Page 29 of Mob Bride

I wait a couple minutes before I continue to follow her. She pretends as though I’m not her shadow. She doesn’t acknowledge me again even as we walk out to the parking lot. It’s for the best now that we really are in public again.

I’ve completely made a mess of today. I don’t know what I was thinking. This was a shitshow of my own making. I didn’t go in there with a proper plan or a task. I just wanted to know the same things as I did before. What the hell is wrong with me? There’s no excuse for screwing the pooch on this one.

It dawns on me as I pull out of the parking lot. I know the man who appeared in the same aisle as us. He’s one of Bartlomiej’s bodyguards. A pretty senior one at that. I doubt there’s a coincidence the three of us were at the same grocery store at the same time. It certainly wasn’t a coincidence I was there. I doubt it was a coincidence the two of them were there.

Is he her bodyguard? Or is he meant to just follow her? Did exposing his presence serve as a threat to her? Or was it a reassurance because he got impatient waiting for her to leave that aisle? I don’t have the answers to these questions that swirl in my mind.

I bought nothing perishable, so I park and watch her building again. I twist and lean to see who else is staking out her place. I’ve spotted some of Bartlomiej’s men before, but they’ve never been as obvious as the one in the store.

She took a ride share to get back to her place. Why doesn’t she just use her car? I know she has one. That makes me more suspicious. Since she’s got plenty of grocery bags, she uses one of those metal folding carts like little old women do. She stacks her bags inside it to get up to her apartment. It would be so much easier if she drove her own car. It makes me think shedoesn’t want anyone who’s following her to know she has her own vehicle.

Is she playing poor little girl who can’t afford a car? Is she hiding it for a fast getaway? What role does she play in this community?

That’s the first thing—or rather the next thing I need to know.

“Shane, what’s been going on with you?”

I look over at Finn. I’m sitting in his living room with him, Sean, Seamus, and Cormac. Dillan’s not here because he’s having dinner with his in-laws in Connecticut.

“Nothing.

“Well, that’s a bunch of bullshit.” Sean jumps in, taking our brother’s side. “You’ve been off everybody’s radar for nearly three weeks. Ever since the incident with Meredith’s daughter at the construction site. You assigned her and Meredith a detail, but almost immediately canceled hers, but you still have the one for Meredith.”

“What’s the deal? Since you told us she didn’t go to Pittsburgh, I can only assume you’ve made yourself her personal detail.”

I look over at Finn, trying to decide whether he’s asking me as my big brother or as the second-in-command in our family.

Our dad and uncles retired if there is such a thing. The family always intended for Dillan to inherit the role of our boss from our Uncle Donovan, who was our mom and aunts’ brother. There were some hiccups along the way between when the bratva killed Uncle Donovan and when Dillan assumed his role.

But now he’s in charge, even though our dad and uncles are young enough for one of them to fulfill the mob boss role. They’ve put in their time, certainly their blood, sweat, and everybody’s tears. They still go on missions with us when we need them or when they want to show the world we always stand as a united family. So that’s how Finn, who used to be just our accountant, is also second-in-command.

He obviously reads my mind, and there are so many times where it’s more like Finn, Sean, and I are triplets rather than Sean and I being twins. I’m just as close to Finn as I am to Sean. However, there are some things—some genetically ingrained things—Sean and I share I guess we can’t with Finn.

“Shane, I’m asking first and foremost as your brother. You’re not generally secretive. You don’t go off and do things on your own without an explanation. You’ve asked us to trust you, and we do, but I’m worried about you. As for the second, I need to know what one of my men is doing when he’s unaccounted for.”

“Are you asking this on your own? Or did Dillan put you up to it, and you just so happen to also have your brother involved?”

His face darkens into a thunder cloud, and I’ve offended him. “There’s no just so happens that I care. I always care. That’s a dick thing to say. Yeah, Dillan’s been asking me—been asking all of us—if we know what you’re up to, and none of us has an answer. So, I decided I would bring it up to you. I just decided a moment ago. It’s not like we’re all sitting here, so I can confront you. It’s not a fecking intervention. I want to know what my younger brother is doing, and I want to make sure my man is safe.”

“You only wish for my safety as some little worker bee, not as your brother.”

I am way too testy about this. There’s no reason for me to be so confrontational, but I’m frustrated. It’s been another three days of watching Carrie. It seems like things keep happeningin sets of three days. What the fuck is that? Does that have meaning, or am I just reading symbolism into nothing?

“Why are you being like this, Shane?” I look over at Sean.

I want to snap at him and tell him to mind his own business. The problem is, this isn’t just my business, and I know that. I don’t know if the reason I’m so testy is that I don’t feel like I have control over the situation. It’s not entirely that I want to control Carrie herself, but nothing about it feels right. Not having control usually means something is going to go wrong. I guess I am a control freak in a lot of ways. But I have to give my family something.

“Things with Carys are more complicated than they seem. I don’t know everything yet, but—” Oh, God, I have to confess who she is. “—she’s a DEA agent.”

I let that hang in the air as four sets of eyes stare at me as though I’ve lost my ever-loving mind. I very well may have. It’s Cormac who comes out of his stupor first.

“She’s a federal agent? You didn’t think we should know about that the moment you found out? What the feck, Shane?” He’s practically yelling by the time he stops speaking. I expected it, whether it was from him or somebody else.

“What I’m thinking is discretion is the better part of valor, and that we don’t need a whole bunch of people knowing that yet and drawing more attention to her. She’s undercover, and I’m slowly unearthing things about her mission. I don’t want to bring it to everybody’s attention if I don’t have enough information to clue us in.”

“Or you could feed us each bit you have as it comes along.” Seamus shrugs.

“I just don’t want anybody to go half-cocked into this and ruin her investigation, then we end up forcing her hand where she has to include us in any reports she files.”

---