Page 108 of Mob Bride

“Toisc go bhfuil cluasa agam.” Because I have ears.

We’re teasing each other, but Sean sounds as argumentative as I do. It’s a simple ruse. Let them think we don’t agree about whatever they assume we were plotting. They’ll try to leverage that between Sean and me. They’ll try to drill a hole in our family armor, which means they won’t focus on Carrie. They’ll think they can go after something bigger. When they do that, my brother and cousins know I won’t risk telling lies that don’t match Carrie’s.

Dillan chimes in just like he always has, especially when Sean and I really disagree. “Tá sé ag iarraidh dul i bhfeidhm uirthi. Is léir go gcaithfidh sé cúiteamh a dhéanamh as rud éigin má tá sé ag déanamh iarrachta chomh dian sin.” He’s trying to impress her. Clearly, he needs to make up for something if he’s trying that hard.

“B'fhéidir gurb é an t-aon rud atá deacair?” Could it be the only thing that’s hard?

Cormac isn’t one to be left out, and since Seamus isn’t either, I know he’ll have something to say next.

“Insíonn tú dúinn, a Sheáin. Tá tú mar an gcéanna leis. Rudaí beagán flapach?” You tell us, Sean. You’re made the same as him. Things a little floppy?

“Éist do bhéal fecker.” Shut up, fecker.

Sean and I speak, and to anyone who doesn’t know us, it’s virtually impossible to tell whose voice is whose. Even in Gaelic and even in jest, our parents would skelp us alive if we swore at one another. That’s the Golden Rule in our family.

Thou shalt not curse at one another.

Life’s too short to take back harsh words when you might not speak or hear any again. Sean and I aren’t angry at Seamus, but we’ll both remember that for later. Joking or not, no guy wants to be asked if he has a floppy dick.

But it feeds the act we’re putting on. It’s working because Carrie’s wound up tighter than a bow string since she doesn’t understand what’s happening yet. She will with time—assuming we’ll have some. My free hand taps her arse before giving it a quick squeeze.

They must be taking us up to the eleventh floor, which is the top of the building. The elevator’s stopped three times, and everyone’s taken one look at five red heads and stepped away from the open doors. If that sort of power didn’t come with the looming threat of death every time we wake, it could be intoxicating. But none of us revel in it. None of us enjoy it. We have that power because it’s the only way to stay alive.

I glance down at the top of Carrie’s head. My chest tightens to where I want to rub it.

What have you done? You’ve sucked her into this world. You’re endangering her life every single moment she’sconnected to you. She’ll never be free of her association with you. You’ve ruined her life.

That last thought runs on a loop.

I sense Sean’s eyes on me. I shift my focus to him. He sends me the same look he has since we were children: I know what you’re thinking and don’t.

It’s usually before I got us both in trouble. I’ve given him the same look enough times I understand it without being twins.

It’s the twin thing that made him guess what’s on my mind. Science can’t explain it.Yet. One day, they’ll understand twin intuition. I think it’s because we’ve shared so many of the same experiences and have been virtually inseparable by choice our entire lives. We’re so attuned to one another we know however we’d feel in a situation is likely how the other does, or we understand when the other would feel the opposite.

I swallow and dip my chin. I can tell Sean’s still worried, but he relaxes. No one outside our family knows our tells. Grandda and Uncle Don knocked any emotional response out of us, as in knocked us to the ground, knocked us out—that was Uncle Don’s best friend Colin. Fucking ham hocks for hands before he got what he deserved. Death.

When the elevator finally chimes, and we reach the top floor, everyone files out. Sean and I are in t-shirts and basketball shorts, but our cousins are in their regular tailored suits. We spend a fortune on clothes since we wind up burning so many of them. When we leave the station, we leave anything with DNA evidence behind. That means burning everything and dropping it in the Long Island Sound. Because of our builds, off the rack doesn’t work for us. We’d split the seams across our backs if we got jackets that match pants we need. Our pants would slide off our arses if we got them to match the jackets.

Even without our suits, Sean and I, along with our cousins, are an imposing sight. It might be worse with Sean and mein athletic clothes. It proves what everyone suspects. There’s as much muscle under our designer clothes as people suspect.

“Mr. O’Rourke, this way.”

The agent whose foot I stepped on tries to usher me in one direction while Steve takes Carrie in the other. I ignore him. They didn’t arrest either of us—despite what Steve said when he burst into the bedroom—so I’m not leaving her side unless they physically restrain me.

“Mr. O’Rourke.” The guy’s tone is more demanding this time.

“My client isn’t under arrest. He’s here against his will, but he’ll cooperate if he can stay with Ms. Pritchard. He won’t interrupt. Since she isn’t in cuffs, and I doubt you’ve Mirandaed either of them, they’re merely here to answer your questions.”

Dillan’s spewing shite, and everyone knows it. They can separate us if they want, and I’m certain they do. They could arrest all of us if they wanted. It’s merely a question of whether any of them dare.

Cormac’s still beside Carrie, keeping her between him and me. “Right now, my client is here as a favor to you since it’s clear she’s not a suspect since you haven’t arrested her. She can’t be a witness since she’s seen nothing. The same is true for both Mr. O’Rourkes. Perhaps we can sort all of this out if we sit down together and get on the same page.”

Cormac’s hardly conciliatory. It’s hardly a suggestion. He makes the agents look like Chihuahua pups when he’s a Rottweiler. His imposing size gives every word he utters more intensity. When Seamus steps beside him, the agents relent. For now.

We file into a conference room, and the agents guide Sean, Carrie, and me to chairs apart from each other. My cousins sit on one side of each of us while an agent sits on the other. Then there’s silence. Do they think we’re going to open the flood gates suddenly and tell them everything? If they couldn’t intimidateus enough to force us to go where they wanted, silence won’t intimidate us either. My gaze locks with Carrie’s.

“Ms. Pritchard, you abandoned your assignment.” I recognize the voice belonging to the man who just entered the room. His name was Phil, and I heard him on the call Carrie made to report in after she arrived at my place.

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