Page 59 of Forbidden Need

“Whisper said something about that today. She wondered if the girlfriend could be a mole.”

“ID the girlfriend and my guys will find out.”

“Thanks, baby.”

“Any virgin trigger-man will be nervous. We wait to see what Strat turns up and plan from there. No use pulling in my people with the cops watching.”

“Okay,” she said. “I just wanted to put it out there.”

“You at work?”

“Yeah,” she said and sighed. “It’ll take some time for things to go back to the way they were.”

“You’re a McDade now, Macushla. Things will never go back to the way they were.”

On that note, the line died. The past was gone, the future was all they had. What the hell was that going to look like?

TWENTY-THREE

HER APARTMENT WAS UNLOCKED.

Lachlan was in the kitchen when she went inside, her father at the dinner table.

“Whatever this is about…” she said, dumping her purse on the breakfast bar. “Which, by the way, I don’t need three guesses to figure out, I’m really not in the mood to be lectured.”

“Is anyone ever in the mood to be lectured?” Lachlan asked, retrieving a glass to pour wine from the open bottle.

“Whatever you’re gearing up to say, trust me, I’ve had the conversation in my own head. Any judgments you want to share I already heard today. I don’t think I went five minutes without someone stopping at my desk to chat or interrogate me.”

“And that doesn’t tell you something?” her father asked. “Being with him is insanity. Who knows the damage that’s already been done?”

“Already been done? Oh, I’ve told him all the family secrets, given him keys, alarm codes, everything. He’s raiding our family gold vault right now.”

Her father, Ronald, stood up, but it was Lachlan who spoke.

“Provoking each other won’t get us anywhere. Neither will being facetious.” Shame, and she did it so well. He planted both hands on the counter. “Have you thought about this? Considered that Ire might be using you?”

Despite her initial urge to respond with offense, she took a breath to calm herself.

“You admitted yourself that you don’t know him as anything other than his job. You don’t like his job—”

“His job is his life. He is the job.”

“Can you say any different?”

“I don’t go around torturing and killing people.”

“You don’t carry a gun every day?” she asked. “You don’t protect yourself?”

“I’m protecting the public.”

“Not for nothing, but Connel doesn’t carry a gun.”

“He doesn’t need to, his minions do.”

Minions? Nice one, Dad. She was unmoved.

“Dad,” Lachlan said, presumably reasoning that wasn’t helpful.

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