“Get him out of here.” Blanchet’s voice was loud as she pointed toward Tommy.
Hands were holding me back and a weird rush of fear washed through me as I watched Tommy being dragged out of the room.
It was like time stood still and I couldn’t move.
I had no idea how much time passed or when whoever was holding onto me had released their grip but when I blinked, I realized the room was quiet. I looked around.
Agent Blanchet was the only one in the room and she was staring at the doorway. “You can come in,” she said.
As if everything were happening in slow motion, I glanced toward the direction of her voice.
In the doorway was Declan. “Sorry, man, I had to follow you. I wasn’t letting you go it alone.” He pointed to Blanchet. “Turns out, she’d been following us and she nabbed me in the lobby before I could make it to you. She forced me to tell her what room you were in.”
Fuck, I knew she’d been on me. I should have been even more careful.
“Good thing he fessed up quickly.” Her voice was like cold steel.
My eyes darted to hers, and they were swimming with that same cold steel.
“Listen, McPherson, you’re walking a very thin line. My patience is wearing down.”
I scrubbed my hand down my face. “What the fuck more do you want from me?”
She glared at me like I should fucking know.
And I did know. I just hoped to fuck she didn’t know. Know what I’d done—that I’d committed a felony.
Finally, she spoke. “You should have called me when you found out where Tommy was. I don’t want to have to put a tail on you every fucking time I suspect you know more than you’re telling me.”
I stared at her blankly because thank God, she didn’t know that I’d relocated the drugs.
“Next time you pull something like this, I’m going to haul your ass in.” She pointed to herself. “I’m the law, not you. Do you understand me?”
I nodded but tuned everything else out.
This whole thing had just gotten so much worse.
Even behind bars, Tommy wasn’t going to leave Elle alone. As if I hadn’t already known it, he’d told me so himself. And now there was nothing I could do about it.
Elle and I had just forged some kind of commitment and I was going to be forced to break it.
What had happened tonight?
So much.
Way too much.
It was hard to believe that just hours ago I’d crossed the line an attorney should never cross. I’d tampered with evidence. In truth, I’d committed a felony by relocating a shitload of cocaine that had since been confiscated, and people in connection to it arrested.
Not just people.
My enemies. My foes.
Patrick.
His crew.
Now Tommy.
And I had put them there.
I should be happy.
I wasn’t.
I also should be worried about what would happen to me.
I wasn’t.
The only thing on my mind right now was, what am I going to do to make sure Elle stays safe?
Because I was screwed.
Although a lot of the Blue Hill Gang members had been arrested, not all of them had been locked up. There were too many of them. And besides, some would be out on bail within hours. I also knew Tommy was into something else, something drug related, and those connections would go beyond jail. I was certain he would reach out to them as soon as he could.
The fact was—I couldn’t keep Elle safe.
Not always.
Something could happen to her if I stayed with her.
Maybe something bad.
Chills ran through me.
Something like what Tommy had done before to Kayla, a girl I was casually seeing, the girl I made the mistake of bringing back to Boston one weekend, or like what he had done recently to Elle’s employee and friend, Peyton. Although I had no proof, I was certain Tommy had caught a glimpse of Peyton and me together on the street and then later attacked her, sending her to the hospital with an E carved in her stomach.
An E I had wrongly believed was meant to remind me of his dead sister, Emily. Emily, the girl I’d made the mistake of fucking when I was fifteen, which subsequently led to a teen pregnancy and ultimately to her suicide. That event had not only changed my life, but my father’s and grandfather’s lives as well.
Back then, Emily’s father had been the head of the Dorchester Heights Gang, a smaller Irish Mob, and he wanted to be top dog, but my paternal grandfather had held that position in the Blue Hill Gang. The situation I inadvertently created gave Emily’s father the ammunition he needed to make his move and ascend his rank.
Patrick Flannigan was ruthless.
The rule on the street was “A life for a life,” and he demanded obedience.
Regardless of the circumstances, as a consequence of my actions, my father had been providing his legal services to Patrick for the past twelve years. In exchange for my life my father traded his life in service for Emily’s death.
A life for a life.