Page 124 of Devilish Ink

I saw red, the car swerving out of control. I swerved the car back between the lines, having drifted dangerously toward the shoulder.

“I’m already driving back to Dublin,” I said. “What’s going on?”

I’d done a U-turn the very second Ry’s phone had rung out the first time.

“I just had this feeling, ye know. After you left. I just couldn’t shake it. So I came over to her—yourplace… she…” He choked on a sob.

Dear God, please don’t say she’s dead.

“Rian.” I gripped the steering wheel, fighting the urge to rip it out from the column. “Just fucking tell me…is shealive?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“What do you mean,you don’t know?”

“I…I’m sorry.”

No. No no no no.

“Rian,” I warned. “What the fuck—?”

“Ryleigh has been taken.”

RY

“Look at her,” Liam’s voice was soft as we watched a tiny figure running across the grassy field. “She’s as wild as the winds that sweep across those emerald hills.”

I nestled closer to Liam even though I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was wrong with this picture.

He pulled me into his lap where we sat on the grass. His strong arms closed around me and knew that no matter what, our baby would feel protected, secured, loved.

He whispered, “I’ll teach her that the land is beautiful if you know her secrets, cruel if you treat her like a stranger.”

I imagined these were things he wished he could have taught his younger brother. Had his father allowed him. Had his father had different ideas about the land. About strength. About beauty.

Liam kissed my forehead. “She’ll learn love from you and there’s no way to buy that anyway.”

How I would have loved to see him as a little kid, dirt under his fingernails, mud across the cheek. Bright-eyed and pink from chasing the wind.

His father had been cruel. And what was worse, showed him how to be cruel.

But Liam had learned a different way to be. The one with me safe in his arms. And our child…

My hand reached up to my belly.

Our child…

I stared around as the green leaves crumbled into black, as the earth shook underneath our feet.

“Liam, what’s happening?” I begged, clutching onto him.

He just gazed into my eyes, his thumb brushing along my cheekbone, as if the world wasn’t crumbling around us.

“You have to be strong, baby,” he said with a sad, knowing smile. “We need you.”

“I need you, too,” I cried out, reaching for him.

Blackness swallowed me whole.

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