We sit in the backseat of Darragh’s SUV while his driver crosses the bridge from Astoria to get us into Midtown Manhattan. Hamilton Medical College is a private elite school with dark academia vibes and an open campus that sprawls across two city blocks, joined by a footbridge.
“How is old Dr. Ford?” I ask.Old,indicating our past with him, and not old in age.
I warmly remember the rising star professor from our years at UCLA.
“He just made Dean at Hamilton, which is why you’ve got this job if you want it.” Darragh turns to me. “You want it right?”
“Definitely, yes,” I answer immediately. I need this job.
Gunning down villains after midnight might be my family’s specialty in Astoria, but they wouldn’t appreciate my side hustle of knocking off drug dealers. And the risks I take that could get me killed. Or worse, land me in the crosshairs of other mafia families in Manhattan. My brothers don’t have the same influence there, and some crime boss could use me against them.
“What am I telling Brad about my…arrest and drug use?”
“Don’t call him Brad.” Darragh pulls at his collar. “Balor wiped away your Vegas arrest record and your remand to rehab. All of it. Gone, like it never happened.”
I thought my hacker brother would be angry at me for ruining his honeymoon in Ireland when I broke out of Dunbar and caused a major siege. Apparently not.
Shaking that away, I say, “So the only thing left is thesuspension from Cascadia.”
I’m still bitter that I performed a miracle surgery that saved a child after a senior attending surgeon didn’t think the kid was operable. I proved him wrong, and I got reprimanded for making that dick look bad.
“The medical community agreed you did the right thing,” my brother says, glancing at me. “Any school will hire you because in the classroom, it’s about saving lives.”
“Bradley Ford will want me even though I don’t follow rules?”
My brother smirks. “And because you’re brilliant, you idiot.”
I don’t point out the contradiction in that sentence.
The Cascadia suspension was a settlement, so my medical license was never revoked. It was issued in the state of Washington. When I was arrested in Vegas and then remanded in California, it should have taken months for the Nevada court records to catch up to Washington State. Balor stepped in and took care of it.
Took care of me.
Darragh and I weren’t used to getting help from our brothers. But while my twin is now completely back in the fold, I still feel like an outsider. And still a rule breaker.
“I should tell Ford about the drugs. About rehab. I was an addict. Doesn’t matter that the record’s gone. Ethically, I should disclose it, no?”
Darragh’s face gets harsh. “You would disclose something like that only if you’re working with patients. Or something that affects your ability to give sound medical advice. You’re clean. You’re not hiding criminal charges. There are none. You’re not hiding a suspension. It’s public knowledge. You’re not lying.”
I grit my teeth. “Still feels like I am.”
“Cormac,” my brother sighs. “Recovery isn’t a crime. You owe Dr. Ford competence. You owe your students thegift of knowledge. You oweyourselfa bright future.” He leans in and lowers his voice. “And if anyone comes after you, we will handle it. But don’t sabotage yourself in the name of honesty.”
“You mean Lachlan will handle it.” I shudder at the visual of my scarred, six-foot-six mountain-of-an-enforcer brother appearing in the doorway of Bradley Ford’s office to teachhima lesson.
“You’re an O’Rourke. We protect each other,” Darragh adds.
It’s clear he’s finally drinking the Irish Mob Kool-Aid we poured down the sink for years.
I don’t blame him. He was miserable in Seattle, even if he never admitted it. His wife left him with Sophie. Then Ana came into the picture, and since then, there’s no dulling the shine in his eyes.
Is that possible for me? I think about that night with Scarlett, how being with her made me feel something I hadn’t in a long while. Next, some of the tension slips from my shoulders. That night, I felt something open. A hint that I can care about someone one day.
And Darragh is right. I’m not the man who did those horrible things anymore. I earned this chance at a new start.
“If something slips through, we’ll come clean to Ford,” Darragh says, rubbing his chin. “He’s a good man. He just remembers us as the geeky twenty-somethings from an absurdly big family.”
“Fine,” I say, giving in. “I won’t say anything.”