“We found her, so no need to check the lost and found,” I tell her as I take the exit lane to get off the highway.
“I also heard that you had a little housekeeping trouble,” Maeve says.
“Aye. That’s part of it.” I scratch the stubble on my chin, my thoughts drift.
“I’m listening.”
“There are some unknown players, and we could use some backup.” I need time to reevaluate the board again—too many variables and too many pieces. “Soon. Maybe a week or two?”
“What about Papa Smurf?”
Wolf huffs a laugh and Sully smirks. “Calling the Butcher Papa Smurf was cute when you were eight, but I don’t think you’ll get the same response now.”
Maeve’s laughter filters through the air. “Yeah, yeah. That old man loves me.” She pauses. “There’s just one hiccup I have to deal with here, and then we’ll be there.”
“You good?” Sully asks as he looks at the phone.
“Nothing I can’t handle, so don’t you worry your pretty face about it, Sully. Just have to get out of the arranged marriage my father approved this morning—the old fuck.”
Maeve delivers the news with such an easy tone that it takes me a moment to realize what she actually said. Before I can comment, she hangs up.
“Did she just say arranged marriage?” The disbelief in Sully’s tone matches my own.
I rub my jaw while I try to work out if this little hiccup of Maeve’s is going to impact us.
“At least Da didn’t do that to us,” Wolf grumbles.
“Aye. But that sneaky bastard hasn’t returned yet, so who the fuck knows. He could be bringing us home three little Irish birdies.” Sully sneers.
“Too bad we already have ourselves an Irish bird.” No one says anything for a while. We’re all content to sit in the silence as the dark, starry night eats up the dark-colored SUV.
Chapter Nine
Rush
Hours later, we’re pulling up to a resort. I see a water park behind the hotel lit up like it’s daytime and eyeball the crowds of people milling around. It must be a twenty-four-hour park. I follow Sully’s instructions and park us around the other side of the hotel—the one furthest away from the water park—and pull into a spot right in front of what we think is our room.
There’s a small balcony area with a sliding glass door facing the parking lot in every room, which is perfect. The less eyes we have on us, the better.
“Fancy meeting spot. We sure about this?” Wolf’s voice is low.
“And busy.”
“It was the only place remotely close to eighty miles west of the safe house. Do you really want her to get checked out in some black-light nightmare of a motel room?” I don’t miss the bite in Sully’s tone.
Neither of us say anything.
“Alright then. I’ll go get the key.” He gets out of the SUV and stretches his arms above his head.
I reach behind me to grab a zip-up black hoodie from the backseat and toss it to him. “Here.”
He nods and puts it on, effectively covering up his full sleeves of tattoos. I have a feeling that we’d stand out in this family crowd, and the idea is to fly under the radar—not give everyone a hundred recognizable features. If I trusted this doc, I’d’ve picked a different location and spared us this bullshit.
I look over my shoulder and see Alaina still out cold on Wolf’s lap.
“How is she?” I nod at her.
Wolf doesn’t lift his gaze from the sleeping girl on his lap. She’s been mostly out for the last few hours, and my throat constricts as worry crawls along my spine.
He doesn’t answer me right away. “I don’t want this to touch her ever again. Not like this, brother. Never like this,” he murmurs as he sweeps a piece of hair off her forehead. “So we need to vote.”
Wolf looks at me then, his gaze full of self-loathing and something else I’m not used to seeing in him—desperation. The emotion stills the words trying to come out of my mouth.
Everything inside me stops as thoughts swirl around too fast for me to grab them.
“Are you suggesting that we give her up?” I pause as I try to put into words the emotions battling inside me. I’ve experienced a lot of firsts in my life, but they’ve never been pure—not like she is. I look out the window and shake my head. “I can’t do that, Con. I won’t do it.”
He scoffs, no doubt the use of his childhood nickname grating on his nerves. “You’re a selfish asshole, Dec,” he spits, but there’s no real heat behind it.
I shrug, the movement at odds with the pounding of my heart, because I already know I’m a selfish asshole. I’ve never acted like I wasn’t.
But this is different. It’s less like I’m choosing her, more like I won’t let her go. And it might be the most selfish thing I’ve ever done. But still, I can’t stop myself from wanting to keep her.
But I have a fucking plan, goddamnit, and I’ll see it through. In the end, it’ll be the best thing for all of us, he’ll see.
They’ll all see.
We’re quiet for a moment as we wait for Sully to open the sliding glass door to our room, the soft sound of Alaina’s deep breaths the only noise in the car.
“I don’t think I could let her go either.” Wolf’s voice is low, and I know it has more to do with him wrestling his demons than waking her up. “And don’t think I forgot about your little bird caged in the city. There’s no way I’ll let you treat Red with that kind of disrespect. So, if you’re serious about your little proposal from before”—he waves a hand around in the air—“all this, then we’ll be having a chat soon.”
Anger pricks my skin at the acid in his voice. I cut him some slack on his inability to connect the dots—it’s been a long couple of days. I shift my gaze at the group of teenagers walking down the sidewalk, towels in hand. “And Sully?”
“Please,” he scoffs. “He’s not fooling anyone—except for maybe himself . . . and Red.”
A smirk tips the corner of my mouth, but before I can respond, the man himself appears in the doorway of the room in front of us.
“There he is. Let’s go—I’ll grab her,” I tell my brother as I turn off the car.
“Fuck off. I’ve got her. You just worry about getting the rest of our shit outta here,” Wolf says as he holds open the door with his foot and bundles her in his arms.
I look around and grab the handful of our things. I get out of the car and leave the keys in the middle console. We have a friend of a friend coming to swap cars for us as soon as I give him the all-clear. He’ll take this one and bring it to a local chop shop, and in its place will be another dark SUV.
I walk through the door to our room and close it behind me, pulling the shitty drape across it. Wolf laid Alaina on one of the two double beds, and one look at the bedspread has my lip curling.
“Are we sure that’s sanitary? You know they never wash the bedspreads, and our girl has who knows how many open wounds.” I cross my arms to stop them from fiddling with the stupid piece of fabric.