Page 108 of Skin Deep

He gave her the biggest smile and slid into the driver's seat.

“Hey,” I said, grabbing her attention. “We’ll get some pizzas from Mamma’s whenever I get home. We'll stay up and watch movies.”

She nodded, and after we kissed, she held my hand until she had to let go.

“Say what you want,” Lach said, pulling away. “You're lucky to have her. A good wife is worth more than rubies. She's one of the good ones.”

We grew quiet. I let his truth sink in as he drove. He seemed to have plenty of thoughts on his mind. I could tell by the look in his eyes.

I wondered if he was thinking about Ivy and the shit she'd put him through. My brother was no saint—he fought demons every day—but at least he was trying to work it out and do the best he could.

It was better to not bring it up, though. Whenever any of us did, he became defensive, but in a closed-off way. Lachlan was the type who could sever ties and forget the person ever existed. He wouldn't even waste time arguing. He'd just walk away. But he couldn't from us, so he'd just shut the door for a while.

He turned into the private airport's parking lot, found a space, and shut the car off. He looked at me.

“You sure you want to do this? I can take care of it myself.”

I looked out the window. “No,” I said, ready for my feet to hit the pavement and move. “I appreciate the offer, but no one can take care of this but me.”

He nodded. “Let's roll.”

I slept the entire plane ride. Lachlan woke me up when we landed.

The last time I'd been in Boston, the weather had been freezing. It had warmed and was pleasant. But my heart was as frozen as my hands had felt, and ice water was running through my veins. I was as numb to what I was about to do as my flesh had been then. The chill had turned inside. But I was about to rain down the fires of Mount Etna on the man who dared to get close to mine again.

We had confirmation Miles and his cronies were already in town. We knew where they were staying. It wasn’t a penthouse suite somewhere, either. Miles had plans to take my wife to a motel where the lobby didn’t need to be accessed before the rooms. Less witnesses that way.

Lachlan narrowed his eyes as we pulled up. “He didn’t spring for fancy this time. No turn down service or breakfast in bed.”

“No cameras either,” I said.

Lachlan had told me that they had them at one time, but they stopped working. He’d found that out through Dermot Craig.

The check-in office was detached from the actual motel. It was a two-story brick building with iron railings. It reminded me more of an apartment complex. Two big rigs and two cars were parked in the lot. One of them was an SUV. Lachlan pulled close to the office, but not to check in.

We left the car and walked over to the SUV. Lachlan looked in the driver's side window while I took one of the back ones. Like in New York, rope. It curled on the seat like a brown snake. There was a roll of silver tape next to it.

“Motherfucker,” Lachlan said.

Yeah, my sentiments exactly.

Lachlan put a hand on my shoulder to keep me in place. He shook his head.

“Bad enough we don't have a plan,” he said.

Another SUV pulled into the parking lot. Lachlan nudged me and stuck his chin toward our car. We climbed in as the SUV took a spot a couple away from where the other one was.

Lachlan started the car. “I think Miles was stupid enough to go looking for O'Craig. That's his guys.”

He parked between the two big rigs, where we had the perfect vantage point to watch what was about to happen. He turned the car off, and we cracked the windows.

A man in a suit leaned against the front of the SUV. The other three guys took the stairs.

“That's John Smith,” Lachlan said. “He's overseeing whatever is about to go down.”

Four loud knocks came from the second level. The three men were at a door in the middle of the complex. One of Miles's giants answered the door.

“You lookin’ for Oran Craig?” one of Craig’s men asked.

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