Page 92 of The Devil We Crave
Lochlan and I’s great grandmother was Sheila O’Conor.
Aka, Seamus O’Conor’ssister.
Which means Lochlan and I, along with Ronan and Iris, are blood-related to the IRA commander turned hitman for the Irish mob, turned sociopathic mass murderer.
I’ve never really let it bother me, and I don’t think any part of who I am is because of any sort of latent “psychopath gene”. My sister and Ronan feel the same.
But Lochlan has this fixation on it. Maybe it’s because he’s the future head of the same family that Brendan, Seamus’ nephew, once helmed. It doesn’t help that helookssimilar to photos of Seamus when he was our current age.
Whatever it is, though, I know sometimes it scares him to think he might have that monster lurking inside him.
“Can we please talk about something lighter?” he grunts. “Like 9/11 or the Hindenburg?”
I roll my eyes. “Okay, I got a subject change for you…”
“Literallyanythingelse.”
“How’s your reading list going?” I grin. “You still on sexy billionaires, or have you moved on to werewolves and?—”
“I’m going to shove this pint glass up your ass.”
I laugh. “Is that the latest trending BookTok kink?”
Lochie glares at me as he drains his beer and then lifts the glass eye-level. “Lube up, buddy. I’m going to go piss, then this is going in.”
I chuckle as he puts the glass down, claps me on the shoulder, then flips me off as he heads to the men’s room.
I’m debating grabbing one more beer for the road when Lochlan's phone, which he's left behind, dings on the bar next to me and a message pops up.
Smart-Tag Alert:
Tracker in motion.
The fuck?
The phone dings again.
Smart-Tag Alert:
Subject moving at walking speed within parameter zone.
I’d say I’m not one to snoop, but…well, who am I kidding.
Of course I'm one to snoop. I also know Lochlan’s password is 69420 because he’sLochlan.
With the phone unlocked, I tap on the message again, which brings up the Smart-Tag Tracker App. I peer curiously at the screen as it loads a map of the Knightsblood campus, with a blinking blue dot moving across the quad toward Roche Lecture Hall.
A hand abruptly snatches the phone away.
“If you were looking for my nudes, you could just ask,” Lochlan smirks at me. “I mean, weird 'cause of the cousin thing, but I’m not gonna yuck anyone’s yum?—”
“Who the fuck on campus are you tracking?”
Lochlan eyes me cooly. “You sure you want to go down that path? You sureyouwant to start casting stones when it comes to stalking people at school?—”
“Loch—”
“Are we really going to sit here and pretend Idon’tknow who you’ve been shadowing on campus?”
