Murphy’s Love: Murphy’s Law Book Three
Page 15
Julia was trying to move on. He saw it in the way she threw herself into her pregnancy, making sure to eat the right foods and do all the right things, the way she planned their wedding, wanting everything to be perfect, wanting to bring their strange families together for the sake of their child and their future.
He was proud of her, but he knew her well enough to know that she would never truly feel safe — would never truly feel vindicated for all she’d lost — as long as Yael Dohan was alive.
He watched the guards move out of sight as they headed for the other side of the house, right on schedule according to Ronan’s calculations.
He put the binoculars in the waterproof bag and removed his weapon. Then he crept through the trees at the edge of the beach, keeping low to the ground as he headed for the house.
38
Julia was sitting at the table in the kitchen in her robe, flipping through a catalog of baby products, when Ronan entered through the courtyard doors. She looked up in surprise, a flush spreading through her body at the sight of him.
He was such a beautiful man, and he was hers.
“Hey,” she said, moving to get up, “I didn’t expect you back so soon.”
“Don’t get up. I need a shower anyway.” He leaned over her from behind, his lips lingering on hers, his kiss lighting a fire in her belly like it had from the first. Except now it was more than just passion — it was trust and respect and history and hope.
Most of all, it was love.
She looked up at him. “Are you hungry? I could make you an omelet.”
“Sounds perfect,” he said. “I won’t be long.”
He touched his hand to the table on his way out of the room. It was only after he was gone that she realized he’d left something there.
She picked it up carefully, her pulse quickening when she saw the ring. It was thick and gold, an elaborate medallion at its center with a stylized “M” rendered in what looked like lapis lazuli, a smudge of what may have been blood on the band.
She looked at the doorway through which Ronan had disappeared on his way to the shower, a million questions running through her mind. He would tell her if she asked. She knew he would.
But a lead weight was slowly lifting off her heart, her breath coming easy for the first time in months.
She closed her hand around the ring and dropped it into the pocket of her robe.
39
Ronan sat at the head of the conference table, looking at the numbers on the spreadsheet. They’d been meeting twice a month to review the books, wanting to make sure everything was in order in case they were served a search warrant. Ronan appreciated Nick’s thoroughness, but he’d decided he didn’t like leaving the money matters to Nick. Ronan had Julia now, and a baby on the way. He couldn’t afford to hide his head in the sand of the stuff that was familiar to him, couldn’t afford to be nothing more than a killer.
It was time he acted like a leader.
He looked at Julia across the table, gaze focused on the spreadsheet on her computer. Ronan wanted her to know everything, and Nick had agreed that it was necessary. If the worst happened and the Murphy brothers were arrested, someone would need to manage the money and investments. It was a steep learning curve — Nick had been busy shoring up their position over the past five years — but Julia was smart and she’d picked everything up quickly.
“These numbers for operating expenses are current through the 15th?” Julia asked Nick.
"The 12th,” Nick said.
Julia nodded and made a note on her computer. Ronan swept the office every morning for listening devices, but they were still careful about what they said there.
It was just the three of them in the conference room, Clay back to working other freelance gigs, Declan who knew where. After lying low when they’d been besieged by the press, he was now busy trying to make up for lost time, out every night until the sun came up, if he came home at all. Ronan would have to talk to him once the baby was born, figure out a way for them to coexist with a baby in the house, preferably a way that didn’t involve Declan’s hookups running down the hall in their panties.
Elise had gone back to work, taking a part-time job at a clothing boutique while she thought about what she wanted to do next. She was looking healthier and more serene these days and had even put on a little weight.
“Someone’s here to see you,” Reilly said, appearing in the doorway of the conference room.
Ronan looked at him. “Who is it?”
Reilly was more security than receptionist, as evidenced by his cryptic delivery of information.
“Alexa Nash.” Reilly set a business card down in front of Ronan. “Says she’s with the Attorney General’s office.”
Ronan looked at the card, then at Nick and Julia, before returning his eyes to Reilly. “Show her in.”
They closed their laptops at the same time. Ronan could have refused their visitor entry — without a search warrant, the AG’s office didn’t have any right to be there — but that would only create more suspicion and set up a needlessly adversarial relationship. Better to play it cool, act like MIS was an open book.
They’d been lucky so far. The online frenzy had died down, the internet moving on to newer, juicier stories. There had been no indictments, no requests for interviews, no search warrants, but Ronan wasn’t dumb enough to think that meant the AG’s office wasn’t pursuing a case against them.
Building a good case took time and patience. He wouldn’t breathe easy until at least a year had passed, and they were already discussing potential weak points in MIS’s operations in order to make a return to their business even less risky.
Ronan stood as Reilly stepped into the room, allowing the woman behind him to enter before bowing out.
