Page 54 of False Heir

I trailed Kieran out of the hideaway townhouse, our footsteps a synchronized echo against the Boston concrete. The chill of late morning bit at my skin as we approached his matte black car.

“Kieran,” I began, breaking our silence. “Seriously. How’s Liam holding up?”

He slid on his shades, casting me a look that cut deeper than words. “You know I wouldn’t know, Tristan. I came back with you, not him.”

“Right.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the weight of my choices. “I should’ve been there for him instead. One of us should have.”

“Maybe,” Kieran replied, his voice low and even, “but one of the Callahans definitely needed looking after.” His eyes didn’t meet mine, but the message was clear. He was talking about me.

“I was fine.”

“Liam hadn’t just shot his best friend,” he said. “You needed the company more than he did.”

I leaned against the cold metal of his car, the reality settling into my bones like winter. My finger traced the spot where a bullet once left its mark. Guilt clawed at me from the inside out.

“Let’s go grab something to eat,” Kieran suggested, unlocking the car. “You look like hell.”

“Thanks,” I murmured, though I knew well enough he wasn’t wrong.

The late morning sun was too bright, the bustle of Boston an unwelcome cacophony as Kieran and I stood beside his sleek black car parked outside the hideaway townhouse.

“Tristan,” Kieran said quietly, and I turned to face him. There was something in that single word, the way he said my name, that told me he understood more than I’d given him credit for.

His hand came to rest on my shoulder, grip firm, grounding. It didn’t need words, that touch. It spoke of shared blood, shared pain. “We did what we had to do,” he remarked, his tone holding the edge of steel we were both forged with. “Killian forced our hand.”

The guilt was like acid in my veins, but Kieran’s acknowledgment was a balm I hadn’t known I needed. We both knew the cost of betrayal, the price of survival in this cutthroat world we were born into. It was a brutal truth that bound us together.

“Right,” I managed, the word rough in my throat. His hand squeezed once before letting go, and I found myself missing the contact more than I should.

“Hey, look at me,” Kieran pressed, and I did, finding his gaze unyielding. “We share this burden, you’re not—“

“Stop.” I held up a hand, not wanting platitudes or reassurances. They rang hollow against the backdrop of our reality. “Just...don’t.”

He nodded, understanding the silent plea, and we fell into a momentary hush, the sounds of the city wrapping around us.

It was Liam’s face that haunted me, though. Younger, less marred by the shadows that clung to Kieran and me. “What about Liam?” I asked, the concern for our brother gnawing at me. “How’s he going to carry this?”

“The boy’s tougher than you think,” Kieran replied, but there was a flicker of doubt in his eyes. A crack in his composed facade that mirrored my own fears.

“Seeing someone die like that...” My voice trailed off, the images seared into my memory stirred up fresh waves of apprehension. I could only imagine how it clawed at Liam’s conscience, how it might be warping the light in him to something darker, something more akin to ours.

“It won’t be his last time,” Kieran said. “For all we know, it wasn’t his first time.”

I looked back into my brother’s eyes. “That’s fucked. You know that’s fucked, right?”

“We’ll watch out for him,” Kieran assured me, but the promise felt brittle in the face of the unknown.

“Yeah,” I agreed, because what else could we do? Our lives were tangled in loyalty and blood, for better or worse.

“Come on,” Kieran said, opening the car door. “Let’s get some food in you before you keel over.”

“Charming as ever,” I shot back, but followed suit, sliding into the passenger seat. As we pulled away from the curb, the rearview mirror caught my reflection. God, Kieran was right. I looked like shit.

But it didn’t matter. Not right then.

I might not have been able to protect myself, but at least I could try to protect Liam. Whatever it took.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Adriana

---