Chapter Twenty
Finn
The secondI heard the gunshots outside, I grabbed the gun from the dresser where I’d dumped it earlier, toed into some shoes, and took off at a run.
About to cross the threshold, I growled at Aoife, “Can you make it to the safe room?”
She flinched at my question. “The safe room?”
I tried not to lose my patience, tried to keep my cool, but it was hard when there were shots being fired outside and every instinct was telling me to get out there.
“Yes. Remember, baby?”
I saw the daze in her eyes and wondered if the gunshots had spooked her or if it was the meds going to work. I felt like a shit for hoping it was the latter, but I couldn’t blame her if the shots had freaked her out. I was used to the noise, well accustomed to it after years of dealing with this kind of violence, but after our wedding, the sound of rapid firing took me back to what happenedafterwe’d wed.
It was a ridiculous time for the thought to occur to me but, at some point, we were going to get married again. There was no way in fuck that my wife’s sole memory of tying her life with mine was going to be that one.
I strode forward, knowing she was back there, remembering that moment. I felt the distance between us, even though she was barely feet away, tucked up in bed. It wasn’t a physical separation, more like a hazy one that was forged from her being plunged to another time, another place.
The shots had slowed down, but I needed to know what the hell was going on outside.
Someone had obviously tried to breach the compound, and I needed to know if they’d succeeded.
As the most senior member of the Five Points here at the compound, men would be looking to me for answers, and yet, she was my priority.
There was no way I could leave her to make her way to the safe room. She could barely walk a few paces to the bathroom without clinging to furniture on the way—and even then, watching her was agonizing because I wanted to help her. Her stubborn ass refused, though.
But no amount of obstinacy would get her to the basement. She just didn’t have the strength to go so far on her own.
I needed to be in two places at once, and then, like that, I realized something. If, like most of the men, I had left my wife here to be safe, I wouldn’t be here.I wasn’t supposed to be here.The guards would have had to do what they were trained to do in these situations.
I had to have faith in Eoghan’s strategies, and he rarely, if ever, let us down. The man had a brain for that shit. If he hadn’t had a future with the Five Points after the army, he’d definitely have been suited for the security industry.
Realizing she was staring at the gun in my hand, I dumped it back in the dresser and reached for my cell instead.
There’d been no more shots for another minute, minimum, so I called the head guard, Liam. When he picked up, I knew he didn’t want to be bothered with my ass but he had no choice. I was his superior and I wanted answers.
“What happened out there?” It was harder than I realized to keep my tone level, and the only reason I did was because I moved toward the bed and took a seat at her side. When she practically threw herself into my arms, I marveled at how she trusted me. Trustedme,when I was the one who’d brought her into this danger.
My stomach felt like it was twisted in knots as I pressed my face into her hair.
“Three fuckers thought they could get over the east wall.”
“Details. Who?”
“Colombians.”
“Did they infiltrate?”
Liam clucked his tongue. “Didn’t you hear the shots?” The gunfire had been ours. Thank fuck. “They’re already on their way to the slaughterhouse.”
I grunted at the news—Aidan, rightly so, had to be furious to have them sent there. They’d rue the day they stepped a hundred feet near our compound. Well, they’d rue until they never met the next day.
Aidan would not be kind. Not when Lena was at the compound.
“Good. So it’s safe?”
“Always was. They didn’t have a chance. Idiots.” He grumbled under his breath. “What the hell were they thinking? Surely they knew we’d have this place secured?”