Page 69 of Iron Blade

“I don’t know. I don’t think I have it in me to hate someone that much.”

Chapter twenty-three

Would That Be Enough?

Kira

True to his word, a man showed up towards the end of my evening shift, after the last patrons had purchased their art, and we had their information to deliver their paintings to them.

“I’m Keith Bourne,” a handsome Irishman said. They must have put something in the water up in Ireland. This man was hot, but there was something off-putting about him too. Not like Eoghan and that Dairo guy. They were good looking, but they didn’t wield it like a weapon. Keith did. His smile looked like the teeth of a shark before a bite. “I’m supposed to take you to a bridal store on Madison, then take you to your…” His eyes roamed my body and it made me want to gag. “Nuptials.”

Every alarm bell in my head screamed to not trust this man. He was bad. Very, very bad. I needed to get away from him at all costs.

Sirens in my head blared danger-danger-danger!

“I just…” I stepped backwards, creating space between us. Thankfully, he didn’t follow. “I need to go back to my office, and just close out some things.”

There was an exit by my office. If I needed to avoid him, I could sneak out the back.

What if he was with the loan shark? What if he was worse? I turned and walked off, trying not to run, as I brought my phone to my ear. I dialed a number that was getting as familiar to me as my own.

It clicked on, and his voice greeted with a quick, “Yes, my sweet Muse?”

I almost wanted to laugh in relief, even though hearing his voice, by itself, did not mean I was safe. But it gave me the illusion of it, nonetheless.

“Someone says that you sent them here to pick me up?” I tried to sound calm.

“Keith Bourne, yes. Is he there?”

“Yes, but I just… wanted to make sure.”

“Of course, love, I should have called you and told you who was coming.” I heard him grunt as if he was… working out? “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I am.” I hugged myself a little, suddenly dreading the idea of being in the car with that strange man. That… Keith. “Are you okay? Are you at the gym or something?”

I heard the sound of something metallic clamping. I thought I could hear a muffled voice in the background.

“I’m just…” Grunt. “Tying up some loose ends.” A groan from another man. More metal clacking. “I’ll be at the church in a moment, waiting for you, Miss Kekoa.”

Eoghan. A church.

“You should call me Kira,” I said with a slight laugh. He was always so formal.

“I’ll call you by your Christian name when you’re Mrs. Green.” I wondered if he was smiling. He sounded like he was.

He hung up the phone and I brought it to my chest, wondering if I had been staring at one of those old portraits of a handsome gentleman from a different century, and God had given me that man to marry. Had he been brought to life from those classical paintings I had spent too much time admiring?

I did get in the car with Keith.

I sat in the back, grateful for the distance between us, but as we drove into the insanity of New York Traffic, I noticed that his eyes kept hovering to the rearview, and his smirk made me bristle. It felt like he was pricking my skin.

“Could you put the divider up?” I tried to put on my most commanding voice.

“Aye, ma’am,” he said, as he pressed the little button to bring up the black screen.

Finally, alone, I tried to take a deep breath, reminding myself that I was getting married. MARRIED.

I had never imagined a big wedding with hundreds of guests. I didn’t even know hundreds of people! Those kinds of weddings weren’t really a luxury of the working class, anyway. Who had time to stay close to hundreds of people anyway? You gotta be rich to justify that kind of expense. But then again, if you were rich, did you care how many people you stuffed into the hotel of your choice?

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