Page 83 of Illicit Heir

Anger flares across her features. "Of course I will. I just told ya I will. Have I ever not done what I said I was going to do?"

I wish I could tell her she had, but she hasn't. She always follows through. So I finally admit, "No."

She nods. "Okay then, I'll take care of it."

I spin to leave.

"Devin," she calls out.

My insides squeeze tight as I turn back. "What?"

She warns, "Don't go near Lauren again. I will take care of this. But you're not to go near her. It's an order. Do ya understand?"

Instead of telling her I do, I state, "Don't take her pub away from her. It's all she cares about."

Alaina's face falls. "Aye, but they can't keep working there. It's an O'Connor pub now. That's the way these things work, and ya know it."

"She lives in that pub," I argue.

Alaina takes a deep breath. Sadness fills her expression. Yet she keeps her voice firm and asserts, "She'll have to go live with her mum or somewhere else."

Anger fills me. I curl my fists at my sides.

Alaina glances at them, then back at me. "Devin, ya know how these things work. She's going to have to move on. She and her mum will both have to move on, and there's nothing ya or I can do about it."

"Sure ya can. You're head of the clan," I point out.

She looks at me closer. "Do ya think that I don't want to help them?"

"Sounds like ya don't."

"Of course I would help them if I could."

"Ya can," I insist.

She shakes her head. "No, Devin, I cannot. I'm an ex-O'Leary who took an oath to uphold the O'Connor laws. As are ya—if I need to remind ya. They are O'Learys, and unfortunately, there will be no more O'Learys in The Confessional."

I scowl at her, suddenly hating this life I'm in, which I've never hated before. And it makes zero sense.

Lauren's just another lass I've shagged.

She's not.

She is.

I curse myself. I shouldn't even care about her, but I do. This will break her. I know what that pub means to her.

Alaina orders, "Go home, Devin. Stay away from Lauren. Get some sleep. When you wake up, it'll be a new day."

I grunt. "Is that how ya do it? Ya just tell yourself tomorrow's a new day, so what ya did today doesn't matter?"

She gives me a disappointed look. "Of course not. Ya know how these things work though. And let me remind ya that I didn't make the O'Connor rules."

"But ya can change them."

She squeezes her eyes shut and releases a long breath, shaking her head. She opens her emerald eyes and insists, "No. I can't."

"Bullshit."

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