” He looks at me. “That’s a big ask, Wolfe. Even for someone who trusts you the way she does.”
“I know what I asked,” I mutter.
“Do you know what it cost her to say yes?”
Of course, I fucking know. I watched her pace my bedroom and argue and rage against the logic until her body wore out, her brain took over, and she finally gave in to it all.
My mind stumbles back to those seconds when she sat on my bed and said in the most defeated voice I can imagine coming from her mouth, “if anything happens to Sal, I will never forgive you.”
It cost her everything she has. And I’m the one who asked for payment.
“Okay, moving on,” Cillian says when I don’t answer him. “The Sal meeting. You’re gonna handle that, yeah?”
I nod. “Eva memorized the guy’s number from Sal’s phone screen at Rosario’s.
She texted it to me before we left for the cabin.
I’m going to spoof a call from Andersen’s number Thursday morning and reschedule the meeting to next week.
Sal will think his investor had a conflict.
By next week, Dmitri’s operation won’t exist anymore, and the meeting won’t ever happen. ”
“Nice,” he says. “Clean.”
“It has to be clean. Sal can’t suspect anything. If he finds out Eva is in the middle of all this, the plan blows wide open because he won’t just sit around while his sister is targeted by Russian mobsters. Eva was very clear about keeping him in the dark because it’s safest for him.”
“She’s always very clear.” Cillian grins. “That woman has a way of making sure you understand exactly what she expects and exactly what happens if you don’t deliver.”
“She must’ve picked up that skill in prison.”
He’s quiet for a second. “You know what I like best about her? She doesn’t try to be someone she’s not.
Every other person who walks into our family’s house wears a mask to cover who they really are.
They become who they think we want them to be.
But Eva was never like that. She’s fucking real, bro.
Always herself, no matter who she’s going toe to toe with.
She’s the same woman with Ronan as she is with Gavin as she is with you.
She doesn’t bend, doesn’t put on a show. ”
“No. She doesn’t.”
“That’s why Ronan can’t stand her. He can’t make her cower, and he fucking hates not having that kind of control.”
I look at him. “Ronan respects her skills.”
“Ronan respects her usefulness. That’s different.
He can’t control her, and he knows it and it makes his balls itch.
” Cillian shakes his head. “He’s been on you about her.
I know he has. It’s obvious, bro. Every time the three of you are in a room, you and Ronan are having a conversation with your faces, and it ain’t about Dmitri. ”
My shoulders sag. “He wants her out after Thursday.”
“Yeah. I figured.”
“I told him she stays.”
“And what did he say?”
“That the conversation isn’t over. And it gets dealt with after Thursday.”
Cillian lets out a low whistle. “That’s Ronan-speak for ‘I’m going to keep pushing until you break or I do.’”
“I’m not going to break.” I flex and unflex my fingers.
“I know you’re not. That’s what worries me the most. Because Ronan doesn’t break either. When you guys go head-to-head, someone’s gonna get caught in the middle. And right now, that someone is Eva.”
My thumb taps against my thigh. He’s right. The fight with Ronan isn’t going to be a conversation. It’s going to be a war. And Eva will be standing in the middle of it whether she knows it or not.
“He’s not wrong about the risk,” Cillian says. “She does know everything about our operation. About the DiMichelis. About Dmitri’s entire network. That’s a lot of information in one person’s head.”
“You think she’s a liability, too?” I slowly turn to look at him, dread coiling in my gut.
“I think she’s a person who knows too much about very dangerous people.
That makes her a target, not a liability.
There’s a difference.” He taps his thumb against the steering wheel.
“Ronan sees liabilities. I see my brother’s girlfriend.
And I’d rather figure out how to protect her than figure out how to get rid of her. ”
The invisible chain wrapped tight around my lungs loosens enough for me to breathe, at least a little easier.
“So,” Cillian says, keeping his eyes on the road. “Have you told her?”
“Told her what?”
He lets out a snort. “Come on, Wolfe.”
I adjust my glasses, ignoring his question.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Why not?”
“Because every time I try, my mouth just...” I make a fist and then open it. “Nothing comes out.”
“Nothing comes out. The guy who can explain quantum encryption in his sleep can’t say three words to the woman he’s sleeping with.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It really is that simple. You’re just making it complicated because that’s what you do.” He looks at me. “What are you so afraid of?”
I stare out the window. What am I afraid of?
That the last time I let myself feel something like this, it was a setup.
That my father proved caring about someone is a crack that people will shove a knife into to wedge it open and make them vulnerable.
That saying it out loud makes it real, and real things can be taken away.
“Everything,” I say.
Cillian nods. He doesn’t push for more because he already knows. He was the one sitting outside my bedroom door when the worst of it happened.
“Tell her on Friday,” he says. “When you’re back at the cabin and all this shit is behind you. Just say it. Don’t rehearse it. Don’t plan it. Just open your mouth and let it come out naturally.”
“What if I screw it up?”
“What if?” He chuckles. “Oh, you will. Guaranteed. It’ll be weird and awkward, and she’ll probably make fun of you for it. But it’ll be the best thing you’ve ever done.”
