Page 95 of The Lies We Tell

“I need you to broker peace for me with the club.”

Cillian laughs. “I’m grateful, but not a miracle worker. King is ready to hang, draw, and quarter you.”

“Would you be more grateful if I told you there was an informant in your organization?”

There’s another pause, and I swear if I didn’t know better, frigid air blew straight out of the phone into my ear. “What?” Cillian manages, his tone strangled.

“You heard.”

“Who is it?”

“As I see it, I have two choices. I need to either disappear to where the club will never find me. Or I make it so the club won’t kill me, and I get a pathway back in. If it’s the former, I don’t give a flying fuck what happens to your organization or you. If it’s the latter, as a member of the club and your friend, well, then I have skin in the game.”

“You bastard.”

“Given my father, I wish I were.”

“What do you want me to do?”

I smile. “Broker peace. Figure out a path, and I’ll tell you what I know. Tell you how to identify the person. I’ll call you back in a couple of days.”

I hang up the phone.

“Want some more coffee?” Rae asks, stepping out into the yard with my coffee cup in her hand.

“Thanks.” I take it from her. Caffeine isn’t quite nicotine, but I take a sip.

“On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?” she asks.

I look down at the mug. “The first cup was better, but this is a solid seven.”

Rae punches my arm. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”

“I know.” I sip some more coffee, enjoying the sound of the birds. I didn’t realize how much I missed the peace and quiet until this moment. With a sigh, I put my arm over her shoulders. This whole time, it’s always been me and her against the world. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll tell you about it.”

As we step inside, Briar enters the cozy kitchen. She’s wearing my hoodie over the sleep shorts and tank she insisted on pulling on. I like sleeping next to her naked body, but after we fucked, she wasn’t having any part of that in my sister’s house.

I’m half tempted to move us to a hotel.

Except I don’t want to use a credit card to check in, and the nice hotels don’t take cash.

“Morning, sweetheart,” I say, letting go of my sister for a moment to kiss Briar gently. Her lips are always so plump in the morning, still soft with sleep.

She sighs against my mouth.

It would be so easy to slide my palms around her and cup her ass, pick her up, and walk her back to the bedroom. But despite the desire to ease into a lazy morning of making love to this beautiful woman, I pull myself back. “Coffee?” I ask. “It’s better than mine.”

Briar grins. “That’s not hard. Yours tastes like sludge.”

I fix her a cup the way she likes it. “I was about to tell Rae what’s going on. You okay if I tell her the full story?”

“Of course. She’s your sister and deserves to know why we’re here.”

I run a finger down Briar’s cheek, about to kiss her again, when my sister makes a gagging sound. “Never thought I’d see the day Ike Miller had a thing for a woman.” Then she chuckles.

“Yeah, well,” I say, not taking my eyes of Briar. “Sometimes the right woman has the power to both knock you on your ass and knock some sense into your head.”

“Feel like I’ve been trying to tell you that for years,” Rae mutters.