Page 52 of Líadan's Code

“We’ll make sure it doesn’t,” I whisper. “We’ll make our own plans. If you’re at the club and he’s planning for shit to go down, I’ll fade into the background. I don’t attend anything by your side. Your father has been ensuring that I’m doing a million things so I’m not.”

“I’ve noticed,” she rasps. “What if he orders you to stay in Chicago?”

“I’ll find a way,” I vow, my fist wrapping around her hair and pulling hard enough to help her focus. Glancing at Jordan, I watch as he walks closer to drop to his knees in front of us.

“I don’t want to choose,” he grunts as his arm pulls her closer to him. “Layla is important to me. I raised her, and my brother wasn’t a good parent to her. I feel responsible for her, but I may have decided to play matchmaker before I disappeared.”

“You’re a good man,” Lía murmurs as I release her hair so she can move closer to him. “If I could give you up, I would, but I don’t want to. I want to see where this goes. Leaving once the family sees you would put a target on your back, as well.”

“Of course the bastard will want me to be there,” Jordan rumbles. “He’ll want me to watch his show unravel in front of me.”

“It won’t get that far,” I promise. “I’ll keep my ear to the ground, and the night of the event, I’ll be watching. Even if it’s in the wings.”

“I just want you to know, even if I could walk away from this, I wouldn’t want to,” Jordan rasps, leaning forward to kiss Líadan.

Just as I started to feel a pinch of jealousy, Jordan reaches out and fists my hair, pulling me into a filthy three way kiss. My tongue is tangled between Jordan and Lía, and it’s dirty, messy, and fucking perfect.

My cock is rock hard, and Jordan boldly rocks the palm of his hand over it. The groan that echoes through the room is raw and needy. I’m completely unabashed.

I want more of this. Jordan is good for Lía, and he’s working his way under my skin. My life has revolved around Lía for longer than I can remember, but lately, I’m finding there’s room for Jordan too. I don’t know what that means yet.

We have the time to find out.

Líadan

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I’m sitting in a hotel suite getting ready for tonight. Daddy explained his plans for the event on the flight over as if it was the most natural thing in the world to sell a beautiful twenty-five year old singer to the Irish families. While I thought this was an intimate affair, he explained that I was incorrect in my thinking.

“Bah, Líadan, this is a tremendous day! All the most important people in the Irish Families across the world have been invited. The Byrne Clan has been asking if you’ve been promised in marriage yet,” Daddy said.

“While you’ve been playing house for the last few years, that time is done. You will need to marry a strong man in the Families in alliance. I’ll make sure you choose well.”

Even as I felt my esophagus close, I forced myself to stay cool and composed. Hysteria never goes over well with Daddy.

“What kind of entertainment are you offering to the Families?” I ask, wide eyed. “This is a large event, Daddy. I don’t think everyone will travel with their pets, do you? We don’t want anyone to be hurt because we didn’t have suitable men and women on hand to service them.”

“I have a singer with a band for the event,” Daddy says dismissively until he allows himself to really hear me. “Oh. Daughter, I didn’t think of that.”

I’m so glad I didn’t have to vulgarly spell out that Layla wasn’t going to be able to blow all of those men.

Nodding encouragingly, I say, “Of course, Daddy. You’ve been so busy. Why don’t you call an escort service? They aren’t the party favors that can be taken home, but we can have them all sign paperwork that they are willing and won’t speak about anything that happens tonight. Once you make your announcement, we’ll make sure they’re gone. Just in case.”

Daddy thinks hard before grunting, “It could all go sideways. Yes, yes, we’ll do it this way. They’ll wear pearls for clothing. It’ll really class up the pretty whores.”

Blowing out a breath, I turn to finish my makeup. Daddy wanted me to wear my hair down, so I force myself not to scrunch my nose in annoyance as I do the opposite. The top of my raven hair is braided, curled, and pinned up in a way that would make it difficult to grab, while the bottom is left loose.

My forest green eyes are lined in a dark-brown liner, and now I’m building a dark-green and chocolate-colored eyeshadow pallet to finish my eyes.

Quickly finishing and setting my makeup, I gaze at the dark-red lips I chose for tonight. I haven’t been out in public like this in years, and while I’m not nervous about the crowd, I am about what the consequences of tonight could be. I will do what I can to help Layla, even if it means stepping aside so she can kill him.

Standing, I look down at the black, dressy three piece pants suit that I’m wearing. The top is a beaded corset, shoving my breasts up to the sky. This is my way of forgoing a bra, and telling it to get fucked.

The pants make my legs appear longer than they are, and the suit jacket would be easy to shrug off if necessary. The best part about it is that I have multiple places to hide knives along my body, a wire garrote wrapped around my black belt, and my pretty necklace breaks apart in a pinch to turn into thin throwing knives.

My high heels are the worst part of this outfit, because it makes it difficult to run. I am, however, quite adept at kicking them off, so hopefully I won’t lose precious moments when I do that.

“Líadan!” Daddy yells from the living room of the suite, allowing myself an eye roll. Just one before I become the perfect mafia daughter for him.

I don’t need a phone or anything else because this lipstick isn’t budging for the next twenty-four hours. I tested it by giving Brendan a blow job while Jordan watched yesterday. His jaw clenched so hard, I worried he’d break a tooth, but it was an exercise in holding his poker face.

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