“Thanks, but I’ll pass this time.”
“Suit yourself. See you soon?”
“I’m sure we’ll run into one another again. I’ll let you and Breaking Bitches over there get back to it,” she replied loudly enough for them to overhear. Derrick laughed again.
The twins were named after their grandfathers on their mother’s side. It was just happenstance that they ended up associated with the main characters of a show about meth and mayhem, but it didn’t stop anyone from taking a pot shot at them because they tended to get on everyone’s bad side almost immediately upon exposure to them.
Becky and Maeve spent the rest of the day just goofing off in town, eating dinner at a little restaurant on the square called the Blue Sun and chatting about their pasts, though much of Maeve’s was fictitious. She’d deemed it in her best interests to not reveal too much of herself, even to Becky.
She had already told her a sanitized version of the spat with Ronan, but she didn’t bring it up, and neither did Maeve. He was the last thing she wanted to talk about, though she wasn’t so lucky to not think about him. In fact, it was almost as if the more she tried not to think about him, the more she did.
The girls’ day out had been a welcome diversion, but it all went to hell the following day with a single phone call. Picking up her cell, Maeve contemplated whether she wanted to answer. She didn’t recognize the number. After a few more rings, she took a deep breath and answered.
“Hello, Maeve,” came the voice from the other end.
She hesitated, looking at the phone as if the “unknown number” would reveal anything. It couldn’t be. She took a deep breath and replied.
“Hello, Ronan.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Ronan
Not a day had gone by that Ronan had not thought about Maeve, but he couldn’t afford to be taken out by an Omega with ill intentions. How he felt about her didn’t matter when she had been plotting his demise and that of his family.
After the night they’d parted, he’d met with his brothers and spent a few days catching up in a drunken stupor. It was hard listening to them talk about their wives and families while he felt so dejected, but he was a man, and he’d just have to get on with things.
“I’m going back to Ireland,” he told them over a night of drinks around the campfire.
“For what? Why not just let sleeping dogs lie?” Niall asked.
“I have loose ends to tie up there, at the very least.”
“You still have some idea that you’ll go back there and pick up where we left off as kids? I think our ship has sailed on the Green Isle. We’ve evolved. We have a good business in Boston. Why take on such a headache just for the sake of reclaiming a birthright we don’t even really want?”
“I don’t know. I just feel like I owe it to the clans we helped climb out from under the Maguire thumb to get back to where they should be.”
“They can manage that themselves,” Olcan said.
“Can they? There seems to still be some remnants of the Maguire clan floating about over there.”
“One man. You said Greyscale told you there was only one man who escaped. What can he really do alone?” Fergus told him.
“I don’t know. I just feel the need to see it through.”
“I think there is more to this than you’ve told us,” Fergus replied. “What is your real beef with this man who got away?”
Ronan sighed and looked up at them, noting their rapt faces waiting for a reply.
“Maeve. She was betrothed to him before I met her. I want to make sure she is safe from him.”
“What’s that to do with you?” Niall asked.
“I imprinted on her,” he said softly.
“I’m sorry. What?” Niall scoffed.
“You heard me.”
“So, you imprinted on a woman who is betrothed to another man. I take it she chose to go back to him, despite the connection?”
“Not exactly. I sent her away.”
“Why?”
“Enough questions. I’m going back. That’s all there is to it.”
“Not alone, you aren’t,” Niall called out from behind him. “Last time we let you go it alone, you almost got your arse blown up.”
Ronan ignored him, but several days later, he and all three of his brothers were on a flight to Dublin. They made no efforts to cloak their arrival. Instead, they made sure everyone there knew they were coming and that they meant business.
“Good to see you lot again,” Andrew said, giving each of them a pat on the back before focusing on Fergus, who had married his niece. “You taking care of my girl and all my greats?”
“Aye. You know that sassy little lass has me wrapped around her feckin finger,” Fergus laughed.
“That’s my girl,” Andrew joked. “Well, get in and I’ll take you wherever you’re going.”