Page 70 of Connor's Claim

“And this is the man your father picked out for ye,” he muttered.

A moment of quiet played out.

“Well, he sucks,” I commented.

Everly burst out with a laugh that was at least half made of upset. “He really does.”

Shade continued reading. “It says in the notes that Roache was charged with assault but the charges were dropped, presumably because he paid off the women involved. Or threatened them.”

Everly said, “If I work that through, the clean-up from the damage to his reputation could be what he wanted from me and what my father offered up. A respectable and docile little girlfriend.”

Genevieve curled her lip. “That’s gross. On all parts. So Roache isn’t allowed here, but what happens if your father shows up? I saw him downstairs recently.”

Everly nodded. “Ninety-five percent of the time, he gets women sent to him. But you’re right, I don’t want to run into him here.”

“We have alerts set up for him.” Shade took her hand. “Ye willnae run into him by accident.”

“Good. I don’t want him to find out where I am.”

We all looked at Shade.

Everly swung her gaze between us. “What?”

Shade pulled a face. “I wasn’t exactly subtle in bringing ye in last night.”

I choked on a laugh. “If ye mean yelling ‘mine’ with her over your shoulder, yeah.”

Everly’s jaw dropped. “You did that?”

Shade’s satisfied smile was unrepentant. “Not sorry.”

She rolled her eyes, her cheeks pink again after going pale from talking about her attacker. “Then when that filters back to him, he’ll almost certainly come here to get me.”

“And we’ll be waiting,” Shade promised her.

A phone buzzed.

Shade extracted his from his pocket, answering it. “Is he now?” he said after listening to whoever was on the line. He lowered the phone and spoke to us. “Riordan is downstairs. He wants to talk to his sister. Manny didn’t specify which.”

I stiffened, my blood rushing in my ears so I half missed whatever was said next—some gripe from Arran about Shade’s information-sharing capabilities. But then people were moving.

“We need to leave soon,” Shade informed Everly.

“You still haven’t said where we’re going. The message from the policeman said he’d given you a list. Is this to do with that?”

He took both her hands and lowered his forehead to touch hers. “Believe me, the less ye know, the better. All I need is for ye to watch.”

Intriguing, but whatever. The meeting was over, and if Riordan was in the building, I intended to hide.

With a final hug of Genevieve’s cat, I clambered up and stowed my notepad and pen. “If you’re off out, I’ll catch ye later. Everly, the offer is open if ye want to make a plan. It doesn’t have to be a stabby one.”

Then I dove for the door, leaving the apartment with barely another word. Down the hall, the lift light wasn’t illuminated, so I jabbed the button.

“Hurry the flip up,” I urged it.

The stairs entrance slammed open at the same second the lift doors parted.

Riordan appeared with Manny behind him. I stepped into the lift, gave him another cute little wave, then got the hell out of there.