Page 17 of While You Sleep

As soon as he pulled up outside the house, I shoved the door open and ran up the front steps, throwing the front door open. More men spun my way, all armed.

Cillian walked in behind me. His phone was to his ear, his expression blank, cold, unreadable. “I’ll tell him,” he said to whoever he was on the phone with, then disconnected.

My father strode out of his office, and I wanted to run to him, to throw my arms around him, but he wasn’t the hugging type, no matter the circumstances. So, straightening my spine, I walked to his side.

“Brennan,” Cillian said to my father.

Dad eyed him coolly. “Thank you for bringing her to me safely.”

Cillian stood with his hands loose at his sides, but I knew how fast he could get to the gun under his jacket.

“What’s going on?” I asked my father, trying to keep the anger, the fear, from my voice. He didn’t like it when I questioned him, and he hated it even more if he thought I was being overly emotional. It made him angry.

“Best you talk to your daughter, Brennan. Tonight.”

What the hell was going on? “Dad?”

He was flustered, sweaty, and his furious gaze sliced to Dean…goddammit, Cillian. “Don’t tell me what to do with my own daughter.”

Cillian’s expression didn’t change, not in the slightest. “Seamus is moving things forward.”

My father bristled. “We had a deal.”

Cillian kept his frigid gaze on my father. “Things change. Maybe if you were better at protecting what’s yours, you wouldn’t be losing it.”

“Dad?” I said again as dread slithered through me. “What the hell is he talking about?”

He didn’t look at me. “My office, Sophia. Now.”

I knew that voice. When my father spoke in that tone, he was not to be disobeyed. I wanted to scream, to demand answers, to get the sight of Cillian stabbing a man in the throat and blowing holes through three others out of my head, but that wasn’t going to happen. Ever.

I followed my father into his office and shut the door behind us, then watched as he paced back and forth, fury written on his face. My stomach churned. “Dad?” I choked.

“I’m sorry, Sophia,” he said, and he was actually shaking. “I wouldn’t put you through this if I didn’t have to.”

“You’re scaring me.”

He cursed and slammed his fist down on the desk.

I jumped and wrapped my arms around myself.

Finally, he looked up at me, his gaze so filled with rage that I took a step back. “You’re not stupid. You know what we are.”

I nodded, my palms growing sweaty.

“We don’t follow the same rules…laws as other people. The Brennan family has influence in this city, and we earned it with blood and sweat. My father, your uncle, and now me, we will do whatever necessary to keep that influence, to maintain the power we’ve fought so hard for.”

“We’re criminals, you mean,” I said, my voice trembling.

His jaw tightened. “We’re entrepreneurs, businessmen, and we put our family ahead of everything and everyone. We play by our own rules, and because of that, the Brennans and the O’Rourkes, control half of Chicago.”

“Did you get Cillian to follow me?”

Thunder filled his gaze. “No, I didn’t, but it’s a good thing he did.” He shook his head. “Alto Leone made his move, he came after this family, and there’s no going back from that.”

This was bad, seriously bad. “What move?”

“He sent one of his men after you tonight.”

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