I woke up feeling oddly refreshed in the quiet darkness of my room, stretching my body in wonder when I felt the ache in my knuckles. Then it all came back to me. The shit that had gone down the night before in the sub-basement level of one of our buildings. I’d caught up with a Red Shamrock last night and I needed information from the asshole and he refused to give it up, no matter what I did to him. He took dozens of hits to the face and gut without revealing anything. I would have been impressed if I didn’t need that info so fucking bad. It had been a bust so I came here, certain Fiona would be furious for being left alone for so long.

Instead she’d been instantly concerned about me, caring and firm, giving me just what I needed even though I hadn’t realized it at the time. I closed my eyes and laid back on the bed as flashes of the night before played in my mind. Pretty, pink lips wrapped around my cock while big blue eyes stared intensely up at me, daring me to do dirty things to that mouth. I grew hard just thinking about how I fucked that pouty little mouth.

Finally I turned over, hoping to return the favor but I was met with a cold empty bed. Flipping the light switch, I noticed the other side hadn’t been slept in at all. Strange. Where was she? I knew she couldn’t leave so I headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth and splash some water on my face, but I didn’t bother getting dressed. I still had hopes that I could coax her back to bed for a few hours.

I found her leaning in close to a computer screen filled with a jumble of letters, numbers and characters that meant jack shit to me but she seemed to get. A steaming mug sat to one side basically forgotten in favor of whatever was on the screen.

“Good morning,” I smiled and waited for the smile she always had ready for me.

“Morning,” she replied without even bothering to look up at me.

“What’s up?” I strolled past her and poured my own cup of coffee, leaning against the counter so I could watch her. I didn’t like what I saw. Stiff posture and straight shoulders, tight lines around her mouth and a blank stare in her eyes.

“Nothing.” Fiona said nothing else for a long time and I couldn’t figure out what the hell I could have done between last night and this morning to make her so angry. When she finally spoke, she was all business. “I need to go into Cerulean the day after tomorrow.”

“Are you crazy? It isn’t safe out there for you Fiona, just let me take care of this.” Why did she insist on putting herself in danger? “Just stay out of the way.”

Sucking in a breath at my words, her eyes flashed anger but she quickly shuttered it and gave me a blank expression instead. “I’m not asking for permission. I’m going with or without you.”

She stood to refill her mug, fitted jeans making her legs look at least a mile long and a plain white tee drawing my attention to those tight buds straining against the cotton. “Actually, it would be better if you’re not there at all.”

I blinked and felt a scowl crease my face. “What the hell are you talking about Fi?” Who was this cold emotionless creature and what had she done with the sweet, lovely Fiona?

She didn’t answer my question, just steamrollered ahead as if I hadn’t spoken. “I think I’ve figured most of the shipping debacle out, so now I need to meet with the agents looking for my father.”

Yeah that wasn’t going to work for me. Or for Seamus. “Fiona be reasonable. Seamus will-,”

“He will be happy that I’m saving his ass. The FBI will be in the office on Thursday and I have what they need.”

I could not believe my fucking ears. “You plan on turning in your own father?”

Blue eyes looked up at me, silently judging me. For what? Trying to keep her safe and alive? Without another word, she turned away from me to set down her coffee and exchange it for her laptop before quietly padding down to the guestroom. There was a loud slam of the door.

I drank my coffee in the now cold silence of the room, waiting for Fiona to calm down and talk to me. To tell me about her plans for the Feds. I waited more than an hour before I gave up and got dressed. There was so much business to deal with today that I didn’t have time to babysit Fiona or her volatile emotions. But after what she’d done for me last night I had to try again. Standing outside her room, I knocked. “I need to run out.” Nothing but silence greeted me and my shoulders slumped. “I’ll be back later.” Still nothing.

I had to leave, I really didn’t have time right now. With Seamus gone all of this shit fell to me. So I locked up the penthouse and made my way to my black Charger and set out for Dorchester. There were packages to pick up from a few of the gangs we did business with in the area, but I only dealt with Dom because he didn’t try to pull that homeboy gangster shit on me.

“Hey man.” I stepped from the car and we shook hands. “How’s that product.”

“Some good shit. I don’t know where you got it, but if you can get more we can handle it.” Dom’s bright smile shone against his dark skin. “I heard The Hustlers had to fuck up a few Shamrocks last night who accused them of selling their shit.”

I smiled, nodding at the news. “Same happened more or less to us. They’ll be regretting that move for a long time.” We shared a laugh while one of Dom’s guys put a package in my trunk. “Watch out for those fuckers, Dom. They’re sneaky.”

“White boys don’t scare us,” he grinned. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

“You keeping Princess safe? One of the guys offered up a half mil to get her. I told my boys it was a no go, but I can’t say shit for the others.”

Fuck that was the last thing I needed to hear. “Thanks for the heads up Dom. Mack will be by in a couple days with another drop off.” We shook hands again and I took off. I needed to do some clean up before going back to the penthouse.

My thoughts turned to the other O’Malley plaguing my thoughts. Seamus hadn’t checked in for almost five days and that worried me more than anything. No matter how deep shit got, we never let more than forty-eight hours go by without getting in touch. With me or Fiona.

When I arrived at the other safe house where a few of our guys were resting up, I put on my game face. Couldn’t let the foot soldiers see that anything had me shaken or they would get restless. Reckless.

Confident that everything was going as it should, I hopped back in my Charger and headed back to Fiona, who was probably still pissed as hell. But she was safe so everything was all good.

Except for the fucking FBI.

Except for the fucking Red Shamrocks trying to take us down.

Except for…Fiona.

Fiona.

Something was up with her and I just couldn’t figure it out, goddammit. She’d been ice cold at breakfast and I could honestly say Fi had never been so cold to me. She had always been warm and affectionate and full of smiles. Hell last night she’d deepthroated my cock like a girl who’d always been in love with me.

Until I said or did something to make her mad. Maybe I’d been too rough with her last night? I couldn’t really remember since I’d been lost in my own head. Not that I had any sympathy for that Shamrock motherfucker, but when I had to go to that place it took me somewhere else. Someplace that allowed me to be the cold-hearted bastard I needed to be to get the job done. Just like when I’d done it for Uncle Sam.

I wasn’t sure what pissed her off, but we needed to talk, goddammit.

Inside the dark penthouse I stood on the other side of her door again and knocked. No answer.

“You can have tonight Fi, but tomorrow we talk.”