Page 144 of Merciless Desires

I have some for you, princess.

God, I’m losing it.

I spot my house phone cradled on the nightstand and pick it up so Ana can’t make a call downstairs. Sticking it under my pillow to muffle the annoying fast beeping, I call Eoghan.

“Lincoln Stone called and told me everything about Cormac and Stasia,” my brother answers abruptly, without even a hello.

“Fuck.”

“You told Kieran you had him under control.”

“No, I told Riordan.”

“Riordan is the underboss. It’s the same thing.” Eoghan sounds mad. Shit.

“Does Kieran know what happened?”

“No.” Eoghan exhales. “And that’s for his sake. Not yours. He’s got infant sons he’s having a ball with. He’s stupidly happy, and he deserves it. I’m not going down as the one who wrecks it.”

I wonder if Kieran will put a hit on Cormac and me.

“Kieran has to know eventually.” Hiding shit from him is worse. That I know. “He’ll make all our lives a living hell if he finds out from someone else.”

Like the Bratva.

“Once I have it under control, we’ll—”

“There’s more to it, Eoghan. Are you sitting down?” I launch into a replay of how I found Ana, and everything else I learned over the last three days about what Cormac did to her.

Including knocking her up.

My brother is eerily quiet, then releases a long Fuuuuuk in his thick brogue. “Do you need me there to give her a talking to?”

“No! I can handle her. I just need…” A sharp pain nags at my chest. “I need help with Cormac.”

“He’s locked up in rehab for a month.”

“Already?” I’m shocked Cormac hasn’t shouted from the rooftops that I have the Bratva princess.

“I don’t fuck around, Dar. He’s under control.”

“What happens after the month?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Tell me.” I still feel protective of him.

“Lachlan offed a quack here who messed with Riordan’s wife. We need a new doctor.” We… My family. Shit. “Cormac had his chance to live on his own. He fucked it up, and now he has to pay.”

“That’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not, Darragh. You made him your responsibility. No one here saw you as his keeper. He fucked up on his own. I’m arranging to bring him home after he does his mandatory rehab in Malibu.”

“He won’t agree to it.”

“Lachlan will handle him.”

“Are you sure you want him back in Astoria?” I shudder. “He can spill about Stasia’s baby.” It feels weird referring to her as that now, even though it’s the name we all knew her by for years.

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