Chasing River (Burying Water #3)(90)

“We don’t have a lot of time to find the man who did this to your family, River,” Duffy warns. The clever garda must be able to read the thoughts on my face.

“I know that.” The bomber will go to ground as soon as he finds out that we lived.

He sighs. “They’re releasing you soon, I gather?”

“Just waiting on paperwork.”

“I’d like you to come down to the station and look through some mug shots.”

“Only if you let Amber go. She’s completely innocent.”

“Innocent of what?” he asks casually, his raptor gaze watching my every tic and twitch.

I swallow, not taking the bait. “Of whatever you’re trying to drag her into.”

“She lied to a garda. That’s a serious offense.”

Fuck. “If she did, it was to protect me.”

“From what?”

I meet his question with silence. I can’t let her take the fall for this, but I need to think this through before I talk.

“You must really like this bird.” A heavy frown casts over his face. “Where do you see this going, with you unable to step foot on American soil? Hoping she’ll move here?” When I still don’t speak, he goes on. “If she’s found guilty of providing false information to an officer of the law during an investigation, she may never be allowed back in Ireland. Then where will that leave you two?” He flips his notebook shut. “Be smart, River.”

Ma plows through the door, boring holes into Garda Duffy’s back with her glare. “Not enough that ya disturb the son who’s barely conscious, now you’re here to bother another?”

I watch Duffy’s eyes glaze over as he prepares himself for Ma’s tongue-lashing.

“If you spent less time bothering us and more time chasing down Dublin’s scum, maybe our entire livelihood wouldn’t be lying in shambles now. And to think, ya knew someone was threatening me family and ya did nothing. I should bring charges to the lot of ya!”

Ma may seem the simple-minded culchie sometimes but she’s not daft. She’s already figured out this is Aengus’s doing. Yet she’ll defend her pride for her family until she’s six feet in the ground.

“I’ll be expecting you in later today, River.” With one last pointed look my way, Duffy disappears out the door.

“That bastard!” Ma exclaims, glaring at the door.

“Any update on Rowen yet?”

Her bottom lip wavers with her firm head shake. “Your da’s waiting for the doctor.”

I collect my wallet and keys from the end table. I’m assuming my phone didn’t make it out of the pub last night. “Tell them I discharged myself.”

She frowns. “Where you goin’?”

“To talk to Aengus.”

Aengus has always been a force to be reckoned with. Even now, bandaged like a mummy, cords dangling from his limbs, his eyes mere slivers as he watches me approach, I sense the fury radiating from him.

“Beznick’s not goin’ to get away with this,” he mutters, his words slightly slurred from the heavy dose of pain medication. “I need you to go see Jimmy, tell him it was Jackie Hanegan.”

“That’s the guy’s name? You sure?”

“Positive. I had words with the muppet a few weeks back. Tell Jimmy.”

I sigh. “And then what?”

He pauses, and I can see him processing the question, not sure if he heard it right. “What the f*ck do you mean, ‘and then what’? Jimmy will take care of it.”

“Yeah. He will. He’ll put a few bullets in Jackie’s back. Maybe blow up his house with his family in it, as a warning. And then Beznick will send someone after Jimmy, and maybe after you again. Open your eyes and look at what just happened! They’re still trying to fix your baby brother in there. Don’t you care?”

“Of course I care!” he spits back. I know he does, because Aengus is loyal to the Delaney name, to the beliefs that made us who we are today. The problem is he can’t see how Jimmy’s beliefs—and the actions of today’s IRA—have diverged from what our family stands for.

The rhythmic beeping of his heart rate monitor increases and I pause for a moment, waiting for him to calm himself while I study the tiny, private room they’ve stuck him in. He won’t be in critical care for much longer, I gather. Some poor fella will get stuck sharing a room with him soon enough. “Duffy was here to see you?”

“Tried, but Ma chased him away. I pretended I was asleep.” He pauses. “You?”

“He came in.”

“You told him to f*ck off, right? We’ll handle this ourselves. Garda’s never done anything good for us.”

“Neither have you.”

He glares at me. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Did you forget all the times I helped you out? I would’ve been out of prison years ago had I not been protecting you. Have you forgotten that so quickly?”

“I wouldn’t have needed protection if it wasn’t for you,” I throw back. Though I don’t truly blame Aengus. I made my own choices. “Everything that our family represents is now lying in a heap of rubble, my brother is lying on a surgeon’s table, fighting to keep his leg, and that is all because of you.” A glance over my shoulder finds a nurse peering in. I take a deep breath before I say what I resolved myself to on the way here. It’s the only way out of this mess, and what I know Amber would tell me to do, if she were here. “I’m going down to the station now, to identify Jackie Hanegan’s ugly mug, like a normal Irish citizen looking for justice. And then I’m going to try and help Ma and Da pick up the pieces of a life you’ve destroyed. And when Duffy shows up here and questions you, you are going to give him every last piece of information that he wants. Everything. Names and locations. He’s going to connect this to the Green, and you’re going to admit to it.”