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Silence descended. We were waiting to hear what Darragh said.

He was the decision-maker in this instance and in many others.

We trusted him to do what was right and would protect the family, so there was no need for debate.

We could kill them, but I didn’t think it was necessary.

We were all in the same boat. If one squealed, they’d take the others down with them.

Besides, they had potentially saved us by killing Chris’s reinforcements in the wings.

Darragh took his time studying them before he shrugged nonchalantly.

“Welcome to date night. We’ll do it here. I’d hate to separate them from their buddies.” He gestured to the dead men on the floor. “Let’s get this done. I want to go home to my wife and son.”

Tiernan and Alistair marched over to Scotty and Chris.

Tiernan took Scotty since Alistair had a personal beef with Chris over Aisling.

She was our cousin or sister, depending on who you were, but Alistair’s anamchara , soulmate.

His claim superseded ours now. Tiernan went to Scotty because he gave money to Noel, a paparazzo, to cause trouble for Tiernan’s anamchara , Kynedi, and their son, Cassius.

They grabbed the men by their arms and hauled them to two chairs.

Chris and Scotty struggled the whole way.

Declan and Rory flipped the chairs upright since they’d been knocked over in the fight.

They slammed them hard on the seats. Both men were secured to the chairs using more zip-ties.

I preferred rope, but this wasn’t the time to discuss preferences.

The questioning began. As expected, both men were full of false bravado, and there were the standard threats of what would happen if they were harmed. I zoned it out. Instead, I spent time partially listening and the rest checking out Gianna DeSantis. I couldn’t help it.

I was a man who appreciated women in all shapes and forms. I’d been with women of different sizes, heritages, and ethnic backgrounds.

None had ever made me want to make them my anamchara , but I had fun.

It was a benefit of being not only filthy rich, with an edge of danger and, as conceited as it sounded, good-looking.

However, I was particularly attracted to women like Gianna, who were Italian beauties, but never had one caught my notice the way Gianna had.

She was of above-average height, maybe five feet eight or nine.

I’d gauge her age to be in her late twenties at the most. Her skin was a light golden olive tone.

She had very dark brown hair that was pulled back in a braid.

Based on the thickness of the braid, she had a ton of hair.

The end of her braid hit her mid- back. Her hair and skin were eye-catching, but her eyes captured me even more.

They were slightly slanted like a cat’s and were the lightest blue I’d ever seen.

They were crystalline-like, making me think of ice on a lake.

The rest of her face added to her lusciousness.

A tiny pixie nose, thin dark arched brows, and a generous mouth with a slightly pointed chin completed her looks.

As I ran my gaze down her body, I took the rest of her in.

She was curvy, though it was hard to tell much else about her body in her clothing.

Her breasts pushed out her shirt enough to tell me she had a decent amount.

Her ass filled out the seat of her pants enough to know she wasn’t deficient in that department.

All of this made me want to get to know Gianna a whole lot better.

My perusal was halted by Scotty shouting how sick he was of the word anamchara and his disbelief that they existed. This stupidity made all the O’Sheerans grumble. However, Gianna’s remark almost caused me to lose it.

“Can I smack them? They’re such irritating assholes, aren’t they? How did you resist killing them this long?”

We sputtered as we worked to hold back our laughter. Amusement flipped to anger when Scotty spit in her direction and said, “Shut your mouth, bitch. No one is talking to you.”

The DeSantis men took a step toward him, but Gianna beat them to him. She swiftly went to Scotty and punched him in the jaw. His head jerked to a ninety-degree angle. I was mere steps behind her. His remark and spitting had infuriated me. I planned to shut his mouth for him.

“Quiet, little boy, the adults are speaking. When you grow a pair, and they drop, then you can talk,” she said, smirking.

She followed it with a pat on his head like he was a little kid to add insult to injury. It reminded me of how a parent might try to appease a toddler. Scotty’s face flushed with fury. I waited to see if he’d say or do anything else. If he did, I’d be the one disciplining his ass.

Cathal had been the one who set Scotty off with the talk of soulmates. He smiled and said, “Thank you. Where was I? Oh yeah, my sister is with the man she’s loved for half her life. Wait, Alistair, do you want to share the good news with Chris?” Cathal asked.

Alistair’s smile was like that of a cat who stole the cream.

“As a matter of fact, I would. Thanks for the suggestion. Brynes, you’ll be so happy to hear that my peasant blood has mixed with Aisling’s.

It seems my seed is very potent, boys. She’s carrying the first of many of my children.

Hearty Scottish blood to make their Irish blood even stronger.

I made sure to place my final claim on her as quickly as possible. ”

This revelation set Chris and Scotty off.

Then, the fun began. We spent hours torturing them and extracting bits of information that would help us shut the entire operation down for good and eliminate or get prosecuted as many involved as possible.

We hoped to recover as many victims as we could.

However, as much as they told us, we knew they held back way more. We needed the vital stuff.

While we did this, the DeSantis family was an impassive observer.

They didn’t appear shocked at anything we did.

I wondered a few times what they thought, especially Gianna.

I kept studying her when I wasn’t focused on the questioning, though I tried to do it slyly.

I caught her more than a few times looking back at me.

I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, which was new.

Women were easy for me to read, but not her. She intrigued me even more.

Fingernails had been removed with pliers, cuts made all over their bodies, and they’d been beaten horribly, yet they held back. Chris and Scotty kept swearing and screaming at us.

Suddenly, Gianna interrupted, “I hope I’m not overstepping, but what about heating things up? Maybe flames would help loosen their tongues,” she suggested offhandedly.

