“I can help, but Finn, she’s right. You should stay here.”
Finn scowled at his wife, then at Conor. “I can help.”
“Yeah, you can,” Eoghan rumbled behind me. “Stay here and keep the women safe.”
Declan cut Finn a look. “That’s why I wanted you armed. You’re not coming with us.”
Wondering what had triggered this argument, I murmured, “Finn?”
He shot me a glare, and it was loaded with defiance. “What?”
“Aoife needs you, Jacob does too.” I smiled. “There are plenty of other moments where you can be GI Joe, but tonight isn’t one of them.”
Eoghan snorted. “You never were a foot soldier anyway.”
“I fucking was,” Finn grumbled, but the tension in his shoulders had leached out some.
“For what? Two months?” Declan chided, but he shot me a grateful look.
“Two years, pricks. You know Aidan’s going to be pissed about not being included too—”
“You old fucks can’t help out on the streets. Not with—” I got the feeling Eoghan was glaring at him because Declan cleared his throat. “Never mind. Eoghan, we need to get going.” He glanced at the guys with Amaryllis. “You coming with?”
“Of course.”
Amaryllis tensed, but I figured she knew that getting her men to stay behind wasn’t going to happen.
She surprised me by reaching onto tiptoes and kissing the elder of the guys with a passion that was definitely not fraternal. Before us all, she kissed the other kid too, the one with the keys, hence the name I guessed, and muttered, “You come back to me safe.”
“We’ll bring him home to you, Ama,” the youngest one whispered, even as the elder sandwiched her between the pair of them.
Surprised at the PDA and wondering what that actually felt like, my eyes widened. Eoghan caught my glance and laughed a little. As he ducked down to kiss me too, he whispered, “Don’t get any ideas,” and for the first time, I realized he was truly joking.
Jesus, how dangerous was tonight going to be if he could actually joke around?
I darted up on tiptoe too, and kissed him properly, before breathlessly whispering, “We need to finish what we started tonight,” as I pulled back.
His eyes darkened, the pupils turning to pinpricks. His growl was deep and heavy, enough to rumble through my body like an earthquake.
“You got it,” he rasped, before he turned abruptly away.
His arms were bunched as he pressed the button to the elevators, and as they opened, he walked in. Our eyes remained linked as Declan and Conor followed him, with Ama’s two men at their sides.
I only let go of the link when the doors shut, and Finn, Aoife, Amaryllis, Aela, and I were left alone in an uncomfortable silence.
Aela cleared her throat, and I twisted to see she’d moved behind me, and as she shot out her hand, I realized she wanted to shake mine.
“Declan was being a prick, as usual. But I’m Aela O’Neill.”
I blinked at her. “Pleasure.”
Her head tilted to the side. “You love him?”
My heart thumped in my chest. “Well, I mean, I think so.”
Her lips pursed. “I’d warn you off him, but Eoghan’s one of the best. He always did have a good heart.”
“You’ve known him a long time?”