Page 110 of Merciless Desires

“I’ll be down there in a couple of hours.” I cringe, seeing it’s already noon. “Thanks for the call, Tamryn.”

“Daddy?” Sophie’s voice springs open my clenched eyes. “Where are you going in a couple of hours?”

Her sad drawl pulls at my gut. My Sophie was a surprise. Because I was raised right, I married her mother. But Ginnifer left us three years ago when Sophie was only four years old. She took an eight-week rotation with the Red Cross and never came back to the states.

Ginnifer calls Sophie once in a while, and it’d been easy to lie to my daughter, saying Mommy will come home soon. She just turned seven and has figured out Mommy isn’t ever coming home.

Christ, those three years went by fast.

Before I answer where I’m going, I eye Sophie’s nanny, Olivia, who is always here when I’m on call at the hospital. That part is understandable to Sophie. Getting on a plane to bail my brother out of jail isn’t.

“Do you mind staying over tonight, Olivia?”

She doesn’t live here, and rarely stays over. I’m asking her for a favor I usually don’t need.

“Dr. O’Rourke, tomorrow is Saturday.”

“Daddy, I have Morgan’s birthday party tomorrow. Remember, you said you’d take me?”

“Right.” Cormac’s situation weighs on me, and I feel like I can’t breathe, being stretched like this.

“Sophie, go get your iPad, and we’ll play more of Minion Rush,” Olivia says with the right firmness a child needs.

“Yay!” Sophie flies up the mahogany steps in our renovated Victorian with a view of Puget Sound.

Ginnifer and I had an apartment, but I always believed kids need to grow up in a house. She picked this place out. Its $1.3M price tag startled me for a moment, but I have no regrets. Sophie was born here. This is her home.

“Thank you,” I say to Olivia, realizing she bought me time to get a plan together.

“You’re welcome.” She strokes my arm, hinting once again how she wants me.

I’m a man. I know the tone, the look, the hair twirling. But she’s my daughter’s nanny. I’m not crossing that line. Plus, I’m still married, even if I don’t bother wearing the ring anymore. Even if I’ve not had sex in three years and am ready to explode.

“My brother is in trouble.” I shift so Olivia’s not touching me. “I have to fly to Vegas.”

Panic creeps into my throat, realizing I’ll likely need to bring Cormac back here, and somehow be present to take my daughter to a birthday party in twelve hours.

I don’t even know what kind of shape he’s in, or if it’s safe for him to be around my daughter. Sophie comes first, always has. Where else can he go, though? I can’t call Kieran. He’ll send his jet and put Cormac on lockdown. He’ll go fucking nuts. Do and say shit to wipe out his relationship with the rest of our family. Cormac messed up, but I can’t let that happen.

Yes, I’m a fucking enabler.

This is my fault. I should have done more to prevent his downfall. We’re twins. We look out for each other. He’s my responsibility.

“Do you have plans tomorrow, Olivia?” I scroll on my phone and find the app to book a private jet. A captain, a co-pilot, and a crew to fly to Vegas last minute, who will then wait in a private hanger while I go grab Cormac, will cost me a fortune.

All on a Friday night. The busiest travel day to Las Vegas.

“I actually do have plans,” Olivia says. “Thanksgiving is coming up. I go shopping with my mother, and we prepare the house for relatives.”

While Sophie and I carve pumpkins, eat turkey, make Christmas cookies, and color Easter eggs, it’s only her and me now for every holiday. I have a massive family back East. But my refusal to be a backroom butcher for my brothers, stitching up knife wounds and digging bullets out of bloody flesh, has kept my daughter from a truckload of uncles. And a few aunts, now that my brothers are racking up wives. Christ, two of them are married now.

At my mother’s insistence, I flew back home over the summer when Riordan was in the hospital after running into a burning building that collapsed on him. I wanted to see my ma, who’s sick with MS. I pushed away the feeling of what I was missing as far as being part of a big family, but it tore me up inside.

When my brothers were younger, they were hooligans, terrorizing the streets of Astoria for my da. I didn’t think I was missing anything. Times have changed, and I wonder if I need to consider going home to Astoria, too.

I have to deal with Cormac first. He’ll never go back home on his own. Kieran will lock him up with guards until he gets his act together. He’s the weak link with a reckless streak and a big mouth who can bring their world crashing down.

He’ll hate me for dragging him back here. But I have to fix this.

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