I watch Jessie and my brothers walk to her room before I head off to find Shane. Vlad’s announcement has completely floored me. I suppose that Shane has a point about her being safer in Ireland. If the Wolf knows she’s here then it’s only a matter of time before he comes for her. Despite that, I can’t shake the feeling that she would be safer here with me and the twins. Safer with me. I would never let anyone harm a hair on her head, even if it meant never letting her out of my sight for a second. I consider the possibility of going with them, even though I’ve sworn never to set foot in Ireland again, but I would for her.
Shane is in his room when I find him. I walk inside and sit on the bed while he packs his small suitcase.
“I’ll keep her safe, Con,” he says, reading my mind. We’ve always been in sync, he and I, but I don’t agree with him on this one.
“I know you will, Shane…”
“But?”
“You’ll be distracted there. You won’t be able to watch her every second of every day.”
He closes his suitcase and shoves his hands into his trouser pockets. “The Wolf is in Moscow. I’m certain if he knows about Alexei then he knows about Jessie too, and it’s only a matter of time before he comes here looking for her, Con.” He shakes his head and I see the worry etched on his face.
“You really think she’ll be safer there with you?”
He nods at me. “Liam still isn’t one hundred percent. You’ll be running the businesses. Mikey will be run off his feet helping you. There are more distractions here, and you know she won’t stand for being locked up in this place.”
“And in Ireland?”
“She’ll either be with me or she’ll be in the suite at the hotel.”
I let out a long breath and close my eyes. “I can’t believe he’s back, Shane. I was starting to believe he was dead. I think she was, too.”
“I know. But once we get back, we can focus our energies on finding him. When I’ve sorted out Patrick’s estate and tidied up all of our affairs, there will be nothing tying us to Ireland any longer. Liam will have had another week to recover. We’ll be back to full strength and we can focus on what needs to be done.”
“I suppose you’re right.” I look up at him. “You sure you don’t need me to come with you?”
He narrows his eyes at me. “You want to come?”
“No!” I shake my head. “But I will if I need to. If you both need me to.”
“I need you to take care of business here, Con. Me and Jessie will be fine.”
“You just want her to yourself for a week,” I say, throwing a pair of balled up socks at him.
He shrugs and grins at me. “Yep.”
“Lucky fucker.”
“I sure am,” he winks at me.
“I’ll miss you both,” I say. The thought of him in Ireland makes me feel something I can’t quite put my finger on. Perhaps I’m worried that he’ll remember how much he loved the place and never come back home.
“I’ll miss you too, Con. We’ve spent more time apart these past few months than we have in our whole lives. She’ll miss you too,” he adds, “so you’d better go and give her the send-off she deserves.”
“Yep,” I say as I stand. “I’ll catch you in the morning, bro.”
“I love her just as much as you do, you know?” he says as I’m near the door.
I turn to him and frown. “I know.”
He nods. “I know it might not always seem like it, that’s all. But I would die before I let anyone hurt her.”
“Well, yeah. How much you’re into Jessie isn’t quite the secret that you think it is, bro,” I chuckle. “Anyone can see you’ve got it bad for her.”
He picks up the socks I just threw at him and launches them across the room at my head. “Asshole.”
