Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
He sat down. “Heidi Walters. A hotel guest. Apparently she asked the girls about a sushi place yesterday, and they chatted. Sat and had tea with Anna this morning.”
“Anna never mentioned her.”
“I checked her account. Everything seems normal.” He grinned. “She asked William yesterday about a sushi place, and he sent her over to Una.”
I laughed. William was one of our oldest employees, and, while very knowledgeable about the area, some of the newer fads didn’t interest him. “I doubt sushi is a big item on William’s list.”
“Unless it comes with a plate of chips and some tartar sauce, no. I doubt raw fish ranks very highly.” He picked up some papers. “Una made a list, but I don’t think he could find it.”
“Well, luckily, they were sitting close.”
“I suppose so.” Finn looked over some numbers. “Business is good.”
I snorted. “That’s an understatement. We’re so deep in the black, we’ll never see another color.”
He grunted, looking over another file. “Everything quiet on the streets?”
“Yes. I checked in with all the senior men. Nothing untoward. No more fires, robberies, or areas of concern.”
“That makes me happy.”
“Me too.”
He reached for the coffeepot, pouring himself a cup and taking a sip. “I’m going to give Una a ring tonight.”
“About time.”
He smirked. “I want to marry her as soon as she’s ready.”
“Of course.”
“Which, if I have my way, will be in a few days. Not weeks. I plan to pull every string I have in order to make it happen.”
I laughed. “Not surprised.”
He sat back with a frown. “Roisin can’t travel.”
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “Not for a while.” Understanding his line of thinking, I added, “She’ll be sorry to miss the wedding, Finn, but she wouldn’t want you to stop your plans.”
“I was thinking of taking Una to Ireland for a few days. Visit Roisin. Let her have a party at the pub.”
“She’d love that.”
He paused, and I waved my hand. “I know what you’re going to say. I’ll stay here and run the show.”
He frowned. “I want you to join us, but—”
I cut him off. “I know. With what happened, you’ve already asked too much of Roman. It’s fine. You take Una and visit with Mum. I’ll go after you get back. She’ll see us both—just not at once.”
He studied me. “And Anna?”
“What about her?”
“Will you take her to meet Roisin?”
I hesitated. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Finn, we’re not you and Una.”
“No, you’re not. Not yet anyway. Nothing is standing in your way—except you.”
“I’m not relationship material.”
“Funny, the past while, you’ve been exactly that.”
“I’m helping her.”
He met my gaze. “Bullshit. You’re sleeping with her.”
“That’s not a relationship.”
He took a sip of coffee, set it down, and held up his hand, ticking off his fingers.
“One, you refuse to let her leave your room. Two, you worry over her constantly and are as protective of her as I am of Una. Three, you buy her clothes. Four, you’re ready to beat the shit out of anyone—including me—if they so much as look too long. Five, you’re sleeping with her. You took her virginity.”
I gaped at him. “You know that?”
“She and Una talk. About everything. Una fills me in.”
“Jesus,” I muttered. “That was personal.”
He waved his hand. “It’s all personal, Niall. This whole fecking thing is personal. And emotional. Why can’t you admit you have feelings for this woman? She looks at you like you hung the moon, and frankly, you look back at her the same way. What the feck is stopping you?”
“I ruin every relationship I’ve tried to have. I just don’t connect on the same level. It’s as if there’s a wall. I can’t break it down.”
“Maybe it’s not you who needs to break it down. Maybe you simply need to allow it to happen.”
I shook my head, and he leaned forward. “Don’t you think I fucked up some relationships before Una? Jesus, I fucked up this one with her, and we found our way through, finally. We all have people we leave behind, Niall. We simply weren’t ready for them.”
I sighed. “I don’t want to hurt her.”
“But you are hurting her. You’re hurting yourself too.”
I stood and paced. “I keep thinking of my mistakes.”
“Such as?”
“Marie—”
He cut me off. “Marie—you were infatuated with her fecking breasts and the way she dropped to her knees any time you were around. It was lust, you stupid feck. You were twenty-one.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I thought it was more.”
“You grew up. Or, at least, I thought you did.”
“I fucked things up with Joy.”
Finn snorted. “Joy was a fecking adrenaline junkie. She liked being with you because of the danger you represented. Once she realized how boring you were, it was she who had an affair and walked. Jaysus.”
He was right about that one.
“I thought Tamara might be the one.”
Finn rubbed his eyes, laughing. “Are you on drugs? Tamara wanted your money. You figured that out. Fast, thank God.”