Page 37 of Creatures in the Night

“I understand how some facts might have fallen through the cracks because of how and why we got married, but you’re a Murphy, Shea,” I reminded her. “You’re a fucking Murphy, and if you think you being harmed in any way is acceptable, it’s not.”

“I guess that depends on who’s doing the harming,” she shot back. “After all, you’ve been going out of your way to inflict some sort of harm on me since the day we got married, starting with your refusal to kiss me during our vows.”

Even if I had a good reason for treating her the way that I’d had-which I didn’t-we were at a point in our relationship where she wouldn’t believe a word I said, even if The Lord came down from the sky to vouch for me, and I could hardly blame her. After all, my disrespectful treatment of her was the very reason why she believed that I was capable of putting a hit on her.

Trying one last time, I said, “Shea, even if I allow you to leave, I’m still going to go after you.”

“I’m not thinking that far ahead, Mr. Murphy,” she sneered. “Right now, I’m just trying to save my life.”

“Baby-”

“Quit calling me that!” she yelled again.

As I stared at my wife, it was clear that she wasn’t going to tell me shit, and the only way that I was going to find out anything was to question Craig, something that I was eager to do. Right now, I had no idea what she’d overheard, so Craig could be involved, or he could not. I honestly had no idea, and it was eating at me like acid ate its way through almost everything to not know what was going on.

So, needing to find out what the fuck was going on, I said, “I’ll let you drive out of here, but know that I’ll be coming after you, Shea.”

“Then why let me leave?” she posed.

“Because if you shoot me, Naill will kill you,” I told her truthfully. “Despite my orders, he will kill you because no one wants to be the one to have to tell Declan how they let you walk out of here after having shot or killed me.” She looked around a bit warily, but she knew that I wasn’t lying. “Baby, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Her dark eyes shot my way. “You’ve already let plenty happen to me, Mr. Murphy,” she stated evenly. “Honestly, at this point, I’m not sure why you didn’t order your men to kill me on the spot.”

“You’re my wife,” I told her for the millionth time.

“I’m not your wife,” she argued. “I’m a pawn shop that The O’Brien wanted, so stop speaking to me like I’m an idiot, because I’m not.”

“Shea, you’re my wife,” I repeated. “For better or worse, you are my wife. That’s what you promised me. That’s what you promised me, The Lord, and our families.”

“Which is exactly why you’re implementing the ‘til death do us part portion of our vows,” she fired back. “The only way to keep your word is to get rid of me, but you’re out of your mind if you think that I’m going to make it easy for you.”

“Then why am I allowing you to live, lass?” I challenged. “If you think that the gun in your hands was the only one on my person, you’re mistaken.”

Shea’s beautiful eyes never left mine as she made her way towards her car, and all I could do was slip my hands in my pockets and watch her. Even though hot rage was coursing through my veins, the safest thing that I could do for her was to let her leave, protecting her from her own recklessness.

Nevertheless, I was going after her, and God help her then.

Chapter 24

Shea~

As I hunkered down on the bench of the bus stop, I wondered if my stupidity would never end. In my haste to get away from Noah, I’d left with no purse, jacket, extra clothes, or anything. When leaving the hospital, I had changed into the extra pair of scrubs that I’d kept in my locker at work, and that’s what I still had on, not a nickel to my name.

I had also left my car abandoned a few miles back, knowing that they could easily find me by tracking the license plate number. I’d been so desperate to escape that I hadn’t thought anything through, and now I was sitting at an empty bus stop, wondering what to do next. It was almost midnight, and I had no money, no phone, no ID, or anything. I couldn’t even call my parents for help because that’s what Noah would be expecting me to do. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had someone sitting outside my parents’ house just in case I showed up.

The only things that I had were Noah’s gun and my wedding rings, two things that I could pawn if I only knew where a pawn shop was. I couldn’t be sure, but I suspected that I was somewhere in Kotov territory, and I wasn’t sure if that should scare me or not. Despite the state of my marriage, I was a Murphy, and would they welcome me on their streets so easily?

I also couldn’t stop thinking of how Noah hadn’t let his men kill me. I wanted so much to believe that he’d done it because he didn’t want Declan finding out the truth, but if Declan already knew as I’d suspected earlier, then why not just kill me? Even after I’d already told him how I knew everything, he’d still insisted on his innocence, and wondering his end game was making me crazy.

Also, why come after me? Why not get the divorce? He’d broken his vows the moment that he had promised to love me, so what did the other ones matter? Why was being divorced such a huge sin in his eyes? It wasn’t like we had years of history or any children between us, so what was the big deal? A divorce based on abandonment would slide through the courts with no problem, especially if months had gone by.

There was also my job to consider. Though I’d been given the rest of the week off, what was going to happen when I didn’t show up next Wednesday for my shift? Would anyone question it? Would Noah call them and lie about me quitting? Would anyone even care? After all, since it was no secret that I was married to Noah Murphy, it wouldn’t be like anyone would hunt him down for answers.

“Dorogaya devushka, what are you doing out here in the cold and alone?”

Startled out of my thoughts, I looked up to see a behemoth of a man take a seat next to me on the empty bench, and if I’d had any doubts about being in Kotov territory, I didn’t have any now. While I didn’t understand Russian, I knew enough to recognize the dialect, which was very different from the Italians. At any rate, it didn’t matter whose territory I was in because I wasn’t safe in any of them. I needed to get out of Maryland, and I needed to get as far away as I could, no matter how much it was going to tear me apart to be away from my parents.

The stranger sitting next to me had dark hair, dark blue eyes, a trimmed beard that covered sharp cheekbones and a strong jaw, and it looked good on him. I wasn’t a fan of lumberjack beards, so I could appreciate well-kempt facial hair where others probably didn’t care much. He was also way over six-foot, built like a tank, and had tattoos everywhere, including his face. I knew that I should probably be scared, but I was pretty sure that delirium was the only thing keeping me from screaming my head off for help.

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