Page 22 of Destroy Me
He turned to the cabinet to grab a plate, hiding his grimace. At some point during the long, restless night he’d had to acknowledge that the two parts of him—the side that hated Lyse and the side that lusted after her—were two sides of the same coin. What to do about that, he didn’t know yet, but if she was as shaken by last night as he was, he needed to get his shit together and stop being a total arsehole.
He cleared his throat as he turned back to the women.
Lyse was hunched in on herself, her grip on the dishes tight enough to be turning her knuckles white. Feeling like shit because he’d made her feel like shit.
“Right,” she said. “I’ll need to get some clothes from my place.” She walked to the sink, and his gaze brushed across her braless tits, swaying gently as she took care of her dishes, then made a beeline toward the hall. Watching the movement sent a punch of need to his gut, twisting with the guilt until he wasn’t certain he’d be able to eat. One thing was certain, though—if he wanted to be thinking about anything but those nipples, the way they pushed against his palm, his chest, then yeah, fresh clothes were a grand idea.
Christ, he was all over the map this morn.
Lyse disappeared around the corner. Fionn met his mam’s eyes as he sat at the table, her knowing look making his cheeks go hot. “So…” He picked up his coffee. Shifted in his seat. Took a drink. “What’s the plan?”
Mack entered the room, hair wet and a fresh uniform in place. “We’re headin’ to the station. I need to do some checkin’, talk to my sergeant. I want more than two men protecting you,acushla.”
A fist squeezed around Fionn’s heart at the endearment.Pulse of my heart, it meant. The softness in Mack’s eyes as he stared at Siobhan said he meant the word.
Fionn managed a rough, “I agree,” around the lump in his throat. A whole team wasn’t enough to be watching out for his mam. Which reminded him, he needed to check in at work. He could do that while Mack did his thing.
Mack gave him a nod. “Let me eat and then we’ll be headin’ on.”
Siobhan gathered her dishes. “We can stop at Lyse’s apartment to get her things on the way.”
Speaking about Lyse’s setup… “Mack.”
“Yeah?” Mack set his food on the table, then took a chair.
“Lyse…” He lowered his voice as his mam left the room, not wanting to hurt her. “She’s been watching Mam for a while, likely since she arrived. She’s only here because she found out where my mam was hiding.”
“Siobhan hasn’t been in hiding for a long time.”
Fionn scrubbed a hand over the stubble on his cheek. “That’s something I can’t get through my head yet.”
“Because you haven’t been here,” Mack said around a bite of beans, his tone neutral. “Our minds get stuck on something until we have to face the reality of it changin’. Like you and Lyse.”
“The way I see Lyse is reality, more than any of you realize,” Fionn bit out. Mack might’ve known her for two months, but Fionn had been knowing her for years.
“Is it?” Mack shook his head. “Tell me what tipped you off on Ferrina.”
Fionn went over what Lyse had shown him in greater detail than they’d managed the night before. “While we’re gatherin’ her things, we can grab her intel from the apartment.”
“So she’s really some kind of hacker genius?”
That’s when the nagging at the back of his brain clicked into place. He eyed Mack carefully. “You’re not surprised at all.”
“I’m not surprised,” Mack said. “I knew that girl is smarter than she ever let on. She said her business was computers, but I’d no idea it was underground stuff.”
“She’s fierce when it comes to tech,” Fionn said. “You’d do good to be making use of her.”
“You admit she tried to blow you up, but you want me trusting her with your mam’s life?”
Last night he’d have given Mack afeck no. This morn… He glanced down at his empty plate. “I…”
Mack chuckled and reached over to slap him on the back. “That’s pretty much how all of us react to our wan.”
Except Lyse wasn’t his woman, not in that sense.
That’s not what your cock was saying last night.
Christ. He stood up before the traitor part of his anatomy did too much rememberin’. “Let’s head on.”
