Page 46 of Sins of Innocence

Unrepentant, Noah grins. "You mean like you did, kissing her where everyone and her three daughters could see?"

It was strategic, though I'm not telling my crew that. It was also hot as hell. I'm not telling them that either. Noah probably already did. Damn him.

"The wee ones okay?" Dagda asks.

"I don't think Fitz would thank you for calling him wee," Torch says sardonically.

"What have you heard about the kids?" I demand.

"There was a fight at school. Fitz wiped the floor with Kenny Jr. Sadie saw it."

Good. News about what happened to Sadie hasn't gotten out and it won't if I have anything to say about it. Lucky for me, I'm sure Mick is on the same page, or rumors would already be flying.

"Anyone says one goddamn word more and you shut them down," I order.

"Will do," Noah says.

Dagda gives a two-fingered salute. "Copy that."

"On it," Agrees Thomas.

Ethan and Torch nod.

Giving me a gimlet glare, McLaren says, "The only people who gossip with me are in this room."

Maybe that's why she talks so much when she decides to. We're the only ones she converses with.

My phone dings with another notification.

McLaren says, "I sent you a link for a flight."

It's a damn private jet, but the more I look at it, the more I like the idea. We'll have to leave a day earlier than planned and stay a day longer, but that's probably a good thing.

It seats up to ten which means I can take security with us, rather than putting them on a separate flight. Booking the roundtrip will cost over a hundred grand but keeping my family safe is worth it.

"Dagda, you and Torch are flying out with us," I inform my crew. "The rest of you have your assignments. I want check-ins twice a day."

"At least it won't be o'dark thirty. You'll be two hours behind us in Vegas," Noah says with satisfaction.

McLaren stays behind when the rest of the team files out of the room.

"Need something?" I ask her.

"Yes." Her eyes drill into me. "The damn truth. You and Áine Gallagher have not been dating for a few days, much less a few months."

I wait in silence for McLaren to tell me why she's so certain of that.

She rolls her eyes and tilts her head. "Really? That's how you're going to play it?"

I shrug.

She makes a sound like an angry ocelot. "Listen, Wraith, Áine and I have been best friends since third grade. That woman tells me everything. I know how often she didn't orgasm with Troy, the rat, and how many pushes it took to get each of her girls out of her stretched to hell vagina. Because I was there."

"Did you know about Kenneth Shaughnessy threatening her?" If she did, I'll have to rethink my view of McLaren.

"No. And you can believe my girl and me are going to have words about that. She told me she started working there because she needed a low stress job. Every time I suggested she look for something else, because Allison is a Gremlin and that job is not low stress when she's around, Áine always had a reason for not wanting to leave."

"Not everything then."