“I would never, Sheena, I promise.”
I can hear her intake of breath. “I know that now,” she says with a sniffle. “Thank God you’re okay. Thank God he’s with you.”
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard Sheena cry.
“Is there anything else that’s wrong?” I ask. She breaks into fresh tears, and a second later, Nolan gets on the phone.
“Hello, sweetheart. Nolan here.” I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Thank God you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” I tell him. “I’m right here with Lachlan.” Stark naked and coming down from an orgasm, I think. But fine.
He sighs. “Glad to hear it. We were worried, but Lachlan assured us he has you well taken care of.”
That he does.
“Sheena’s a bit under the weather,” he says.
“Nolan, what is it?”
He sighs again. “She lost the baby, lass.”
I close my eyes with a rush of sudden emotion, and my throat clogs. “No,” I whisper. “Oh, Nolan. I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks, sweetheart. She’ll be alright. In good health, just reeling from the loss is all. We’ll take good care of her. You let Lachlan take care of you. He’ll be sure to find whoever’s threatening you.”
“He will. And thank you.”
I hang up the phone and draw my knees to my chest. Lachlan holds me tighter.
“You okay?”
I shake my head.
“I want to go home.”Chapter 16LachlanI hold her as she cries, and I wonder what we’re even doing here. We belong back in Ballyhock, with the Clan, my brothers, our family. I want to put a ring on her finger and my baby in her. I want to end each night and begin each day with a kiss from her. I want more than my own two hands to protect her. I want the Clan fortress around her.
My phone rings, and I look at it a second time.
I answer on the second ring.
“Lachlan, Calum here. Need to speak to you.”
“Aye?”
“Think we’ve found some news.”
“Have you?”
“Yes, but it’s more complicated than we thought.”
I listen as he explains the lengths his men went to find what they have.
“Seems the betrayal and retaliation run deeper than we thought,” he says. “Fucking years. All the way back to when Seamus McCarthy took Maeve as his wife.”
“Christ. Are you serious?” I never thought for a minute that Maeve and Seamus, the McCarthy Clan matriarch and patriarch, would have had anything to do with a vendetta in Boston.
“Seems one of our rivals thinks he’s rightfully due a portion of the McCarthy Clan wealth.”
“What? That’s ridiculous.”
“Aye,” he says. “What do you know about Keenan’s wife?”
“Keenan’s wife? Caitlin?”
“Aye.”
“Not much,” I confess. “I know she was the lighthouse keeper’s daughter.” Then memory floods me and I’m on my feet, shaking my head. From the corner of my eye, I see Fiona covering herself with a sheet, her eyes distant and troubled. “But wait. He wasn’t her father, was he? Her father was from Boston.”
“Ah, then,” Calum says. “Her father was from Boston. She belongs to Keenan now that she’s wed him, but the ties to Boston are undeniable. The Irish lighthouse keeper raised her, but she wasn’t his kin, was she?”
I shake my head. “She wasn’t.”
“Her mother fucked Jay Byrne, one of our rivals. She took off when she found out she was pregnant, went back to Ireland, and had the baby. The bloke’s fucking off his nut,” Calum says. “Senile in his old age. He’s been trailing the McCarthys for fucking ages, has affiliations with the Martins and O’Gregors. Thinks because his daughter married McCarthy stock, the McCarthys have stolen from him.”
Christ. I have to talk to Keenan.
“And what does he plan to do about that?”
“No fucking idea, lad,” Calum says. “But I know this. You and Tiernan aren’t enough here. He’s got more on his payroll than you’ve bargained for.”
“Thank you,” I tell him, and hang up the phone. Christ. He’s right. This is far too big for me and Tiernan. I look at Fiona.
“We have to go home is right,” I tell her. “I’m sorry about your classes.”
“They’re shite,” she says, her chin jutting into the air. “Could do just as well at home.”
They’re not, but I know she’s brushing them off to justify returning home.
“Get dressed,” I tell her. “I need to talk to Tiernan, and we need to make arrangements. You sure you’re okay with leaving Aisling?”
“I’ve no choice, do I?” she says. She still won’t really meet my eyes, and I wonder what’s going on. I know she’s devastated by the news from home. Is there something else going on?
Tiernan messages me, and tells me to meet him in the lobby. We get ready to leave, packing up our things like nomads. God, I long to be home, back on the streets of Ballyhock. I want to be home again, and this time, I want her with me.