Page 123 of Forbidden Bond

“No, you’re not,” she said, actually turning Conn as she leaned against him to lay eyes on her friend. “Go see the doctor. He’ll give you painkillers and antibiotics. And he’ll have something to knock you out. You need rest.”

Before he claimed the Bluebell Brigade.

“Now.”

The single word from Conn dispelled any notion of objection. Niall opened the door until Strat trailed out, then said something in his foreign tongue, to which her guy replied.

Oh, how his words dampened her panties. When Niall left a second later, Conn’s attention landed on her brother.

“Handle Jane Doe.”

“I will,” Lachlan said.

“Handle her? What does that mean ‘handle her’? What’s going on with her?”

Before opening his mouth, her brother got a nod from Conn.

“I’ve been working with her, learning what she knows, what she saw, trying to track it down… unofficially.”

“So she’d never have to testify? Because you know if this got to a court—”

“She’ll help your brother as long as she can,” Conn said.

“Then Ire’s got a whole new life waiting for her,” Lachlan explained. “She’ll be safe.”

“No Manzani will touch her.”

And if in the interim some Manzanis were brought down by what Marseille knew, all the better. She might not topple the regime, but any harm they could inflict on the Manzanis was positive.

“I trust both of you. There was no need to keep it a secret, I can be helpful if you tell me things. Keep me in the loop, I’m a familiar presence to Marseille, if she’s unsure—”

“Oh, she was pretty sure,” Lachlan said, slipping his hands in his pockets. “About thewomenwho rescued her. The plural was a surprise.”

“I have chips to play with the Manzanis. Conn and I weren’t together, but Imogen would’ve made an easier target than—”

“I know.” Lachlan bowed to kiss her head. “Showed me we don’t have to be doing the blue thing to be doing the right thing.”

And that was a big admission from her brother. Turning to hug him, she held tight. He hadn’t changed, they hadn’t changed. Okay, maybe a few details had, but at the core of them, they were still them.

He’d never put her in the middle if this was an undercover sting. If he disliked, or distrusted, Conn so much that Lach thought he should be in jail, he’d never let her sleep next to him every night. If for no other reason than when the McDades discovered the double cross, she’d be an immediate, and vulnerable, target.

Backing away, her hand found Conn’s, who gave her brother a side nod. Yep, time for him to read her the riot act.

Lachlan didn’t seem concerned as he sauntered to the door.

“Oh, hey,” he said, turning back to them. “Seen that picture kicking around with the guys.”

“Picture?”

“That picture—shit, I’ll fucking kill him,” she said. “You’ve seen it?”

“Yeah, and it’s not a uniform,” he said, smirking. “It’s a costume.”

“You let me go out like that?”

“You were nineteen.” Shit, did her brother remember everything? “Didn’t give me much say.”

Not that she ever had when it came to her apparel. “How do you even remember that?”

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