And yet somehow she had seen right through everything.
When she didn’t answer he said, “Kieran, I’m going to start suspecting a lot more than you think I do if you don’t talk to me.”
That did it. The door swung open. She stood there in her stocking feet, hair streaming around her shoulders, eyes shooting off sparks of fury.
“I can’t believe you!” she snapped. “The whole time, you were only there to watch my family, thinking you were going to trip one of us up. What, do you think I was with the jewel thieves that night and they were all so stupid they forgot I was their partner and took me hostage? Or maybe you think Declan’s the bad guy. Yeah, Declan. He just pretends to work his ass off running the pub. He really meets with master criminals and the KGB and the IRA and you name it, ready to tear down the political infrastructure of the world.”
“Kieran—”
“Or how about Kevin? Screw acting. Maybe he’s really a drug dealer when he’s not figuring out the best way to rob a bank.”
“Kieran—”
“I know! It’s Danny. One look at him, and you just know he’s a vicious killer.”
“Kieran, stop it!”
He stepped forward, forcing her back into the living room, where she flew at him, ready to beat her fists against his chest. To his amazement, she seemed to deflate the minute she touched him.
He wrapped his arms around her, but she pulled back, walking away from him.
“You have no right to suspect my family,” she said. “I can absolutely guarantee you that my brothers would never, ever be involved in anything that hurt people.”
“Did I say I suspected your brothers—or you—of anything?” he asked her.
“No, but...”
“Are you worried about what your brothers might be caught up in?”
“No!” Kieran protested. “No!”
“Are you worried about yourself?” he asked quietly. “Or even Julie?”
She turned away and walked into the kitchen, taking a bottle of Jameson’s from the cabinet. She poured a liberal portion into a glass.
He smiled. He’d never seen her drink and doubted that she did so often. Few bartenders imbibed on a regular basis, probably because they saw the effects of too much alcohol on a regular basis.
“Were you going to offer me one?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Aren’t you on duty? Aren’t you always on duty?”
“No. Well, a lot of the time, yes,” he admitted. “But not now. I’ve never been on duty here, with you, Kieran,” he said quietly.
For a moment, he thought that she believed him as something softened in her eyes.
“Suit yourself,” she said, pushing the bottle toward him.
He found a glass and poured himself a shot. A small one. He lifted the glass to her.
“I swear to you, I don’t know what crazy ideas you’ve got in your head, but you’re wrong. I’m not in disguise because I’m after your family. What I believe—and with good reason—is that Finnegan’s has been used as a meeting place by both sets of thieves, the ones you helped us catch and the copycats who are still out there. I was there in disguise because some people already know me there, and who’s likely to talk about their criminal plans if they think an FBI agent might overhear?”
She swallowed her whiskey straight, set the glass down hard and stared at him. “Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?”
“You might have inadvertently given me away.”
“Really. So you think I’m an idiot?”
“Kieran, stop right there,” he said, his voice quiet but authoritative. “I didn’t want to put you at risk, that’s all. I think you’re far more afraid than I am that someone in your family is somehow involved in this.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. As if any member of my family would ever try to kill me,” she snapped.
He paused for a moment, studying her. “So you think someone was trying to kill you?”
She nodded, but then her temper flared again. “If you don’t take off that ridiculous disguise, I can’t talk to you.”
“Fair enough.”
He turned and headed for the bathroom, searching through his pockets for the spirit-gum remover. He looked at himself in the mirror over the sink as he methodically metamorphosed from musician to lawman. Contacts first. The wig was easy, the facial hair less so. As he worked he noticed that Kieran had poured herself another shot of whiskey and was leaning against the door frame, sipping as she watched him.
He could tell that she was furious without even looking at her. The air vibrated with the angry heat emanating from her.
She reached over at one point for a tuft on his chin he hadn’t reached yet. He started to thank her, then realized she wasn’t pointing it out as she ripped it off, leaving the skin underneath stinging.