Page 57 of Mob Saint

“Tiernan.” I know that warning tone.

“Dad, Seamus is staying with me. If you want to be there too, then great. But I am not going near Gareth or anyone else without him. And you’re not separating us. Not for this meeting and not in the future.”

“You are making a mistake, nugget.”

Seamus looks at the phone in confusion. I cover it and whisper.

“A nugget of gold. He says no one and nothing is more precious than me.”

Seamus’s eyes narrow, and I can tell he thinks my dad should have tried harder to protect me if he thinks I’m so special. But I can’t fault my dad. I haven’t told him everything that’s happened, and I can’t run to him every time someone hurts my feelings. I won’t tell Seamus every time it happens. I can’t. It would be a never-ending battle with him not to defend me.

“Dad, I don’t think I am. For once, I think I’ve really gotten it right. Shay doesn’t hold me at fault for my family and is getting to know me for me. Please do the same. Or at least give it an honest try. I know who and what he is, but that’s not the man he is with me. You’re not the same with Mom and me as you are with other people. Can’t you believe Seamus can be the same?”

“I won’t until he proves otherwise.” There’s a pregnant pause. “But I’ll let him try.”

“Thanks, Dad. He knows Gareth says things to me to manipulate me. He has an idea of what he’s said, but I haven’t told him the specifics.”

“You haven’t told me the specifics either. Even when I’ve demanded them, you’ve kept mum.”

“Exactly. I haven’t told him things I refuse to tell you or Mom. I don’t ask questions he can’t answer, and he doesn’t ask me things I can’t answer. I didn’t know you and he have history until like two minutes before I texted you.”

“Seamus.” There’s that warning again.

“Brant, what you said was wrong. You’re still lucky I was standing in front of Dillan and got to you first. I won’t back down on that.”

“Dad, I don’t know the exact words you used, but I know the gist of it. You called them weak and said Colleen deserved what happened to her. Do you deny that?”

“No. I said it to bait them.”

“It worked.” Seamus’s wry tone belies the anger I feel pulsating from him.

I only brought it up, so my dad knows Seamus isn’t filling my head with lies and that Seamus doesn’t hold my dad’s actions against me.

“How far away are you, Dad?”

“I can leave now. I’m at the house.”

Fifteen minutes. Good.

“We’re ten minutes out.” I look up at Seamus because I don’t know what he wants to do.

“We’ll wait for you, Brant. Do not go in without us. I do not want Gareth knowing I’m with Tiernan, so he doesn’t have time to come up with things to hurt her. I won’t leave her side. If there are things he wants to discuss that she can’t hear, it’ll have to wait until another time. I don’t trust him or any of his men if Tiernan’s out of my reach. I want to know why he has an extra sharp burr up his arse with us, but if I can’t ask him that today, then I’ll do it later. You will not convince me to let Tiernan go anywhere without me.”

“Good.”

Seamus and I both wait for my dad to say something more, but he remains silent.

“Tiernan, I’m taking?—”

“Don’t call me that, Shay. You know I don’t like it. I don’t want to walk in there upset.”

“Wait. Why doesn’t Seamus use your name? What’s wrong with it?”

“Calm down, Brant. Nothing is wrong with Tiera’s name, though I’d like to know why you gave her a man’s name. But I call her Tiera because that’s just who she is to me.”

“Do you want to go by Tiera, nugget?”

“No. Only Seamus can call me that.” My answer is fast and resolute.

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