Page 44 of Connor's Claim

“No. Only that you were to be unharmed.”

I shivered but forced my mind to work through it. “Blackmail of some kind, then. They want me for a hostage, and the only person they could be targeting is my father.”

“They want something from him,” Genevieve replied.

All of a sudden, exhaustion hit me. Emotional, mental, and physical, and sinking me down so far I couldn’t concentrate on what was being said.

I rose, and everyone focused on me. Politely, I smiled at Riordan. “Thank you for coming tonight, and for telling me your news. I have work in the morning so need to get to bed, and also I need a little space to process all of this, but I’d like to get to know you better. Your sister has my number, so please message me yours.”

Without waiting for a reply, I turned to Connor. “Could you see me back upstairs?”

He nodded then leaned to mutter something to Arran that sounded like a request to keep Riordan there. I just needed to hide away.

The minute I was behind closed doors, I feared breaking down. I liked having a brother, the feeling was a friendly and kind one, and Riordan seemed honourable, but the opposing force of what it all meant for my father clouded everything.

He’d lied and kept things hidden.

He’d cheated on my long-dead mother, too.

My sense of value from the lifetime I’d spent serving him crumbled away beneath my heels.

Chapter 16

Connor

The second my apartment door was closed, Everly whirled around, her features tight. “You have a deal with my father. I want to know about it.”

“Where the fuck did ye hear that?”

“Don’t lie to me, please.”

Frustration rocked me. “I didn’t. It’s none of your business.”

If she knew, she’d despise me even more.

At the heart of me was a monster. In contrast, Everly was gentle, soft, and sweet. I never wanted to see her again, but worse than that was the thought she’d exist in her perfectly curated world with an even shittier view of me than when we’d started.

Everly glared then stomped closer, her hands on her hips. “It’s been a really terrible evening. I feel like I’m being crushed by a hundred different emotions, and the one thing I’m sure about is I need this answered before I leave. For your gang work, you knock people out with drugs, I know that, but do you do itfor other people, too? Are you for hire? Does my father employ you after everything that happened for you to get away from him?”

Her voice broke either in pain or anger.

I flared my nostrils, trying to keep my cool. She had no right to ask this after she’d been right there at the heart of that arrangement.

Yet it was something else driving me on to argue with her. A need to get closer and to touch her again while the clock ticked against us.

Time slowed.

Everly was toe-to-toe with me, breathing hard. Beseeching me with her gaze. Then her damn focus dropped to my lips. My resistance dissolved. I grasped the back of her neck and kissed her with a clash of my lips on hers.

Savage anger met perfect upset.

But, oh fuck, the touch broke a fever through me.

She gasped against my mouth, and her sound of desire nearly buckled my knees. She tasted so fucking sweet.

This was no flashback of a tentative first teenage kiss, where I’d sat on the end of her bed and let her press her lips to mine. Stroked her curls and told her how deeply in love with her I’d fallen.

No, I dug my fingers into the hair at the nape of her neck. Angled my head to take a deep pull. Stole life from her I had no right to claim.

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