Page 40 of Stolen Temptation (Irish Kings #3)

Rory

I shove my palms against my eye sockets, trying to get the ache in my retinas to cease. Yes, I’ve been up all night. Yes, there was smoke smothering my eyes a few hours ago, and I’ve been doing even more damage by staring at computer screens ever since.

But if this is what it takes to identify the mole and put that bastard out of commission, then I accept the sleep deprivation and terrible eyesight in my future.

I’ve been sifting through security camera footage and scrubbing the dark web for anything that might point us to the fire’s origin.

Scouring underground networks for chatter has turned up zilch, which is sending me into a depressive spiral. The less I find, the more anxious I get that Thomas is going to pull everyone to his side.

If I can’t find definitive proof that Leo wasn’t behind the fire at Madden, he’ll become the culprit by default, and the pressure to return Kiara will only increase.

I shouldn’t care, but I do. I can’t let that happen.

Everything in me wants to run all the way to her room. I wish I could check on her, but if I visit her while everyone else busts their asses to find the mole, I’ll look weak.

I don’t need to give Thomas or anyone else more reasons to return her.

Besides, I’m still pissed at her.

Feeling this way about her is stupid, especially given the current clusterfuck we’re all in, but the fiercest part of my temper says, screw everything and everyone else .

Unfortunately, loyalty won’t let me move.

Yes, it’s bullshit, but finding the mole is my best chance of getting Kiara out of this mess, and I need the distraction.

For the past hour, my focus has shifted to gathering intel on Leo and his auction. I know he and the mole are connected. If I can learn what he was offered in exchange for selling Kiara, we can figure out a way to mess with Leo and the mole. Win-win.

What I need right now, more than sleep, caffeine, and Kiara’s touch, is data.

Only information can save us from this hell we’re in.

My phone shrills on the desk. I answer without even glancing at the caller ID. Finn’s gruff, urgent voice comes across the line.

“Someone tried to kidnap Kiara from the estate.”

My heart doesn’t even pause before being flung into the free fall of panic. I’m on my feet so fast, I don’t even remember standing.

“ What ?” I’m already flying toward my office door. “What about her guard? What happened? Is she okay? Where is she? If there was a breach, why didn’t any of the sensors go off?”

“Shut up and listen to me.” Finn’s exhale makes the microphone crackle. “Someone went to Kiara’s room to take her, but Riley and Harper overheard the commotion and got there in time to rescue her.”

Relief swells in my chest. Anger shoves it back down.

Some asshole tried to steal my painter.

What Finn says next makes me feel even worse.

“The sensors didn’t go off because there wasn’t a breach.”

“Then…” My feet stop. Is Finn telling me that whoever tried to kidnap Kiara was already on the estate?

Meaning, a King did this?

The mole.

Squeezing my phone hard enough for the plastic to creak, I duck out of the security hub and into the adjacent hallway.

I sprint down the hall and race down the main staircase to the ground floor.

“Until we get to the bottom of who did this, we agreed that the twins would monitor Kiara. They’re taking her to a hotel downtown, and they should arrive within the hour.” Finn’s voice echoes, sudden and strange.

He’s standing ahead of me. We both hang up.

I stalk straight over to him, fire roaring through me from head to toe.

Why? Because I’m pissed.

“And why wasn’t I included in this absolute shit show of a plan?” I’ve been upstairs melting my brain, attempting to track down the mole, to find something on Leo, to figure out who started the fire at Madden. All to save one woman.

And behind my back, Finn’s deciding things about her without alerting me?

“I’ve had my phone on me all night. Why didn’t you call me first ?”

Finn’s level gaze only angers me more.

“One, we had to act fast.” He folds his arms. “Two, this Romeo and Juliet fantasy you two have going on is not good.”

The worst part is that I can hear Finn thinking, a King fucking a De Luca on the side, while our two families are at war? With a mole on the loose? Bad plan.

I pour strength into my jaw. “Since when do you give out relationship advice?”

Finn glowers, clenching his fist like he’s fighting the urge to hit me. I know the feeling. “Since you’ve been distracted and losing focus on what matters. We have to figure this shit out, and you dicking around with Kiara every five minutes isn’t helping.”

Oh, fuck him. “You’ve got no right to talk?—”

“Enough!” Finn snaps, his nostrils flared. “Getting into a pissing match won’t help anyone. Look, from what I’ve heard, Kiara didn’t exactly kick and scream at the idea of being taken to a hotel, all right?”

I still. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Finn spears me with a glare. “It means that girl you like so much didn’t seem too heartbroken about leaving you behind.”

Heat sears my diaphragm like he sucker punched me in the gut.

All I manage is a “fuck you.”

Finn exhales hard, some of the tension in his voice easing. “You want to know the real reason I don’t like the two of you together?”

“No. Thanks.” I spin on my heel. I’m out of here. Once I’m back in my office, I’ll contact Riley and find out where they’ve taken her. I’ll?—

“Because you get so shortsighted when women are involved.”

Finn’s words shoot bullets through my heart.

“What would you know about it?” I whip back to face him. “This isn’t about Alayna, and you?—”

“It’s not about Kiara either.” Finn points a finger at me. “This is about you, Rory.”

“What are you talking about?”

“ You . Not taking this seriously enough.”

That snaps my mouth shut.

Christ, I feel shitty enough as it is. Does he really have to pile it on? Especially when all I want to do is find out for myself whether Kiara’s all right?

