Page 64 of Dirty Legacy

She looks as stunned as I feel. “Oh my god.”

“You’re Rowan, right? Do you remember me? From the bus?”

“Oh my god,” she says again, stepping forward. “This can’t be… this is crazy, I don’t…”

“It’s really you, isn’t it?”

Then she’s running at me, arms spread wide, and she slams against me with a shocking amount of force. I hold on tight, stumbling backwards as she hugs me so hard it hurts. She clings, crying, sobbing against my chest, and I’m weeping too. When did I start crying? She smells like deodorant and shampoo and they’re the same shoulders, the same arms, only grown up.

“I never thought I’d see you again. I went to the hospital… I asked people about you…”

“I asked too, but nobody knew anything. Oh my god, I’m so happy to see you. I’m so, so glad you’re okay. Look at you!”

“Look at me?! Look at you! You’re—“ Her eyes go wide as she pulls back, taking me in. “You’re…” Her gaze unfocuses as she looks at something over my shoulder.

Connor’s voice breaks the moment.

“She’s my wife now.”

I turn, shaking, still holding onto Rowan. I wipe my eyes, confusion washing over me. Colm’s standing meekly behind Connor looking annoyed and chagrined. Connor glares at Rowan.

“I don’t understand,” I say, looking between them. “How is this happening?”

“Angelina, meet my younger sister, Rowan. And Rowan, you remember Angelina.”

“That’s your name? God, I’ve always wondered.” Rowan’s eyes stay on me adoringly for a moment before she turns her attention to Connor. “What the hell is going on? Don’t tell me this is the biggest coincidence in the world, because I know you too well for that crap.”

Connor gestures at Colm to return to his post. He scrubs a hand down his stubbled cheek with a sigh. “I was hoping to do this later, but I suppose I have some explaining to do.”

“God damn right you do,” I say, half laughing and half crying, trying to wipe my tears away. “What’s even happening right now?”

“Both of you, with me, down into my office. We’ll calm ourselves and talk.”

Rowan disentangles herself from me. “You better have a lot to say.” She marches right up to Connor, the most terrifying man I’ve ever met in my whole life, and she shoves her finger in his face. She’s six inches shorter and half his weight, but he wilts under her intense glare. “And you better not try to feed me some bullshit story. Understood?”

“Is that how you speak to your boss, Rowan?”

“That’s how I speak to my brother, ass munch.”

He exhales, the sound of a man very used to putting up with a feisty teenage girl. He turns away. “Come on. I have a story to tell.”

19

CONNOR

It was the worst phone call of my life.

I picked up when the police rang. Rowan was late, but that happened sometimes. She took dance lessons at a special private tutor across town, and she loved to ride the bus. I arranged for a family guard to keep her safe and escort her, but he couldn’t control the flow of NYC traffic. It wasn’t unusual for her to show up an hour late exhausted and moaning about overturned tractor trailers.

Dad and Danielle rode with me. I drove fast, weaving through midtown to reach Bellevue Hospital. I’d been in this place a dozen times already at that point from my time pre-boss and the early days of my ascension, when fighting was common and I was consolidating our power. I knew my way to the emergency room.

Danielle broke down when she saw Rowan’s face covered in gauze. There’s a lot I hate about my stepmother, but I never once doubted how much she cares for her daughter. I’ll never forget the way Danielle held Rowan, crying so hard her shoulders shook, as I stood back and let relief flood through me.

Not dead. Not broken. Hurt, maybe scarred, but she’d be okay.

It was later, maybe an hour after, that I began to ask questions. Nurses are always willing to talk when they’re bored, and a pretty young girl directed me to a few police officers hanging around downstairs.

Those cops told me a story, about a bus getting side-swiped by a speeding drunk, about a fire in the engine, about bodies burned to a crisp. And that’s when I first heard about you.