Oh my God.
I knew what he was going to say before he continued, but it didn’t make it any less difficult hearing it.
“Dare has the four horizontal lines.”
“You’ve worked together for so long, have kept me afraid of them, and this entire time you, Aric, and Beck had pieces that made up the Borello’s symbol tattooed on you?”
“It was how we communicated so Mickey wouldn’t know. It’s who we are.”
I jerked back, my eyes widening with shock and disbelief. “You’re a Borello? When—”
“No,” he said quickly. “The Borello family was originally part of another gang way up north. There was a rebellion within the gang. Three families were involved and they used symbols to communicate. The Borello brothers were the only ones who made it out alive.”
“You’re rebels,” I whispered, stunned. I nodded absentmindedly, then shook my head. “I just—I can’t wrap my head around this. I thought you were going to kill Bailey for saying something stupid to me, so I can’t understand why you of all people would continue to work with Dare when you know he wants to kill me. I can’t understand why you would continue working with him when members of his family snuck into my room, killed Aric, and tried to take me.”
One of Kieran’s eyebrows ticked up. “He didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Johnny’s cousin killed Aric. Dare and Johnny were the other two in your room that night.”
“One of the other rooms?” a harsh, masculine voice asked from across my room, the hushed whisper floating over to me on the breeze.
“No,” another deep voice responded. “He said it was in here somewhere.”
Oh God. I’d woken to a steady thrum dancing along my skin.
It suddenly felt difficult to pull in air.
“You knew?” I asked through the tightness in my chest and throat. “You knew and you still—he was working with both of you and he—”
“You weren’t supposed to be there,” Kieran reminded me as he gently led me to sit on the bed. “Johnny’s cousin wasn’t supposed to be there, and he got trigger happy. Dare and Johnny were supposed to be in and out, but they couldn’t find what they were looking for because you were in the room and they couldn’t use lights.”
My head snapped up. “What were they looking for?”
“Aric’s notes. Everything we’d been gathering on Mickey. Whenever he finished with them he stashed them in your room because Mickey had guys checking on him.”
“In the baseboard,” I whispered.
Kieran’s head cocked to the side, his eyes narrowing in confusion. “How’d—”
“I
searched my room, trying to find why they were there. I found the baseboard, but it was empty.”
“I got them out after everything happened. We’ve added on over the years, but Dare keeps them so Mickey can’t find them.”
The piece of the nightmare that had been haunting me . . . all this time, Dare had been holding it.
Despite Kieran’s insistence it was his fault for not being there sooner, or that it was Mickey’s for keeping him away, I’d blamed and hated the Borellos for Aric’s death for four years.
It was odd knowing the person I had hated was now the man I loved.
It was saddening.
And yet, I still wanted his arms around me to make this go away.
“You ask how I can work with him after what’s happened. How can you want to be with someone who wants to kill you, Lily?” Kieran asked, his blank expression unable to hide the pain in his eyes.