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“No,” Mary said irandchild? Not a one of you, not Sean or Cullen or Meagan or Fallon or Briana, has seen fit to ive me babies and then marry, if that’s the only way I’m to see the O’Connell name carried on”

Keir grinned “Why, Ma, I’m shocked”

“It would take more than that to shock you and we both know it” Mary smiled and patted her son’s hand “Now, tell me what this is all about”

“I just did I want to knohat secrets you’re keeping about Dawn Carter” His mother opened her et out a word “Don’t waste your breath lying, Duchess You’ve hovered over the girl since she ca it”

“There’s nothing to deny She’s bright, she works hard, she wants toof herself Those are all qualities that suit ourfrom the ranks”

“Yes, yes and yes” Keir leaned closer “But we both know there’s more to it than that You do have a special interest in her And just nohen I said I wanted to talk about her, you turned white as a sheet”

“What you said was that so had come up”

“So? That’s hardly cause for panic So up It’s part of the business Last month, e found out that eye in the sky was irl in the Reveille kitchen decided itto use a knife to cut up her former boyfriend instead of the potatoes…”

“Those things are different”

“They are, for a fact, and you know the reason? No, don’t bother answering I’ll tell it to you It’s because those incidents didn’t involve Dawn She’s always on yoursoested her The same when I mentioned we’d need to add a new Special Services rep And for every ti out, you ask that same question about Dawn at least twice”

“I like the girl, is all Is that a crime?”

“You know so important—that you haven’t told me” Keir’s eyes narrowed “And since Daorks for us, yes, that’s a crie is definitely a crime in my book”

Mary looked deep into her son’s eyes Was he right? She and Ruarch had never looked into the background files of their employees unless the head of security said there was a problem and in those instances, they’d never shared the inforard to Dawn…or was it? Keir was in charge now She still owned the Song but the poas in his hands Had she kept the inforirl from him because she’d always done it that way, or because she didn’t want to acknowledge how impotent she felt since the heart attack?

Whatever the reason, she knew she’d made a mistake It needed to be rectified

“You’re right,” she said softly “You’re in charge, Keir I shouldn’t hold anything from you”