He turned to the cabinet to grab a plate, hiding his grimace. At some point during the long, restless night he’d had to acknowledge that the two parts of him—the side that hated Lyse and the side that lusted after her—were two sides of the same coin. What to do about that, he didn’t know yet, but if she was as shaken by last night as he was, he needed to get his shit together and stop being a total arsehole.
He cleared his throat as he turned back to the women.
Lyse was hunched in on herself, her grip on the dishes tight enough to be turning her knuckles white. Feeling like shit because he’d made her feel like shit.
“Right,” she said. “I’ll need to get some clothes from my place.” She walked to the sink, and his gaze brushed across her braless tits, swaying gently as she took care of her dishes, then made a beeline toward the hall. Watching the movement sent a punch of need to his gut, twisting with the guilt until he wasn’t certain he’d be able to eat. One thing was certain, though—if he wanted to be thinking about anything but those nipples, the way they pushed against his palm, his chest, then yeah, fresh clothes were a grand idea.
Christ, he was all over the map this morn.
Lyse disappeared around the corner. Fionn met his mam’s eyes as he sat at the table, her knowing look making his cheeks go hot. “So…” He picked up his coffee. Shifted in his seat. Took a drink. “What’s the plan?”
Mack entered the room, hair wet and a fresh uniform in place. “We’re headin’ to the station. I need to do some checkin’, talk to my sergeant. I want more than two men protecting you, acushla.”
A fist squeezed around Fionn’s heart at the endearment. Pulse of my heart, it meant. The softness in Mack’s eyes as he stared at Siobhan said he meant the word.
Fionn managed a rough, “I agree,” around the lump in his throat. A whole team wasn’t enough to be watching out for his mam. Which reminded him, he needed to check in at work. He could do that while Mack did his thing.
Mack gave him a nod. “Let me eat and then we’ll be headin’ on.”
Siobhan gathered her dishes. “We can stop at Lyse’s apartment to get her things on the way.”
Speaking about Lyse’s setup… “Mack.”
“Yeah?” Mack set his food on the table, then took a chair.
“Lyse…” He lowered his voice as his mam left the room, not wanting to hurt her. “She’s been watching Mam for a while, likely since she arrived. She’s only here because she found out where my mam was hiding.”
“Siobhan hasn’t been in hiding for a long time.”
Fionn scrubbed a hand over the stubble on his cheek. “That’s something I can’t get through my head yet.”
“Because you haven’t been here,” Mack said around a bite of beans, his tone neutral. “Our minds get stuck on something until we have to face the reality of it changin’. Like you and Lyse.”
“The way I see Lyse is reality, more than any of you realize,” Fionn bit out. Mack might’ve known her for two months, but Fionn had been knowing her for years.
“Is it?” Mack shook his head. “Tell me what tipped you off on Ferrina.”
Fionn went over what Lyse had shown him in greater detail than they’d managed the night before. “While we’re gatherin’ her things, we can grab her intel from the apartment.”
“So she’s really some kind of hacker genius?”
That’s when the nagging at the back of his brain clicked into place. He eyed Mack carefully. “You’re not surprised at all.”
“I’m not surprised,” Mack said. “I knew that girl is smarter than she ever let on. She said her business was computers, but I’d no idea it was underground stuff.”
“She’s fierce when it comes to tech,” Fionn said. “You’d do good to be making use of her.”
“You admit she tried to blow you up, but you want me trusting her with your mam’s life?”
Last night he’d have given Mack a feck no. This morn… He glanced down at his empty plate. “I…”
Mack chuckled and reached over to slap him on the back. “That’s pretty much how all of us react to our wan.”
Except Lyse wasn’t his woman, not in that sense.
That’s not what your cock was saying last night.
Christ. He stood up before the traitor part of his anatomy did too much rememberin’. “Let’s head on.”
The four of them were mostly silent on the return trip into town. Fionn could sense Mack’s caution as much as his own, and he was guessing the women felt it as well. The air felt different when you knew there was a threat. Mack pulled up to the gate at Lyse’s apartment and rolled down his window, but his cell interrupted before he could enter the code Lyse gave him. “Yeah?”