I nod, my pulse kicking at the thought of actually saying the words that have been dancing on the tip of my tongue for days. “Okay. I’ll do it.”
“Is that an ‘okay, I’ll think about it’ or an ‘okay, that’s a fact’?” He waggles his eyebrows. “Because I know how much you love dealing in facts.”
“It’s a fact. Friday. At the cabin.” I suck in a breath. “That’s when I’ll do it.”
“Good.” He nods. “Now let’s go save the world so you can get back to your girl.”
We spend the rest of the drive locking down the final plan details. Last-minute stuff. Timing tweaks. A location change Lochlan wanted. Small details that only matter when you’re hours away from pulling the trigger on something this big.
By the time we pull through the gates at our family house, my brain is fully operational. The plan is solid. The operation is clean. Every variable is accounted for.
All except one. The one at the cabin.
I check my phone but there are no messages from Eva. I’m sure she’s fine. She’s probably checking the operation files right now, going through the latest details Cillian and I just ran through.
We walk through the front door and head to the kitchen.
“Loch is in the office with a bunch of blueprints spread out like a tablecloth. Staring at them gave me a headache, so I came in here for a sandwich.” Gavin nods at a plate while he cleans his gun on the kitchen counter, even though Ronan has told him a million times not to do.
“Tony left these. Too bad your lady isn’t here. I know how much she loves them.”
“Yeah, too bad your lady isn’t here.”
I flip around when Ronan’s voice grates against my ears. He stands in the doorway, his glacial expression chilling me.
“We need to talk,” he says.
My throat tightens. “The operation is on track. I can brief you in—”
“Not about the operation.” His eyes are stone. “About what happens after.”
Cillian gives Gavin a look and nods for him to leave. And on his way out, Cillian stops behind Ronan, makes a fist, and presses it to his chest.
Stay strong.
Squaring my shoulders, I fix my hardest stare on Ronan. “I told you on the phone. She stays.”
“And I told you this conversation wasn’t over.” He takes a step toward me. “She’s a convicted felon who knows the inside of three organizations. She’s a walking indictment. And your feelings for her are blinding you to what she represents.”
“She’s not a threat to this family,” I say through gritted teeth. “So stop fucking insinuating that.”
“I’m not insinuating anything,” he bites out.
“I’m stating a fact. You love facts, don’t you, Wolfe?
I’d think you of all people could understand that everyone is a threat to this family.
And knowing that is how we stay alive. We assume the worst and plan for it.
” His voice drops. “After Thursday, she’s out.
I don’t care how you do it. Relocate her, set her up somewhere, give her whatever she needs to start over.
But she needs to leave Boston. She can’t come back. ”
“And if I say no?” The blood bubbles in my veins, raging through my insides.
“Then I’ll handle it myself. And you won’t like how I handle it.”
My stomach freefalls into my sneakers, my heart right behind it. Because I know what those words mean coming from Ronan. They don’t mean relocation. They don’t mean a fresh start in a new city. They mean Eva disappears in a way that’s permanent and clean and never traces back to our family.
“Don’t threaten her,” I say. My voice is quiet. The dangerous kind of quiet.
“I’m not threatening anyone. I’m telling you the reality of our situation. She’s a risk. Risks get managed. You can manage it your way or I’ll manage it mine. But it gets managed one way or another.”
He walks into the office and closes the door.
I stand in the hallway, my hands balled into tight fists. Cillian is behind me. I can feel him there without turning around.
“You heard that,” I say.
“Every word.”
“He means it.”
“Yeah,” Cillian says in a low voice. His hand rests on my shoulder. “He does.”
I glare at the closed door. My brother just told me to remove the woman I love from my life, or he’ll do something worse.
And the thing twisting in my gut isn’t just the threat.
It’s the fact that I already built the safer version of exactly what Ronan is demanding.
A relocation plan. A new city. A timeline.
I built it at two in the morning because my brain wouldn’t stop running scenarios and I swore I would never execute it.
But it exists on my laptop. In a secure location that nobody can access. And even if they could, nobody would know what they’re even looking at.
Thank fuck it’s locked down. It’s buried behind encryption that would take anyone who doesn’t know me weeks to crack.
Anyone who doesn’t know me.
Christ.
I pull off my glasses and scrape a hand down the front of my face.
No. She won’t look. She has access to the operation files.
That’s what she’ll check. The timeline, the assignments, the strike plan.
Everything I set up for her on the surface.
Her goal is to monitor Sal and make sure he’s safe.
She has no reason to dig deeper. No reason to go looking for things I’ve hidden.
Except Eva always goes looking. That’s who she is. That’s what she does. She finds the things people think they’ve buried.
And she knows me better than anyone ever has.
My brain screams at me to call her right now, to tell her about Ronan and about the plan. To tell her why it exists and what it doesn’t mean. To finally tell her the words my brain can’t form and my mouth won’t say.
I slip the phone back in my pocket.
The operation needs to go off without a hitch first. We save Sal and dismantle Dmitri. Then I’ll battle Ronan and come clean with all of it.
That’s the sequence. That’s the order of operations. My brain needs a sequence or it can’t function.
But the one thing I can’t plan for is Eva being Eva.
And Eva always finds what you’re hiding.