Page 76 of The Irish Redemption

“Cormac, you’ll tear open your stitches?—”

“I don’t care. Get the fuck off me, Cian!”

“No!” Cian snaps, increasing the strength of his grip on my arm. “Not until you calm the fuck down!”

“I am fucking calm,” I snarl, attempting to wrench my arm free. “What part of this doesn’t exude fucking calmness!”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe declaring an all-out war on the Italians? Trying to turn the streets into a bloodbath without talking about it first?”

“What’s to talk about?” I finally wrench my arm free from Cian’s grasp and haul myself out of the hospital bed. “The order is given.”

“Cormac—”

“What would you have me do, Cian?” I spin to face him. Anger dulls the pain from my surgery to repair the internal injuries from the crash, and it’s more effective than any of the painkillers. “They killed Brenden! And then rather than handing over that fucking rat, Noah, they tried to act like I am unreasonable. And then that son of a bitch strode in here, shot our sister, and kidnapped the woman I love. So tell me, Cian, what the fuck else would you have me do? What kind of talking would fix this, hmm?”

“I don’t know!” Cian yells back, situating himself between me and the door. “I just—” He pants softly, seemingly deflating before my eyes. “I just want you to stop and think before?—”

“Before what?”

“Before I lose you too!” His voice breaks. “Brenden is dead, okay? Saoirse nearly bled to death in that room because all the fucking cops here are on the Italian payroll. You nearly died in that crash, and I… I was just me, okay? Watching as my family crumbles around me, and I couldn’t do anything to help anyone!” He drags his hands through his hair and then points at me. “So if I have to fight you to keep you in here for at least another day, I will. I don’t care. I’ll fight you for the full twenty-four hours if I have to.”

My anger bubbles down to a simmer as my brother looks at me with tears in his eyes, and then it hits me like a bulldozer. Waking up from surgery to learn that two days ago, Noah had swept into this hospital, shot my sister, and kidnapped Evelyn was rage-inducing. Nothing else mattered and I immediately gave the order declaring that no Italian in this city was safe from my wrath.

It didn’t cross my mind that for those two days, Cian was suddenly in charge of everything. I know that fear. I felt it when Brenden died and suddenly, I was thrust to the head of the family with no warning. I hadn’t thought of Cian feeling the same thing. The urge to punch him fades and I slowly, very slowly, ease back down onto the bed.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “Sitting around doing nothing is killing me.”

“Running out there,” comes Saoirse’s voice from the doorway. “That’s what will kill you.”

“Fuck’s sake!” Cian darts forward to grab his twin. “Why can’t you fuckers just stay in your beds!”

“Because there’s shit to do,” Saoirse says, patting Cian’s cheek as she braces heavily on a crutch and limps into the room. “I can’t stay down either.”

“You’re both going to be the death of me,” Cian groans as he helps Saoirse to a nearby chair.

“Least we’ll all go together,” I murmur. I rub at my face, trying to ease the tension in my brow and jaw. “Have we heard anything? Anything at all?”

“No,” Cian mutters, slumping back against the wall. “Between keeping you two in your beds, calming Ma, trying to keep business running and the Italians away from here, I haven’t heard shit.”

“What about the fucker that crashed into me?” I ask.

“Pulled a Houdini,” Cian grunts. “Vanished.”

“Think he ran?” Saoirse asks.

Cian shrugs. “I had too much shit to do, but he’s on my list.”

“Oh, speaking of. Ma did call with a warning, though,” Saoirse says, pulling my attention to her.

“A warning?” I ask.

“She says the deal we have with the Italians is the foundation of where we stand today and that you should retract the call to arms.” Saoirse rubs gingerly at her leg. “She also says you’ve got to call her, or she’ll fly out here.”

“No. She stays on that ranch. And send some more men out there,” I snap.

“Already done,” Cian replies. “I wasn’t just wailing by your bedside for those two days.”

I send him a thankful glance. “I don’t give a shit about the deal. Our foundations are our own but they’re destroying this family. I don’t care about some fucking weapons deal. There’s no bridge I won’t destroy to get Evelyn back, you hear me?”

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