Page 184 of Bad Bishop

I was never angry. It was a pointless emotion, and I was notoriously stingy with those. But right now, I was sick with rage. Poisoned with the cloying, unfamiliar feeling of helplessness.

He hurt her.

My own kin.

She was going to look at our son’s eyes, and face, andhaireach day for the rest of her life, knowing it was a Callaghan who ripped her innocence from her.

“I didn’t s-say…I mean, what I was gonna…” He stumbled over his own words. “I did it. I’m not d-denying it.” Fintan broke into a sob, and I heard glass shattering on the other side of the line. “B-but listen to me. J-justlisten.”

He was slurring. He was drunk.Again.Usually, that’d make me concerned. Now, my only worry was that his liver wouldn’t fail on his miserable arse before I had the chance to finish him off myself.

I deserved the fucking honor.

I heard a duffel bag being unzipped. Clothes stuffed into it in a hurry. He didn’t even have the foresight to make an escape plan. How did we share DNA?

“I’m not okay in the head, Tiernan. I’m not. I need help. Think about it. I watched Mam being carved open like a bleeding animal when Igor pulled you and Tierney out. I was just three. A small boy. I was sitting in a pool of her blood when Da found me.”

“Your sob story didn’t give you the right to rape my wife.” I choked back a roar, keeping my voice flat and even. “We’re all fucked up in the head. You’re nothing special.”

A text message popped on the screen.

Tierney: I gave him a thirty minute head start. Where’s the joy of the hunt if the prey just sits there, waiting for slaughter?

Tierney: Cute baby, btw.

“I—I didn’t know she’d turn out to be your wife!” Fintan whined. “Not t-to mention that you’d catch feelings for her. I thought it would be the f-first and last time I’d ever see her. And you know what they said about her!” he spluttered. “That she was severely mentally d-delayed. Too dumb to know what’s ha-happening around her.” He hiccuped.

Keys jangled. Dropped to the floor. Being picked up again.

I said nothing.

“Please,pleasebelieve me when I say I never meant for anything to happen this way.”

“You had seven months to come clean to me. Why didn’t you?”

Silence. I was nearing Da and Fintan’s mansion.

“I thought I could take care of it in another way.”

“But you didn’t. You should be halfway across the ocean by now. Why did you stay?”

“I—I kind of figured it could…that I would…I mean, if the baby wouldn’t have come out with red hair…” He swallowed audibly. “He could’ve come out blond. Or, with brown hair. Or, I don’t know…” Another pause. “It doesn’t have to change anything between us. This all happened before you got together. I haven’t touched her since and never,everwill. And she doesn’t evenremember.” He choked out that last word, breaking into a fresh bout of sobs. “I swear, Tiernan, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. It was just harmless fun. And I was plastered. I mean, completely drunk. Had I known you were going to wed her…fall in love with her…Christ, I’dnever.” He sounded on the brink of vomiting. “You’re my brother. I love you. You’ve always been my number one. Please. There’s no need for anyone to know this. I certainly won’t tell. And…and…Lila!” he exclaimed. “Think about her and the baby, how crushed they’d be if they found out. We’re getting along so nicely. She trusts me.”

That, she did.

I thought about all the times I left her with him again.

I’d punch my own face if I wasn’t driving.

“And I’ll do whatever you want me to. Go to rehab. Move away if need be.” A wet snort escaped him. I couldn’t believe I carried the same DNA as this pile of shite. “We can pretend it never happened. As far as the entire world knows—it never did. Only me, Tierney, and you know.”

“The accident in which she almost lost the baby…” I said, leaving the rest of it hanging in the air.

Fintan understood what I meant. “I…I sent people to do it. But I told them not to kill her, just the baby,” he lamented. “I swear it.”

“Who?” I demanded. They were as good as dead now.

“The loan sharks I used to owe money to.” Pause. “I told them if they managed to kill the baby, I’d pay them five million.”