Page 35 of Into Temptation

“You were happy to sacrifice my siblings to save yer own arse. I don’t do business with people like ya.”

The memory of Ronan using the twins as bargaining chips still enrages me as it did ten years ago.

“I would not have done that to them,” he frantically explains. “I would have said anythin’ to get out of there.”

His excuses have me curling my lip in disgust. “Yer weak, and yer also a fucking traitor. Away ta fuck, before I finish what I started ten years ago.”

Ronan doesn’t move, however, and that’s because he has something or, rather,someoneI want. “I know where Sean is.”

And just like that, Ronan has signed his own death warrant.

“How would ya know that?” I ask, folding my arms across my chest.

“Because he approached me, askin’ if I wanted back in,” he reveals in a rushed breath. “I told him I was on the straight and narrow. That my business was goin’ well. He said if I ever changed my mind, that he was havin’ a meetin’ tomorrow.”

I take a deep breath. “Where?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Cian scoffs as he’s clearly heard enough. “Well, what good are ye then?”

He takes off into a sprint, chasing after Ronan, who uses his truck as a barricade. “But he said he’d send a text an hour before. I can tell ya where then,” Ronan pleads.

“Cian, enough,” I say lightly as they’re making me seasick with their running around.

“Ye surely don’t believe this dick,” Cian exclaims, looking at me. “He was workin’ with SeanandBrody. He is a double-crossing fuck who cannot be trusted.”

And he’s right. But Ronan is the break we need. Even if this is a trap, it’ll get me face-to-face with Sean. “Why would ya want to help me?”

“It’s because of Sean and Brody that I was exiled, forced to leave Belfast when they wanted nothin’ to do with me,” he declares, his sincerity clear. “Youse could have killed me, but ye spared me. I owe youse my life. This is my way of sayin’ I’m sorry. Of payin’ ye back so I’m no longer indebted to ya.

“This is my way to say sorry to yer da.”

I will probably regret this decision, but I believe him.

“Punky, no,” Cian says, reading my expression instantly.

I understand his concerns, but this is my choice. If he turns around and leaves me to deal with the repercussions on my own, there would be no hard feelings. But I know Cian—he’ll never let me down.

“If yer lying, and there’s a good chance that y’are, know that I will make ya watch as I torture and then kill yer family. Every single one of them.”

My threat isn’t empty. I mean every single word.

Ronan nods calmly. “I understand. I will not let ya down.”

“Again,” Cian adds, shaking his head.

With that settled, Ronan opens the car door, but I arch a brow. “Where are ya goin’?”

Ronan freezes, lost in translation. So I decide to clarify.

“Yer a builder, are ya not?”

“Aye. I am.”

Gesturing toward the castle, I smile. “Then do yer job. I called ya out here for a reason.”

Cian curses under his breath, while Ronan quickly reaches into the back of his truck for his toolbox.

---