Page 128 of Vengeful Vows

Now thirty and I can barely see his face, but I can hear his voice loud and clear. “You’ll always be a Murphy snake.”

“Wait!” I cry out as he starts to disappear, but then he’s gone, and all I can feel is the tears on my face.

I wake up with a start, and Lara rolls over, still sleeping.

My heart beats out of my chest.

Are Lara and Patrick right?

Or is my dream a prophecy of sorts?

30

DECLAN

I wake up hungover and more pissed off than ever, and I head out of the house immediately, not waiting for Gray. He catches up to me in the driveway, though, looking exasperated.

“You can’t just go off by yourself,” he says. “Not after what happened.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I mutter.

I don’t much care if I live or die at this point. Maybe that’s dramatic, but Cillian was right—I have big feelings.

It’s annoying, especially for a guy who tries to fight those feelings. I’ve been fighting my feelings for Bree for weeks now, and I’m tired. Tired of being angry at her. Tired of feeling hurt. And all the whiskey I poured down my throat last night didn’t help matters.

I grunt to Gray, and he rolls his eyes and gets into the passenger side of my car. We take off, and I can’t even appreciate opening the car up on the highway, driving it as James Dean must have.

I used to love this car, used to love the adrenaline of going a hundred miles an hour, but now, I can’t muster up any feeling but irritation and, deep down, hurt.

It’s not so much that Bree sent her father a message. It’s that she did so without me knowing. Sneaky, behind my back.

“Are you going to talk or just grunt at me this whole time?”

I grunt at him.

Gray raises an eyebrow. “What was that?"

“I said I don’t want to talk.”

“That much is clear."

“Well, then shut up."

We have a full day today, including visiting Paige at her new home to see how she is adjusting after moving out a couple of days ago. Dad gave both me and Gray keys to her place. It was either that and a man stationed outside her house twenty-four-seven or she would not be allowed to move out.

She was not happy.

I’m glad we are keeping busy today. I need to have my mind away from Bree and all this fucking hurt I can’t seem to shake off. This need to still be with her all the time, even after she confessed she betrayed me.

I hate being this weak.

We arrive at the first warehouse to drop off money and grab our guns.

Gray huffs out a breath and gets out of the car, taking a crowbar to the first of the crates while I back the car up to put the guns in the trunk. It’s not many this time, just some handguns and a few kilos of dust. Usually, we bring a truck to big shipments, but right now, we’re running small.

Mostly because of Murphy.

She’d told him what day we’d be out of the house, and though she had no idea where we would be, that nugget of information had still nearly gotten me killed. It pisses me off all over again just to think about it.

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