Page 40 of Nolan (The Doherty Mafia)
“Where is it? Maybe I’ll drop by some time,” I said.
She slipped her shoes on. Her new tattoo had started to heal nicely and I smiled at it. Amelia took her time to respond to my question.
“Head-Turners, it’s nothing fancy. You won’t be impressed if you show up there and expect to be wowed,” she finally said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll try not to embarrass you.”
Amelia ran her fingers through her hair quickly and then came up to me. She kissed my cheek and I pulled her in to cover her face and neck with more kisses. She giggled and wriggled in my arms, finally breaking away.
“I really have to go.”
“When will I see you next?”
She shrugged as she backed away to the bedroom door.
“Soon. I guess. I hope you’re able to sort it out with your family—whatever you decide to do.”
I sensed she wasn’t as warm as she’d been last night, and I blamed myself for it. For bringing up a hint of a real relationship between us. I should’ve kept my mouth shut until I was sure the time was right.
Amelia left my apartment quickly and once she was gone, I missed her more than I’d ever missed anyone before.
I spent a lot of the morning in bed, until I was finally able to drag myself to the shower and face the rest of the day. Now that Amelia was gone, I wasn’t sure what to fill the rest of my hours with.
Her advice haunted me—she had encouraged me to take charge of the shootout on Aldo’s hideout. I was tempted to start my own line of investigation, outside the family, to try and locate him. But I wouldn’t have been able to take him down alone. I’d backup. But it could be done without the help of my family. And if I took down Aldo myself, they’d be forced to see me for my worth. The more I thought about it, the more tempting the idea seemed to me.
By the time I was out of the shower, I had a plan brewing. I needed to get in touch with my contacts and figure out a way to sniff a trail to Aldo.
But before I did anything, the bell rang and it was my brother, Colin, at the door.
“Hey, man,” he said, standing there with his hands stuck in his jacket.
“What the fuck do you want?” I growled at him, tempted to slam the door in his face.
“I know you hate me right now, but we need to talk,” he said.
I snickered and tried to shut the door, but he blocked it with his foot.
I put both my hands on him and shoved him backwards. I gained a few inches on him but he pushed his way into my apartment with his shoulders heaving.
“You want a fight? We can do that. You want to throw a few punches at me, hell, I probably deserve it too. But right now, we need to talk and we can fight later,” he snarled.
I slammed the door shut behind me.
“You think you can just come in here after the crap you pulled last night and everything’s forgiven?” I stalked towards him and Colin held his ground.
“Okay, I’m going to apologize, but I need you to accept my apology. At least temporarily, you understand? We have other things that are more important right now than some drunken brawl.”
“A drunken brawl. Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Nolan, you’re not fucking listening to me!” he shouted.
“I don’t need to listen to you, I don’t need to listen to anybody in this family because nobody fucking listens to me!”
“You need to shut up for a second.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore,” I growled, lunging at him. I grabbed him by his collar, yanking him to me. Our faces were close together and I figured my eyes were just as bloodshot as his were.
“We have a mole amongst us. A mole who is working for Aldo,” he said, and everything paused.
I released him and took a few steps back. This was a new development, and more surprising than the news itself was the fact that Colin had come to me with this information. Why?
Already, I’d smelled something fishy.
“What are you talking about?”
“I got intel. Aldo has been planning this for a while and apparently he has finally been successful. Somebody working for him has infiltrated the family.”
I clenched my palms tightly, trying to keep my frustration in check.
“So what are we going to do about it? Do you know who it is? Is it one of the men?”
Colin glared at me with dark burning eyes. It seemed like he didn’t want to speak—just wanted to gobble up his words to keep them from me.
“I wanted to come to you first before I went to anybody else with the information.”
