Page 47 of Redemption

“I think I’m coming down with something. I’m going to head home after I fax this.” She holds up the papers up against her chest as her eyes skitter across the room landing anywhere but on Zane. Every second that she’s in here is another I can feel Zane slipping closer to the edge of insanity. He’s wound up like a bomb ready to explode and I just hope we can get him out of here before that happens.

“Ye want Molly to make ye some soup?” Finn puts a hand on her shoulders and out of the corner of my eye I see Zane clench his fists. Something tells me we’re moments away from having a first class seat to a giant shit show.

“No. I’ll be fine, dad.” She clears her throat and power walks toward the door without a backward glance.

I chance another look at Zane in my peripheral, but his gaze is plastered on Kennedy’s retreating back as his chest heaves up and down. There’s a slight flicker of emotion behind his eyes, but it fades just as quick back into his cold blank stare when he turns back around.

Finn opens his mouth to say something more, but Keegan beats him to it.

“I’ve got her.” He jumps up from the couch, tips the end of his fedora at us, and follows out the door behind her.

“Thanks, Keeg. Days like these I miss me wife.” As if realizing what he’s let slip, Finn changes the subject. “Now, where were we.” He leans back in his chair, but I feel the tension radiating off of him. There’s a story there, but I’m not digging any deeper onto that right now. I have more pressing matters to be concerned with at the moment.

I can feel Teegan’s stare burning in our direction. When I cast a quick glance his way his head is cocked to the side, studying Zane as his gaze flickers from him to the doorway Kennedy just fled through. His mind is beginning to put pieces of this fucked up puzzle together. Not good for us at all. We need to hurry and rush things along or we’re going to be in the middle of a war zone soon. I drag my eyes back over to Finn and let out a small breath. I relax my shoulders and watch Asher question Finn.

“You were about to tell us why you left a dead body on my front porch.” Asher crosses his arms over his chest and stands up taller, getting to the point. He’s hanging on by a thread and if Finn doesn’t cooperate he’s going to snap. He just better keep his shit together until after I get answers of my own.

“Consider it an early gift.” His lips curve into a wide smile around the edges of his cigar.

“Most people just send a card.” Two can play this game. “And why are you so interested in my woman?”

“Let’s call it a family matter.” He shrugs and holds out a wooden box towards us. “Cuban?”

A vein throbs in the side of my neck and a slight shake of the head is all I can manage in response. I don’t like being toyed with.

He shrugs and slides the tip through a small silver cutter and clamps down. The snap echoes against the small space causing me to place my hands in front of my nuts. Finn flicks open his lighter and takes a few puffs, savoring the cigar like we aren’t in the room. It’s all for show and grating on my last nerve.

“We are not family.”

He leans back in his chair as his lip spreads into a smile against the edges of the cigar. “Aren’t we?”

I lean a step forward, ready to slam my fists down on his desk, when an elbow to the side knocks me back to reason. “We don’t have time for games, so just spit out whatever bullshit you need to say, so I can get on with finding these pricks and doing what I need to do.”

He doesn’t answer right away, just bounces his eyes between me and my brothers, stretching out the tension and letting us know our place in this meeting.

It’s a waste of time. Pissing contests are nothing knew for me. I hold my ground and wait him out. Intimidation doesn’t work on me. I call two of the scariest motherfuckers I’ve ever met “brother,” so he needs to try a bit harder next time.

This standoff lasts a few beats longer and I’m not sure who breaks it first, but it doesn’t matter. At least we’re back to business.

“I like ye, Savage. Ye’ve got some balls on ye. I’ll give ye that.” He lifts a folder off his desk between two fingers and extends it out to me.

My thumb flips through the images the moment it’s in my grasp and a fire builds deep within my gut. Images of Kelsey and us reflect back at me. Some from as far back as a couple years ago. I grind my molars so hard they crack. “Why the fuck do you have these?”

“I protect me family.” He rolls the cigar between his fingers and cocks his head to the side, like that explains it all. This meeting has me itching to light one up myself and I will as soon as we get out of here.

“You keep saying that. What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Still, I’m not sure ye are good enough for her.” He keeps on babbling, lost in thought, but the rest of it is drowned out through the blood pumping in my ears.

My spine stiffens and I have to count back from ten otherwise I’m going to beat my brother’s ass right here. He kept something from us and that’s not how we do things. The second we get out of here, he’ll be giving us answers. For now, my anger is directed at the Irish fuck in front of us.

“Out with it, Donnelly.” There’s no missing the unnamed threat in my words.

“I want to help you avenge the death of me sister.”

“Your sister?” A lump forms in my throat as shit starts to make sense.

“Our mother had the same Celtic butterfly tattoo as her. All the women in our family do.” His eyes pierce into mine with every words he says.

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