Then, I just happened to catch a glimpse of the BMW.
It was black. Dark.
And in the shadows.
There weren’t many on this street because there were a lot of streetlamps, but he’d parked kind of catty-corner, in a way that made him difficult to see from a certain angle.
Our angle.
I cut Seamus a look, then rasped, “Give me the gun, baby.”
He shook his head, but his hands were shaking. “No,” he squeaked. “I have to keep us safe.”
Reaching over, I pressed a hand to his shoulder and murmured, “You know how good a shot I am. I’ll protect us.”
His shoulders quaked, and I could feel his fear from over here. It tinged the air with pungent teenage sweat, and it made me want to hug him, wrap him in my arms, and tell him that I’d protect him until kingdom come, that he never needed to worry.
But there was definitely somebody watching us.
Somebody that wasn’t affiliated with the Points, because I knew how the Points worked.
Outside our door, they were in a massive SUV. If Eoghan had asked for a detail to follow that SUV, it would have been a matching tank, not a sleek sedan that wasn’t even pointed in our direction. That was hiding in plain sight.
The Five Points were blunt objects. Hammers, not scalpels.
I could feel sweat trickle down my brow as I accepted that, somehow, somewhere, we’d become involved in something we had nothing to do with.
Cupping Seamus’s shoulder tighter, I implored, “Please, sweetheart, give me the gun.”
“I saw him leave the car,” he whispered, his hands shaking around the weapon. “He was heading for the SUV.”
Something in his voice had me staring at him. “What did you see?”
He gulped. “Someone was shot.” His mouth worked as he twisted to look at me. “The man who came to the door, I-I think he’s dead.”
I gritted my teeth and tried not to panic.
But who the hell was I kidding?
Fuck!
I reached up and tried to think what the fuck I should do. Then my cellphone buzzed, making both of us jump. It wasn’t so much of an issue for me, but with my trigger-happy son at my side, it rattled us both when he knocked the muzzle into the windowpane.
Thankfully, it was quiet enough for it not to have caused an issue, but I whispered, “Be careful, Seamus.”
He nodded. “Sorry.” I could see the fuzz on his top lip, where he was starting to get a bit of a mustache, was beginning to gleam with sweat.
I reached for my cell and peered at the screen as I tried to cover it so the gleam didn’t reflect in the window. Because I couldn’t see who was calling, I just hit the green button and raised it to my ear. “Hello?” I whispered, half terrified it would be whoever had just killed our guards.
“Aela? It’s Brennan—”
“Brennan! Thank fuck! Someone shot our guards.”
Silence fell on the line, but it barely lasted fifteen seconds before he growled, “Stay on the phone. I’m going to get the cops over there.”
The cops?
My eyes flared wide. “You’re calling the cops?” Was this a parallel universe?
“Of course,” he rumbled, but though he sounded furious, he also sounded calm. Like this was just another day at the office for him, which, of course, it was.
I gulped.
What had I done? Bringing Seamus into this world? I was the one who needed shooting.
Turning my back on the window for a second, I pushed my spine into the wall as I closed my eyes, trying not to think about the clusterfuck going down around me.
Then, realizing it was stupid to leave my son watching over the scene, I twisted around and carried on scanning the front yard.
I didn’t see anyone, and peering into the car didn’t give me much hope either. So I put the phone on speaker, turned the sound down so it was barely audible, and focused on the street.
“They were both killed?”
Seamus squeaked out, “There were three men in the SUV.”
“Three?” Brennan rasped, but his voice was different, tempered.
He knew who he was talking to.
“Yes. Three,” Seamus confirmed, and it was stupid, but I was proud that he sounded so sure of himself. Sure, he was squeaking, but that didn’t matter, did it?
“Seamus?”
“Yes. I’m Seamus,” he replied.
“I’m your Uncle Brennan. I promise, when this is all over, it won’t happen again.”
Seamus was quiet for only a second before he whispered, “Why is it happening at all?”
A sigh sounded down the line. “I don’t know, but I promise you I’ll find out. Now, you said there were three men in the SUV?”
“This afternoon I was doing yard work, and I saw this strange car down the road. No one drives BMWs around here—”
I winced because while it was true, it made it sound like we were living in a ghetto. This was one of the priciest neighborhoods in the area, but it was liberal to its core. Everyone drove Teslas and hybrid vehicles, for God’s sake.
“So I watched because I heard the rumble of the engine.”
My brow puckered at his attention to detail, which rarely came into use when he was forgetting to do things like pick up the laundry in his room or when I asked him to not leave dirty dishes in the sink.
Kids.
Heaving a sigh and deciding this was not the time to wonder why my son had the wherewithal to notice details in a crisis but was incapable of focus on a regular basis, I tuned back into the conversation, grateful he’d noticed anything at all.
“It pulled up into a position that I also considered odd, because it was parked on the Mandelson’s drive, and they’re on vacation, and I’ve been keeping my eye on it ever since. When I was packing up, I happened to see someone get out of that car, walk over to the SUV Mom said belonged to—well, you—”
“And you as well, Seamus. You’re an O’Donnelly now.”
Was now really the moment to throw that in there?
I didn’t say a word, but my irritation flared.
“I’m an O’Neill,” Seamus corrected, his own anger stunning me, as well as the vehemence in his voice.
Maybe it took Brennan aback too, because he didn’t get mad, didn’t even say a word. Just let Seamus continue.
“There was a shot fired, I heard it, then the guy who rode with us got out of the SUV and walked back with the shooter. Rogan, I think that’s his name… he didn’t get out. I think, I mean, well… that has to mean he’s dead, right?”
My brows rose at that, and I felt a little winded. “Seamus, you need to think very carefully about what you just said there,” I murmured. “You mean to tell me that one of the Five Points’ men got out of the vehicle and went over to the other car?”
“Kind of. They didn’t go back to the car on the Mandelson’s drive. They disappeared.”
All my ideals about the Five Points came crashing down around me, because as far as I knew, traitors weren’t exactly cosseted with gems and riches. You fucked with the O’Donnellys and they more than fucked with you.
“You have a traitor in your midst, and you brought them with us,” I growled, fury and terror whittling down my voice until I was almost whispering in my outrage.