Brush of Despair (Dublin Devils Book 2) Read online

  Brush of Despair

  Dublin Devils 2

  Selena Laurence

  Golden Age Press

  Also by Selena Laurence

  The Dublin Devils Series

  (Irish Mafia romantic suspense)

  Breath of Deceit

  Brush of Despair

  The Czar (A Standalone Hockey Billionaire romance)

  The Heir (A Standalone Billionaire romance)

  The Powerplay Series Box Set (3 full length novels + 2 novellas)

  The Hiding From Love Series Box Set (3 full length novels + 1 novella)

  The Lush Rockstar Series Box Set (4 full length novels + bonus short stories)

  The Rhapsody Rockstar Series Box Set (3 full length novels + 1 novella)

  Copyright © 2018 by Selena Laurence

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  About Brush of Despair

  Praise For Selena Laurence

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  About the Author

  About Brush of Despair

  "This book has it all—turn the page suspense, a story of the bond between brothers, betrayals, secrets, and romance. " — Sandra Owens, Author of the bestselling K2 Team and Aces & Eights series on Breath of Deceit.

  Cian MacFarlane has a job to do, but it's not the one his father Robbie gave him. With dear old dad watching night and day, Cian struggles to maintain his role as a deadly mob boss. His real focus is informing to the FBI, cutting deals with the Feds to keep his brothers out of prison. Cian is walking a tightrope on the streets of Chicago, and the only thing keeping him sane is Lila Rodriguez. However, Lila may have her own issues at work when her boss is found murdered, and she's tapped to take over the dark website Rogue.

  But when Cian's brother Liam, the family enforcer, gets tangled up in human trafficking things really go to hell. Now Liam's taking chances neither he nor the family can afford, and Cian's desperate to find a way to save him before it's too late. When the dangers stack up and Cian feels as though he's the only thing preventing the people he loves from dying too young, hope can be a hard thing to come by. Can Cian pull off a last minute miracle? Or will his brush with despair become something more permanent?

  Praise For Selena Laurence

  "Laurence’s tightly woven story is a superb mix of sexual and political tension that’s certain to please fans of both." — Publisher's Weekly review of The Kingmaker

  "Delicious and Intriguing." — Lauren Blakely, NYT Bestselling Author on A Lush Betrayal

  “Selena Laurence has the ability to bring to life complex characters you instantly start rooting for from page one. Passion, humor, and a sexy hero all make for one read you don’t want to miss.” — Ilsa Madden-Mills, Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author on Playing With Fire

  "I totally fell in love with Nico and Tess’s story." — Cindi Madden, USA TODAY Bestselling Author on The Heir

  "The plot is deftly written and readers will be totally engrossed in the story" — InD'Tale Magazine review of A Lush Betrayal

  “Selena Laurence delivers on the promise of heat, and love with her sexy romances!” — Nana Malone, USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Prologue

  “Hey,” Cian murmured into the phone as he stood in the dark. “Give me just a sec.” He looked at the brunette still sleeping in the bed and couldn’t help but smile softly to himself.

  After making his way out of the bedroom, down the hall, and into the living room, he opened a set of sliding glass doors and stepped out onto a large balcony. Years ago, when his father and brother had been arrested, the Chicago Tribune had done an exposé on the MacFarlanes. The reporter had dubbed him the Irish Prince of the Windy City. It was one of the few good laughs Cian’s inner circle had gotten during those trying times. His brothers Finn and Connor had called him Your Highness for weeks afterward.

  But standing here now, Connor on the phone and safe thousands of miles away, Lila Rodriguez sleeping in his bed, and the lights of Chicago laid out below him, he did feel like a prince, albeit a dark and damned one.

  “Tell me your new life is everything you dreamed,” Cian said.

  “It is, and a lot more,” Connor answered. “We’re doing great, the place I’m managing is great, and my roommate gets a new assignment every couple of weeks, but she seems to love that.”

  “And you’re meeting people? Making friends or whatever?” Cian chuckled.

  He could hear the smile in Connor’s voice when he answered. “Yes, Mom, we’re making friends with the other kids.”

  There was a pause as Cian held a deep breath and let it go. He closed his eyes and pictured Connor in the sunshine, and his heart expanded.

  “But how are things there?” Connor asked.

  “Nothing you need to worry about. Just more of the same.”

  “And is he looking for us?” Connor asked softly.

  They both knew he almost certainly was. Robbie MacFarlane was never going to let one of his sons go without a fight, but Cian gave the answer Connor needed to hear for now. “Haven’t heard a word about it,” Cian assured his brother. “Ma is keeping him busy with projects around the house. I’ve never seen the old man so hog-tied.”

  “I miss you guys,” Connor said plainly.

