Page 14 of Lorcan

I stuck my finger up. It was childish but I was caffeine deprived and hungover. “I’ll be down in five.”

Killian chuckled as he headed out of my room, leaving the door wide open. Fucking prick.

I pulled my quilt away and headed into the bathroom. My eyes were red and glassy, and I felt like I could easily get back in bed and shut the world out.

But I couldn’t.

Not while Ronan and Amity were still out there.

I washed my face and grabbed a fresh shirt and jeans and headed down the stairs to see an old friend. I hadn’t seen Sav for a long time, but we had once been good friends, so I could only imagine he was here because he’d heard of the trouble we were having.

Opening the doors to the library, I saw him, his back to me as he took in the titles on the shelves.

“Sav.”

He turned, a broad smile spreading over his face. “It’s been a long time.”

“It has,” I replied. “You should have said you were coming, I would have given you the red carpet treatment.”

Sav came closer, and instantly I was taken by how much older he looked. I suppose I was the same, but it was startling.

“I’ve no need of that,” he replied, his Italian accent thicker than I remember. “If I were my little brother, he’d take you up on that.”

“How are Mateo and Bastian?” I asked, taking a seat. Sav took the other seat and sighed heavily. He sounded just like I did when I needed to talk about my younger brothers.

“They are…distracting.”

A rumble left my chest and made its way to the surface. Saverio rolled his eyes in my direction and relaxed into the old leather of the chair.

“A whiskey would have been nice for an old friend,” he grumbled, his accent thick.

I pushed up out of my chair and headed for the bar, pouring us both one of my best whiskeys and returning to him. He took the glass and sipped at it.

His eyebrows rose and I felt a little pride in knowing an Irish whiskey can surprise even Saverio Barone. A man known for his expressionless rage.

“What brings you here, Sav?”

“I’ve heard things, Lor,” he said. “Your family name has become synonymous with a rebellion, a rising force that may soon take over Ireland.”

“And who did you hear this off?”

“It wasn’t one person, or else this would have been a phone call,” Saverio told me. “Your uncle paid my uncle a visit and it was brought to my attention just how serious this threat is.”

Goddamn that man. He was certainly doing the rounds rather than simply coming to me to let me know.

“What do you know of it?” I asked.

“I know it involves the Reyes cartel,” he said. “The name struck a chord with me. I knew all about the Reyes’ and their reign of torture in Spain.”

“How could this possibly be linked to us? We have no dealings with them. We cut ties when my father died.”

“Perhaps that is the cause of it.”

“It’s been over a decade since that day, Sav.”

“An operation such as this…is not a mere startup. It’s been years, years of rage, years of pettiness. You cannot do this alone, Lorcan.”

I didn’t want to involve the Barone’s. They’d been good to me when my father had punished me for the way I thought. Sav had always looked out for me, like a big brother, but he was no O’Farrell and Ireland was not his country.

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