Fionn could barely hear a male voice on the other end of the line. After a minute Mack swore. “All right. I’m here now; I’ll be taking care of it. No worries. Yeah. I’ll be in to the office after. Yeah.” He thumbed off the call. “We got trouble.”
Alarm jerked through Fionn as Mack opened the gate. “Ferrina?”
But Mack shook his head. “Not that kind of trouble.”
The trouble was waiting outside the open door of Lyse’s apartment, a worn-thin T-shirt and flannel pants on his tall frame, pacing back and forth on the tiny patio. Fionn took in Sean’s frazzled appearance and swore, mimicking Mack’s earlier reaction.
“Yeah,” was all Mack said.
Lyse was out of the car the second it pulled to a stop. “Sean!”
“God, Lyse.”
Fionn heard the relief in the man’s voice as he gathered Lyse’s petite frame against him. Call him a dick, but Fionn hated seeing them embrace. Hated seeing anyone’s arms around Lyse but his.
He was in a feck-ton of shit, wasn’t he?
“I was checkin’ in,” Sean was saying. “The soup was spilled everywhere. What the hell happened?”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re sure as feck not!”
Fionn felt the fear in the big man as their eyes met over Lyse’s head, felt the moment that fear turned to suspicion. “Who’s the man, Mack?”
Mack threw an amused glance over his shoulder at Fionn. “Just a friend, Sean. Let’s head inside, yeah?”
Sean herded Lyse ahead of him, still eyeing Fionn. “I’m wanting to know what happened, Lyse. And don’t be telling me nothing, because I know better.”
If Fionn hadn’t already observed Sean last night, seen him with the man that was undoubtedly his lover, he’d have been suspicious of Sean’s motives. The part of him that wanted Lyse, that refused to let go of her, wanted to rip the man’s hands off her anyway, but he refused to let the bastard side of him shred his control anymore. There’d been too much of that lately. Instead he shoved his fists into the pockets of his fatigues and followed everyone into the apartment.
“I had to leave unexpectedly,” Lyse explained as they crowded into the living area. Siobhan went farther, into the kitchen, where she began tackling cleanup of the mess they’d left behind last night. Seeing the food splashed over the counter, guilt churned in his stomach and his gaze went to Lyse’s hand, to the reddened skin he’d caused.
As if she sensed his scrutiny, Lyse covered the area with her other palm, rubbing lightly. She never used to do that; she’d always had this thing with her hands, this little dance they did when she was flustered or excited. Now she was so much more subdued, clasping her hands together as if she could lock down whatever emotion was playing inside her. He missed the old Lyse suddenly, missed the easy, open way she had with everyone she met. Was that Lyse gone forever, or was she a lie like he’d thought for the past two months?
Glancing around the room, he saw concern and affection in every pair of eyes staring at Lyse. How did he reconcile that with what she’d done?
“Are you al’right?” Sean asked.
“I am.” Lyse’s gaze met Fionn’s, a question in them. How much could they tell him?
The less, the better. Not just for their safety, but for his
. “I’m Fionn McCullough, Sean.” He stepped forward, offering the man his hand. Anything to get Neighbor Boy to quit touching Lyse. “I’m a friend of Lyse’s from the States. I came in last night, needing help on a job.”
Sean’s grip was firm, his eyes probing. “Lyse is sick. She should be in bed, not gallivantin’ around.”
“I told you, I’m fine, Sean.” Lyse pushed the hair off her forehead, the thick fall seeming too heavy for her delicate hand. “I need to get some things together real quick.”
“I’ll help,” Siobhan offered.
An uneasy silence descended as the two women left the room. Sean ran a thumb over his lips, his stare moving from Fionn to Mack and back again. “What’s the story, Mack?”
Mack sighed. “Nothing you need to be worrying about, Sean. I promise.”
“But I—”
Mack’s hand went up, cutting Sean off. “I know you’re wanting to look out for Lyse, but I’ve got her, yeah? I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“So it’s garda business, then?” Sean asked.
“It is.”
Sean eyed Fionn once more. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Lyse and Siobhan returned.
