Page 140 of Dirty Eoin

“Eoin, are you in there?”

A voice from the other side of the door. I close my eyes, cursing silently before slowly reopening them. How much has she fucking heard?

“Ma,” I reply.

“Do you know where Jaine is? She and I were going to have a girly chat.”

Jaine rolls her eyes. She hates my ma, and who can blame her after what she did? But she’s still my ma. The woman who birthed me and gave me life. The woman who birthed Paddy, without whom, Finian would not exist. Ma’s trying to offer an olive branch. Jaine needs to rise above the past and accept it for all of our sakes, but more so for Fin’s and Paddy’s.

“I know where she is, yes.”

“Where?”

Jaine moves across to open the door. A door that she left unlocked as a silent invitation to me, even though she won’t ever admit it to herself.

The door swings open and Ma takes us both in.

“Interrupting something, am I?”

CHAPTERFORTY-FOUR

ROISIN

The O’Connell Home, Darling, New York

Sometimes eavesdropping isthe only way to find out what’s going on.

Molly had the right idea, even if at times it was a little misguided. The main problem that silly girl had was that she insisted on mixing it with lies.

A Molotov cocktail unless you know how to handle it.

As a parent, it’s difficult to listen to your children in pain. And that’s what Eoin currently is, try as he might to hide it.

From the family.

From her.

He’s not been himself this past month. He portrays himself to be all right on the outside. He may be able to fool everyone else, but he can’t pull the wool over his mother’s eyes.

I’ve watched him grow from boy to man. I’ve watched him practice and master his mobster craft, including all of his facial expressions. I know what’s going on behind each and every one of them. I know he’s been covertly pining for the biker. The biker who turned out to be the mother of my grandson. The biker who kept Finian from us for almost a year and a half.

Do I understand her reasonings? Of course I do. She was protecting her son. And she was also protecting my Padraig.

Now I’m going to do the same, only this time, I’m going to protect Eoin.

I was dead against their union. Even when Fergal insisted that she was the perfect match for our eldest, I still wasn’t accepting of it.

Until he relayed in detail the way she stood up to him. That she quite happily stepped up to the plate and danced an Irish jig with Da Duster himself before telling him to fuck off.

Twice.

And that when he cut her, she didn’t flinch an inch.

Molly McGrath would have emptied both her bladder and her bowels before spilling her guts as she begged for her life.

Jaine Jones would sooner die than beg. And she almost did.

There was also Finian to consider. Protection of that child must come before anything else, so in the end, I had no choice but to relent.

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