Page 108 of Connor's Claim

I linked my gaze to his again and saw all the devotion and care I felt for him reflected right back at me. Without saying a word, he told me everything I needed to know.

“Before he chooses,” I said, “can I clear a couple of things up?”

Connor’s lips twitched. He inclined his head. “Anything ye want is yours.”

I spun back to the mayor. “You fathered another child. Why didn’t you tell me?”

My father’s sullen focus drifted to me. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. “That bastard boy.”

“Didn’t you think it important for me to know I had a brother?”

“I told the bitch mother to get rid of it. He should never have been born. Either way, it was none of your business. I kept tabs on him. I knew where he was.”

Except it was. And my heart broke for Riordan.Ourfather really had known all about him and done nothing to be part of his life. For his sake, I was both glad and full of sorrow. I wished I’d never asked.

“Did you kill the murdered women?” slipped from my lips.

Now, he recoiled. “Would I be stupid enough to shit on my own doorstep?”

What a strange way to deny it. “Did you arrange for someone else to do it?”

“Ev,” Connor warned.

I shut my mouth. My father smiled.

“I know nothing about their deaths.”

Believing him was impossible, yet that was it. I had nothing else to gain from speaking to him ever again.

I stepped around him and joined Connor in the fresh air, my spine tingling like my father would stab me in the back as I passed.

He didn’t.

He let me go.

Connor pulled me tight against him, touching his forehead to mine for a second of bliss. Then he whispered an order. “Go to the car. You’re leaving with me.”

Walking away now felt like the worst thing I could do, but I had to obey. In a reversal of our awful parting a decade ago, I smiled and managed a shaky, “Yes.”

This time and always.

Unchallenged, I walked between the stony-faced guards to the safety of Arran and their crew. All I needed was for Connor to do the same.

Chapter 37

Connor

Bone-deep hatred controlled my moves. Ice-cold, I stared down the mayor. “What happened to Everly’s mother?”

“What the fuck have you done to Piers? Don’t you know who he is?”

“He’s a would-be rapist and is lucky to still be alive.” I inched closer to the man I really wanted to end. My stepfather, once upon a time. “After all you’ve done, ye should count yourself lucky that I’m content to walk away with Everly.”

“Lucky? You’re a cold-blooded killer,” he spluttered.

“A fact you’ve benefitted from for years. Don’t think we didn’t keep evidence of your involvement, just as ye did for me.”

Through monitoring me, the mayor had connected with Arran, the up-and-coming new force in Deadwater. The steady feed of criminal cases via Kenney came with the mayoral stamp of approval. It was part of the web of corruption in the city. Symbiotic and functional.

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