Honored (City Series Book 4)(34)

The smaller man called out and Liam nodded to him, stopping a few feet away. I adjusted the binoculars to get them all in view. Liam nodded to something and gestured in my direction, and the taller man said something, his face still pretty angry. Liam shrugged and grinned at them.

There was a tense moment where nobody moved. Then the smaller man took a step forward and said something. The taller man stepped up beside him, closing the distance between them and Liam by a few feet. Liam didn't seem to react. He said something, and the smaller man nodded.

It looked like things were going well. Nobody was yelling and everyone was pretty calm, except for the big guy, though I guessed he was probably always pretty pissed off. I couldn't blame him, since Liam had shot him the last time they came across each other. I hadn't seen the gesture from Liam yet which meant I should come down, but I was waiting for it, watching with an intensity I didn't know I had.

The big guy said something, and I could see the surprise on Liam's face. He took a step backward, grin turning into a confused smile, his hands up in the air. What the fuck is going on?

Suddenly, the two men pulled guns out. They appeared faster than I thought possible. My heart practically stopped as they stood there, their barrels pointed directly at Liam. His face dropped into a neutral expression, and he said something. The bigger man answered, a vicious grin on his face.

No. No. This couldn't be happening.

They couldn't just kill him.

Not when I was holding all of the proof, the stuff that could fuck over their boss.

They wouldn't just kill him.

The big guy took a step closer, his face twisted into a sick smile.

I wanted to scream.





Chapter Twenty-Five: Liam


I hated having guns pointed at me. There really was nothing worse, especially when one of those guns was controlled by a psycho like Max. I regretted not finishing him off for the hundredth time.

"If you kill me, the girl is going to release all of that info to the press," I said.

"Good. We'll kill that bitch next," Max sneered.

Think Liam, how can you get out of this? I wracked my brain for an out, but I couldn't come up with one. I looked at Colin and his expression gave me nothing.

"You too, Colin?" I asked.

"Orders are orders." He shrugged.

I had a hard time imagining what it would feel like to get shot, really shot, but at least Ellie was safe. She knew what to do in the worst-case scenario, and I knew Leary would at least give her some money and maybe some documents to help her get away. He'd probably have to run, too, that poor asshole.

There was a tense moment. "Don't let them hurt Richie," I said to Colin.

He nodded, his face tight. "We're not monsters."

I nodded back.

"Okay, enough bullshit. Let's kill the fucker and get back," Max snapped.

I closed my eyes. Ellie was safe. I knew Ellie would be safe. This wasn't all for nothing, in the end. She would get away, and they might even leave her alone. With me gone, she wasn't much of a threat anymore. Colm had his revenge, and his grip on the city would continue to solidify. Everything would be okay. Colin would protect Richie.

All I had to do was stay still.

It would be over soon. It would all be over.   





 

And then I heard a thud, a loud, sickening crack, and a grunt. Slowly, I opened my eyes, and for a second I thought that I had been shot.

But there was no pain, and Max was stumbling forward. Colin reached back and slammed the butt of his gun down on Max's head. Max looked shocked and confused as he fell forward face-first into the dirt. I gaped at Colin, not sure what to do. Colin stepped forward and kicked Max again, knocking him unconscious.

He sighed and looked at me. "Sorry about that, Liam."

"What the fuck?"

He grinned and shrugged. "I told you, back in your office, that I was on your side."

My mind was reeling. I took a step backward. "Why did you do that?"

"Weird way to thank me, but okay."

I blinked. "Thanks."

"No problem."

I stared at Max. He wasn't moving. He probably wasn't dead, but he wasn't getting up anytime soon. I looked back at Colin as he switched on the safety on his gun and slipped it back into its holster under his light brown jacket.

"But why?"

"There's a lot you don't know, Liam. Before we get into it, are those papers real?"

I nodded. "It's all real. And there's a lot of it."

"Take me to it."

"No fucking chance. Tell me what's happening."

