Fionn shrugged. "Well, that's that, then. She'll have to find a new job. Good luck to her."
I felt a tick start up in my jaw. Fionn narrowed his eyes and inclined his head. "What's that look?" he asked.
"I told her she could come work at my home and serve me and beg for her company back every day, and I might show mercy."
Fionn gaped at me for a moment, then reclined back in the chair, his arm hung leisurely over the back, studying me. "That's a fret."
"You could say that."
"What were ya thinkin'?"
I gritted my teeth. "I was thinking," I said slowly, enunciating each word, "that it's her turn to get down on her knees and beg me, that's what I was thinking."
"Her turn to beg ya? Ya haven't left her much choice, have ya? Is that what ya really want?"
I shrugged nonchalantly. "We'll see."
"And do ya have any intention at all of returnin' her company?"
"No."
Fionn was quiet for a moment. "This is all gona go arseways, ya do know that, yeah?"
Probably. "No. I have it under control."
"What's the plan, then? And what's the time limit on this bloody madness?"
I shrugged. "I'll make it up as I go along. I'll see what pleases me."
Fionn chuckled. "What pleases ya. Aye. Because ya already look so pleased." He sighed. "Completely arseways. It doesn’t even make any sense. Why do this to yourself, mo chara?" he asked softly.
"Satisfaction." Peace. Payback. Revenge. A cleansing. A hundred reasons and I didn't even need one. I was the one who held all the power now.
"Aye, if ya say so. But I helped ya because I thought takin' the company from Lydia's brother was what was gona bring ya satisfaction. I gotta say, ya look many things, but satisfied ain't one of them."
I shrugged. "Another opportunity presented itself. I decided to take advantage of it. Why are you here?"
He sat up and sighed. "I work here, remember?" He raised a brow. "And now that ya have your archenemy by what I can only assume is a very pretty throat, we have some actual business to attend to." I narrowed my eyes at his mocking archenemy comment, but he only grinned in that disarming Fionn way—the way that had gotten us out of some scrape or another more than once. "And then we're gona go get ourselves good and ossified and find us some women of questionable moral attributes."
I stared at him for a minute, but then chuckled. I could never stay annoyed with Fionn for long. And truthfully, getting good and drunk could be a good thing. I sat back as he went over the jobs we had going on that week.
Fionn had been by my side practically since the day we'd left Greenwich and moved to a small rat-hole in the Bronx. I'd had less than a month left of high school, but had never graduated, instead scrounging for every side job I could get to support my family. My father had looked for work but sunk into a deep depression when he didn't find any. Then his drinking had only increased, until he was drunk more often than he was sober. Which left me in charge of Eileen's care. And so I'd done what I had to do, some of which would sadly follow me for the rest of my days. All because of what had happened that evening in the back room of Lydia's stable. All because of her betrayal.
But I'd had a trusted friend in Fionn—at least I'd had that. A scrappy kid a year younger than me who'd moved with his parents to New York City from a town very near where I was from in Ireland. His parents died in a horrific car accident, and as they didn't have any close family left in Ireland, he'd had nowhere to go other than the streets. But one thing you could say for the Irish, we took care of our own. People did what they could for us, sharing their food no matter how little they had, hiring us to do odd jobs. But for me, it hadn't been enough. Because Eileen had needed more, and I'd vowed never to let her down. I was all she had.
And I dreamed that one day I wouldn't have to scrape and do without, I wouldn't have to check my pride at the door, make sacrifices I didn't want to make, do things I cringed while participating in. I dreamed that one day I'd make my own rules. I dreamed that one day I'd feel safe. One day I'd be at peace. And I'd finally achieved my goals. I'd finally arrived at a place where I could turn my attention away from merely surviving to making the people who'd torn my world apart pay.
I didn't know exactly what I wanted from Lydia. But I wasn't overly worried. If her presence became bothersome to me in some way or another, I'd simply tell her to leave, and I'd keep her damn company. No matter how much she begged. I'd add it to my empire. I didn't need the money, but I'd make it successful; I'd make it my own, and I'd find satisfaction in that alone.
A small feeling of guilt niggled at me, but I squashed it down. Taking the De Havilland company meant I'd be taking it out of the family. And Lydia's father, Edward, had been a decent man who had been proud of what he'd built from the ground up. In actuality, I'd respected him more than I'd respected my own father. And he'd always been fair to me, more than fair—he'd been kind. I'd heard that he'd passed four years before and I'd gone to his funeral, standing at the back of the cemetery so I wouldn't be seen. But I'd seen her. My eyes hadn't seemed to be able to look away as she'd mourned in her black suit, a pair of sunglasses on, and her hair held back in a black headband. And then her brother had come up and put his arm around her, pulling her close and comforting her. And she'd let him. And why shouldn't she? He was her brother. And I still couldn’t figure out exactly why watching them together had felt like another betrayal. Was she supposed to have banished him from her life after what he'd done to me? She hadn't even cared enough to come after me. To expect anything at all from her was ridiculous. And yet it had ached. I hated them—hated the whole lot of them. And now they'd pay. And I'd enjoy every minute of it. I wouldn't allow anything less.