Page 13 of Savage Promises

Garrett’s lips press shut as he shakes his head of greasy hair.

Rhys leans in. “You don’t wantmeto ask again.”

“I know better than to tell you that,” Garrett cries out. “You won’t kill me. Not pure Irish blood. Butthey’llgut me.”

Connor screams in his face, “Fuck your pure Irish blood. Look around. We got plenty. You’re gonna die tonight.”

“Connor...” My breath hitches, not thinking we’d take it this far.

“You’re testing my Celtic pride,” my brother says, landing several punches like gunshots to Garrett’s face.

He sags in the chair, blood dripping from his nose and staining his shirt.

I retreat to the darkness and watch. Like I do when I stalk and surveil the enemy. Not everything is exactly what it seems. Once in a while, we’re blindsided with a truth we never saw coming.

But Garrett isn’t that deep. He’s just grown more and more rotten. A flash of silver glinting behind Garrett’s wristwatch catches my eye.

A tag.Shit.

I step closer, my voice ice-cold. “You’re tagged?”

Garrett stammers, “It’s...it’s nothing. My father tags all of us. He’s out getting pissed, he doesn’t care about me.”

Connor yanks off the watch and tosses it to me. “Son of a fuckhead.”

“Why wasn’t I told your father is tagging his crew?” I holler, onlyIwould have approved that. “Your father may be off drinking, but if he knows you’re here, he’ll come guns blazing for you. Heknowswhat we do to people here.”

The words barely leave my lips when Connor immediately calls Griffin.Theboss.

After a few beats to answer since it’s late, Connor speaks into his phone. “I have Garrett Donnelly in my tunnel. You should get down here.” He then gives our brother a rundown of what we found.

“Fuck.” I shake my head. “I knew this was going to be a long night.”

“My team followed him,” Connor keeps talking to Griffin. “Shane is going through his phone.”

My brother looks up. The sound of engines echoes above the tunnel. The vibration shudders through the walls.

“Copy that,” Rhys says to the guard he posted outside via a secured hand-held radio and turns to my brother. “Donnelly Senior closing in, Connor.”

“Aw fuck, Old Man Donnelly is here already,” Connor announces bitterly to Griffin on the phone.

“Stop!” Richard Donnelly marches down the tunnel’s ramp at a swift pace with his hands in the air. “I’m not armed. I just want my son.”

I wish this weren’t happening. But then his figure looms large in the room and I curse that it’s real.

“Put Richard on the phone,” Griffin demands, loudenough for me to hear without the speaker setting on.

Connor hands over his cell, and Richard snaps it from his grip.

“Griffin, son, there’s been some kind of mistake.” Donnelly’s old Irish accent made Fergus O’Rourke trust him. “My boy—”

“Yourboywas caught red-handed,” Griffin yells. “He told me to my face that ATF seized an entire truckload of guns that cost tens of thousands of dollars when he really sold it to the Albanian cell. He’s not a boy. He’s a fucking man. And a thief. You know better than anyone what people like us do to thieves,Mr.Donnelly.”

“Our family goes way back, Quinlan,” Richard chokes out, but it’s a hollow reminder since he and my da had been feuding for years.

The call goes on mute for a moment. I suspect Griffin is telling his wife Ava what happened. Heck, he might sendherto kill both Donnellys.

Jealousy spears through me like a blade. The idea of having a woman so close, so in sync, is a distant dream. Someone who knows all my secrets, the best and worst sides of me. Is there a woman who can handle me? And still drop to her knees for me? There was only one I imagined, but I can never have her. It’s impossible.

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