Page 127 of Lovely Venom

Ava visibly shakes from five months in captivity. Being rescued is probably not what she remembers the most. “He agreed to marry me so my brothers would stop slaughtering the Irish. We had a rocky start, but now, Griffin is my whole world. Gave me everything I never knew I needed.” She smiles at her twin sons crawling on the carpet.

“What do you do, Lennox?” I ask Shane’s wife, who’s as stunning as Ava, with the same dark shiny hair that is perfectly styled.

“This one owns a nightclub.” Ava raises her glass to Lennox, like she’s too shy to admit that to me.

Lennox blushes and runs a hand with a massive rock through all that long hair. “Luxe is more work than excitement.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “TheLuxe?”

She nods, and now I get why Connor and his brothers went there every night.

“Darcy, who’s not here, is a nurse,” Lennox adds about Ewan’s wife but doesn’t dish on the niece part.

Damn.

But with the wives all working impressive jobs and Sabine being the head of security at The Sterling, the Quinlan women are powerhouses. From what I can see, their husbands adore and respect them.

I take a sip of wine and wonder what will be expected of me as far as job and family if I become the next Mrs. Quinlan...

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

Connor

Ewan winds down his conversation about how he’s staying a few extra days in Waterford to meet up with his best friend Kieran O’Rourke, who is there to sell his mother’s family estate.

Shane took a call right when we got into the office, and has been in the corner giving me strange looks for the past twenty minutes.

Ewan hangs up, and I’m already twitching to be with Raina again when Shane joins us at the desk.

“Sabine, can I talk to the brats alone? Empire business,” Shane says, taking his usual seat near the window.

His twin rolls her eyes and practically flies out of the room. She has no interest in what we do. It’s why she refused to marry Kieran. That, and she knew he was still in love with our sister Norah at the time.

So much has changed in the last seven years.

Shane watches the door click shut and then blurts, “They’re looking for Raina.”

My body goes cold, and I curse inwardly that I should have guessed that call had to do with my venom and the Albanian disaster at my doorstep. “Who’sthey?”

“Tahiri. He’s on a rampage. My cleaning lady spy fled the compound and data-dumped intel on me from a fucking bus.”

“Good,” I spit out. “I’m glad Tahiri is losing it. He got caught in a massive lie.”

“Are they planning to attack?” Griffin asks, sitting back in Da’s old chair.

“It’s deeper than that,” Shane says. “Does the name Valdrin Sokolov ring a bell?”

Not only does it ring a bell, it sends fucking chills down my spine. “Aye, why? What the hell does he have to do with this?”

“Sokolov is one of Tahiri’s hitmen.”

“Fuck,” Griffin mutters, his head in his hands.

My heart stops. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

With a name like Sokolov, I always assumed he was a contract killer for the Bratva.

“AndSokolovis alsoHavok,” Shane adds. “That drug dealer identity was a plant to bait Raina in. He’s her handler over there, and according to my spy, Tahiri thinks Sokolov turned on him. That he helped Raina disappear after she failed to kill you. And now fucking Sokolov has been dragged to a black site for it.”