I left my apartment in a hurry, dressed in cotton slacks and a hoodie, heading down the street in a jog. I kept the hood pulled up. It wasn’t likely that I had someone following me, I was careful but better paranoid than dead or caught.

My destination was about twenty minutes away at the relatively fast pace I set. But it took me over half an hour because I took some alternate routes on the way. I'd gone through enough training in the past couple of years that I wasn’t even breathing hard when I got to my destination. I glanced around inconspicuously, as I stretched out. When I was sure there wasn’t anyone suspicious paying any attention to me that I could see, I walked the last bit, then jogged up the steps to the door and knocked. It was open seconds later and I slipped in.

I pulled my hood down as Seamus locked the door behind me, and made my way to his living room. It was a nice room, certainly bigger than mine, but sparsely furnished. He had a couch, a TV, and a small table, and that was it. But then, he wasn’t usually in the mood to entertain guests. I sat back on the couch and waited for him. I rolled my eyes at the sour look he threw at me.

"Everything is in place," I told him.

He had nothing to be grumpy about. I wasn’t exactly slacking in my 'duties.' I was supposed to check in with him regularly, but it wasn’t necessary other than from a safety standpoint.

"You need to be more serious about this Ronan. This isn’t a game, kid. It's dangerous."

I glared at the use of 'kid.' Yeah, he was way older than me, over twice my age. His fifty-five to my twenty-four, but I took this shit seriously. Teagan was… distracting, yes, but not so much that I would lose my memory.

If I had to be honest, it stung a bit that he didn’t trust me, though it was more my pride than my emotions on the table.

"I am being serious, old man. I've done as you wanted, haven't I?"

But he shook his head. "Not everything. You should stop seeing Teagan, Ronan, you seem to be spending too much time with her."

"Seamus—"

He cut me off, talking over me, "More than is necessary. I don’t mind you seeing her, but she distracts you. You're not a hundred percent in this when she's around so you have to minimize your interaction with her."

I threw my arms up in frustration. "I'm supposed to get her to trust me, I couldn't do that without spending time with her. And I don’t think I'm spending more time with her than necessary, if she was so easy to approach, this plan wouldn’t have taken a year."

He scowled at me, arms folded across his chest. Even though he didn’t say anything, and there was some distance between us, he was intimidating. It made it hard to forget Seamus was a dangerous man. Whatever he'd taught me in the time since we met, it wasn’t enough to put me anywhere near his level.

But even with his years of experience ahead of me, even knowing how dangerous he was, I wasn’t easy to intimidate. If I was, I never would have started this.

"Look, I had to. And guess what, all this time I've been spending around her has paid off. How the hell else would I have known where Quinn would be then, huh? You know she's necessary."

"I could have told you—"

"It's not enough for me to just know." I jumped off the couch, feeling restless, pacing around in the small space as he stayed where he was at the entrance to the living room. "Look, I know where Quinn will be tonight, and I will be going as Teagan's date for the wedding anniversary celebration at his house. What excuse would you have for inviting me to someone else's house, because you know there's no way I would have gotten an invitation otherwise. It's not like I know anyone else that will be going."

"I'm going, too," Seamus stated.

"Yeah, but I couldn’t exactly be your date, could I?" I asked him sarcastically.

He had nothing to say to that, and I stopped pacing to face him, feeling a little smug but keeping it off my face. I had him there and he knew it. The plan needed me to be there, and it was a private party by exclusive invite. Even if there wasn’t anyone waiting with a list at the front door, I wouldn’t know anyone besides Teagan and Seamus in that crowd. I didn’t mingle with the 'privileged' crowd, but I was pretty sure, if I crashed the party, they would be able to tell I didn’t belong there, and I would get myself into trouble.

Even if Seamus somehow got me into that party, it would be dangerous because there wasn’t supposed to be any link between us. Considering Seamus was his right-hand man for years, it would raise questions. Quinn was a suspicious man, he had to do what he did and live as long as he had while keeping out of jail.

If his old friend and his daughter's new boyfriend were friendly, he might try to investigate into my background, and the plan would fall apart. We'd both be in danger, and maybe Teagan, too.

Eventually, he sighed, ending our little stare-off and changing the subject.

"I suspect Quinn wants me to go back into the business. It's not so unusual for him to let me join his family's celebrations, but this call was unexpected. He told me I absolutely had to make it. I can't remember the last time he used those words when speaking to me," Seamus said.

That… was bad. Seamus wasn’t exactly young anymore, which was why he'd been allowed, more or less, to retire peacefully. As far as I knew, from what Seamus had told me, the last right-hand man Quinn had, was killed by his own hand for betraying him. Why would he call Seamus back at all?

"Are you going to do it?" I tried not to sound worried, but he saw through me.

"Don’t worry about it," he told me, trying to sound reassuring. "I will not give up, what we have worked so for all these years, and I was in this for so many more years than you, kid. We're sticking to the plan."

I just nodded. It was impossible not to worry. To some extent, I trusted Seamus. He had done a lot more to help me than anyone less dedicated to the end goal would have done in the past couple of years. But as much as he'd told me, I knew he kept plenty to himself. I trusted him as far as the plan was concerned. I didn’t think the hatred he felt for Quinn, about as great as my own, could be faked. Beyond that, I was wary.

Besides, I had some idea how Quinn would react if he received a less than satisfactory answer. He wouldn’t be happy.

"It's going to be the first time you meet Quinn, Ronan, so please be careful around him. He's devious, and he's smart. He's going to be paying attention to you because you're going to be around his daughter. Do not let your emotions run ahead of you or you will tip him off."

I let my eyes roll. I didn’t need him to tell me that, either. He'd told me plenty of times before and I took it to heart the first time.

"Don’t worry about it," I repeated his words to him, trying to sound convincing. "Believe me when I tell you, you have nothing to worry about on that front. My head is in the plan."

He gave me an uncertain look. The same one he gave me the first time he met me.

Sometimes, like now, I still wondered why. For whatever reason, he wanted to carry out this plan so badly. He'd had plenty of time; even before I came into the picture. He had known Quinn for years, but he roped me into it a little over two years ago when I was just out of college and falling right into hell.

My parents had been dead a little over a year, and though it had been ruled an accident and the case closed when a man I had never met came out of nowhere and told me he had news of them. I was more than ready to listen. I didn’t think about how he knew, how he found me. He could have been someone dangerous, and I didn’t find out until much later that he really was, more so than I could have imagined. He left with my number and called me about a week later. I didn’t care about any of that because I just wanted to know the truth.

I met him at a popular diner during their off hours, so there would still be people around but not enough to overhear the conversation.

He gave me the same look now as he did then as I sat across from him, so young and naïve in many ways, and told me the truth about my parents. The reasons I went down this road, to begin with.

"It wasn’t an accident, kid. Your parents were murdered."

Words that brought my world crashing down around me until there was nothing but pain and hatred. I sat there, barely listening to his words as he explained everything. Not in detail, but just enough that I understood.

Vengeance was building in my mind before he finished his little speech and asked if I was interested. I jumped at the chance.

"This isn’t going to be easy, kid. This isn’t some playground or a video game. If you really want to do this, I am going to help you."

"Why?"

"Let's just say that I have my own reasons. You want revenge for your family, so you need to know what you're getting into."

I didn’t care. It was my answer then, and it would be my answer no matter how many times he asked. This wasn’t just for me, it was for my parents.