Page 27 of Cruel Devil

Liam’s eyes darken. “A lot’s changed since then, Nyx. Sullivan’s not a small fry anymore. He reports directly to the boss now. We’re nowhere near the same level as him.”

“Duh, since I’m not in the mob,” I tell him, and quite politely in the fucking circumstances.

“Jesus, Nyx.” Savage huffs out another laugh, squeezing the bridge of his nose as he shakes his head. “You were born into the fucking mob.”

“You really think your dad ‘went off to war’ when you were a kid?” Liam drops the air quotes he’d been making and shakes his head. “Yeah, sure, I guess it was a war. A war between the mob and the cartels. Only a few made it out alive. Your dad wasn’t one of them.”

“Jesus Christ,” Savage mutters as he swipes his hands over his face.

Liam glances at my husband, and feels compelled to carry on speaking. Maybe my friend wishes me dead after all the shit I’ve caused between him and Patrick, who knows? Or maybe, after all these years, it feels cathartic as hell to finally spill the Brennan’s secrets.

“Our fathers were good friends,” he tells Savage. “But her mom wanted nothing to do with the mob. She kept Nyx and the girls out of it as much as she could. At least, that’s what Dad always said.”

“Our dads were friends?” I’ve fallen several chapters behind in this book club, and if someone doesn’t give me the cliff notes, there’s no way I’m taking part in the Q&A.

“Sure, I guess.” Liam shrugs at me. “He came over to the boxing club every now and then. Your mom once or twice too. But I never even knew about you or your sisters until my dad told me to keep tabs on you.”

My brain feels fuzzy. I’m exhausted, and it shows in my sagging body as I try to keep my head propped up with my hands, elbows on my knees.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

He toys with his beer, and then finishes it off before answering. “Dad swore me to secrecy. But since he’s probably dead, I guess all bets are off.”

There’s a beat of awful, chilling silence before Savage says, “Why would you think that?”

“Because he told me he found Donny, that he was going to speak to him. And that was over twenty four hours ago.” Liam looks away, blinking rapidly as he downs a quarter of his beer. “His phone’s been off since last night. I went around his place this morning, but he’s not there.” His voice lowers, barely audible. “He’d have called by now. He’d have called, or come over, or…”

I’ve never seen such raw emotion on my friend’s face. I want to go up to him, hug him maybe, but I don’t dare move. I can literally feel waves of anger strobing off Savage like heat from the tarmac on a summer’s day.

So I pepper him with questions instead. “How’d he find him? Did Donny contact him? Did he tell you where Donny was? If he was going to see him? Did he say anything at all?”

“You think I’d still fucking be here if I knew the answers to any of those questions?” he says roughly, earning a low, angry sound from Savage’s tattooed throat. “No one tells me shit. I just do what they say.”

He watches me from the corner of his eyes as he takes another swig of beer.

My brain works overtime as I struggle to shove a square peg in a triangular hole. I keep shaking my head, rattling loose more thoughts that don’t fit anywhere.

Finally something clicks into place.

“O’Brien took my sisters…didn’t he?”

Liam shrugs. “Maybe.”

Savage lays his hand over mine. It’s so warm, so rough, so big. He squeezes me, but he’s looking at Liam. “Tell us where he is.”

Liam frowns, and then starts to laugh. “You’re joking, right?”

Savage unfolds from the sofa, a tower of iron determination. “Where is he?”

“Even if I knew where he was, which I don’t—because no one does—O’Brien is fucking untouchable. It’ll take a small army to reach him.”

Savage tsks. “Pity. I don’t have an army to spare right now.” He grasps the back of my neck as I peer up at him. “I guess the entire Domingo cartel will just have to do instead.”

His fingers grip tighter, a hard touch that promises two things.

Retribution for Sullivan taking my sisters.

And punishment for me hiding my past from him.

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