“Yeah, I felt that way about Miki.” Kane grasped the neck of the bottle and plucked it from his cousin’s grip. “’Course that was after I was done being pissed off at him. He’s… complicated.”
“So’s Damien. The two of them deserve each other.” Sionn rested his back against the slanted roof behind him. “Shit, I’m going to lose him to this. He doesn’t need me anymore. You’ve got to promise to watch him, K. There’s that asshole gunning for him and….”
“You’re not going anywhere, Sionn Murphy.” The whiskey sloshed back and forth as Kane waved it in the air. “You’ve been his anchor of sorts for, what? More than a month now? You’re just going to have to learn how to share him. Like I’ve got to share Miki.”
“You think it’s that easy? Just sharing? You’ve seen them together. They don’t need anyone else.”
“No. Yes. Maybe,” Kane muttered, shrugging. “They might not need anyone else, but Miki wants me. Loves me, even. Shit, he probably loves my family. At least my dad. My mom scares the fuck out of him, but Dad, that’s his rock. Damie will need that. He’ll need you. Even if you’re a Finnegan, you’re a part of this family. So’s he.”
“I’m a Murphy, damn it.” Complaining about his name did no good. The Morgans placed him firmly in the Finnegan column, a sprawling, boisterous clan even louder than the San Francisco Morgans. He got a headache every time he visited and didn’t know how the others survived with their hearing intact after the summers they all spent together in Ireland.
“Doesn’t count.” The whiskey made another circuit in the air. “But yeah, he’s yours, Sionn. I saw it. Shit, I don’t even know him and I saw it.”
“Why didn’t you tell Miki you guys found his fingerprint?”
“Because it didn’t make sense, and we’d just gotten to talking about what we were going to do,” Kane explained. “Then Damie walked into the kitchen. Then, well, everything went to shit. We’ve got to question him, you know. We’ve talked to everyone else about the woman’s murder. If he’s seen something, we need to know. And Browne never got to grill him about the shooter. I’m guessing the two are related.”
“You think the shooter offed the manager?”
“Yeah, it makes sense, especially if Damie’s been in the wind these past few days. Someone put him up in Montana… someone who had the juice to do it. I’d lay bets something happened and Damie became a problem. The blond might have been hired to put an end to that person’s problem.”
“But why kill the woman? He’s just that fucked in the head?”
“Might be.” Kane shrugged. “I’ve given up trying to figure out the why of assholes’ minds. I just hunt them down and throw them in jail. I leave the why shit to the people who like banging their heads against brick walls. But that leads me to something else. You and Damie should stay with us. If the shooter went after the hostel manager, he’s going to be hitting other people in Damie’s life. You’re a big someone for him. You were there when the shooting happened, and he’s been hiding out with you for the past day and a half. You’ve got a big target on your back there, cuz.”
“The pub.” Sionn swore and tried to get to his feet. “Leigh and the rest of them….”
“Yeah, already thought of that.” Kane hooked his fingers into Sionn’s waistband and tugged him back down. “There’s some undercover guys covering the pub. We’ve got eyes on them. Once I made the connection between you, Damie, and Finnegan’s, I sent a couple of plainclothes down there. The guy’s a killer, and it looks like he really doesn’t give a shit who he hits as long as he gets who he’s after. Since that seems to be Damie, we’re going to have to circle the wagons for right now. I’d feel better knowing you’re around the two of them until this guy gets caught. I need to work the case. You’ve got a license to carry in this state?”
“Aye.” He drew the parka’s collar up, covering his ears. “Gone to the range a few times since I’ve been back, but… I don’t. Carry, I mean.”
“You doing okay with all that?” His cousin eyed him over the bottle as he drank before handing Sionn the whiskey. “The shooting?”
“Better,” Sionn admitted. “Some nightmares. She was a kid, K. Hard to get my brain wrapped around that.”
“You going back? Or are you out of that for good?”
“I’m done.” He sighed, cradling the bottle to his chest. “Too much blood. Too much grief. For a while it felt good, like I was doing right. Now it just feels like I was playing tin soldier.”
“You know what you’re going to do?”
“No. I’m… tired of being on edge, K. Time for something different.” He shrugged, scraping his shoulders on the dormer. “Maybe once this guy is caught and Damie’s set, I’ll figure something out. Right now, it’s too… iffy.”
“You can always join the family business….”