Page 107 of Lawless Rivals

Saint keeps his aim, and the silence holds long enough that no one speaks. Máirín exhales through her nose but doesn’t say another word.

Dane blows out a loud breath and drags a hand through his hair.

“Can we just focus on finding Sera?”

He leans over the table, tapping a spot on the map.

“She was here last. At the store,” he says. “Apparently, she spoke with Crowley junior before she went in. He said she was going to meet Eilish for a drink.”

Shay shifts beside him, arms folded, eyes fixed on the same point.

“Eilish called. Sera never showed up. We’ve got lads watching Harrington’s men,” he adds. “Nothing yet. No sign of her.”

Saint lowers his gun and slots it away in the holster under his jacket while Jake returns to his seat and lights a cigarette.

“Any footage from the store’s cameras?” Saint asks.

“Apparently, the front camera’s been out for weeks,” Shay replies. “We’ve got nothing.”

“And inside Harrington’s place?”

Dane shakes his head. “We can’t get in there without stepping over the line.”

I sit on Saint’s lap, not fully in the conversation, not fully out, as my attention wanders to the map, on the shape of the land laid out in front of them and the conversations I’d heard over the years.

My mind races back in time to when I was a teen, my back pressed to the wall outside my father’s office while voices carried from inside.

He never brought problems home to our house. There was another place where he’d send Riley to sort things out, somewhere remote.

That night I’d heard my father ask where they buried the guy…and why had it gone that far. Riley fobbed him off with an excuse, saying he hadn’t meant for it to end like that.

My father’s reply rings out in my head: he directed Riley so nothing could be traced to him.

Back then, I rationalised it. Told myself Riley was the murderer. Not my father. I put it out of my head and hugged my father the next day when he handed me the keys to a custom white Range Rover after I’d passed my driving test.

The Tallon kitchen snaps into focus again.

I don’t want to be part of this family feud, and I sure as hell don’t want my father’s men to hurt Sera.

Dane’s talking as Saint’s thumb strokes my thigh, out of sight, the sensation ever so slight but very much there.

“He wouldn’t bring her to our home,” I say out loud, noticing how the gentle back and forth movement stops mid-stroke. “There’s a place outside of Black Heath where Riley would go.”

The room goes quiet.

Every head turns.

Máirín’s cigarette stills halfway to her mouth. Dane straightens. Shay’s gaze jumps to me.

Saint angles me around, his hand coming up to pinch my jaw in his fingers, securing my face before him so I can’t look anywhere else.

“Keep talking,” he says.

I swallow, forcing my thoughts into line.

“I mean…I don’t know if she’s there. It’s…somewhere I’ve heard mentioned in the past, when I was younger,” I tell him, thankful to be turned away from everyone else’s scrutiny. “Donnelly’s old cattle sheds out in the hills. It might be worth checking.”

Behind me, Dane speaks first, “What if it’s a trap?”