Da steps to the side to reveal my mother. She’s on her feet, too, and there’s a thin piece of metal clutched in her bruised hand like a dagger.
They’d clearly been expecting someone else.
“Cillian,” Ma says in the same grateful sigh as my father. As though saying my name will help them process the reality that I’m standing before them.
“We’ll have to do the big family reunion another time,” I tell them wryly. “We gotta get out of here. I’m pretty sure we’re about to be outnumbered very soon.”
Da and Ma step out of their cell and into the waiting circle of the men I’ve brought along with me.
“Don Ronan,” a few murmur respectfully, while others nod in deference to him.
Even if it had been appropriate, Da would never have cracked a smile. But he does clasp a few shoulders as he walks past the men towards the entrance.
I notice he’s limping. Pretty fucking badly. There’s also a ton of dried blood on his clothes and skin.
Ma seems to be slightly better off, but there are still fresh bruises covering the length of her pale arms.
I grit my teeth and nod at the men to flank the two of them. “Get them into the jeep and drive them out of here,” I say. “I want all of you in there with them in case you’re intercepted on the way to the safehouse.”
“Safehouse?” Mark asks. “We’re not heading back to the mansion?”
“Too risky,” I tell him without bothering to explain the other reasons for the move. “Call Kian from the road. He’ll give you coordinates and meet you there.”
“Yes, Master Cillian.”
I suppress a smile at how instantaneously I have gone back to being second-in-command. As long as Da’s around, he is and will always be the don.
I don’t give a fuck. I’m not in this for the pomp and circumstance of it all.
It begs the question… what am I in this for then?
An explosion goes off not far from us. The ringing in my ears is the wakeup call I need. There’s no time to dawdle.
I get to the entrance in time to see Da vanish into the jeep.
“Get them out of here now!” I order.
“What about you?” Mark asks.
“Don’t worry about me. Fucking go!”
With a nod, he does as I commanded. They screech off into the night en route to the safehouse.
Following the plumes of smoke and dust kicked up by the exiting jeep, I reload my gun and run straight into the thick of the battle.