  Cian watched the lights of a plane blink rapidly as it flew far overhead. It too was on its way to freedom, the freedom Connor had, the freedom Cian would purchase for Liam and Finn, the freedom he so very much wanted to give to Lila. “We miss you too. More than words can say. But this is right. This is what I’ve always wanted for you, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

  “I don’t think I can ever…” Connor began.

  “Don’t. You don’t have to, I don’t need you to. Just live and be happy.”

  There was another pause, and Cian knew his brother’s heart was full and there was so much more both of them wanted to say. But as with everything in his life, he felt the grinding pressure of a timer counting down.

  “It’s time,” he told Connor. “You get Finn next. Look for the number tomorrow.”

  “Okay. Slán abhaile.”

  “Slán abhaile,” Cian replied.

  After disconnecting, he dismantled the phone, crushed the SIM card beneath the edge of a heavy potted plant, and threw it over the side of the balcony. He leaned stiff armed on the railing, the air cold against his bare chest. A wry smile spread across his lips as he thought again of the nickname. He might be the Irish Prince, but the city was very windy, and it was blowing straight for him.

  Chapter 1

  Six Weeks Later

  “You’ll do it because I told you to,” Lila snapped into the mic on her laptop.

  “And if I want to hear it straight from Xavier himself?” the man on the other end of the line asked.

  “Then I’ll tell you you’re done at Rogue,” she said, her tone switching from irritated to bored. “It doesn’t make much difference to me. I can
hire another dozen as good or better than you in about fifteen minutes. Just make up your mind, because I’m too busy to keep playing this game with you.”

  The man said some choice words, mostly aimed at her gender, then disconnected the communication. Lila sighed, her brow furrowed in concentration as she punched keys on her computer, signing into a highly encrypted account before typing a series of numbers that eliminated the man’s access to the dark website Rogue, where he’d worked until sixty seconds earlier. Then, for good measure, with a few more keystrokes, she pulled up his personal bank account and removed half the balance, transferring it to the local domestic violence shelter.

  “Now who’s the cunt?” she muttered to herself.

  If someone had told her a few weeks ago that she’d be running Rogue and dealing with issues like hiring and firing in addition to the technical aspects, she’d never have believed them.

  But here she was, and she had to admit, she was getting the hang of it.

  The internal Rogue chat box popped up, and she read the message:

  Client in Argentina is asking if we’d consider listing some items for them like we are for our Irish friends.

  Lila looked at the screen, her mind flipping through the background and options. The Irish friends referred to the Dublin Devils, Chicago mobsters who were run by Lila’s sometime lover, Cian MacFarlane. Rogue sold drugs on the dark web for Cian and his brothers, and while the process had run smoothly so far, Lila had to admit the world in general had gotten a lot more complicated since they’d gone into business with the Devils.

  Lila knew firsthand what getting into bed with drug dealers meant, and Rogue’s Argentinean client wasn’t known for his stability in business or anywhere else. Just the previous year, he’d started augmenting his black market cryptocurrency business with arms dealing and attracted the ire of the ’Ndrangheta, the Argentine mafia. Lila had worked hard to keep the client’s accounts safe when the ’Ndrangheta had launched their best cyberterrorists at Rogue. At the time, Lila had been Rogue’s top hacker and security specialist, not the boss, so she hadn’t thought much about other possible repercussions to the event.

  And now he was asking her to enable him to compete directly with her main client, Cian.

  She looked at the clock on her living room wall. There were clocks and timers on her devices; she wasn’t sure why she’d always kept the strange old manual-wind clock on the wall. She had to take it down every twenty-four hours and wind it; it was ugly and lost three seconds every hour, making it perpetually slow. Yet, she rewound and reset it once a day and kept it hanging there right above her desk.

  Lila hadn’t been running Rogue long, and she had always thought of herself as a cautious person, yet in the last year, she’d begun to realize her view of herself wasn’t very honest. Because Lila had spent most of her life taking risks, if she were being honest. And while she kept certain aspects of her life as safe as possible, to the point of being dull—her social life, for instance—in a lot of other things, she took risks every day.

  Since she’d been barely out of high school, Lila had been earning her way in the world as a hacker. She helped criminals commit crimes, and in the process of doing that, she’d committed a whole bunch of crimes herself. And until a few months ago, she’d somehow thought that was safe because the crimes were virtual, the work associates were as well, and, after all, she lived in a boring row house in a dully gentrified neighborhood a short distance from Chicago’s downtown.

  Then she’d been assigned to help the Dublin Devils sell opiates on the web, and her carefully constructed image of herself had been crumbling ever since. She’d managed to get crossways in her boss Xavier’s business with the Russian Bratva, then she’d gone and slept with Cian MacFarlane, helped hide Cian’s brother Connor from their father, and agreed to take over the management of Rogue after she’d accidently killed Xavier.

