Page 32 of Reclaim (Deadly Hearts 3)

“Are you fucking joking?” She laughs with me. “But enough about me, what about you and Paddy?”

I sigh. I get the feeling she changed the subject pretty quickly when Mom came up. “His name is Declan. He gave you a fake name because of what he does.” I wait for the fallout of that, but it doesn’t come. She stifles another laugh.

“Oh?” she splutters. “What does he do? Work for MI6, or something?”

“Something,” I murmur. “Anyway, I love him, and we are together, and I don’t care about you and him. We’ve discussed it and I know all I need to know about that. I don’t want to talk about it again, nor do I want it to be weird when we all meet up, yeah?”

“Of course,” she says. “Already forgotten.”

I breathe out in relief. “So, your other guys, what are their names?”

“What, so you can get David to do a deep dive on them?” she retorts.

“Oh, you know me too well,” I joke.

“Hugo and Miles. That’s all you get.”

“Fair enough,” I say and decide to come clean. “Uhm, I also may have followed in Mom’s footsteps…”

Silence.

And then she lets out a loud guffaw that was the opposite of her pretty snickers from earlier.

“Jesus!” she cries in hilarity. “She is going to hit the roof! Three? Four?”

“Five,” I admit with a slow smile. “Two of whom are twins.”

“Oh my God!” she squeals. “Please let me be there when you tell her!”

“Tell you what? We tell her together, over video call so she can’t skin us alive on the spot!”

“Deal!” she says with a tinge of relief.

I don’t blame her. I also feel a bit relieved. Although Rex is no fool and probably figured it all out when he was here, I doubt very much he went home and told Mom about it. Nah, he knows which battles to pick, and he’d have left that one for me to bat. Rightly so. It’s not his business.

“As long as you are happy and safe, then I’m happy,” I say.

“I’m both. And same goes for you, Rubes. I’ve worried about you all these years, being so alone…”

The silence simmers for a few seconds.

“I’m good,” I lie. “Really good.” What purpose does it serve to tell her all my woes and have her worry even more about me? I don’t want her hovering and telling our parents. I don’t need Rex storming back over the ocean, fueled by rage and guilt over something that has already been fixed. Physically fixed anyway.

“I’ll speak to you soon, then, Rubes. I have to go,” she says softly.

“Love you, Scar.”

“Love you too.”

We hang up and I smile sadly. Despite our light conversation, I felt an undercurrent from her. Maybe it’s just me projecting. Maybe it’s not. She doesn’t trust me enough to tell me, and that hurts.

I need to rectify that, but first I need to go and get my man back.

I shove the phone into the back pocket of my leather pants and stand up when there's a firm knock at the door. I already know it’s Layton.

I open the door and smile up at him. “I’m ready.”

He nods. “No rush if you’re not, but Cillian is about to climb the walls. I mean, he does know his twin, right?”

I stifle my giggle. “He is very protective, and I get it after what we learned…” I trail off, wishing that I could speak to Declan about it, but I have to get him back first.

“Yeah,” Layton says and takes my hand.

We walk silently back to the group, to see Adam on his phone. He hangs up when he sees us.

“Just as I thought. Vinnie is at Faulkner’s Auction. They have a pop-up happening in Hulme, just south of the city center today.”

“Let’s go then,” I state and don’t wait for a plan. I just want this over with so I can kill Vinnie and then take back what’s mine.

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