Page 121 of Shattered Hearts

The more I provoke him, the angrier Enzo will get. And that will encourage him to drag this out, which will give my father and the others time to mount a counteroffensive.

With the morphine in my system, I’ll at least get a head start on the harrowing amount of hurt about to take place here tonight.

This is the least I can endure, after what Bri went through. I’d endure any pain to ensure Riley never suffers the same fate. And now is the time to put my money where my mouth is.

“Now clip your dick on and hit me, motherfucker?—”

Enzo’s fat, meaty fist crashes into my jaw, taking the words right out of my mouth.Here we go.

Chapter 32

Riley

Cian and I bound up the grand staircase to the third floor. Outside the estate’s dramatic windows, darkness has fallen. In more ways than one.

They’ve got Finn.My lungs stopped inflating properly ever since Cian uttered those words. I feel like I’m bleeding out and trying to run at the same time. Forcing myself to keep up with his long strides while holding back my tears takes every ounce of willpower I have.

Upstairs, we sprint down the wide, red-carpeted hallway toward the Gallagher situation room, a conference-sized space dominated by a massive mahogany work table lined with navy office chairs. Shane and his inner circle convene here to discuss crises, and when we thunder into the room, we find everyone present.

Everyone except Rory, who’s rushing here as we speak.

My father sits with his thick ringed fingers steepled over the table and looks as if he’s been steamrolled by a week-long migraine.

Shane and Donal sit on the opposite side of the table. They converse in short, cryptic sentences with lowered voices.

At the front of the room, Darren stands behind an electronics station, manipulating images and video on the projection wall. “I was able to tap the security camera footage at Saint Christopher’s.”

A six-ply display of screens appears, each frame displaying a different clip of Finn moving through the hospital on his own.

A few frames show him hastening down hospital hallways. In one shot, he confers with a nurse, and later, that nurse slips him a syringe that he immediately pockets.

The frame in the bottom right corner features Finn getting into a cab out front.

My heart surges into my throat. Desperate confusion and fear ravage me on the inside.

Why did Finn leave Rory at the hospital and go off on his own? When he sent me home, was that Finn’s plan all along?

Cian braces his hands against the table. “That fucking idiot.”

Back in the car after we first got the news, he slammed the steering wheel with so much force, I expected to find a dent the size of his massive hand.

“I’m still tracking his whereabouts with the software Rory developed, but Finn left his phone at the hospital.” Darren’s mouth pushes down into a flat line, like he’s trying to keep emotion out of the words that come next. “Rory suspects he did it on purpose.”

The room grows grim.What am I missing?

My thoughts are too scattered to suss out the truth from their gray expressions.

“He played right into their hands.” Cian’s gritted-out words launch a shockwave through me.

No. There’s no way Finn would…he couldn’t have. I cover my mouth to keep back the emotion drawing up inside me.

Finn sacrificed himself?He willingly gave himself to the people who murdered his wife? By the time Rory barrelsthrough the door, my shallow breaths have almost come to a stop. All the men look to him for news.

“It’s just as I thought.” Breathing hard, Rory produces Finn’s phone and strides toward Darren. “He got a call from a blocked number half an hour before they discharged him.”

I swear the room’s temperature plummets ten degrees.

Practically foaming at the mouth, Cian glowers at the conference table between us hard enough to burn a hole in it. Rory’s frozen, unblinking gaze and Darren’s narrowed eyes and taught jaw signal something deeper, more ominous. The enforcers’ expressions are louder versions of the looks on the faces of Shane and his innermost circle.

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