“Lyse, you’ll need to be getting anything in your computer room that could help us out,” Fionn said. In the few minutes that took, Fionn could feel Sean’s frustration rising, but they didn’t need anyone else at risk. If Sean’d had training, yeah, but Fionn could tell by the way he moved that the man was a civilian. Probably handy enough in a pub fight, but they weren’t after facing the everyday drunken punch, now were they?
Mack gave the place a careful once-over as they moved to the door. “You be keeping an eye on this place, Sean, and I’ll be keeping an eye on Lyse, yeah? She’ll be back in a couple of days. You can reach me at the station anytime.”
“I’m not liking it, Mack,” Sean said, following Lyse down the front steps.
Lyse looked over her shoulder. “I know, Sean. It’s okay, really.”
Sean settled a hand on her back. “It’s not okay”—he twisted the word into a weird facsimile of Lyse’s American accent that made her smile—“but it’s not like I’m having a choice, is it?”
None of them did, but if Fionn let himself say that, the next thing he knew he’d be barking at Neighbor Boy to remove his fecking hands, so he clamped his teeth shut and ushered his mam around the opposite side of the car. They’d made it no more than two steps before gunfire blasted through the air.
Chapter Eleven
For the briefest moment it was as if time stopped. Between one step and the next, Lyse froze, a horrible, heavy thud-thud-thud sound pounding in her ears. That sound didn’t compute on a bright, chilly autumn morning, but it was there nonetheless, whether her brain chose to interpret it or not. Only when Sean grunted in pain behind her did the pieces come together.
“Get down!”
Fionn’s shout was too late; Lyse was already turning. The world spun—the car, Mack and Siobhan diving to the ground, the splash of bright red high up on Sean’s shoulder. Too near his heart. Too much blood. “Sean!”
His eyes rolled back in his head, and his knees buckled. Lyse grasped his T-shirt, though how she hoped to keep him upright, she didn’t know. It was all instinct. Keep him safe. Keep everyone safe.
That was her job.
Fionn tackled them from the side, sending all three of them to the ground behind the car. Pain shot through her body as she landed on the hard gravel, her hands still caught in Sean’s shirt. The thud-thud-thud changed to ping-ping-ping—the sound of gunshots hitting metal.
Someone was shooting at them.
The lateness of the realization struck her as funny; then the adrenaline hit, wiping out everything in its path. Like mainlining a dozen Red Bulls after a full pot of coffee—her hands shook, her head ached, and her heart threatened to explode from her chest. There was no room beneath the cage of her ribs for air, and for an awful second she thought she’d die from lack of oxygen, but then her mouth was open and she was dragging it in, gulping it, choking on the gravel dust but unwilling to stop.
Sean wasn’t gulping. The fact registered even as Fionn crawled over him, his hands untangling hers as he gripped Sean’s shirt and ripped it open.
“Fionn?”
She hated being needy; she should be the strong one, the capable one. She should be doing something, but all she could do was stare at the jagged hole above Sean’s heart, the blood pumping onto his skin, and beg for reassurance. It was Fionn who quickly tore the front from Sean’s shirt and formed a padded square, pushing it onto her friend’s chest. “Hold this,” he barked.
It was just what she needed. That sharp command broke the chains on her frozen body. Her hands came up, pressed on the fabric. “I’ve got him.”
Fionn nodded. As Lyse took over, he did a duck walk across Sean’s legs to the side of the car and peeked over. Though maybe peeked was the wrong word. More like assessed. She’d never thought she’d see him in battle—it was kind of a fantasy, right? The strong, tough, almost superhero warrior protecting her from danger. But this man wasn’t hot; he was cold. Arctic. A shiver went through her while she watched him, making her muscles flinch in pain. If Ferrina was smart, he’d do what she had done and run rather than face this man, because the warrior staring toward the enemy right now would have zero mercy. None.
In slow motion she watched his hand go to his back, his fingers driving beneath his shirt to grip black metal, sliding a gun from his waistband. She’d known it was there, had seen it on the nightstand last night, but the reality of it— She glanced back at Sean, at the blood soaking her palms even through the material, and a fierce need for a gun of her own, for their enemy in her sights, surged forward. She’d never considered herself bloodthirsty before.
