Page 97 of Riff

“Yeah, darlin’?”

“Thank you.”

“You have nothing to thank me for.”

“You’ve saved me twice now,” she said, her fingers tracing something against my chest that felt suspiciously like a heart.

“Would save you a thousand times if I needed to,” I told her, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head.

“Well, let’s just hope we can keep it at two,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.

“I think that’s a good idea,” I agreed.

“I don’t really even know what life will look like now that I don’t ever have to worry about him again,” she admitted.

“It can look however you want,” I told her.

“However we want,” she corrected.

“However we want,” I agreed, really looking forward to seeing what that might be.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Vienna - 3 weeks

“You know, when you dumpster dive, you’re supposed to actually do it inside the dumpster,” a male voice called, making me yelp and jerk, nearly knocking my head against said dumpster.

My heartbeat hammered against my ribcage and my hand went into my pocket, closing around the weapon Murphy had given me as I turned toward the alley to find a man standing there, his hands tucked into his pockets.

He was tall and fit with dirty blonde hair, classically handsome bone structure, and stormy blue eyes.

“Though, fair warning, we had a wild bachelor party last night. A lot of idiots who don’t know their limits. Let’s just say the bags are full of a lot of… shit you’d rather not get on your… very fashionable buffalo jacket.”

“Bison,” I corrected automatically, making his lips curve up, giving me an appealing, boyish grin.

“I stand corrected. So, Red, what are you doing in my dumpster?”

His dumpster.

This was the alley next to The Bog.

I hadn’t been to the town’s only bar yet. But the guys at the club talked fondly of it. As did Nyx and Delaney, who had both worked there for a time.

If this man owned the dumpster, and therefore The Bog, it was clearly one of the infamous Murphy Brothers.

I knew them only by reputation, mostly thanks to the stories Delaney, their baby sister, and Nyx, their former bartender, told.

There were, apparently, five of them. Cillian, Sean, Rian, Conor, and Eoin. Looks, apparently, were no way to tell them apart, since they were all so similar-looking, outside of subtle changes in eye colors or frames.

But I understood from the girls that Sean and Eoin were more on the quiet and standoffish side. Not, I figured, the kind to joke with a strange girl about dumpster diving.

And Cillian, as the leader of the family, was probably more likely to ask me what I was doing, not make a joke.

Conor was the one with the hot temper.

But Rian? Rian was the lighthearted one of the family. The one who was always up for a good time. And quick with a joke.

There was no fear in me, not even facing a strange man. Who also happened to be a member of the Irish mafia.

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