Brush of Despair (Dublin Devils Book 2)

by Selena Laurence

  She nodded, and hopped lightly, injured foot held aloft.

  They slowly made their way out of the apartment into what was left of the hallway. Liam moved them to the back stairwell of the building, listening for activity from below, signs that the rescue teams were coming their direction. He guessed they wanted to make sure the building was stable before entering, so it was taking them longer than normal.

  As they made their way down the backstairs, Katya using the banister to hop, he felt in his pockets for his phone. Nothing. He didn’t know what had happened to the guard who’d been stationed outside his door, but since no one had been looking for him, he guessed the guy was dead.

  It was a long six floors down, and as they passed the doors opening to other floors, he could hear rescue crews moving through evacuating anyone still in the building. Finally, they reached the exit in the underground parking lot. He opened the door a crack and was relieved to find the rescuers hadn’t driven into the structure. Again, probably concerned about the whole building collapsing.

  “Stay here,” he instructed as they moved into the parking garage. He pointed to a darkened corner near the door they’d used, and she complied with a look of relief, sitting gingerly on the curbing there.

  He began a search of nearby cars, checking doors, peering in windows. Midway through the second row, he discovered a cell phone that had been left in a parked car. He noticed the red light flashing, indicating the newish Audi had an alarm system armed.

  Liam listened to the commotion outside, the sirens of more police, fire, and ambulances pulling up. He looked again at that flashing red light inside the Audi’s window, then made his move. He stepped back, took a deep breath, and kicked out, his boot slamming into the glass of the side window, shattering it so it bowed, hanging like a cracked curtain in the window opening.

  He collapsed for a moment against the side of the car, breathing hard, his ribs screaming their disapproval as the car alarm began blaring. With all the commotion outside, Liam was counting on no one noticing or investigating the noise. It was a gamble, but he didn’t have much choice.

  He stood and pushed on the glass until the entire crackled sheet fell in, landing on the driver’s seat. Then he reached in and grabbed the phone. He quickly made his way back to Katya, helping her stand and putting her arm around his neck as he steered her to the ramp that led out of the garage.

  It took nearly fifteen minutes to scoot along the darkened wall of the garage ramp until they were outside, screened by some bushes that landscaped the exterior of the building. Beyond the plantings, a few dozen cops, paramedics, and firefighters worked to secure the building, care for the injured, and try to figure out what the hell had happened.

  Katya sat on the ground, her face full of a fear he hoped never to see there again. He took the phone and sighed in relief that it didn’t have a security code programmed. He shook his head. It figured that someone who was so lax they’d leave the damn thing in the car also wouldn’t have it secured.

  After pressing in Cian’s number, he waited with a pounding heart until his brother answered.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s me,” he said.

  “Jesus.” Then there was no sound for a moment, and when Cian spoke again, his voice was so thick, it nearly undid Liam as well. “Where are you? Are you hurt?”

  “Some cracked ribs, and our friend has a sprained or broken ankle. But we made it outside on our own. There’s damn cops everywhere, though.”

  Cian spoke to whoever was with him for a moment, then came back on the line. “Give us a minute, we’re checking on something…”

  Liam gave Katya what he hoped was a reassuring smile, but she was too far gone and just stared back at him, glassy-eyed.

  “Okay,” Cian said. “We have one of Pop’s guys in the CPD there. Tell us where you are, and he’ll come to you and get you out. Badge will read O’Brian.”

  “Got it.” Liam closed his eyes for a moment. “We’re next to the parking structure ramp on the east side of the building.”

  “He’s on the way.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Liam?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I thought I’d lost you,” Cian said roughly.

  “I know.” Liam felt like a total asshole. He’d never meant to add more garbage to his brother’s plate. “But you didn’t, and now we know. I’ll be more careful. We’ll figure it out.”

  “This is only the beginning.”

  “I’m going to find a way to end it,” Liam promised. “And I’ll see you soon.”

