Page 131 of Shadow Of Sin

My brows furrow. “That doesn’t sound right. It almost sounds like he expected it. And had his responses planned.”

“Yup. He turned his back on everything damn quick. Ronan thinks so too.”

“Did Viktor say anything about what happens if Dmitri shows up again?”

“He said the Kozlov family considers the matter resolved. Those were his exact words. And that any future actions by Dmitri are not sanctioned and will not be protected.” Cillian pauses and lifts an eyebrow. “He also said the Kozlov family expects the same courtesy from the Molloys going forward. Whatever the fuck that means.”

“It means he’s putting a fence around what happened. Containing it. Making sure we can’t use Dmitri as an excuse to push into Kozlov territory,” I say.

“Or it means he’s already planning his next move and wants us looking the other way while he sets it up.”

“Or both.” I scrape a hand down the front of my face. “None of it is good for us.”

We’re quiet for a second. The pain in my shoulder has turned into a deep, constant burn that I’m starting to think might be permanent. I need more drugs, but more than that, I need my head to function clearly.

“That’s a problem for another day,” I finally say. “Right now, we⁠—”

The door bangs open again and Gavin strolls in with a plate of sandwiches and a grin that takes up his whole face.

“The man lives!” He drops onto the foot of my bed, and I have to grab the mattress because the bounce sends a bolt of white-hot pain through my shoulder.

“Get off the bed,” I manage through my gritted teeth.

“Relax, I barely touched it.” He shoves the sandwich plate toward me. “Tony made these. Turkey and something fancy. I don’t know. There’s arugula.”

“I just ate Honey Nut Cheerios.”

“Honey Nut Cheerios aren’t real food. Not like this,” he says, waving the sandwich in my face. If my body was operational, I’d grab it and throw it at him.

Gavin takes a bite of the sandwich and looks at Cillian. “Has he asked about Eva yet?”

“First words out of his mouth.”

“Called it. Lochlan owes me twenty bucks.” Gavin looks between us. “So, what’s the plan? Are we doing a thing? Like a grand gesture? I’m good at grand gestures.”

“You’ve never made a grand gesture in your life,” Cillian says.

“I could start. I’m a fast learner.” He looks at me. “Seriously, though. What’s the play?”

“The play is I don’t contact her.”

Gavin stops chewing. “That’s a terrible play.”

“It’s the only one. She found things on my laptop that make me look like the worst person in her life. If I show up at her door right now trying to explain, she’ll slam it in my face. And she’d be right to.”

“So what, you just sit here and bleed and hope she comes back?”

“No. I do the things I should have done a long time ago and I let her see the results without me standing there taking credit for them.” I lean back against the pillow and the pain flares again. I push out a long, unsteady breath. “I’m going to track down the person who actually committed the crime Eva went to prison for. Not just the digital signature I found almost two years ago. His real name and identity, and enough evidence to hand to a lawyer who can get her conviction overturned and her record wiped clean.”

“You can do that?” Gavin asks, his blue eyes widening.

“I could have done it eighteen months ago. I just didn’t.”

Silence stretches between us. Cillian looks at the floor. Gavin stops eating.

“It was complicated back then. There were risks to our family. But the connection between her case and our family’s business is something I can work around now,” I say. “Back then, I wasn’t looking for a way to make it work. I was looking for a reason not to. That’s different.”

“What else?” Cillian asks.