Page 102 of Iris' Lying Eyes

Finally, his head pops through, and he emerges, but his big-ass body struggles with the fit. He grunts and growls as he maneuvers, and I step forward to help before dropping my hand. There’s not much I can do from here, anyway.

The guys are in the car when he drops to the ground with a huff. I glance at the door as he grabs my hand, and we race to the car.

Once we’re in, Cyn fires it up and pulls down the lane before looking in the mirror.

The vehicle shakes on its axis as we bump along, and I grab my neck when we make it to the highway, grateful for the reprieve.

Cyn pulls onto the pavement with a squeal of tires as Jig says grimly, “That was too easy.”

“They don’t need to chase us,” I say. “They’re always one step ahead.”

I ignore Bastion’s stare as Jig looks at me over his shoulder before he pulls a burner phone from the glove compartment and fires it up.

“Dad? I need your help.”

Chapter Twenty-One

For reasons I’m unclear about, we roll up to the mansion. The guys haven’t set foot here since I arrived. What’s changed?

Cyn defied all traffic laws to get us here, and when we pull up, he blows from the vehicle before we’re fully stopped, grabbing up Rain, who’s standing on the front porch.

Up front, Jig pauses with his hand on the door, and I watch with a pulse in my chest before whispering, “Will it change anything if she knows?”

He stiffens and says, “Yeah, it’ll change us.”

I flinch when he slams the door behind him, bowing my head. Maybe that’s where I’ve always been in the wrong. There’s never been an “us” to worry about, though.

Beside me, Bastion watches the reunion silently before saying, “Let’s go.”

I’m still cold from his dick behavior, but grudgingly, I follow him, avoiding contact with the others as I trudge inside.

The mousy maid is waiting inside the door to make matters worse, but I have no energy beyond curling my lip. She shrinks away from me, and I fight a surge of shame. What am I doing? What’s it all for?

This whole charade is exhausting.

“You can go to bed,” Bastion says, and she smiles tentatively, but he’s already walking past her.

By unspoken agreement, the others follow, but I hesitate at the stairs. I’m not in a place to pretend, and I’m not a part of their group anyway.

“C’mon,” Rain says softly, grabbing my arm.

With a small sigh, I go, but I’m fighting tears that I have no way of keeping at bay. It’s all coming to a head.

When we enter the sitting room, Jig stops in his tracks and says in horror. “What the fuck happened in here?”

I can’t suppress a tired smile as the group takes in the pink-on-pink room. Jig grabs a fluorescent pink pillow, complete with zebra stripes, and holds it in the air. “It looks like—”

“Yeah,” Bastion grunts.

I collapse on a puffy pink bean bag chair and lean my head back. A few uninterrupted hours of sleep would be nice.

“So, what happened?” Rain asks.

“We found the girl, but it went to shit after that,” Cyn says.

Rain looks between us with wide eyes, and I drop my gaze. The rat warren of betrayal is piling up around me and the usual fucking suspects are all on the damn list.

Has that fucker Diem been playing me from the start? If so, he deserves whatever is coming for him because he’s gone up against the wrong guy. Old man Paddy McCafferty…why did he presumably send in the guys? Finnen, the fucker…what’s his end game?

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