Page 462 of Lodestar

Though I knewshe’d continued the conversation, my focus was elsewhere.

When Priestley O’Reilly pushed the front door to her building open, I was there, shoving alongside her. My phone slipping into my coat pocket as I finished talking to Savannah and concentrated on my real reason for being out in thegoddamn cold on a side street just off Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen.

Having staked out her routine for the last couple days, I knew she took her baby to the kid’s grandmother and went to hot yoga. Then, she spent the day doing dick knew what in her apartment before picking up the baby around nine, sometimes later.

When I pressed my hands into her back and pushed her over, she yelped as she went flying.

The second she was on the floor, I dropped down, dug my knee into the center of her back, and asked, “Comfortable?”

“Help me up, dammit! Who the fuck?—”

She shrieked in pain as I grabbed her hair and slammed her face into the floor.

“I don’t think I will,” I informed her, ignoring her squeals. “Not until I’m ready.” Digging the boniest part of my knee into her spine, I whispered, “I’m going to help you up and then we’re going somewhere together.”

She ceased her struggles but started sobbing. “Who are you?” she whimpered, terror and pain leaching into every word. “Are you with the Five Points?”

“Why? Been expecting a visit from them?” I added more pressure. “Wonder why.”

Letting go for a fraction of a second, wanting her to experience hope, I robbed it from her by jerking her arm behind her back, not stopping until it snapped at the shoulder.

As she screamed, I peered around the hall and nodded at the doorman who’d rushed out from behind his desk.

Though he’d known to expect me, he gulped before staggering back a couple steps, his eyes drifting behind me.

Not needing to know who’d be there waiting, I jerked Priestley up by her dislocated arm so she’d pass out from the pain.

Thankfully, the cries of agony swiftly drew to a halt.

As soon as they did, the outer door opened and Brennan’s man, Forrest, strode in.

“Yo, Harry, how ya doing?”

“I-I’m okay, Forrest,” Harry stuttered. “Everything all right?”

“Sure, sure. Just business.”

Harry flicked a look between me and Priestley. “She’s a mom.”

“She’s a traitor. Should have thought of her kid before she betrayed the Points,” I informed him coolly.

“That right, Forrest?”

“That’s right, Harry. You know what to do when the cops come calling?”

“Tell them nothing then phone you,” he rasped anxiously.

“You got that right.” He raised two fingers to his temple in a salute. “Speak later, buddy.” When Harry hovered, Forrest chided, “Go on, Harry. You go back to your desk.”

Hunching his shoulders, Harry disappeared, and Forrest helped me prop up Priestley.

Together, we walked to the waiting SUV as if she hadn’t been beaten into unconsciousness but was sick and in need of urgent care.

Ha. She’d get that.At the end of my fist.

“Where’s Brennan?” I asked as I shoved her into the back seat and climbed in behind her.

“Waiting at the Hole,” Bagpipes answered from behind the steering wheel.

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