Eight
Aela
After Declan’scall in the early hours of the morning, where he’d laid down the law, it wasn’t a surprise to open the door and find Conor and Brennan there. But welcoming them in felt odd.
Like I was conceding defeat on a battle that had yet to be fought.
Of course, I had enough battles going down around me, so I needed to pick which ones to fight.
My house was a crime scene. There was yellow tape around it, and my bedroom was being processed by forensics, so I’d grabbed all the stuff Seamus and I had been packing with the intention of taking it to New York with us, and had checked us into a hotel instead.
How they’d known about it when I’d specifically gone to a different hotel than the one Declan had named—
Of course.
Conor.
I scowled at him. “Have you hacked into my bank account?”
Even when I was a kid, Declan had regaled me with tales of all the crap Conor pulled with his hacks. I knew, once, he’d almost gotten into NASA, because he was on the hunt for information about Area 51, but before he could get to the good stuff, he’d nearly been caught.
When Aidan Sr. had found out, unlike any other parent in the world, he hadn’t chastised Conor. Instead, he’d given him a to-do list of government databases to break into.
I sighed at the thought, inwardly wincing at the bad influences I was introducing into my son’s life, but there was nothing to be done about it.
Nothing at all.
I knew I could fight. I knew I could run.
But you couldn’t fight the O’Donnellys. And once they knew about you, there was no running either.
Not if I didn’t want to die. And I really didn’t.
Death was the last thing I wanted, because I totally intended on watching my son grow up and becoming a man. On becoming the person he wanted to be.
I knew what the O’Donnellys were capable of. I knew they were bloodthirsty psychopaths, and I knew they’d come after me with every ounce of their firepower just because of Seamus. So I could fight and almost die, and lose out on a future with him, or I could give in, stay on the inside, make sure I was there for Seamus, and ensure that I had his back to give him some semblance of normalcy.
Maybe I should resent all of this, and I guessed I did—I was only human. But, I’d known this day was coming the second I’d taken off. It had always been there in my future. A kind of D-Day that, with each passing year, hovered in the distance, looming over me like a harbinger of doom.
You couldn’t resent the inevitable.
“Of course I did,” Conor said, shoving past me to head straight into my hotel room.
Brennan grimaced at me, and muttered, “Conor, you’re supposed to ask if you’re allowed inside—”
“I’m hungry, and I need a bathroom,” Conor grumbled. “I’m not asking for shit.”
I rolled my eyes. “Bathroom’s on the left,” I told him as he moved around the room, evidently scoping the place out.
When he headed for the door I pointed to, a grin of thanks on his face, I moved back to let Brennan inside. He cleared his throat, peered around, cast a look at the unmade bed before making sure that he didn’t look me up and down, and stared me straight in the eyes.
He was cute, I’d admit it. Cute in a ‘killer’ kind of way. I was under no illusion that was what he was, after all.
But my lady boners were all for Declan. Unfortunately for me. Because Brennan didn’t look at me like he hated me, and that was so nice. Damn, nice was an understatement.
Of course, Conor hadn’t looked like he hated me either.
I frowned at that. Frowned at the lack of disapproval that was coming off them in waves.