Page 11 of Crown of Smoke

“Not from the Keans, I bet.”

They all stay silent, telling me I’m right.

Phoenix sniffs, not giving a shit that I have a point. “Still, you’ve fucked things up here, Flint?—”

“It’s Flynn, apparently,” Blaise reminds Phoenix.

“Whatever. We've spent years setting this up. Years of planning our revenge, and you risk it all for some reporter?"

"She was going to get herself killed." I want to throttle my brother. "What was I supposed to do, let them hurt her?"

"Yes." Phoenix jabs a finger into my chest. "That's exactly what you were supposed to do. We're not cops, Flynn. We're not the good guys here. The Keans murdered our parents, stole everything from us, and now you're compromising our chance to make them pay because you've got a hard-on for some blonde?"

He’s right, of course. I risked everything for a woman who has bewitched me. And I also suspect Lucy thinks we’re good guys, undercover cops or FBI, working to bring down the Irish Mob. If she knew who we really were, that we're the surviving Ifrinn brothers, back to destroy the Kean family from the inside out, she'd run screaming.

“If you need to fuck, go find?—”

“It’s not that,” I grind out, surprised by how offensive I find Phoenix’s words. Do I want to fuck Lucy? Hell yeah. But hearing how sordid he makes it sound bothers me.

“Fuck, it’s even worse.” Ash shakes his head. “He likes her.”

Blaise’s jaw gapes.

Ash puts his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t go there, Brother. Love fucks you up.”

I feel bad for Ash. Not only did the fire take our parents, but it took the love of his life as well. But I don’t plan to take advice about women from him or any of my brothers.

“It’s not like that. If you were there, you’d have done the same thing.”

“Doubt it,” Phoenix says.

“Well, maybe not you because you’ve completely sold your soul, but?—”

"She could be useful,” Blaise interrupts. “If she’s been doing a story, she might have information or resources that could be helpful.”

My hands curl into fists. "No."

"Think about it," Blaise continues like I didn’t say anything. "She's already doing the work. She's got press credentials, access to records we can't get into. And the Keans would never suspect?—”

“They just tried to gang fuck her in an alley. They know who she is.” Why are they being so dense? We’ve been through this already. Several times.

“She strikes me as someone who is going to keep investigating the story with or without you,” Blaise says. “So why not let her help?”

"I said no."

"You don't get to make that call." Phoenix steps closer, eyes narrowed. "Not after the stunt you pulled tonight. We vote on this, like everything else."

My jaw clenches. “Right, says the big brother who’s always bossing us around.”

He shrugs. “Right now, we’re all big brothers and think she could be useful. She owes it to you for saving her life.”

The room feels too small, my brothers' presence suffocating. They're right. Using Lucy could be helpful. She's smart, determined, already has connections. But the image of her unconscious in that alley, blood seeping from her wound, is seared in my brain. It sits there right alongside the image of my parents’ bodies burned beyond recognition in the ashes of our home.

“We can protect her,” Blaise says.

Fucking hell. "Fine. We vote." I meet each of their gazes. "But you need to understand something. If anything happens to her, if the Keans so much as look at her wrong, I'll burn us all to the ground, Keans, Ifrinns… mission be damned.”

Blaise’s eyebrows shoot up. "Jesus. You've known her for what, three hours?"

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