Page 61 of Corrupted Union

Oran grimaced. “No. I considered starting to lock it after the guns disappeared, but I decided that would tip her off to my suspicions.”

“And you haven’t been able to find anything on her since then?”

“I’ve searched our house top to bottom, looked through her phone, and even fucking followed her when I could. She’s so damn clean, I’ve questioned my own sanity.”

“She was at Moxy,” Tor interjected tonelessly. All eyes turned to him. “I didn’t think anything of it, but I saw her there having words with that girl.”

“That girl?” I asked.

Torin finally lowered his gun. “Yeah, Darina, the server who disappeared. Caitlin was talking to her out back one day. I thought it was weird, but not my business.”

A cocktail of emotions stirred under my skin—disbelief, wariness, relief. Could that be our answer? Had sweet Caitlin been guilty of these unforgivable crimes against our family?

“She said you’ve been working with her brother,” I said to Oran, recalling my conversation with her outside Paddy and Nana’s place.

Oran’s face creased with disdain. “Seriously? Flynn’s an asshole with a chip on his shoulder big enough to sink theTitanic. I steer clear of him at all costs.”

Motherfucker.

I’d never even considered Flynn Donovan. “Could he be using her? Manipulating her into giving him information?” I wasn’t sure what leverage he might have, but it would explain a lot.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Oran answered gravely.

Before the meeting, I’d prepared myself mentally not to be swayed by denials just because Oran was my cousin. I had shut out all emotion and tried to view him as I would any other man I suspected of fucking us over. Even using my most unbiased filter, every fiber of my being agreed. He was telling the truth. Oran hadn’t betrayed the family.

I was so goddamn relieved.

I slid my gun back into its holster, leading my cousins to do the same. All four of us sat as we processed the implications of this new information. I was the first to vocalize my thoughts.

“Could Flynn have actually believed he’d get away with this?” The whole thing dumbfounded me. “What could he possibly have hoped to achieve?”

Conner shook his head with incredulity. “The Donovan family crumbled years ago. There’s no reviving it at this point.”

“I’m done wondering why,” Oran said with lethal calm. “The question is, what are we gonna do about it?”

I looked back at Conner. “You still have that stash of sodium pentothal from when we needed info out of that Albanian?”

He nodded. “After seeing how well it worked, I stocked up.”

Good. “Then I say we head to your house, Oran, and get some answers.” I held his tormented stare, my chest tightening. “I’m sorry to have doubted you. I hope you can understand.”

His gray eyes sharpened to polished steel. “That’s the thing. Idounderstand because the trail led directly to my door. That’s the worst part. I think she set me up to take the fall.”

That was fucked up.

How could she have sworn an oath, stood by Oran, and let him inside her body, all while forging his death warrant?

That was some cold shit. I couldn’t even imagine how my cousin must have felt.

“Come on, let’s get this over with. This shit ends today.”

Security letme inside when I got to my parents’ house. I peeked around the downstairs and didn’t see Mom, so I decided to chill in my room. When I reached the upstairs landing, I immediately noticed the door to Ivy’s room was cracked open. That door was always kept closed. Always.

It had been years since I’d gone inside. I didn’t like the swell of memories that hit me when I did, but I knew in my gut that Mom was in there and that I needed to follow her.

Each step I took felt heavier than the last, but eventually, I reached the door. I’d been right. Mom was inside, sitting on the bed with Ivy’s pink teddy bear hugged to her chest. In all the years since my sister’s death, I’d never seen my Mom go into this room. It had always seemed strange that she’d insisted on keeping everything unchanged if no one saw the room, but when my eyes met hers, I knew I’d been wrong. Mom was at home in here. This was her portal to the daughter she’d lost.

I half expected her to jump up and usher me out, but that didn’t happen. Instead, she smiled and patted the bed next to her. Feeling like I was walking into a time warp, I entered the shadowed room and joined her.

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