We’d used fire in past cases. I figured the reason it hadn’t been done this time was that we’d planned to torture them elsewhere until the DeSantis family arrived. I doubted anyone had a blowtorch with them.

“We’d love it, but we left the blowtorch at home,” Tiernan told her.

Gianna smiled. It took my breath away. “That’s alright. If you ask nicely, I’ll let you use mine.”

I felt an instance of irritation that she chose to give him her smile.

If she hoped to make an impression on Tiernan, she was wasting her time.

He was irrevocably taken by Kynedi. He loved her to no end.

Gianna got into a pack that she carried on her back.

She came out with an honest-to-God small blowtorch.

I couldn’t stop it from slipping out, though I said it in a whisper. “I think I’m in love.” Tiernan glanced over at me. He was closest to me. I smiled and winked at him.

She handed Alistair the torch and a lighter, and he got to work.

After a very informative half hour, we had the details to track shipments and everything in between.

Chris even told us he kept the data on a jump drive he carried with him.

That was removed from his person, and the password was demanded and received.

Finnegan, one of our enforcers, had a laptop and tested it to be sure it would work. It did.

That left nothing to do but to end it. Alistair and Tiernan finally let the rest of us get in a few punches before they finished the ordeal.

Before leaving the Hounds and Horsemen to finish cleaning up, Darragh arranged for the DeSantis family to come to our compound that evening.

They agreed, and a time was set. They left at the same time we did.

I had to fight not to stare at Gianna as they walked off into the countryside around us. I couldn’t wait.

???

They were here. I’d been anxious about this meeting for hours.

I’d tried to rest since we’d been up most of the night, but I’d been restless.

It was due to my thoughts about Gianna DeSantis.

I wondered if our second encounter would intrigue me as much or if it would have waned as it did with other women.

I’d start by being attracted to a woman, but it would begin to fade nearly immediately.

Sure, I might have fun and sex with them for a few weeks or months, but it was always kept casual and temporary.

They knew going into it that was all it would be.

I didn’t want anyone to have false expectations or hurt feelings when it came to an end.

However, those did happen from time to time anyway.

The DeSantis family was seated, and the drinks and pastries offered and accepted were consumed amid small talk.

I was impatient to get started. Not that being in Gianna’s presence wasn’t exhilarating.

I found her as enthralling as she was during our first meeting.

I wanted to learn more about her, but that would have to wait. DeSantis Senior got the ball rolling.

“Not that we don’t appreciate your hospitality, O’Sheeran, but you invited us here.

We’d like to know why. From what we found so far, you appear to be legitimate, contrary to the rumors.

We’re still digging. So it raises the question of why you were there last night, doing what you were doing? ” Alphonso bluntly stated.

The mention of them digging into us caused tension to rise.

It was an automatic response, although if they thought they could find anything incriminating to use against us, they wouldn’t.

They had no proof we did anything illegal other than what they observed last night, which they were as dirty as we were for doing.

Dia , God, I hoped they wouldn’t be stupid.

Darragh would ensure they were removed if they were a real threat to us.

I didn’t want Gianna killed. The thought of it made my stomach cramp, and I felt nauseous. Everything in me wanted to yell no.

Darragh responded to Alphonso’s bluntness.

“And everything we’ve discovered about you and your family so far seems to indicate you’re bounty hunters and are honest people.

So why were you there last night? It seems that if either of us means to hold it over each other’s heads, we have a stalemate.

Who do you have checking into us?” It was a thinly veiled threat.

“It would if that was why we’re here. I’m not telling you who is researching you. Just like you won’t tell me who you have doing the same to us, let’s cut to the chase. We want in on you going after the men who’re buying those girls and women,” Alphonso said forcibly.

“And why would we allow that?” Declan asked.

“Because we can get into places you can’t.

Face it, even with those men you had helping last night, you can’t go in and find out information yourselves.

You’re too easily recognized. We’re not.

And we happen to know a lot of lowlifes.

It’s a hazard of the business. We hear things and can ask questions that won’t raise suspicions. ” Luciano answered Declan’s question.

“That may be true, but those men aren’t our only resources,” Aidan added.

“That’s great. Another thing is that we want to see those women and girls returned. In some cases, there are rewards. We want to claim those. The money will help us find others,” Alphonso stated.

“Find others for what?” I asked.

“To give them their freedom, help them start over, and to kill the motherfuckers who did this to them. They all deserve to burn in hell for eternity. We can either work together or separate, but we’re going after them,” Gianna hissed. There was a hateful blaze in her eyes.

“You have a personal stake in this,” Darragh said, studying her.

“Damn right I do, and before you ask, no, I won’t tell you why. Do we have a deal?” she asked.

“I need to talk this over with my family. If you leave me a number where you can be reached, I’ll let you know in the next few days. As you can imagine, this isn’t something we can do lightly,” Darragh said.

Their answer was to stand simultaneously. Alphonso held out his hand to Darragh. His expression was impassive, so I couldn’t determine what he was feeling or thinking. Gianna was back to wearing the same look.

“Thanks for hearing us out. We’ll wait for your call. I hope we can work together, but as Gianna said, we’ll do it separately if we have to. Goodnight,” Alphonso informed Darragh.

Earlier, after showing them inside, Seamus, Angus, and Finnegan had stayed but remained in the background.

They came forward to escort them out. I wondered if we’d begin our discussion tonight about their offer or wait to hear what else Cody discovered about them.

I wanted to start now, but I’d be patient if I had to.

The outcome was too important. We had to protect ourselves, those who worked for us, our friends, and those we hoped to save.

Until it was determined where the DeSantis family fell in that mix, I’d have to work to put Gianna at the back of my mind.