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I gave Lannie the rundown of what we told King. Including the information about Darcy’s son that we knew about. Then I told him Freyja’s theory about why Tyran had betrayed us all.

“That motherfucker,” Lannie snarled. There was no love lost between Sal’s little brother and his former best friend. “Think he’ll come here?”

“Tyran might not be all there, but he isn’t stupid enough to come here. Think even he knows that badge wouldn’t stop you from putting him in the ground. Not to mention King and his guys.”

“Got that fucking right,” he said before taking a drink from the bottle in his hand.

I held the glass in my hand, watching the amber liquid swirl around as I moved my hand in a circle. “Can I ask you something, Lannie?”

“You know I hate that fucking name.”

“Yea, but you’ll always be little Lannie. Calling you Declan would be weird. And I sure as fuck ain’t calling you sheriff.”

He chuckled and asked, “What’s up?”

“You’re only two years younger than me. How do you really feel about having another kid?”

Lannie looked over his shoulder to where the women sat laughing with each other. “Is your girl…?”

“No.” I shook my head. “But she wants kids. I feel so fuckin’ old these days. How the hell do I protect them?”

“Well, you could, you know, stop doing illegal shit.”

“Fuck off.” I laughed.

“No seriously, though. I get it. It scares the shit out of me having a baby. When I found Beck, I became an instant dad. But she was an adult. I don’t know anything about babies.”

“Well Maureen does. That woman was born to be a mom.”

“She’s been so goddamn happy. Once the shock wore off.” He chuckled. “But having her happy is the only thing that matters to me. Everything else will work itself out.”

He sounded like Freyja with her universe bullshit. “Yea.”

When the double doors finally opened and Sal walked out, he came straight to the bar. “Whiskey.”

“Please,” I added.

He just glared at me. It hadn’t escaped my notice he’d come out alone. But we hadn’t heard yelling coming from behind the closed doors, so I counted it as a win. Sal didn’t look like he agreed.

“We need to get back to Boston,” Sal said, looking around the room.

“Same as last time. Fly in, disrupt his life, and fly right fucking back out,” Lannie scoffed.

“Fuck you, Lannie. He doesn’t fuckin’ want me here.”

“He’s dealing with a lot of shit. Give him some fucking time.”

Sal huffed. “I don’t know what to do. I just want to be part of his life.”

“Just keep trying,” Lannie offered.

“What about you?” Sal asked.

I sat between the two of them, uncomfortable as fuck. But I knew if I got up and left, Sal would kill me. For all his bullshit, he missed his brother, but Sal wasn’t the best at communicating his feelings.

Unless those feelings were anger and rage. Those he didn’t have a problem showing.

“What about me?”