Page 27 of Dublin Charmer

“Thanks, Finn.” She attempts a smile. “But honestly? You lot have been more family to me in nine months than they managed in twenty years. Well…except for Rory. I know I’ve probably lost the others for good, but I can’t bear to think of Rory not being part of my life.”

“Let’s not think about that tonight.” Sean strokes a loving hand over her head and down the silky length of her ebony hair.“Let’s bring in the new year with only good thoughts. The rest will come in time.”

The conversation shifts to lighter topics as we work our way through dinner.

When Cora appears with a flaming Baked Alaska, everyone oohs and aahs appropriately. As much as I love Cora’s desserts, that’s my cue to take my leave.

“Sorry to cut this short, everyone.” I stand, checking my watch. “But I’ve got plans tonight and need to get going.”

“Plans?” Bryan wiggles his eyebrows. “Who’s the lucky lady? Anyone we know?”

That gets a round of muffled laughter from my brothers at my expense.

“None of your business, asshole.” I dodge Tag’s questioning look. “Thanks for dinner, Cora. The duck was perfect.”

“Be careful out there,” Tag calls after me. “Gravely’s getting bold.”

I wave without turning around. My phone buzzes again—another message about Nyx arriving to her destination. Excellent.

Let my brothers have their evening of domestic bliss.

I’ve got a hacker to hunt.

Nyx

I hand my jacket to the woman at the coat check and study the selection of masks on the entrance table. There are the kinds you hold against your eyes with a long stick and the kind that have an elastic that slides around the back of your head and stays in place. It’s probably more elegant for a woman to hold the littlestick but I hate the idea of not having my hands free to text, to fight, to do whatever needs to be done.

The ornate mask with turquoise, green, and blue peacock feathers and gold gemstones matches my electric blue hair and accentuates my dress perfectly. Careful not to mess up my hairstyle, I slide the elastic over my head and adjust the mask to center the eye holes.

Catching my reflection in the massive mirror behind the entrance table, I give myself a pass. Though I don’t want to be here, I clean up pretty good—damn good, actually.

Now to mingle.

To access the main room of the private casino, I descend three wide platform steps. Thankfully, I’m steady in heels despite my preference being Costco slippers or flip-flops. Papa was an important man, and given that it was only him raising the two of us, I was often the woman on his arm at events like this.

“Emilia, I’m glad you came.” Billy Gravely rushes over to greet me.

I didn’t think I had a choice. Actually, I know I didn’t. “How’d you know it was me? I’m wearing a mask.”

He chuckles and slides an unwelcome hand around my hips to stand beside me facing the festivities. “It’s your hair. Even with the mask, it’s still blue.”

As he speaks, he leans closer, and a wash of stale whiskey assaults my senses. Well, all right then, he’s drunk and in fine form.

Good. That will work in my favor.

When he called me this morning to confirm how smoothly everything had gone during his raids last night, he insisted I come to this New Year’s party to celebrate. This is some sort of snooty private party being put on by one of the political figureheads Billy has in his pocket.

Most of the people here are legit, I think, but when you lie in bed with dogs, you still wake up with flees.

“Come on, kid. We’re celebrating.”

Well, he is.Billy is celebrating a big victory, taking over the McGuire warehouses. And while I couldn’t care less about his successes, this is a chance to be near him when he’s drinking and hopefully has his guard down.

The man has a reputation for being a lech and for preying upon young women.

If I can get him alone while he’s drunk, I’ve got a tiny syringe strapped to my upper thigh with enough pharmaceutical potential to have him spilling his innermost secrets to me.

Then, I’ll find out where he has Gio and I can finally be done with all of this.