Page 41 of Irish Reign

She purses her lips. “Good point. So you’ll have to tell him beforehand?”

“What?” My question cracks with disbelief.

“Tell him what you’re planning. Work with him to make it happen.”

I shake my head. But even as I reject her suggestion, I wonder if I actuallycanconvince Braiden. If the lure of taking Russo down, once and for all, is enough for him to let me do it.

It’s impossible.

It’s the only thing that makes sense.

I have to try.

Russo murdered Eliza, the last of my cousins. He ended the story I began That Night, eleven years ago. I need to destroy him. It’s the only way I can give any meaning to those bodies I left on the mountainside.

It’s the only way I can atone for my past.

17

BRAIDEN

Liam phones me from the freeport. He tells me things didn’t go well at the hearing, that Samantha seems stressed. Stunned even. I tell him to get her home when she’s ready. Not to force her. I can wait.

Last night I told her she could do anything. Tonight I’ll tell her I love her, no matter what she does. No matter what happens.

Of course she misses dinner. She’s still dressed in black and white when she comes to my office. She’s ignored her skirt, broken every rule I’ve put in place, the ones I enforce for her own good.

Without me, she destroys herself from the inside out. She works too many hours. She misses too much sleep. She skips meals, forgets snacks, lives on caffeine and adrenaline alone.

And Jesus, she’s wired tonight.

“I shouldn’t be telling you like this,” she says. “I should have taken some time. I could have drawn up a presentation, the way I did for your Irish imports. Alix came by my office, by the way. She wanted me to bring you some brochures. She said you’re moving up the auction, from November to the end of this month.”

“I am,” I say, cautious because I don’t know where this flood of words is coming from.

“I left the examples at work by mistake. I got distracted because Alix and I started talking. I should have put together some examples, some suggestions for my new idea. I’ve already drawn up a list of pros and cons. There are a lot of pros—I can count them out for you now. There are just a few cons. Really. And they don’t matter. Not in the long run.”

I lean back in my chair. Her cheeks are flushed. Her breath is coming short and fast. She looks like a woman who’s been well and truly fucked, which doesn’t make sense, because Liam said she was a mess after the hearing.

“What’s your new idea?” I ask.

Her fingers twist around themselves, over and over like she’s washing her hands. Looking down, she realizes what she’s doing. She catches the hems of her sleeve like she’s a little girl caught outside in a snowstorm, suddenly cold in a gust of wind.

“Speak,” I say, layering in my Captain’s voice. I know she can’t refuse.

She takes a deep breath. “We’ve known since that night in the safe room. Madden told us. Sure,hehired the waiter at the party. He delivered the fake documents to the freeport. Madden made sure I went to the tent, and he had his waiter ready, gun in hand.”

I feel my face flush with every fact she recites. I want to cut her off, to make her stop. My brother suffered before he died, but I should have drawn out his last few hours. I should have madehim pay more for what he did to Samantha. For what could have happened. Choking on his own cock was too good for Madden Kelly.

But he’s dead now. Gone. Burned. So I ask, “What do you want with Madden?”

“Not Madden!” she says, and she sounds surprised. She walks over to the window. Stares out at the yard. Talks to her reflection in the glass as she says, “Russo.”

“Samantha…” I warn her.

“Madden knew you’d kill him if he made a move against me. You’d already broken his jaw. Laid down the law. But he did it anyway. He risked his life. And that was because Russo played him. Madden probably didn’t even realize it at first, didn’t know he was being used. But Russo was behind that attack at the freeport, as clearly as if he hired the waiter himself.”

My finger tightens around a remembered trigger, a pistol lodged in the mouth of the man who threatened Samantha. I’m the one who demanded the shitehawk waiter say who sent him. I’m the one who blew off the back of his head when he refused to answer.

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