For a second, things seemed to slow down. My heartbeat seemed to settle into a quieter rhythm, and I realized that I, too, was happy.
Bone deep content.
A breath shuddered from me at the realization, and I had to ask myself how long it had been since I’d felt like this.
Conor could accuse me of being pussy-whipped all he wanted, but I’d take it for this feeling.
Shit, it was better than that weed I’d smoked as a kid.
I licked at a crumb that had fallen on my bottom lip, then reached for my cup and swilled down some coffee.
The feeling of contentment swirled inside me to the point where I didn’t actually know what to do with myself. It felt so alien to be happy.
Of course, it couldn’t last. I didn’t even have to think that before the buzzer to the penthouse sounded.
I frowned because I rarely had guests, and the minute the buzzer sounded, I heard the bell that meant the elevator to the penthouse had been activated. Seconds after that, my cell rang.
Each wave of activity came within a second of the other, and I grabbed my cell, aware Aoife was watching me.
Spying Eoghan’s caller ID, I picked it up and demanded, “Tell me you’re the fuckers barging into my penthouse?”
“Yeah. We’ve a man down.”
My nostrils flared. “Since when was this the fucking ER?”
“Don’t be a dick. He was shot. It was clean. Went straight through. I just need to sew him up, and I need somewhere clean to do it.”
I gritted my teeth, hating that, just as my thoughts had been settled, just as peace had stirred within me, chaos was crossing my threshold.
Though it would always have irked me to be disturbed, what pissed me off was the fact Aoife was going to see this.
She wouldn’t stay in the kitchen if I asked her to. And maybe that should have pissed me off even more, but it didn’t.
She wasn’t a dog. She couldn’t be leashed in her own goddamn home.
“Fine,” I bit off, and climbing off the counter seat, I padded out of the kitchen down to the doorway. I was fully aware that Aoife was watching me, that she crossed the kitchen to follow me to the hall.
She didn’t move closer, though, just stayed there. Witnessing the sorry shit that came with being a Five Points’ man. Even one as high up in the ranks as I was.
That was the Family for you.
No matter how high you soared, they’d always bring you down a peg or two, and keep your feet fixed firmly on the ground.
When I saw the injured man, I grimaced. “You should have said it was Donny.”
Eoghan snorted. “Would that have had you greeting us with hot tea and cake?”
I flipped him the bird. “Don’t be a cunt.”
“But I play the part so well,” he mocked.
Donny sent me a ragged smile—his teeth were coated in blood. “Sorry about this, Finn. I might stain your carpet.”
While Eoghan chuckled, I shook my head. “It’s been a while since you were last here, Donny. I had the carpet taken out. You fuckers kept leaking on it.”
I liked Donny. He was good people. Truth was, I’d been intent on having him as Aoife’s guard, but I knew he’d been assigned to the whole shit-storm that was brewing with the Colombians.
We had an unusual hierarchy.