Page 49 of The Villain

He peered up at me, eyes glowing eerily in the fluorescent light. “Hand me the bag.”

I grabbed one of the nylon handles and dragged the bag toward me before tipping it over the edge. Cian unzipped it and began loading bundles of cash into the safe.

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “So is there even anything in the shipping containers?”

“Yeah. Decoys. Someone breaks in, they’ll think they found our stash.”

“So this entire fucking warehouse is just a front to hide this safe full of cash?”

He closed the safe, and it beeped once before locking. “Pretty much.”

“Where do you keep everything else?”

He hauled himself out of the crawlspace with a grunt, dragging the now-empty duffel with him. “We have two other properties.” He replaced the wooden planks and pulled the rug back into place.

“Who built this?” Though I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

Cian got to his feet. “Patrick bought the warehouse. The office was my idea.” Then he turned off the light and ushered me out of the office before shutting the door behind him. “The crawlspace is the size of this office, so the floor doesn’t sound different when you walk on it.”

As he crossed the warehouse floor, I called after him. “You know who Mick is, right?”

He turned to face me. “Yeah. He used to be our contact.”

“Did you ever meet him?”

“A few times.”

I cocked my head. “How come he never mentioned you to me?”

Cian sighed and ran his hand over his buzzed hair. A muscle in his jaw ticked. “I wasn’tallowedto speak to him.”

“Ah. Patrick’s orders?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You think anyone else could tell me what to do?”

My laugh was dry. “Good point.”

“Mick probably didn’t realize I was Patrick’s son. I’m not even sure Patrick ever introduced me.”

“Your father was an idiot.” Cian glared at me, and I threw my hands up. “What? Are you going to argue with me?”

“He was a lot of things, but he wasn’t an idiot.”

“Well, agree to disagree.” I moved to walk past him, but his next question stopped me short as our shoulders brushed.

“Why’d you kill him?”

I turned my head and looked up. Cian was so much taller than I was, and while he sometimes used his size to intimidate me, now wasn’t one of those times. He’d pinned me in place using only four words.

I scrambled to think of something. “I told you. He was an idiot. I found out he was taking more than his cut. No one lied to me and got away with it.”

Cian was quiet. Pensive.

Nerves worked their way under my skin. “What, don’t believe me?”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“Well. There you go. He was an idiot, and I put a bullet between his eyes because of it.”