Page 128 of Illicit Temptation

“How did you get here?”

“Someone from the base gave me a car.” He looks down and chokes up. “Fucking Rowan.”

“You avenged himandhis brother.” I grip his jacket. “We’ll deal with it when we get home. I’m here for you. You gotme.”

“We need to get out of here.” Shane points to the black smoke billowing in the air from Malone’s downed chopper a few miles away. “First responders will show up any minute. I’m not the only person who can pull images from satellites.”

“Car’s this way.” Trace grips my hand, as we get into the SUV in a parking lot behind a warehouse.

Inside, Trace kisses me, letting his cousins do the rest of the work to get us out of here. “I love you, princess.”

“I love you, enforcer.”

“Call me your husband.” He pushes our foreheads together. “Claimme.”

“I love you, my husband.”

“Forever. I told you I wouldn’t let you go.”

“Where are we going now?” I say, feeling ready to pass out as all of this catches up to me. “How do we get home?”

“We got you,” Griffin says, looking very proud, driving the car we all crammed into.

We reach an airport outside Waterford and from a private hangar, a sleek silver jet rolls out that reads: Quinlan Empire.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

Shea

We land in a New York airport and my brothers are waiting for me on the tarmac. All of them, their limos lined up. I jog down the airstairs and the car doors fly open, my family racing toward me.

With the Quinlan Empire jet in the backdrop, Trace holds my hand with blood on his clothes from patching up my wrist on the jet. But there are still bugs in my hair and grass stains on my knees from the free fall out of the helicopter.

One by one, my brothers all hug me. Balor, Darragh, Eoghan, Cormac, Riordan, and Lachlan, who lifts me in the air and then plants me in front of Kieran. I wait to see disappointment. About everything. But he hugs me the hardest.

“Jaysus Christ, love.” He also holds me longer than any of my brothers.

But I don’t let go of Trace’s hand. The message:He’s mine, I’m not giving him up.

“She fought hard, O’Rourke,” Trace says to Kieran, wincing from the pain in his chest. “She’s strong. She can handle anything.”

“I know she’s a fighter,” Kieran offers. “She’s an O’Rourke.”

“About that ...” I’m shushed by my brother’s hand gently on my mouth.

I’m strong, I made it. But Kieran is always in charge. “Take a ride with me.”

Without question, Trace and I get into Kieran’s limo. His eyes stare at our dangling handcuffs, matching bracelets that remind him of what we went through. Together. Kieran no doubt had been toldTrace and I are married.

How, when,and wherewe got married.

I’m here to make it clear to my brother whatIwant.

Hurt him. You hurt me.

We get cleaned up at Divona where both Darrah and Cormac check out Trace’s chest after inspecting my wrist. I lean against the doorframe of the breakfast nook watching my twin brothers, together again, working side by side. It would be hard for anyone to tell, but I see how, when they’re together, they’re whole again.

I wonder what’s next for Cormac. Darragh works for a medical practice but moonlights as a butcher for both the Irish Mob and the Bratva. They’ll figure it out. Together. I know both Darragh and Ana want him to be a part of his son’s life.

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