Finn stares me down. “When you found Kiara, she was running. Freedom is what she wants more than anything, and can you blame her?”

My insides sour.

That’s what happens whenever Finn begins sounding too logical.

As much as it kills me to hear, I know with absolute certainty that Finn’s right.

“How do you see this panning out?” Finn stabs me with his rhetorical question. “You’re just going to keep her here against her will until you get bored? And then what?”

“It’s not like that,” I insist, voice rough.

“So you’re going to marry her?”

My eyes snap to his. “You saying I can’t?” Wait, where the hell did that come from?

“Let’s forget for a moment that she’s the daughter of our sworn enemy. After everything she’s been through, do you really think she’d want to stick around with us if that was a possibility?”

“If you have a point, Finn, spit it out.” My teeth are grinding so tight, my jaw is starting to ache. “We’ve both got work to do.”

“My point is that I don’t want to see you get hurt again.” His eyes are solemn. “It’s better not to get attached. For both of your sakes.”

I try not to let Finn’s words in, but they start to seep into my brain like water through soil. The painful implication behind the words settles next.

My inevitable goodbye with Kiara.

Furious as I am, I hate the thought of it. I hate the prospect of losing her for good.

So far, I’ve hated every part of this conversation.

Though it feels like defeat, I break eye contact first.

Then he says, “Kiara’s going to be okay. Trust me.”

That has me looking back up. “What does that mean?”

“The girls are going to pay for a two-week hotel stay, give Kiara fifty grand, a fake ID, the works. Whatever she wants or needs to get away clean, all right?” Finn shrugs, because Kiara leaving means nothing to him.

But he’s basically telling me not to go looking for her again.

Fuck him.

That’s what I’m still thinking, but I don’t bother vocalizing the sentiment. Right now, all of my effort funnels into not sucker-punching Finn in the face.

“Rory, this is a win-win for everyone.” Finn lists the ways on his fingers.

“Kiara will be free, just like she wants. We won’t have to deal with the drama of harboring Leo’s sister.

If he’s working with the mole like we think, then he already knows we have her.

We’ll just send a message back misdirecting him.

And Leo will be shit out of luck trying to track down Kiara’s ghost. All right? ”

The more Finn acts like all of this is fine and dandy, the angrier I get.

My body starts vibrating with incandescent fury.

“You’re wrong .” It pains me to grit out these irate words.

“There’s no win-win for anyone. Kiara doesn’t know how to go to a fucking grocery store by herself, let alone how to survive on her own in New York City or…

anywhere . And that’s on a good day. With Leo tracking her, too, she’s done for if we don’t shield her. ”

For a split second, Kiara’s terrified face springs to life in my mind. She must have been scared out of her wits…

And after I promised I’d protect her.

I’m an idiot. And I need to find her.

I don’t have time to go back and forth with Finn like this. I don’t have the patience either.

But before I get the hell out of here, I need to saw off the hands of whoever tried to kidnap Kiara.

“Forget it.” I force myself to take a breath because arguing with him is pointless. “Just tell me where the fucker is who touched her.”

“The morgue.” Finn nods in the direction of the medical unit. “Go see for yourself.”

That should be good news, but I’m so livid that all I heard was, you don’t get the chance to kill him, Rory .

“Who killed him?”

“He killed himself, really.” Finn shrugs with one shoulder. “He tried to flee on foot. We found him bleeding out in the labyrinth.”

“I mean it, Finn. Who pulled the trigger?”

“Riley shot him twice. Shoulder and thigh.”

“You must be so proud.”

“There is one more thing you should know.” Finn ignores my comment, his expression darkening. “When we pulled the mask off the guy, it was Dax Moreland.”

The weight of that revelation reverberates through me like a struck gong.

My brain shifts into hyperdrive, connecting the dots.“Whoever put him on the detail at the warehouse is the same one who ordered him to abduct Kiara.”

Finn nods once. “That’s what I’m thinking too.”

“Dax was our only lead to the mole, and now he’s dead.” Shit .

Finn’s phone rings, a rock song blaring to life. He picks up. “Hey. Did you make it to the hotel?”

It must be Riley. With Kiara.

When Finn’s eyes widen, my stomach drops.

His fingers tense around his smartphone. “Go anyway and stay there.”

“What now?” I demand as he slips his phone into his pocket after ending the call.

“Apparently, Kiara escaped.”

“For fuck’s sake!” I spin away from him while dread clogs my lungs with cement.

How am I supposed to find her now? I have no way of contacting her.

“Riley says she jumped out of the car while they were driving through the city.”

“ Where ?” Whipping out my cellphone, I tap into the mobile CCTV hacking software I put on my phone.

“Near Lex, she said.”

With heavy, furious fingers, I toggle through the feeds until I spy an Audi A4 leaving the Gallagher garage. I scrub through the following footage at lightning speed, eyes on the hunt for a beautiful blur zipping out of the vehicle—there.

Kiara leaps out into traffic and takes off like a damn bullet with those legs. She tears into the darkness, but before she disappears, I see a sliver of glinting silver in the glow of the streetlights.

The tracker bracelet.

She’s still wearing it.

Thank God.

“Where are you going?” Finn yells after me as I sprint away. All I can think about is how she was attacked, and the last words I said to her were in anger.

I need to find her…before the mole or her sick, twisted half-brother does.

If I don’t, it may cost me my soul.