A tear escaped. “How did you know?”
Siobhan shrugged. “The way you look at him. The way he looks at you. Were you lovers, then?”
Lyse laughed, the sound strangling in her tight throat. “God, no. Fionn would never—” She shook her head. “I’m not good at hiding my feelings, I guess. I’m pretty sure everyone knew but him.”
Siobhan narrowed her eyes. “He knew, all right. He knew you better than you think. Only one thing makes a man as angry as Fionn is at you, and it’s not lack of knowledge. Or indifference.”
“He believes I tried to kill him. He wasn’t wrong about that.”
“No, he doesn’t believe that,” Siobhan said, still looking thoughtful. “Like I said, Fionn is stubborn. He knows exactly what happened. But if he admits it, he also has to admit the real reason he came after you. The real reason he’s so angry.”
Lyse rubbed at the ache in her chest. “Why is that?”
Siobhan’s smile was all secrets and satisfaction. “Oh, I think I’ll be letting the two of you figure that out together. Don’t worry, dear. I don’t think it’ll take long, especially if you’re sleeping in the same bed.” She patted Lyse’s hand. “Not long at all.”
Chapter Ten
When Fionn entered the kitchen, Lyse shot out of her chair like it was on fire. “I think I’ll shower,” she said, focusing on her plate. “If I’m going to stay here—”
“You’ll be staying.”
The words left his mouth harder than he’d meant them to, harsher than he’d intended to handle her today, but the suggestion that she’d be anywhere but with him…
He turned to the cabinet to grab a plate, hiding his grimace. At some point during the long, restless night he’d had to acknowledge that the two parts of him—the side that hated Lyse and the side that lusted after her—were two sides of the same coin. What to do about that, he didn’t know yet, but if she was as shaken by last night as he was, he needed to get his shit together and stop being a total arsehole.
He cleared his throat as he turned back to the women.
Lyse was hunched in on herself, her grip on the dishes tight enough to be turning her knuckles white. Feeling like shit because he’d made her feel like shit.
“Right,” she said. “I’ll need to get some clothes from my place.” She walked to the sink, and his gaze brushed across her braless tits, swaying gently as she took care of her dishes, then made a beeline toward the hall. Watching the movement sent a punch of need to his gut, twisting with the guilt until he wasn’t certain he’d be able to eat. One thing was certain, though—if he wanted to be thinking about anything but those nipples, the way they pushed against his palm, his chest, then yeah, fresh clothes were a grand idea.
Christ, he was all over the map this morn.
Lyse disappeared around the corner. Fionn met his mam’s eyes as he sat at the table, her knowing look making his cheeks go hot. “So…” He picked up his coffee. Shifted in his seat. Took a drink. “What’s the plan?”
Mack entered the room, hair wet and a fresh uniform in place. “We’re headin’ to the station. I need to do some checkin’, talk to my sergeant. I want more than two men protecting you, acushla.”
A fist squeezed around Fionn’s heart at the endearment. Pulse of my heart, it meant. The softness in Mack’s eyes as he stared at Siobhan said he meant the word.
Fionn managed a rough, “I agree,” around the lump in his throat. A whole team wasn’t enough to be watching out for his mam. Which reminded him, he needed to check in at work. He could do that while Mack did his thing.
Mack gave him a nod. “Let me eat and then we’ll be headin’ on.”
Siobhan gathered her dishes. “We can stop at Lyse’s apartment to get her things on the way.”
Speaking about Lyse’s setup… “Mack.”
“Yeah?” Mack set his food on the table, then took a chair.
“Lyse…” He lowered his voice as his mam left the room, not wanting to hurt her. “She’s been watching Mam for a while, likely since she arrived. She’s only here because she found out where my mam was hiding.”
“Siobhan hasn’t been in hiding for a long time.”
Fionn scrubbed a hand over the stubble on his cheek. “That’s something I can’t get through my head yet.”
“Because you haven’t been here,” Mack said around a bite of beans, his tone neutral. “Our minds get stuck on something until we have to face the reality of it changin’. Like you and Lyse.”
“The way I see Lyse is reality, more than any of you realize,” Fionn bit out. Mack might’ve known her for two months, but Fionn had been knowing her for years.
“Is it?” Mack shook his head. “Tell me what tipped you off on Ferrina.”
Fionn went over what Lyse had shown him in greater detail than they’d managed the night before. “While we’re gatherin’ her things, we can grab her intel from the apartment.”
“So she’s really some kind of hacker genius?”
That’s when the nagging at the back of his brain clicked into place. He eyed Mack carefully. “You’re not surprised at all.”
“I’m not surprised,” Mack said. “I knew that girl is smarter than she ever let on. She said her business was computers, but I’d no idea it was underground stuff.”
“She’s fierce when it comes to tech,” Fionn said. “You’d do good to be making use of her.”
“You admit she tried to blow you up, but you want me trusting her with your mam’s life?”
Last night he’d have given Mack a feck no. This morn… He glanced down at his empty plate. “I…”
Mack chuckled and reached over to slap him on the back. “That’s pretty much how all of us react to our wan.”
Except Lyse wasn’t his woman, not in that sense.
That’s not what