She was now.
“They’re shooting over the wall,” Mack shouted from the other end of the car. Lyse still lay on her side, her body aching enough to catch her breath, but she raised her head, glancing in Mack’s direction. The garda crouched much like Fionn, a weapon a lot like Fionn’s in his hand. Most garda were unarmed, but she’d known Mack wore the gun as a senior officer. Still, seeing him with it shook her.
Siobhan knelt behind him. Her face was white with tension and, as she looked to Sean, worry. Lyse wanted to reassure her, but all she seemed capable of doing was holding Sean’s life in her hands. She didn’t feel strong enough for that. She was determined to do it anyway.
“Lyse.”
She turned her focus to Fionn. “Yeah?”
“What’s on the other side of that wall?”
The area around the apartments was walled, to keep out the noise, Harry said. Lyse thought it might be to keep the sight of all their cars from bothering the neighborhood. “A house. I can’t remember who lives there.” Thank God it was past nine and most everyone had left for work by now.
Fionn nodded. “You covering me, Mack?”
“I’ll have to,” the older man said. “Siobhan is their target. I won’t leave her.”
“You better not. I’ll go.” Fionn moved around to crouch over Lyse. His heat at her back steadied her like nothing else could have. “Let’s get a look here.” He tugged her hands away from Sean’s chest. Blood continued to ooze, but maybe more slowly than before. God, let it be more slowly than before.
The sound of Mack’s voice reached her, but not his words. Fionn heard it too. “You calling the station, Mack?” Fionn asked.
“I’m calling,” Mack growled.
“It won’t be long now,” Fionn said, his breath in her ear. “Don’t you be worryin’ now, love.”
She chuckled, the sound cutting off at the hitch in her side. “Yeah, right.”
Fionn replaced the padding on Sean’s wound, settled her hand over it, and moved his to her belly. “You always were trouble.”
It wasn’t his words that took her breath, it was his touch. She flinched away when all she wanted to do was lean into him. “Fionn?”
“Fionn, what’s wrong?”
Siobhan’s voice was strained, worried. She might’ve birthed a warrior, but the woman was too full of emotion to cut it off; she wouldn’t be cold. She’d be warm, and Lyse needed warmth a whole damn lot right now. She refused to ask for it, though, refused to put her friend in danger. Instead she bit down on her tongue until it bled. No more crying out, no calling for help. She might not be able to fight like Fionn, but she wouldn’t get anyone hurt either.
“We’ve got two, Mack,” Fionn said above her.
Two what? “Fionn?”
Green eyes met hers, and they weren’t cold anymore. “You’ll be all right.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Just a nick,” he said, but the grim lines bracketing his mouth didn’t agree. “We’ll be fine till help gets here.”
She nodded even though she didn’t feel fine. But whatever the problem was, it couldn’t compare to Sean’s. He was the one who needed help. They had to get out of here. “I’ll be fine.” She rolled back onto her side to face her friend, stifling a cry at the pain. “You and Mack do what you have to do to get us out of here. Keep Siobhan safe.”
“That’s my girl.”
The words sent a flutter of warmth through her despite knowing Fionn didn’t mean them. He thought she was a traitor. A liar. He didn’t want her.
She closed her eyes, forcing them back open when she realized her grip on Sean was slacking.
Fionn reached over her and laid something next to her hand on the ground. His knife. “Use this if you need to,” he said. His warmth disappeared. “Let’s be going, Mack.”
The gunfire had been intermittent, only when their attackers could gain a target, she guessed. Now it came again, this time closer. Mack was firing, she realized. Giving Fionn cover. She heard Fionn’s boots hitting the gravel as he ran in the opposite direction from the front gate, away from Mack. Separating the targets. She’d watched enough ops to recognize a few tactics. What she didn’t have the brain power to figure out was why Fionn was running to the blind end of an enclosed parking area with no way out.
Destroy Me (Southern Nights: Enigma Book 3) Page 7