  They disconnected the call, and it was only a few minutes later that Officer O’Brian found them and escorted them to his patrol car. They were safe, but only for now.

  Chapter 9

  “How are they?” Cian asked Dr. O’Reilly as he came into the living room of the safe house.

  “They’re just fine,” Liam muttered, following closely behind the doctor, shirt off and ribs taped tightly.

  Dr. O’Reilly raised an eyebrow at Cian as if to say, Can you control him?

  “Shouldn’t you be in bed or something?” Cian asked from where he leaned against the back of a sofa.

  “He should,” the doctor scolded. “Especially since he wouldn’t let me give him any painkillers.”

  “What the hell?” Cian held his hands up in the universal sign of frustration. “You’re not going to get better if you’re in pain all the time. And yes, they can find you here too, but it’s going to take them a while. You know that. We have this property locked down so tight, you have at least forty-eight safe hours. You need to use them to recover.”

  Liam walked around Cian and sat down gingerly. Cian and the doctor followed.

  “Katya has a concussion in addition to the sprained ankle.” Liam winced as he adjusted his seat. “She needs to rest—no light, no screens, nothing but sleep and quiet for as long as we can get it for her. I’m not going to be out of it on painkillers when she’s in that condition.” His voice was firm, and Cian sighed. When his brother got like this, there was no reasoning with him. Liam was as stubborn as their father. It could be a good thing, and it could be a real pain in the ass.

  The door opened, and Finn walked in, his face tense in a way it rarely was. As the family brain, the family fixer, and the son of least interest to Robbie, Finn had the most even temperament of any of the MacFarlanes. In fact, it was safe to say he had the temperament of a Milligan, his mother’s side of the family. There were politicians and church patrons, not mobsters.

  “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Finn spat as he ground to a halt in front of Liam. Cian sat back in the corner of the sofa and watched the show unfold.

  “My apartment went boom,” Liam snarked. Finn’s face grew red, and he clenched his fists.

  “You scared the hell out of us.” Finn’s voice was shaky and rough.

  Liam shifted, his cavalier expression faltering for just a moment. “But I’m fine. The Russians are all bark—they don’t have what it takes to really get me.”

  Finn thrust a hand into his floppy brown hair, his green eyes widening as he growled in frustration and stomped across the room, ending up staring out the window.

  Cian looked at Liam, who shrugged. Come on, Cian mouthed. Liam sighed and rolled his eyes, then stood awkwardly.

  Dr. O’Reilly motioned toward the door, and Cian nodded as the man left.

  Liam stood behind Finn and spoke quietly. “I’m sorry. I know you both wanted me to get the hell out of that apartment, and I should have listened to you. But I am fine, and I’ll do the careful thing from here on out.”

  Finn’s back moved as he breathed faster than normal. Finally, Liam put a big, heavy hand on Finn’s shoulder. He squeezed as he murmured, “I’m okay. We’re all okay.”

  Cian’s heart clenched as he watched the two men across the room. Liam and Finn, while next to each other in birth order, were also the most different of the four brothers, almost as though they were two halves of a whole that h
ad been split somehow years ago. Liam was the enforcer, while Finn was the fixer, cleaning up after Liam had done his work, or finding alternate solutions when Liam’s methods didn’t achieve the results they needed. Where Liam was brawn, Finn was brains, and logically, they ought to be as far apart as two brothers could be. But like those two halves cleaved, Finn and Liam had a unique understanding of one another.

  Finn still faced away. Liam gave one more squeeze to his brother’s shoulder, then turned to Cian. “We have any whiskey in this place?”

  Cian chuckled. “You think Pop would have a safe house without it?” He made his way to the galley kitchen and poured three tumblers full of Connemara. Food in the place was all nonperishable, and the accommodations were sparse, but Robbie MacFarlane made sure his safe houses always had whiskey, guns, and cash.

  When Cian returned to the living room, Finn seemed recovered, feet kicked up on the coffee table, a grin on his face as he watched Liam struggle to get comfortable with his ribs bandaged.

