Page 109 of Merciless Desires

I roll my eyes. “Is there any way you can go to my motel and collect my things?”

He taps a pencil against his mouth. “And bring them where?”

“Can you keep them at your house? If we’re going to trial, I need clothes to wear, right? The motel will throw everything away.”

Cormac had bought me a brand-new designer wardrobe that first week in Vegas with the roulette winnings. He later sold all those nice clothes, along with what I had on when we met. As I got bigger, he took me shopping at cheap stores for sweats and large T-shirts. Either way, I’ll look like a hobo.

I’m so screwed.

CHAPTER 4

Darragh O’Rourke

“Your brother’s fooked up,” Tamryn O’Leary, a detective in Las Vegas, drawls in the same lilt as my entire family. “Again.”

I don’t speak with the accent. Despite hearing it in my house growing up with seven siblings, it never stuck. Perhaps that made breaking away from my ‘crime’ family easy.

My father, or Da as I sometimes call him because my brothers do, had his heir, my oldest brother, Kieran and four more male reinforcements to take over his legacy as King of Astoria.

He didn’t need me or Cormac.

Fucking Cormac…

“How bad it is?” I grip the phone.

Tamryn, a connection I made in Las Vegas, where I keep a villa at a five-star casino, recognized my last name on the docket and called me in Seattle.

“He overturned a car last night. Fooked up his ankle and caused a scene.”

Doctors make the worst patients. We graduated medical school, and our advisor at UCLA referred us to a hospital in Seattle for our residencies. We were stars, or freak shows, depending on how you look at it. Identical twin doctors waltzing up and down the corridors.

“They found drugs in the car,” Tamryn goes on. “Then a detective saw he fit the description of a conman scamming tourists. Several filed reports to LVPD. He’s banned from most casinos.”

“God damnit. Where is he now?”

“Hang on, Darragh. Let me see what else I can find out.”

Listening to the hissing on the other end, I reflect on how Cormac and I love many of the same things, like most identical twins. Vegas being one of them. Although, he took gambling and games too far. He had pissed off enough people at our hospital and then came the disciplinary hearings. With his refusal to take responsibility, he got fired.

We get a monthly allotment from my family, more than enough to live on comfortably. But when I noticed Cormac spiraling, I called Eoghan, our lawyer brother, who also handles the family’s finances. I made up a story, so he’d open Cormac a new account. An account I controlled.

I limited his spending, thinking that would control him.

He said he was going to Vegas for a month to get his head together. Looking back, I don’t know why I didn’t try to stop him. Why I thought a month in Las Vegas would clear anyone’s head is as good a question as any.

It’s not like my brother is my only concern. I’m a highly sought-after pediatric surgeon, and I’m raising my seven-year-old daughter alone.

One month turned to two, then six. Then years went by. But Cormac sent me casino account statements. He was making money with his gambling. And so long as he didn’t get into trouble and kept his lifestyle far from my family, I didn’t urge him to come home.

I chose not to be a part of their crime world, but O’Rourke blood swims in my veins, and I have a knack for making strategic connections. Tamryn is one of them.

“What time is my brother’s arraignment?” I ask him when he gets back on the line.

I curse, staring at my watch, furious that the daddy–daughter day I took off work for has to be canceled.

“He’s on the docket for four p.m.”

I’ll have to ask Sophie’s nanny to stay over to take care of her, since I don’t know when I’ll be home. I’d bring her. She loves the city, too. Vegas has a surprising number of things to do there for kids, and she loves the villa. Loves the sunshine and the pool. In the fall, Seattle’s constant cloud cover and rain is dreary as hell. But it’s where my livelihood is. Plus, it’s far away from my family.

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