Honored_ An Alpha Mob Romance(69)
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.