Dylan frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Aedan,” Rogan said warningly.
“No, he needs to know,” Aedan said. “Rogan’s father made him swear that he would take over from him. In return, you and I got to leave that whole mess behind and make a new life for ourselves.”
Dylan sat back in shock. All these years and he’d never known what his friend had sacrificed for him. “What? You did that? For us?”
“I was never going to be able to get away, anyway. The old man would have chased me down to the ends of the earth. This way the two of you could be free.”
“Jesus Christ, Rogan. Why didn’t you ever tell me, man?” Dylan asked.
Rogan looked at him through tired eyes. “Because I wanted you to live the life that I would never have.”
Dylan cursed.
“Don’t go feeling sorry for me,” Rogan said brusquely. “My life is good. And I’ve made plenty of changes. For the better I think, even if Brandt didn’t. My men and their families are a lot safer. I’ll never be completely out, but it’s very different than what it was in my father’s day. He’s probably turning over in his grave right now, old bastard.”
Rogan ran his hand over his face. “These last few months I’ve blamed Jimmy for giving me bad intel and it turns out that it was Brandt who betrayed me. Brandt must have told the Seven Sinners that we were coming for one of their own.”
“Lucas’s killer,” Dylan said slowly, recalling what Rogan had said earlier in the night. “You’ve been searching for him?”
“Yeah, for the last five years or so. Jimmy finally found him. We went to the house of this stripper he was supposed to be fucking… ahh, sorry, Tilly,” Rogan gave her an apologetic look.
“I’ve heard worse,” she said. “I have four brothers.”
“Doesn’t mean you need to hear it from me,” Rogan replied. “Anyway, I took Cillian, Colm and Tarin with me. I wanted to keep this low key. But instead of it just being the stripper and Torino, Lucas’s killer, there were five armed Seven Sinners. Tarin got shot and we barely made it out alive. I blamed Jimmy all this time.”
“And Jimmy has been keeping a close eye on you, trying to figure out who leaked the information because he knew it wasn’t him,” Aedan said.
“I still can’t believe that he saw Brandt knock Cillian on the head and stuff him in the trunk of the car and he didn’t bother to warn us,” Dylan said incredulously.
“Instead, he called me and then followed you guys,” Aedan added, shaking his head.
“Nosy bastard probably wanted to see what would happen next,” Rogan said tiredly.
“And for some reason you thought it was all right to bring along Tilly,” Dylan growled at Aedan.
“Don’t blame Aedan,” she protested.
But Aedan just nodded. “It was a mistake.”
“There was no way I was going to stay behind last night,” Tilly argued.
“You wouldn’t have had a choice if they’d tied you to your bed,” Dylan growled.
Tilly glared up at him. “You have a real obsession with tying me up.”
Dylan grinned evilly. “I’ll have to make sure to act out my fantasies soon. I think having you tied up and at my mercy might
go some way to making up for nearly giving me a heart attack.”
“Well, do us all a favor and wait until you get home to play that game,” Rogan said dryly. “The walls aren’t that thick.”
Tilly blushed and Dylan mock-glared at Rogan. “Way to ruin my fun.”
Tilly whacked his leg. “Dylan,” she hissed.
He kissed the top of her head, breathing in her scent.