“Playing with fire there,” he told him as they made their way outside.
“I can handle it,” Ronan laughed.
“Yeah? Can you handle whoever that girl’s father is when he comes for you with tongue blazing?”
“Probably not, but it might be worth the scalding,” Ronan laughed as they climbed into the car.
“I doubt that.”
“What did he say in there—Greyscales?”
“He said we should fuck off and handle our own shit. They did all they’re planning to do.”
“All right. What do we do next then?”
“I don’t know. That’s why we have an Alpha. We’ll call Olcan and see what he wants to do.”
“What about Duncan?”
“Duncan?”
“Yeah, you didn’t get the message from Andrew?”
“No. What message?”
“Duncan came crawling up out of the sewer asking for his help.”
“I thought he was down in the dungeon when the dragons came through?” Niall said.
“I did too.”
“He’s got some talking to do then, doesn’t he?”
“Yep.”
“Let’s go see what he has to say then,” Niall replied.
At Andrew’s house, they found Duncan up in the attic, which had now been converted into more of a guest room than it had been when Deidre was there. Niall couldn’t help but feel the loss that was always close to the surface surge forward standing there, where he’d first laid eyes on her. He pushed it back. No time for that right now.
“Where you been, Duncan?” he asked.
“Just laying low. I heard that you’d sorted everything out and so I came to start my clan back up with a clean slate.”
“Start your clan back up?”
“Yeah. You’ve purged all the bad blood. I can find a mate of my own and begin the Maguire Clan anew.”
“No. That’s not happening, Duncan.”
“What do you mean? I helped you. I told you everything I knew so that you could take care of shit. I didn’t think you were going to take out the whole clan.”
“We didn’t either, but none of them wanted to wave the white flag.”
“I guess you had to do what you had to do. Where are the women and children?”
“Free. We’ve sent them all to find themselves,” Niall replied.
“Very funny. They weren’t yours to release into the wild.”
“They weren’t yours either,” Niall told him.
“So, you aren’t planning on letting me get my clan back up and running. You’ve dismissed all the women and you’re not compensating me for my losses?”
“Your losses? Duncan, before we came here, you were being held a virtual prisoner by your own Alpha, an Alpha who took your rightful claim to lead the clan for himself. You betrayed your clan, enabling us to take them down, and now you think we did all that work just to let you grow the fungus known as the Maguire Clan back?”
“Okay. Well, I guess I will just have to find a new clan,” Duncan replied.
“I guess you will,” Niall told him.
“Andrew, thanks for your hospitality. I think it’s time for me to move on now.”
“You don’t want to see if Andrew wants you in his outfit?” Ronan asked him.
“Nah. I don’t belong here anymore. I’ll maybe go up north. If I look hard enough, maybe I can find Deidre and we can pick up where we left off before Trill took her from me. She hasn’t even been broken in yet. She’s ripe for the picking.”
Niall reacted without thinking. He wasn’t even aware of his hand striking Duncan until he’d put him on his ass, blood pouring from his nose.
“Don’t you ever mention her name again. Don’t look for her, don’t ask about her. If you do anything to cause her even an ounce of concern, I will end you like I ended your family,” Niall hissed at him.
Duncan looked at him, his eyes full of rage, but he said nothing. Instead, he sat there like the coward he was at heart and waited for Niall to walk away. Niall was already a few steps down from the attic when he heard Ronan speaking.
“I’m afraid you’re a little too late to break in your girl. A much better Alpha took her for his own,” he growled at him before turning to follow Niall down the steps.
“You shouldn’t have told him that,” Niall said as they left the house.
“Fuck him,” Ronan replied.
“Let’s call Olcan,” Niall told him, eager to change the subject.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Deidre
As the days passed and nothing more came of the money she’d “inherited” and no one seemed to be looking for her, Deidre began to get comfortable in her new life. She told herself that perhaps Deanna’s disappearance wasn’t anything nefarious at all. Perhaps she just wanted out of her miserable life too.
It was easier to just let it go and hope for the best. The McNally’s had paid good money to get her sorted out with a new identity, and she had to believe that the person they had hired knew what he was doing. More importantly, even if he wasn’t aware that they were shifters, he wouldn’t cross a prominent Boston mafia family.