  Cian passed the glasses around and took a seat near Liam. Raising his glass, he looked at each brother in turn. “To Connor not being here,” he said seriously. Both Liam and Finn nodded, relief filtering between the three of them. After they’d all had a drink, Cian got down to business.

  “Lila is spending the day going over all our cybersecurity, making sure everything’s as tight as possible. Then she’ll make the first strike against the Russians.”

  “They’ll be expecting something after this mess today,” Liam said.

  “They’ll be expecting guns,” Finn spoke confidently. “It’s natural to fight fire with fire, like with like. They’ll be surprised when it’s their bank accounts we hit, and more than that, it’ll take them twenty-four hours to realize we’ve done it, so they’ll be on edge waiting for something that’s not coming.”

  “But they’re not going to quit coming after me. I humiliated Sergei when I took Katya. He’s out for blood.”

  “Which is why we’re going to keep you moving. Every twenty-four to thirty-six hours,” Cian answered. “We’ll rotate you, I have three properties set up already, and we’ll put more in the mix if we need them.”

  “How long can he keep that up, though?” Finn asked. “Cyberwars can be long.”

  “Plus Pop isn’t going to stand for me running like a coward,” Liam added, his voice gruff. “He’ll want guns against the Russians if it’s more than a week. He has no patience for this kind of subtle shit.”

  Cian ground his teeth. Robbie had no patience for anything other than bullying everyone and everything to bend to his will. Cian had infinite patience when it came to saving the lives of his brothers and trusted employees.

  “Even Pop knows we can’t take on the Russians like that. But you’re right, he’s not going to like you being on the run.”

  They all looked at one another, and while Cian knew it was up to him to have an answer, the adrenaline from Liam’s near miss had finally caught up with him. He was exhausted—mentally and physically—and he didn’t have any answers right now. All he had were questions and problems and the beginning of what he knew was going to be a hell of a headache.

  “The Russians blowing up Liam’s place is bound to get the cops and the feds up in arms,” Finn said. “Maybe we can tell Pop, Liam has to lay low to avoid the police? It’s not a lie, it’s something he can understand, and it buys us some time. If we can show him how we’re hacking the Russians, he’ll know we’re fighting back as well as playing it under the radar with the cops.”

  Cian nodded. It was logical—when was Finn ever not—and it would buy them some time. Maybe a week or a little longer. In the meantime, Lila had to keep hitting the Russians electronically hard and fast so they’d be more willing to negotiate when the time seemed right.

  “Okay,” he acquiesced, looking to Liam, who nodded as well. “We’ll play the cop angle, we’ll move Liam and the girl every day and a half, we’ll hit the Russians with cyber strikes round the clock, and we’ll present it all to Pop to postpone his frustrations.”

  “And when the cops really do come looking for Liam?”

  “We’ll tell them he’s on vacation. He wasn’t there when it exploded. If they want to speak to him via phone, they can do that.”

  “I’ll get the lawyers on it ASAP,” Finn said. “We’ll make them work for anything.”

  “And I’ll have Lila get a phony plane ticket and hotel room booked under Liam’s name so it looks like he’s off enjoying himself somewhere.”

  “What about the girl?” Finn asked quietly, his gaze darting to the short hallway that led to the bedroom.

  “What about her?” Liam asked, his whole body tensing up.

  Jesus. Cian wondered why he hadn’t seen it before. Liam had a thing for the woman. Now that was a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

  “We have to do something with her at some point,” Cian told him gently. “She’ll never be safe here, you know that, plus she’s a liability to you. You can’t take care of yourself as well if you’re weighed down by her. You need to decide where you’re going to send her and be done with it.”

  He saw it in his brother’s eyes, the tenuous desperation, the beginning of rebellion. But Liam shut it down before saying, “Yeah, okay. Give us a couple of days so she gets over the concussion. I’ll ask her if she has anywhere she can go, and if not, we’ll just set something up for her—an ID, a ticket out of the country, a few thousand dollars.”

