Page 59 of Retribution

He stares at me for a beat, and then he focuses on Carys. “I’ll look after her.”

“You okay?”

“I’ll be fine.” She sniffs and fumbles in her purse.

I grab the box of tissues from on top of the fridge and pass them to her. She gives me a grateful half smile before turning to Finn.

With a brief rub to her back, I head out of the kitchen. As I’m leaving, she says to him, “What’d you do?”

I slow to hear his response.

“What do you think I did? I killed ’em, Carys. I killed ’em all.”

It’s not a surprise. Deep down, I knew that had to be what he did. The only logical reason he couldn’t ever return to Ireland would be a crime like that. Still, hearing the way he says it to her, his voice tender and tough, causes a surge of longing to stir in my chest.

When I get to Lorcan’s door, I don’t have to knock before the buzzer clicks. There’s no time for me to collect myself. Why did I suggest cameras?

In his kitchenette, he is pouring a drink. His tie and suit jacket are thrown across a chair. The sleeves of his shirt are rolled to his elbows. “Want one?”

“Not sure it’s a good idea.” My hands skim the paper-thin material of my dress.

“Finn and Carys getting into it out there?”

I frown. “How’d you know?”

“’Cause I know what he did. And I’m old enough to know women.”

Suppressing a smile, I say, “Old enough to know women? That’s a thing?”

Lorcan passes me a glass of whiskey. “Oh, it’s a thing.” He takes a sip of his drink, and he’s so close, the light scent of his musky cologne mixed with notes of mint and oak drifts to me. I could bathe in that smell.

“So he can’t go back to Ireland because he killed the people who stabbed Carys?”

“They got that far, did they?”

I tap a finger to my temple. “A bit of info, and my brains got me the rest of the way.”

“Yeah, McCaffery family. No one in the immediate family—a few people in that circle. Finn can’t set foot in the country.”

“He killed for her.”

“Wouldn’t you kill for someone you loved?”

“Yes.” To put a bullet in the person who killed Chad would be the sweetest feeling in the world. I’d do it a thousand times if I could. With my head cocked to the side, I examine him. “Have you?”

He swishes his drink around in his glass, staring down into it. “First person I ever killed was for my brother.” Throwing back more whiskey, he avoids my gaze.

“For Finn?” That surprises me. They’re so distant now, it’s hard to believe Finn inspired that sort of loyalty.

“We didn’t always hate each other.”

“Must have been before his comment to your mother.”

“After, actually.”

I frown. “Why would you do that?”

Lorcan raises his eyebrows and wanders over to the couch and chairs. “In a misguided bid to win him over.”