  Yeah, it was safe to say Lila wasn’t actually a cautious woman at all.

  But really, Lila thought as she toggled her screen back to what she’d been working on—a list of Robbie MacFarlane’s hidden assets—it shouldn’t be such a surprise to her, this newfound risky streak. She’d been raised at the knee of a compulsive gambler and had spent most of her adolescence helping good old Dad cheat his way to whatever profits he could.

  No, Lila had begun to realize that the choices she’d been making most of her adult life were based in a lot of risk-taking behavior, and, in fact, she’d begun to wonder if she’d inherited the gambling gene and hacking was merely her personal manifestation of it.

  She switched the screen again, reading the message one more time. It was definitely a gamble if she agreed to the Argentine client’s newest request. And Lila had no interest in gaining either Cian’s ire or the ’Ndrangheta’s notice. Yet, she had to admit she was intrigued. Could she find a way to filter the retail pages so they’d be seen by a different audience than for the products she sold for Cian and the Devils? Could she manipulate by geography and browsers in such a way that clients never saw more than one seller’s product? There were plenty of drug users to go around, she reasoned with herself. Maybe she’d just run a few tests, try a few things out in private. Once she’d found a way to make it work, she could run it by Cian. Yes, maybe Lila was a gambler after all. And now she was gambling with more than simply a livelihood. Lila was gambling with lives.

  Cian’s footsteps were nearly silent on the worn wood floors of the darkened hallway. A soft popping sound next to him had his heart racing before he realized it was one of the refrigeration units in the commercial kitchen behind the nearest door.

  “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.

  He made his way down the hallway until he reached the metal back door that led onto the alley behind his club, Banshee. It was four a.m., and his guard detail were entertaining themselves with a game of poker at the bar up front, the place having closed two hours ago.

  He pressed the handle on the door and quietly slid outside, pushing a chunk of brick with his foot so it blocked the door from closing and locking him out. Then he made his way down the alley, staying close to the building where the shadows kept him somewhat camouflaged.

  “You alone?” he asked when he saw the outline of the man leaning against the back wall of the office building that shared the alley with Banshee.

  “Yep. Just me tonight,” the figure answered, stepping away from the wall and into the overhead light, revealing him to be Don Wagner, FBI agent.

  Cian gave his shoulders a quick roll, squaring his stance as he stopped in front of Don. He reached into the pocket of his leather jacket and extracted a USB drive.

  “Why’d you want it this way?” he asked Don, watching the other man’s expression carefully.

  Don was the smarter of the two agents Cian had been informing to for the last three plus years. A mid-sized man with thinning dark hair, cheap suits, and an utterly forgettable face, Don was cautious where his partner tended towards reckless, but Don was also ambitious where Bruce was lazy. Cian’s informing had started as a way to keep his brother Liam out of prison, and now the feds had him by the balls, and Cian spent much of his time trying to outlast the bastards. He had three younger brothers, and that meant three men he needed to get out of the mob. So far, he’d managed one. He’d play with the feds for another decade if it meant he saved the other two.

  “Our security guys say there’ve been some breaches of our systems. We have to be extra cautious for a while until they figure it out.”

  Cian rolled his lips together to keep from smirking. At least one of those breaches had been the handiwork of Lila Rodriguez, his favorite genius. At the thought of Lila, Cian’s chest tightened. Then he pushed the thoughts aside. Lila was another problem for another day.

  He handed the USB drive to Don. “This has photos of Consuelos and his guys taking a shipment from the Martinez cartel last week. It also has a list of locations where they keep their product. It’s current as of thirty-six hours ago. I
f you raid ASAP, it’ll probably still be there. If you wait a week for some damn piece of paperwork to get filed, the stuff will be long gone.”

  Don’s eyes narrowed as he dropped the drive into the breast pocket of his cheap suit jacket.

  “Where’s the info on the Devils, Cian? I’ve been waiting for weeks now. Connor’s vacation was arranged by me,” Don said. “You owe me.”

  Cian debated whether to play it tough or sympathetic. He usually went with tough when dealing with the feds, but decided to change it up this time.

  “Look,” he said, dipping his head as he ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Connor running set the old man off with a vengeance.”

  Don snorted. “As if you couldn’t have seen that coming.”

  “Yeah, but he has everything battened down so tight right now I’m lucky if I can log into a computer to send an email without a guard looking over my shoulder. Robbie blames me for Connor taking off and he’s not giving me an inch.”

  “And why should I give a damn?” Don retorted.

  “Because my old man has a short attention span,” Cian lied through his teeth. Robbie was like a bulldog and never forgot a single slight. He also had a head that remembered business details almost as well as Cian’s did. “As soon as some crisis or battle crops up, he’ll be off after that shiny. Give it a few weeks, and I’ll be free to get you whatever you want. I just need to lay low right now.”