“Agreed,” Eoghan said easily. “But we’re not a regular family.”
She scowled. “Regular? There’s regular and there’s the fact your mom killed Aoife’s.”
“I’m aware of what happened.”
Aela growled under her breath, and Declan stated, “You don’t have to come as often.”
“We don’t?” she asked warily.
He shook his head. “You don’t.”
I was surprised by the concession, doubly surprised he hadn’t told her to calm down like men always did. But while it soothed Aela’s temper, she sagged and shuffled over to the seat, cuddling into Declan in the most tender move I’d seen her make.
They were an odd couple.
They bickered a lot in front of the family. I got the feeling Declan liked that though. She wasn’t afraid to stand up to him.
“You could stop coming too,” Aela said in a small voice.
“Finn knows we have his back, and we support Aoife wholeheartedly,” Aidan commented, “but it’s different for us.”
I turned to shoot him a surprised glance. He grabbed my hand, squeezed it, and while I was still the noob here, and I was well aware that I had no rights to wade into the fray, I knew I had to change the subject onto one that was less incendiary.
Inessa looked like she was about to cry, which was an interesting response. Lena wasn’t her mom, but she was clearly distressed.
Torn, I guessed was the right way to describe it.
Camille was much the same. Both of them had huddled in to their other halves the second they’d approached.
“Did Finn leave with Aoife?” I asked, deciding to shift gears.
Aidan shot me a grateful glance. “He just left. Conor did as well.”
“I heard fighting earlier.”
Eoghan snorted. “Fighting? Not likely.”
“Who was it? None of you look bruised.”
“Didn’t you see the man who came by to visit?” Declan inquired gruffly, pressing a kiss to Aela’s temple.
“No. We came in here to start a council of war,” I said, to which Aidan laughed, but it wasn’t mocking.
“After you guys became the UN, our uncle stopped by.”
“Uncle?” Camille questioned, tipping her head to look up at Brennan. “I thought they were dead?”
“They were… Paddy faked his death.”
“What?!” Aela straightened up. “Padraig faked his death?!”
“Yeah,” Declan said on a sigh, tugging her back down against him. “Da didn’t take it well.”
“I can imagine,” I drawled, shooting Aidan a glance. This wasn’t a secret to us. We’d known for years, after all. “So your da and Padraig were fighting?”
“Think it was more a case of throwing furniture at him,” Aidan said.
“Makes sense from all the crashing sounds,” I replied. “You looked like you’d been brooding when you came in. What’s going on?”
He pulled a face. “We had a hard talk.”
“What about?”
“Secrets, and the shit we’ve been keeping from each other.” Brennan shrugged. “Think it’s time we came clean with you ladies about some of that.”
“What like?” Inessa asked, her curiosity pricked enough that she didn’t look so torn.
Declan grimaced and pressed a kiss to Aela’s temple. “Shay told me about your grandparents, and about how he saw them being killed. I’ve believed for a while that they were killed by the IRA.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Aela muttered, but her cheeks had turned pale. “It was just a robbery—”
“In County Louth?” Declan scoffed. “This isn’t the Bronx we’re talking about, babe. Armed residential robberies aren’t exactly common over there unless they’re tied to the IRA.”
Eoghan turned to look at her. “Your grandparents were in County Louth?”
“Yes. That’s where our family is from.”
He pursed his lips.
“What?” Declan demanded.
“Arrest warrants were out for a couple of ECD sharpshooters who took out an old couple in County Louth. Could be a coincidence.”
“ECD?” Aela questioned.
Declan sighed. “You know that phrase the First Lady wanted tied into the glassware you’re making for her?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“It’s a tagline for an extremist faction of the IRA. The ECD.”
Aela looked like she’d been slapped in the face with a fish. “Is this a joke?”
“No. I wish it were, sweetheart.”
“That means the First Lady has ties to them,” I said slowly, every journalistic bone in my body tingling with that news.
Aidan tugged on my fingers. “We need this to be kept under wraps for the moment, Savannah.”
While I pouted with disappointed, Aela whispered, “That cunt.”
Declan agreed darkly, “That’s one way of phrasing it.”
She leaped up and started striding back and forth again. “She kills my grandparents and wants me to make some fucking glasses for her?”
“Well, she didn’t pull the trigger,” Eoghan pointed out.
“She was one of those fuckers.” Aela paused. Then wagged her finger at Declan. “Don’t you think this means the hunt for an atelier is called off. You’re not about to keep me barefoot and pregnant and tied to the goddamn stove.”
Declan sniffed. “Never thought that.”
“Bullshit. I know you, Declan O’Donnelly.”
His sheepish smirk told me that he had been hopeful about the barefoot and pregnant stuff.
“You guys remember Jen? Aoife’s friend?” Eoghan tossed into the mix, clearly wanting to change the subject when Aela and Declan started eye-fucking each other over the coffee table. “She came for Christmas?”
He got some nods, but it was Brennan, who was toying with the hand Camille had laid on his lap, who said, “She’s Padraig’s daughter.”
Inessa gaped at him. “Jen’s an O’Donnelly?”
“Apparently,” he muttered.
Camille frowned. “You didn’t know?”
“Not until recently,” Aidan confirmed, and I was grateful he didn’t drop me in it.
I was trying to make a good impression on my sisters-in-law and going around admitting that I’d stolen DNA wasn’t going to win me any awards.
Aoife already bore a grudge about that, and while I was trying to get friendly with her, it hadn’t been easy.
Today was the first day she hadn’t looked at me with disdain.
“Then there’s the fact that Finn’s not just our friend, he’s our brother,” Aidan murmured.
Aela grunted. “Is that all?”
Camille blinked. “I thought everyone knew that now?”
Inessa snickered. “I knew it the first time I came for Sunday dinner.”
My lips curved when I saw Aidan’s consternation. “You’re surrounded by very smart women, boys,” I declared, taking a final sip of my mimosa. “You need to get better at keeping secrets if you’re going to try to pull the wool over our eyes.”