I frame her body between my hands, bend, and kiss the top of first one breast, then another, when I realize the time. Bloody hell. Tardiness to a meeting’s a major infraction.
“Fuck!”
She jumps. “What?”
“I’m late for a meeting.”
She actually giggles. “Did I distract you that much?”
I wag a finger at her. “You did. Ought to give you a proper punishment for that.” She bites her lips, her eyes shining. “I’ll be back soon.”
I shut the door behind her, and take off at a run.
I make it downstairs just as Cormac does. He gives me a grimace and shakes his head.
“Where the bloody hell were you?”
I grunt. “Tending our prisoner. You?”
He grunts. “Aileen needed me to unravel her bloody necklace. Going shopping with Fiona this afternoon.”
We go to our meeting room right on this floor. Cormac might be given a reprieve as Clan leadership, but I’ll have no such luck.
Everyone looks up when we enter, and Keenan’s gaze goes straight to the clock. We’re both a full ten minutes late.
“You’re late,” he says, his voice harsh and stern.
“Sorry, Keenan,” Cormac says. “Lost track of time, but I found Tiernan on the way.”
The others laugh, but Keenan doesn’t.
“And you,” he says to me next. “What’s your excuse?”
“Negotiations with the prisoner,” I mutter.
Boner snorts, and Tully slaps my back.
“Bollox! Negotiations, my arse—”
Keenan clears his throat, and the room stills. “Enough of that. See to it it doesn’t happen again, Tiernan.”
He turns to a corner of the room. “Father? You’ve news for us?”
I didn’t even notice Father Finn was present.
I swear, every time I see him, he looks older. His hair’s gone totally white, his fairly thin frame even more rail-like than ever.
“Father.” I nod. “Y’alright?”
“Hello there, Tiernan,” he says, his voice high-pitched and reedy. He looks far, far older than he is, the weight of the world resting on his shoulders, no doubt. “I’m good, thanks. Came to discuss your… charge.”
The others would likely give me shite about this, but I don’t much care. If he’s got something to say about Aisling, I want to hear it.
“My sources say the night before the fight, she spent the night with the prime minister’s son, hired out by Vivian.”
Bloody hell. My blood boils, my hands clenched in fists.
“Go on.”
“And from what we’re told, he stole some money from her.”
Seems he must’ve spoken to Vivian or one of her girls.
“Yes?”
“Seems they had a falling out of sorts, which is why he came after her the night of the fight.”
“I see.”
Where’s he going with this?
“So even though no one witnessed what happened, the fact that she’s here will rouse even more suspicions than ever.”
I look to Keenan, but his eyes are on Father Finn.
“Yeah, it would,” I tell him. “Except no one’s supposed to bloody know she’s here.”
“Not as simple as that, I’m afraid.” We all watch him. He always has something to say, and it’s never anything helpful, like “here’s fifty thousand quid,” and it’s always something he’s heard or seen. “Her mates have been trying to get in touch, and when they couldn’t they started inquiring. No one knows yet, but Vivian came to me.”
I nod slowly. “And what did you tell her?”
He meets my eyes squarely. “Nothing yet, son, but you’ll have to be careful.”
“Of course.” My voice is tighter than I intend, angry at the very thought of anyone coming between me and Aisling.
Keenan’s eyes come to me. Hell, every man in this room is watching me. Is it that obvious that I’m attached to her already?
I’m on my feet, pacing the room, while Finn says what he needs to.
“You fought that night,” Father Finn says. “You were supposed to have a prize of one of Vivian’s women.”
I bloody well did.
He goes on, while frenetic energy courses through me. I’ll punch the hell out of the bloody punching bag in the basement when all this is over, expend some of this energy.
“Aye. I was.”
“And when they couldn’t find you or her, rumors began.”
“Of course they did.” Christ.
Keenan clears his throat. “We secured Tiernan that night and made sure to spread rumors to avoid suspicion.”
“Right,” Finn says. “And it worked initially, but you have to understand the Prime Minister knows his son was involved with things he shouldn’t have been. You know if he catches wind that the McCarthy Clan is responsible for even harming his son, he’ll see the lot of you put in jail.”
Silence falls over the room with sickening finality. Tully finally breaks the silence.
“Then we’ll do what we have to.”
He’s looking at Keenan, and Father Finn frowns.
“Of course,” Keenan says. “We’ll make sure Tiernan’s safe as well.”
We’ve much to discuss, but we need to do so when Finn and his spying ways are out of the fucking room.
Father Finn gets to his feet. “Be careful, boys,” he says with a sigh. “We’ve had peace here in Ballyhock for years.”
Relative peace, that is, but he doesn’t know the work we’ve done behind the scenes to keep it that way. The last major battle we had involved an infiltration of our guards back when Fiona had just graduated high school. The last time I saw Aisling. It seems like it was bloody ages ago.
Keenan stands and shakes Father Finn’s hand. “We’ll see to it no harm comes to the girl or Tiernan, and that peace reigns in Ballyhock, father.”
Finn shakes his hand back.
“Counting on you, Keenan.”
Keenan puts his arm around Father Finn’s shoulders, guiding him to the exit. “The men and I’ve been talking, Father. Seems the steeple at Holy Family’s in need of repair, is it?”
They continue their discussion as Keenan leads him to the exit. We’re on friendly terms with the residents of Ballyhock because of our generous contributions to the church and our assurance of peace. We keep crime at a minimum, donate to the local school, and have such a reputation with the locals that they never question who we are or what we do.
The Prime Minister, however…
Keenan shuts the door behind Finn and sighs.
“Call Brady,” he says, jerking his chin at Carson, Clan bookkeeper and resident hacker. Brady’s our private investigator. He looks to Cormac next. “Cormac, you’ll call Walsh as well. Get him in here for a private chat, will you?” Local police chief.
Cormac nods. “Aye.”
Then his eyes come to me. “Tiernan, pack a bag. I’m sending you and Aisling to St. Albert’s. Just for now, a few days. We’ll visit at the weekend and update you on all that’s going on, but you’ll be safest there.”
The Clan’s finishing school’s a second home to me. Many of the Clan’s family and friends are employed there, as teachers and staff while raising the younger Clan members before being inducted into our Clan.