Page 8 of Connor's Claim

“Great. You do that and I’ll go home.”

I gritted my teeth, her spiky attitude and resistance unexpected. Everly was a soft-hearted creature, made of kindness and care but without any real depth of feeling. I’d once believed the opposite, but she’d proved to me just how shallow her emotions ran.

Rotating back, I moved on to the next weapon in my arsenal. My only objective was to keep her here. Safe. Beyond that, I had no clue what I was doing. “Ignore my warning if ye want, but ye can’t disregard the man who broke into your house and the message he gave.”

She tucked a curl of brunette hair behind her ear, and her expression shifted again. “I don’t understand what he meant. Who was he?”

That answered my question about whether she’d known Riordan Fucking Jones.

I shrugged. “Does it matter? A gang is after ye, and he works for them. You’re safer here in both cases.”

For a long moment, she studied me, then her shoulders slumped. “Even if that’s true, I can’t stay. My father’s away on business, but he expects me at work on Monday morning. I can’t just move out because some random person passed on a threat without evidence.”

“I’ll take ye to work on Monday and pick ye up after.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t have clothes. My phone.”

“Tell me what ye need, and I’ll fetch it.”

She gritted her teeth. “You can’t keep me locked up here.”

I wanted to taunt her, but instead, I let my expression do the talking, like I’d left my notes to direct her earlier.Watch me.

Everly studied me for a long minute, then something registered in her gaze and she angled her head. “Are you really prepared to return to my house just to pick up my possessions?”

I shrugged. She extended a hand.

“Give me your phone.”

“Why?” Regardless, it was already in my palm.

“I’ll give you a list.”

I handed it over unlocked and with the notes screen up. Everly tapped away, pausing every now and again and writing a fucking essay. Then she brought up another screen, though in my act of pretending not to watch her too closely, I couldn’t tell which.

“I have an all-day function on Monday so I’m searching for an image of myself at a recent event so you can collect the outfit I’ll need,” she told me. She scrolled, selected a photograph, then handed the device back over.

I scanned the long list, pasted-in image included. Shampoo, makeup,fuck, underwear. I masked my flare of lust and shut it down. “Got it.”

“Be careful. Just in case someone’s there.”

Interesting that she worried about it for my sake and not her own. It proved she knew the threat was real, even if she thought she could face it alone. “See ye in a few hours.”

“So long?”

“There’s something else I need to do.” In case she was under any illusion of what was happening here, I gestured to the door. “That will be locked behind me. Even if ye escape, the exits off this floor willnae open without my passcode. Don’t even try.”

Her brown eyes glimmered at the challenge. “Looks like you’ve got me exactly where you want me.”

I twisted my lips into a cruel sneer. “Don’t kid yourself, and don’t get comfortable. When I’m back, I’ll find a room downstairs ye can stay in so we don’t have to see each other. The only reason I’m protecting ye is for the sake of your da, nothing personal.”

Then I turned and left, engaging the lock at my back and with no small sense of relief at being away from her. Any other thoughts of Everly were ones from the grave, dead and buried a long time ago when she tore my still-beating heart from my chest, dug in her pretty nails for good measure, then tossed it in the dirt.

It’d been there ever since.

Chapter 4

Everly

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