Quiet Temptation

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Parker

Fucking hell.

What the fuck did I do?

I pace my room, my cock angry and hard, the rest of me furious. I was riding such a high from Colm spilling his guts to me, finally, that I hadn't been thinking clearly.

That's what I tell myself, at least.

Right. That's all that was...

It's not the truth. I know deep down it's not the truth.

I know that deep down I wanted to touch her, I wanted to hold her. I wanted her.

And that was fucking wrong. And terrifying.

What does a guy like me think? That I would ever have a shot with Martina Marino, of all people...

No. I needed to stay away from that poor girl. I'd only bring her down.

I scrape my fingers over my scalp in frustration.

My phone buzzes and I consider not answering till I see Tristan's name. I can't just ignore his call. Fuck.

"Hey," I pick up the phone, still frustrated as hell.

"Just talked to Ronan. Holy shit, man."

"Yeah," I mutter, sitting on the edge of my bed.

"How'd you get him to spill?"

"I planted a lot of daddy issues, got him really high, and distracted his bodyguard with a bunch of horny co-eds," I mutter.

Tristan cackles. "Man, you're brilliant."

I roll my eyes. I don't know about all that.

Marty helped a lot. Her girlfriends came in clutch with the Mason distraction. It was smart of her to throw them all at him. Mason's not usually a man of many words, but when three mostly naked girls were all over him, I took the opportunity to corner Colm and ran with it.

Brent had gotten Colm to take some molly earlier in the night. Between that, the drinking, and the weed – Colm was a psychotic mess by 10.

He told me everything.

That his father wants to grab Dublin, that he wants Colm to wise-up so he can take over operations in Limerick. That his father doesn't think he's ready though. I ask if they're concerned Cal will want it. Apparently, Cormac doesn't think Cal will leave Chicago until the Vitali threat is completely handled.

That's when I find out that Cormac is working with Andres. Andres wanted chaos in Dublin to distract the Donnellys and their allies.

I find out that Cormac and Andres helped get Cillian and James Callahan arrested. Cormac's own fucking brother and nephew, working with some traitorous Italian fuck.

It all clicked – the texts Marty sent me between Rocco Rossi and his father about how Andres wanted to create chaos – remove the Donnellys from the equation so he could full force attack Matteo. Vitali doesn't give a fuck about aligning with Cormac Tomlin. He only got Cillian and James arrested because he wants our attention in Dublin. So he can take out Matteo once and for all.

"I didn't know they'd do shit to Iris," Colm moaned mournfully, "If I knew that...I never would have...fuck," he slurs. "My fucking old man. Evil fucking asshole. I was never close to Iris, but I didn't know the Vitalis would do that shit. I swear to fuck."