Page 43 of Creatures in the Night

Looking back at me, Noah said, “When we get home, I’ll let you rest.”

I let out a dark laugh. “Because you assume that I’ll be able to rest at your place?”

Not saying anything to that, I watched as Noah pulled out his phone, then call someone. While I couldn’t be sure, I imagined that it was Declan, because why wouldn’t it be? If anyone needed to know that we were headed back, then it’d be The O’Brien.

“Let Keavy know that we’re going to go to the cabin for a few days,” he said into the phone, confirming that it was Declan that he was speaking to. “I’ll call you tomorrow with more details.”

As soon as Noah hung up, Cathal asked, “Uhm…are you sure that’s a good idea, lad? I mean, your missus doesn’t seem too keen on you at the moment.”

“It’ll be fine,” Noah bit out, and their weird exchange had me wondering what was going on.

“It’ll be your funeral,” Cathal muttered.

“Since da day tha’ we were born, lad,” Noah drawled out.

Chapter 27

Noah~

After Cathal had driven us to our place, I’d had him watch over Shea while I’d gone upstairs to pack us both a bag, and after gathering everything that we’d need, Cathal had gone on his way while I had driven us to Keavy’s cabin. Though we used it as our primary armory, the cabin was functional, and while it still looked decrepit from the outside, the inside was very much the opposite.

At any rate, by the time that we had arrived, it’d been close to three in the morning, so instead of forcing Shea to tell me what the fuck was going on, I allowed her to finally get some sleep. Being the stubborn hellcat that she was, she had refused to sleep on the way over because it was stupid to close your eyes around the person that wanted you dead-her words, not mine. However, once we’d gotten inside the cabin, she’d been powerless against her adrenaline crash, though she’d done what she could to fight it. So, after putting her to bed, I’d done one last check of the security system, then had joined her for a few hours of some much-needed sleep.

Now, almost ten hours later, Shea was sitting in a tub full of bath salts and bubble bath, and thank God that Keavy had led the life that she’d had. When I had insisted on running Shea’s bath, I’d found everything for a sore body, silently thanking Keavy for not letting Declan take over the cabin completely.

I sat on the toilet as I watched Shea soak in the heat from the water, and I wasn’t sure that I’d ever get over how fucking beautiful the woman was, and it wasn’t just because she was my wife. Shea was a truly stunning creature, and I’d been too obstinate to appreciate it when Declan had first given me that damn folder on her. I’d been determined to view her as a business transaction only, and I was paying the price, a cost that I might be paying for the rest of my life. I’d told her that I loved her, and in return, she had accused me of saying it to manipulate her some more, something that’d been both true and false.

“Baby, you need to tell me what happened?”

When Shea had finally woken up, we’d barely spoken a word to one another. I had made her something to eat, which she’d eaten in silence, and I’d had no desire to push her when she’d still been looking so fucking tired. I’d also been more concerned with her wounds than with small talk, so I had prioritized like a good husband, but that was over now. With Shea having been fed, her wounds cleaned and re-bandaged, and soaking in the tub now, it was time to talk.

She opened her eyes to look my way, and though there were so many emotions warring in that gaze of hers, love for me wasn’t one of them, and I realized that I was probably going to have to be resigned to the fact that Shea may never come to love me. Nevertheless, as long as she was loyal and faithful to me, then I’d take what I could get.

“And then what?” she asked.

I cocked my head a bit. “What do you mean?”

“What happens after I tell you, Mr. Murphy?”

“Shea?”

“What?”

“I need you to listen to me, lass,” I told her. “I need you to listen to me and believe what I’m about to tell you. I need you to believe it like you’ve never believed anything else in your life before. I need you to believe it like you believe in The Lord.” She gave me a small nod to let me know that she heard me. “If you call me Mr. Murphy one more time, I’m going to lose my shit, and it won’t be pretty.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that I will brand the fuck out of you if you don’t stop calling me that,” I threatened. “It means that I will strap you down, then tattoo my fucking name across the front of your neck if I have to.” Her eyes widened. “I’ll cover every inch of your skin with my name if you don’t knock it the fuck off, lass.”

“Lovely,” she bit out, her jaw ticking.

Ignoring that, I asked, “What happened?”

It took her a few minutes, but then she finally obeyed me. “When I walked out of the hospital’s front doors, Craig was waiting for me, and when I asked where the car was, he said that it was around the back because a predictable routine wasn’t safe.”

“That’s true,” I remarked, something that we were all very aware of. Our poker game was about the only thing predictable in our routines, but even then, we changed the times and changed out the guards regularly.

“It…it made sense,” she conceded. “When he explained that the same thing would go for shopping and things like that, it seemed like overkill, but not unreasonable.”

---