Page 18 of One Love

Eddie and his wife, Leanne, are first out. Leanne’s hands are covering her face, tissue dabbing at her wet cheeks and eyes puffy as she clings to her husband’s arm. Eddie’s face is the complete opposite, determination etched on every line of his face, giving me a single nod in acknowledgement as he walks past me. Their pain is palpable, heavy in the air, and though I may have survived—barely—what I thought was the death of my child once, I know I wouldn’t be able to do it again.

She’s the only reason I haven’t already burned the world down to rid the Earth of every single member of the Irish mob that has ever existed. Her safety is the only reason I’m allowing her grandparents to believe they have some iota of control in this situation. I’m the snake they can’t see, coiled and biding my time, waiting to strike once all the rats are in my sight.

Marco is next through the doors, and he pauses to show his respects to his capo, Eddie, and Leanne. As soon as he’s done, he looks up, and I know he’s searching me out so I go straight to him as he begins to walk toward the cars.

“We need to find this motherfucker, J.” His words are gritted out, deep and low, for my ears only.

“Yeah we do. We think there’s a pattern to where the killer is hitting us, but I wanna test the theory.”

“Of course you do.” Marco chuckles.

“What I know is that it isn’t Zavier. He’s not squeaky, but he’s also not responsible for what’s happening. My Reapers and I will come up with a plan to try and get a step ahead of this fucknut.”

We stop beside his Aston and he turns to me. “Do what you’ve got to do, J. I’ve got a guy looking out for Ronan, by the way. He thinks he’s close but I’ll call you in when I know more.”

Rounding the car, Marco opens the driver door and slides in before starting up the engine. I stand and watch as he drives off, relaxing a little now that most of our soldiers are on the road and not all in one place. While everyone can handle themselves justfine, and together we’re a force to be reckoned with, we really have no idea what this killer’s gonna do next.

When my phone vibrates in my pocket, I can’t help rolling my eyes because I have my suspicions as to who it’s from. Hallie will be having her evening meal around this time so it can’t be her. The grandparents are strict on their schedule and there’s still a ‘no contact with your mother’ rule in place—one she ignores whenever she gets the opportunity. And my Reapers have all gone home with the masses after the funeral service.

PIMFA:Afraid you’d catch fire if you went into the church?

What a dick.

Me:Fuck off

Restless and unable to catch any sleep after getting back from the funeral, I jump on my bike and head for the casino. There’s something bugging me about that Dmitry guy and I’m itching to confront him. I may have walked away the other night, but that was more to preserve my own sanity and stop myself from doing something stupid. It felt wrong to have those kinds of thoughts only a month after losing what could have been my happily ever after.

Wow, a month. Over a month if I’m being accurate. Which is more time than we actually spent together. Fucking surreal to think about how much my world has changed since then.

I have so many balls in the air right now, if I could just get to the bottom of this one simple thing with Dmitry, then I can put more energy into everything else.

Parking my bike, I climb off and head to the casino entrance as I remove my helmet. The weather has taken the cold turn I expected earlier in the day and I’m glad for my leathers.

“Where’s Dmitry?”

The pretty hostess with long black hair widens her eyes at my question. “Er, please, give me a second.”

She knows who I am, at this point all of the staff know me, and within seconds she’s on the phone.

“Sir, she has asked for Dmitry…Yes…Okay.” Placing the phone down on her welcome desk, she raises her eyes to me. But she’s not looking me directly in the eye. Instead, she seems to be concentrating on my forehead. “Wait here a moment, please. He’s on the way.”

Not listening to a word she said, I head further into the casino and to the door leading to the back offices. I can’t get through without a keycard or pin code, so for now, this is as far as I can go. The door opens and I see him. Zavier. Not Dmitry. And I see red.

I’m not playing these games.

“Shadow, so ni—”

Without waiting for Zavier to finish, I push past him and to the first door on my right. It’s some kind of kitchen, not what I’m after.

“What are you doing? This area is restricted, even to you.” Zavier is trying his best to sound firm, but his tone is also a little resigned as he follows me down the hall.

I pause my search and turn to snarl at him. “Nothing is restricted to me, Z. Now where the fuck is he?”

“I don’t know. I’m not his keeper.” He shrugs, but I’m not buying it.

Before I can say anything else, that deep tone shoots straight to the center of my bones. “Are you stalking me?”

Slowly turning, I see him heading toward me down the corridor. I can’t help the scowl on my face when I hear Zavier chuckle as he says, “I’ll leave you to it.”

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