He appraised me for a second. "I work for Boss O'Brian. Always have, ever since I first started. He's like a father to me, actually. He made sure that I ended up with you to learn the ropes, and he had me spy on Colm as much as possible when Colm started to take over. But I've always been his guy."

"But O'Brian turned me down." I could barely think, I realized. My head was spinning in circles, trying to connect the dots.

"Yeah, because you didn't have shit and he knew it. But when we heard about the break-in at Colm's place, well, we figured that maybe you found something worth backing. And I really, really hope you did."

Holy fuck. Boss O'Brian from the very start. That crafty son of a bitch. That beautiful crafty son of a bitch. I wanted to laugh and to cry, but my body was too busy shaking from the adrenaline to do either. I was ready to die, ready to roll over and let them fill me with holes, all to save Richie and Ellie. But we were both going to be okay.

"Yeah, I did. I really fucking did."

He laughed. "Good. Take me to it."

I looked over in Ellie's direction and gave her the signal. "It'll be here soon."

He blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The girl. Ellie. I had her hiding out over there, watching all this."

"You really weren't bluffing?"

"I really wasn't."

He laughed loudly. "God damn, Liam Sullivan. You have some serious balls."

I shrugged and fidgeted, looking away. He had no clue how hard it was for me to let her come, but it wasn't worth trying to explain.

"By the way," Colin said, "why Boss de Barra? What the fuck were you thinking?"

I sighed. "I was desperate, and he's the only other boss with the muscle and the resources to take on Colm himself."

He nodded. "That's what I figured. O'Brian thought you were just being suicidal."

"Yeah, well, it didn't seem like suicide at the time."

Colin laughed. "Guess not. Some crazy escape, though."

"It's been a pretty crazy few weeks," I said, the understatement of my life.

He laughed again and we fell into a tense silence, waiting for Ellie to arrive. My mind was working overtime trying to figure out what would come next. Colin betraying Max like that hadn't been remotely in my mind, and suddenly it felt like my whole world was upside down.

We watched as Ellie appeared around the edge of a building, walking cautiously toward us. Colin gave her a big smile.

"So this is the girl the whole city is trying to find," he said as she got closer.

She stopped next to me, giving him a suspicious look. "My name is Ellie. Short for Eleanor."

"It's nice to meet you, Ellie."

She looked up at me. "What's happening?"

I nodded at Colin. "He's on our side. He works for Boss O'Brian."

"I thought he turned you down."

"He did. But apparently he changed his mind."

She shook her head. "I thought they were going to kill you."

I stared at her for a second and suddenly saw the anguish stitched in the lines of her face. I grabbed her and pulled her against me tightly. She let the duffle drop to the ground and threw her arms around me.

"I made a promise," I whispered to her.   





 

"Don't do that again, you asshole," she said.

"I'm not going anywhere."

I held her there, feeling the weight of her body, hating myself for putting her through everything, until I heard Colin clear his throat.

"Sorry to interrupt . . ." he said slowly.

Ellie let go of me reluctantly.

"It's all in the bag," I said.

Colin walked over and crouched down. He unzipped its length and began to shuffle through the papers. He whistled.

"This is a ton of paperwork, man. How did you figure this all out?"

"It was all her, actually."

Ellie shrugged. "I had a lot of time on my hands."

Colin laughed. "Well, walk me through it."

I watched her crouch down and started to pull out documents based on the color-coding system she had devised. I listened as she began to slowly lay it all out for him, the entire narrative, beginning to end, using the documents as evidence to back up everything.

Watching her, I had this weird moment. When we first met, she had been devastated and understandably in shock. But now she was brilliant and shining and gorgeous and holding her shit together better than I could have imagined. I didn't think I could have pulled it all together without her, and hearing her explain it to Colin with such confidence and competence blew me away.

When she was finished, Colin whistled. "I'm really fucking impressed here."

"You understand, though?" she asked.

"Yeah, I definitely understand. O'Brian is going to like this."

She smiled, a genuine smile. It almost killed me.

"What's next, Colin?" I asked.

He stood up. "Well, I'm going to report back to O'Brian, and then you guys are going to meet with him."