three rings, her voicemail picked up.
“Tatiana, I need you to listen to me. Something’s happened and I need you to meet me at Irish. You know the place. Whatever you’re doing, stop. Leave the house now. I’ll explain everything when I see you.” Praying she picked up the message and did as he bid, he finally made it outside of his building and into his car. Dillon sat with him as Al sped off down the street. Time was not on his side, but he needed to get to her before anyone else did.
Losing Tatiana just as he’d found her was not something he was willing to do.
Chapter Eight
“I don’t believe you, Tony.” Tatiana sat in front of her brother in shock at the words coming out of his mouth.
“You have to believe me, Tati. I tried to keep this to myself and not say anything, but the word on the street is that they’re coming after me. But I didn’t do anything. I didn’t steal their package. I don’t even know where their package is. The one person who knows it wasn’t me is Conall O’Shea. He was there. I saw him.”
Her heart felt as if it were going to burst out of her chest. This wasn’t happening. Could this be true? No, it couldn’t. Tony had to be mistaken, “You’re mistaken. It wasn’t him. Your memory is all messed up.”
“No, it’s not, Tati,” Tony yelled at her. “I saw Conall O’Shea kill that man in cold blood. Why do you think I was running? Why I’m so afraid of the O’Shea brothers? If they found out what I’d done, they’d kill me. Don’t you understand? I need to get the hell out of town. I have no other choice.”
Looking over at her phone as it beeped, she saw that it was Conall calling her. Her hands itched to pick up the phone and beg him to explain. But what her brother was telling her was just too much to handle right now. A sudden thought hit her. “Oh no,” she said as she sat down on her couch. With stricken eyes, she looked up at her brother. “They already know.” Oh gawd, what had she done? That’s why he asked those questions about what if the issue couldn’t be resolved with her brother.
Jumping up from the couch, Tony glared at her in shock. “What do you mean, they already know? Tatiana, what did you do?”
Dropping her head into her hands, she thought back on everything she’d said to Conall. Not once had he given any indication that he knew what she’d been talking about. Could he not have known that her brother had seen him? Was he just as bad as his brothers? The man that pursued her and made love to her so sweetly, who begged her to see the real man that he was. Was he also a cold-blooded killer?
“I went to see Conall O’Shea,” she finally admitted.
“You did what? Why?” Tony screamed, a panicked look in his eyes.
“Because. I needed to find out what was going on. To know why you were so afraid of them. So, I confronted him,” she said in a low voice.
“Tatiana, do you know what you’ve done? Do you even realize who they are? Why would you do something so stupid?” he asked as he stormed around the room gathering his things. “I have to get out of here. If he knows that I saw what he did, you’re not safe.”
Thinking quickly, she tried to remember all the things they’d said to each other. Could he have known? Was she being played this entire time? Better yet, did knowing that he was no better than his brothers change anything?
Did it change how she felt when she was with him? When he was inside of her? His darkness had called to her from that very first moment their eyes had met. Now that she finally knew what he was fully capable of, did it make her ache for him any less?
No. It didn’t.
“Tony, calm down. Let’s think about this.” Standing up, she began pacing in front of her brother. “What exactly did you see again?”
“I saw Conall shoot that motherfuckin’ dude in his head. That’s what I saw,” he snapped.
“Don’t come at me, Tony!” she yelled. “You got yourself into this
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