For the first time in my life, I’m livin’ up to the dark side of the nickname Ma gave me.
“You don’t realise it. You’re too fuckin’ focused on yer plan for revenge to see the bigger picture here, Monster,” she tells me, but I’m still not sure what the feck she’s talkin’ about. “
“What bigger picture? My folks are dead because of ye.”
“It’s not about you, and it’s not about your folks. It’s about the Royal Bastards. He won’t hurt Miren, and if she’s with you, you’re probably safe. But I’ll tell you somethin’ for nothin’—those girls at your club, watch out because a snake is beautiful to some and lethal to others,” Sinéad tells me before an explosion is set off outside, and I forget about the woman before me and rush out to the one who’s stolen my feckin’ heart.
The two guards who arrived with Sinéad are dead. My two men are on the ground, but they’re alive. The explosion was from the small plane Sinéad arrived in. Thankfully, Miren was beside the hangar when it went off.
Racer nears me, with Miren following close behind. “What the feck happened?” I ask.
My boyo shrugs. “Don’t know. One of the guards had a phone ringin’ incessantly. We moved away from him because it was annoyin’ us, and then suddenly, there’s a feckin’ explosion in the front of the plane. I didn’t see anyone inside, and nobody walked out, so it must have been done before her flight took off.”
We head back into the hangar. I’m tense, my shoulders are hunched, and my hands are fisted. The need for violence is coursin’ through me. I want to kill someone. The woman who’s bound to the chair in front of me is the only person who can give me answers. The bomb would have killed her if they were still in the air. She must have known about it.
Sinéad stares at me before she smiles as I near her, and she says, “I would recommend you go home because the shite is about to hit the fan.”
Miren gasps at her mother’s accent. It’s probably the first time she’s ever heard it. “How…?”
Sinéad looks at her daughter. “I had such high hopes for you,” she tells her. Sirens in the distance alert me that we need to go. When we planned our trip to intercept Sinéad, I called our contact at Scotland Yard. No doubt MI5 will be on their way too. “Your father would have killed you the moment you were born had he known about the will. But now it’s done. You’re free. I did all this for you.”
“Free from what?” Miren asks as confusion creases her brow.
“An heir to a throne is only in line if another isn’t stepping up to take the lead.” Her words make no sense. Miren is her only daughter. There’s no son, we looked into both Sinéad and Patrick.
“I should kill ye fer spoutin’ yer shite,” I tell her as I look down at the woman who destroyed my life. “But rottin’ in prison is just as grand. Ye’ll never get out. Life in there will ensure ye pay, day in and day out. And as you get older, and the shitehole you’re goin’ ta makes you want to kill yerself, I hope you can’t. I hope that you live to yer last breath, and the guilt eats away at ye until you can’t think straight.”
“Miren,” she calls, ignoring me. But the flinch I noticed on her face as I spoke confirms she heard every word. “I hope that your life is free and happy now. You’ll thank me when you learn the truth. I did it all for you. Patrick will never come for you again.”
“Who is he going after?” Miren is in her mother’s face, leaning in as they glare at each other. “Tell me.”
“You’ll see.”
“Lies right up until the end. Goodbye,” Miren tells her as the cars pull up.
I’m sure they’ve brought the whole feckin’ force as they rush into the hangar. Jones, our contact at the Yard, offers me a nod, and I take Miren, and we leave. I still need to find Patrick.
But for now, it’s time to go home.
TWENTY-ONE
MIREN
When the plane lands,Monster’s phone starts beeping wildly. He pulls it from his pocket and taps at the screen. Rebel, Racer, and I walk on, but Monster stops, and it’s only when he doesn’t reply to Rebel do we notice he’s behind us.
“Fuck,” he curses as he looks up at us. “That’s why Sinéad flew back to London. She knew we’d come to intercept her flight. It was all a set-up.”
His fingers tighten around his phone until his knuckles turn white. I’m sure he’s about to snap the phone in half.
“What are you talking about, boyo?” Rebel questions, as confused as the rest of us.
“Patrick tried to get into the compound. He’s in Belfast. And he’s after the club.”
There’s no time to delay. We make our way out of the airport to find Sully waiting. A breath of relief escapes my lips when I see him. I don’t know if the others are safe, but so far, all we can do is hope.
The moment we’re in the van, Sully takes off. “There was an attack on the clubhouse. Everyone is alive, but the place is a mess. I think there’s more to it than just Patrick trying his luck on our home, though.”
“What makes you say that?” Monster questions.