“Ms. Nash.” Ronan shook her hand. She was tall and slender, her dark hair hanging in waves over her shoulders, a green blouse tucked into a narrow skirt. “This is unexpected.”
She regarded him coolly, her eyes like twin chips of blue ice. “Is it?”
“This is our assistant, Julia Berenger.” He indicated Julia, purposefully avoiding any mention of their engagement. Once they were married their personal relationship would be public knowledge. Until then, the less Julia was connected to him the better. “And this is my brother, Nick. He’s our CFO.”
Alexa Nash nodded at Julia, then turned her attention on Nick. She held out a hand. “Alexa Nash, Assistant Attorney General.”
Ronan didn’t blame Nick for the surprise on his face. His brother hadn’t seen the business card before Alexa Nash’s entrance, hadn’t known her official title until she spoke it. She was young to be in such a powerful position, around thirty by Ronan’s guess.
Nick shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
They stared at each other a beat too long before Ronan broke in. “Would you like to sit? Can we offer you something? Coffee, tea…?”
“No, thank you,” Alexa said. “I can’t stay long.”
“What can we do for you?” Nick asked.
“You could provide us access to your records,” she said. “If you want to play nice, that is.”
Nick smiled. “You have a search warrant, I assume?”
He was fucking around. He knew she didn’t have a search warrant. If she did, she would have been accompanied by an army of investigators and federal agents carrying boxes for the removal of evidence.
She matched him with a chilly smile of her own. “Not yet.”
“I can call our lawyer, but I’m guessing he would advise against it,” Nick said. “Of course, once you have a search warrant, we’ll be more than happy to comply. You know how lawyers are.”
She narrowed her eyes, undoubtedly thinking about her own law degree — an obvious requirement for her job and one Nick would be all too aware of.
“I do,” she said.
She looked around the room, her gaze moving over the walls and furniture, scanning the top of the conference table with the metho
dical eye of an investigator. They’d been right to close their computers. Ronan had a feeling Alexa Nash didn’t miss much.
When she’d covered every visible surface, she glanced at each of them.
“It was nice meeting you all,” she said, turning on her heel.
Ronan looked at Nick and was horrified to find his brother staring at the woman’s retreating ass.
She paused in the doorway of the conference room, then turned around. “Not planning any trips, are you?”
Ronan shook his head. “Why do you ask?”
“I’d advise against it,” she said. “As a lawyer, I mean.”
She stepped into the hall, raising a hand in farewell as she departed.
Nick’s eyes lingered on the doorway until he finally turned to look at Ronan.
Ronan glared at him.
“What?” Nick asked.
Ronan shook his head. It wasn’t worth it.
“That’s not a good sign,” he said, considering the implications of Alexa Nash’s visit.
“They’re obviously not done with us yet,” Nick said.
“We’re doing all we can to be prepared. Let’s just stay focused.” Ronan kept his voice calm, but deep down a thread of concern had wormed its way into his psyche.
It wasn’t just him now, or even him and Julia. He had their baby to think about, their future, and damned if he wasn’t going to be a part of it.
“Hey.” Julia walked over to him and slid her arms around his neck, seeing through him as usual. “Everything’s fine. Whatever happens, we’ll be okay.”
It shouldn’t have been so easy to believe under the circumstances, but somehow he believed it anyway. It was because of this woman, because of Julia, that he had faith in love.
That he had faith in them.
He lowered his mouth to hers, oblivious to Nick’s groan as he gathered up his laptop and left the room.
When Ronan pulled back, he ran his thumb over her full lower lip, the urge to take her to bed — to remind himself in the most primal way possible that they belonged to each other — almost overwhelming.
“We could go home for lunch,” he said.
She smiled and shook her head. “You’re a bad boy, Ronan Murphy.”
“What can I say? You bring out the worst in me,” he teased.
The truth was that she brought out the very best in him. Because of her, he was a different man, a better man.
He was a man who would love and protect her, who would support her in everything she did, who would cover her back through all the things life might throw at them. He was a man who loved her more than life itself.
He leaned his forehead against hers. He would spend the rest of his life showing her. The rest of his life loving her.
No matter what.
Epilogue
Nick Murphy shut his office door and took his laptop to his desk. Outside the office’s glass doors, the sea stretched gray and roiling into the distance. Despite the fact that it was winter, it seemed like a bad omen, and Nick had to force himself to push aside the feeling that the stormy seas were a harbinger of things to come.
He drummed his fingers on his desk, warring with himself in the moment before he relented and opened his computer.
He typed the name into the search engine: Alexa Nash, Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General.
The page populated with articles, rulings, and more than a few pictures.
He hesitated, scanning the page. Then he leaned forward and started reading.
* * *
THE END
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