Page 18 of Dublin Brute

“The one you tackled last night,” he smirks, a cocky grin stretching across his face. “The one you swore to Finn you were not into.”

I meet my twin’s knowing gaze and shrug. “Aye, well, Finn is a pain in the ass. I wasn’t about to give him anything that could be used against me later—especially at breakfast with Laine and Piper sitting right there.”

He arches an eyebrow. “Used against you how?”

I draw a deep breath. I’ll regret getting into this, but Bryan is my other half and we don’t keep secrets. “You know that buzz you get when guns are drawn, and everything is happening like rapid-fire all around you?”

Bryan’s scowl softens. “Aye. I love that rush.”

“Well, that’s what it was like. One second the night air was filled with chaos and bullets and screaming and then I was tackling Nora. I laid over her, shielding her from the danger, all her soft curves fitting perfectly against all my hard angles. Then, our eyes met, and I swear something inside me shifted.”

“That was your cock, fucknut. Adrenaline will do that to you.”

I roll my eyes. “It wasn’t my cock—well, it was, but it was more than that. Even with the world exploding around us, it felt like she was supposed to be in my arms. Our bodies fit together perfectly, and I looked down at her and I swear she glowed like a fucking angel.”

“An angel?” Bryan arches a dark brow at me, pegging me with a look. “Are you sure you didn’t crack your head on the concrete during the tuck and roll?”

I let out a long breath. “Forget it. I thought you, of all people, might understand, but forget I said anything.”

The two of us sit in tense silence for a few long minutes before Bryan sits forward and rests his elbows on his knees. “Be careful, brother. Developing a case of the feels makes you think you’re invincible in the moment, but it’s fleeting. When it’s ripped from your fucking grasp, you’re left with a pain that never heals. The damage loss leaves in its wake is worse than any knife or bullet.”

I hate the anguished break in his words. His pain is my pain—to some degree—but I’ve never known how to help him get past losing his first and only love. “But does the threat of loss mean you shut yourself off from the possibility of ever falling for someone again?”

“Sounds about right.”

“What about Tag and Sean? They’re happy.”

“For now—but it’s early days.”

I hate thinking about Bryan being so defeated. He’s a fighter. In the ring, he would never even consider throwing in the towel, but life doesn’t always imitate art. “I know you suffered. What happened to Yasmine was heart-wrenching, but that doesn’t mean you should be out of the game for life.”

He pegs me with a look so hollow it makes my chest ache. “Shewasmy life. And no, you have no fucking idea how I suffer.”

Fair enough.

I’ve never fallen in love. I’ve spent my time enjoying the smorgasbord of what life offers. But who’s talking about love, anyway? “I was just saying Nora caught my attention, that’s all.”

Something about her pulls at me—her kind eyes, the way she held herself after that chaos outside the pub. It’s nothingto get worked up over and it’s certainly nothing serious enough to leave my twin looking like his heart is being mulched in a blender on high.

Which he does. Fuck, I hate when he looks like that.

I rise out of my chair and stretch out my shoulders before settling against the wall. “Let’s focus on what matters. What do you think Billy Gravely is up to?”

Bryan shifts in his seat, his expression becoming the hardened mask we’ve all grown accustomed to as we dive back into business. “With the pressure we’ve been putting on the McGuire business, I’d bet Gravely and Niall are at each other’s throats. Niall may not be as strategic as Tag or Sean, but he’s not an idiot like Declan and their father was either. Gravely will want blood. Hopefully, Niall has a little more self-preservation than that.”

I run a hand through my hair as frustration gnaws at me. Since Sean killed Mattie back in April, everything’s been unstable on the south side of the river. Not that it wasn’t before…

Mad Mattie McGuire was a narcissistic lunatic with a god complex.

Gravely isn’t much better.

“Gravely must see an opportunity,” Bryan says thoughtfully. “He’s ruthless and entitled. He thinks he and Mattie were the dream team in the south and he’ll be eager to prove that. If he thinks he can woo the McGuire men to his camp, he won’t miss the opportunity to try.”

I glance toward Petey’s door, wondering what kind of threat the kid posed that could’ve escalated Gravely into the shooting.

The air grows heavy with unspoken thoughts as we stew in the silence.

A nurse with a thick chestnut braid steps out from behind the nurse’s station down the hallway and approaches us with a clipboard in her hands. The closer she gets, the slower her stepsbecome until she’s hugging the clipboard and staring up at us with wide eyes. “Good afternoon, sirs.”

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