  Cian just nodded, catching Finn’s gaze at the same time. Yeah, both of them could see it. Liam had something mixed up inside, Cian could only hope it wasn’t too far along, because there was no way he could let his brother keep the woman. If the Russians thought she and Liam were living some sort of happily ever after, they’d make it their prime purpose in life to destroy the both of them. And there was no way Cian was going to let a woman be the death of his brother.

  “Please tell me he’s okay,” Cian’s mother said as she met him at the back door to the family kitchen.

  “Yes, a little bruised up, but he’s fine. I promise.”

  Angela moved across the room. “Come on, then. What do you want to eat?”

  Cian smiled to himself. Like most of the world’s mothers, Angela defaulted to feeding her children when she worried about them.

  “I’m fine, Ma, really. But I have to talk to Pop. Is he in his study?”

  Angela put a hand on his arm as he went to move past her. “Shouldn’t you wait until Finn comes?”

  “Finn is busy with other things.” He saw the worry in her face, and it stabbed him with guilt.

  “He’s not in a good place,” she told him, referring to his father’s mood. “I know how you two get.”

  Irritation replaced Cian’s guilt immediately. His mother’s ability to minimize the violence between him and his father was astounding. The love had been lost between the two men years ago, and she damn well knew it.

  “It’ll be fine, Ma. Don’t I always make sure of it?”

  He saw the pain flash across Angela’s face before she answered, “Yes, of course. He’s in the study. Stop by before you leave. I have things to send for all you boys.”

  He brushed a quick kiss across her cheek and moved out into the hallway. Before entering his father’s study, he stopped and took a deep breath, reminding himself that Robbie MacFarlane was nothing more than a vicious, bitter old man.

  “Took you long enough,” Robbie snapped when Cian entered. “I want to know what the hell’s going on, and what the hell we’re doing about it.”

  Cian sat in one of the large armchairs facing his father’s desk and stared at the old man coldly. “Your son is fine, by the way.”

  “That’s because he’s strong,” Robbie snarled. “The strongest of all my boys.” Robbie raised an eyebrow in challenge to Cian. But he had stopped taking his father’s bait a very long time ago.

  “I’ve put Liam and the girl in one of our safe houses. We have to keep him out of sight of the co
ps. Our next step is to hit the Russians with computers. Their bank accounts, their utilities, their communications. We can’t beat them gun for gun, but we can with technology.”

  Robbie’s color heightened, as it always did when his rage took over. Robbie’s response to a threat was to shoot first and think about it later. Now it was Cian’s job to convince him otherwise.

  “Those bastards blow up your brother’s home with him in it, and your response is to turn off their lights?”

  “You read the newspaper. You heard what the Russians did with the presidential election, right? It’s called cyberwar, and it works. We have one of the world’s best hackers on our team. She can take their money, she can interrupt their commerce, she can drive them crazy blacking out their communications. Guns will mean they send more guns. You know they have more men than we do. It’s suicide. But we can make their lives hell just by letting Lila do her thing. This is how the game is played now. I know you don’t like my approach most of the time, but unless you want to lose entirely, you’ll let me do this.”

  The muscles in Robbie’s jaw flexed. His anger was palpable, his frustration like a third being in the room.

  “And what the hell will Liam be doing during all this?”

  “We’ll keep him in a safe house just until we’ve made a couple of strikes, then we can give the girl an airline ticket, and Liam can get back to business.”

  “I want the girl gone,” Robbie commanded. “Your brother can find another whore to fuck. There’s no way in hell she was worth all this.”

  “He took her for the information. We explained that. He’s not fucking her. Give him a little more credit than that.”

  Robbie’s fist clenched on the desktop, and Cian knew if the chunk of wood weren’t between them, he’d be on the receiving end of one of his father’s famous punches.

  “I’m not giving any of you much credit these days. You’re sloppy and lazy and scared. I guess that’s what happens when you grow up with too much. If you’d had to work for it like I did, maybe you’d be better men.”