Page 113 of The Apprentice

Fionn gave me a small smile. “Hi, Deedee.” His scratchy voice through the mask made me wince. My poor boy.

“I thought I told you that we aren’t using that nickname,” I teased, and he laughed, then grimaced in pain. He tugged down the mask before I could lecture him about it.

“Daddy Daire, is that better?” He scrunched up his nose and turned to look at his other side, at Sloan. “Hey, Uncle Sloan. You’re here.”

Sloan huffed. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. You’re too important.”

Fionn sucked in a breath. “Oh.” He frowned and his nose scrunched up more. “I am?”

Sloan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fuck, Fionn.”

“Why are you swearing? You don’t swear.” He glanced around back at me. “Am I dead and in an alternate reality?”

I snorted and laid another kiss on his hand. “No, boy, you are very much alive and here with us, where you belong and will stay.”

“I curse when I need to,” Sloan grumbled, then smirked. “And right now’s the perfect time for it. The fact that you don’t know what you mean to me. . .. I thought you were smarter than that. You’re more than my nephew,you’re my son. I’d kill anyone who dared to touch you the wrong way. Daire’s lucky I didn’t cut his balls off.”

He gave me a pointed look, and I cringed. Yeah, I deserved that.

Sloan shifted uncomfortably. “You’re my family, a Killough. I haven’t told you enough how proud you make me, and how there will never be anyone else to take charge after I’m gone. You’re it. My legacy.” He squeezed Fionn’s hand again. “I should’ve told you more. It’s no excuse, but I forgot that you weren’t me. I was used to having to guess my father’s feelings, and I thought it made me tough, but yourDaddyreminded me that I had Eoin. Your brothers are selfish.”

“Not as much as his mother,” I muttered.

Sloan raised an eyebrow at me.

Fionn groaned.

“What does that mean?” Sloan grumbled with a frown.

Fionn shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Fionn’s been giving his mother money because she’s been asking for it.” I sent him an apologetic wince. “He needed to know, boy.”

Sloan’s entire posture changed from a worried uncle to an overprotective and dangerous mob boss. His eyes darkened and his mask slid back into place. “I’ll handle her.”

“Don’t,” Fionn said weakly, taking a shaky breath. “I did it already. I told her no more. I’m not weak.”

“Stop putting words into my mouth,” Sloan snapped a little too harshly. He cursed himself under his breath. “That isn’t what I said. Your mother knows better. I warned her that if she asked you for money, I’d stop her payments completely.”

“You’ll be punishing Deer and Bell then, too.”

“So be it,” Sloan growled. “That’s on her.You’remy responsibility, not her and your brothers. She should’ve thought about that before she called you for cash.”

“Let’s change the topic,” I cut in. “Fionn’s too unwell for this right now. Look where he is.” No one needed reminding, but we all gazed around the ICU anyway.

“I want to officially adopt you.” Sloan’s words were direct and unrelenting, and both Fionn and I turned wide eyes on him.

“What?” Fionn tilted his head. “Why? I’m twenty-six. I don’t need you to prove anything, Uncle. I know you care about me.”

Sloan awkwardly tugged at the neckline of the blue scrubs he wore, and I held in the urge to grin at his discomfort. “I’ve let too many situations happen since you became my apprentice. Before you took on that responsibility, we had good times, didn’t we?” He shook his head. “That changed after you officially joined the Company. I was hard on you, tried to be my father. I can’t promise I’ll change overnight because Ineedyou to survive this, Fionn, and being the boss isn’t a walk in the park. People will betray you, people you trust and care for, like Donal. I want you prepared for the future you chose, and I can’t do that by being kind. The men and women who want to kill you for being a Killough? They won’t be. Neither will the cops or the feds.”

Fionn’s lips quivered, but he pressed them together. “I know, Uncle.”

“But youaremy son and everything of mine is yours.”

“Even Conall?” Fionn teased, and I laughed abruptly, smothering it with my hand. Fionn grinned mischievously through another wince of pain.

“No.” Sloan stared at him, unruffled.