Page 100 of Dublin Charmer
“Where to?” he finally asks.
I take a deep breath, fingers tight on the steering wheel. “Let’s see where the road takes us.”
Finn
I stand in the driveway long after Nyx’s truck disappears down the road, the airstream trailing behind like a silver ghost. The January air bites at my cheeks, but I barely notice. There’s a hollow feeling in my chest that I can’t shake, like someone scooped out something vital.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. It’s a text from Tag.
War room. Fifteen minutes.
I sigh, running a hand through my hair. Back to business. The world doesn’t stop turning just because my heart is breaking.
When I enter the war room, my brothers are already there. Tag at the head of the table, Sean and Bryan flanking him, Brendan sprawled in a chair with his injured leg propped up.
They all look up when I walk in, and I can see the concern in their eyes.
“You good?” Tag asks.
I shrug. “She’s doing what she needs to do for her brother. I respect that.”
“Doesn’t make it suck any less,” Brendan offers.
“No,” I agree, dropping into my usual chair. “It doesn’t.”
Tag gives me a sympathetic nod before shifting into business mode. “We need to talk about South Dublin.”
“What about it?” Bryan asks, leaning forward.
“With Gravely gone and most of the McGuires dead, there’s a power vacuum,” Tag explains. “We need to decide what we’re going to do about it.”
I pull my laptop closer, ready to document whatever we decide. This is what I’m good at—the details, the planning. Maybe throwing myself into work will help fill the Nyx-shaped hole in my life.
“I say we take it,” Bryan says bluntly. “Having divided territories hasn’t worked for decades. It got Da killed and now almost all the McGuires.”
Tag drums his fingers on the table. “What about letting Piper run it with Sean? Keep the McGuires involved but under our umbrella.”
Sean shakes his head. “Piper’s excited about taking over Smiley’s and expanding the facilities for the Devils. I’ll ask her, but if there’s one thing she’s made really fucking clear, it’s that her days of being a McGuire are over.”
“So, we just take it over completely,” I suggest.
Tag sighs. “That was my first instinct, but the McGuires have long-standing relationships both on the south side and with several families who aren’t fans of ours. We’d be fighting an uphill battle.”
Bryan scoffs. “So what? Let them grumble. With all of Dublin, we’ll be twice as powerful. Twice as dominant in the markets.”
Brendan sits up straighter, wincing slightly. “What about us taking control but putting Rory and Brody in as figureheads? We allow them to rebuild the McGuire name, but they play by our rules.”
“Meaning no sex trafficking and hard drugs,” Bryan clarifies.
I nod, already typing. “It’s a decent compromise as long as they toe the line.”
“They don’t have the instinct to hold a territory,” Sean says.
“But are they aware of that?” Brendan asks.
“Aye, they are. Piper has spoken to Rory about that on multiple occasions.”
Bryan spins a pen with his fingers. “It’s not a bad deal. They get to keep their family legacy, and we’d get to expand our territory.”
