Page 39 of Lorcan

I nodded, unsure of whether or not I should trust her. She seemed nice enough but I had to remember that I was undercover. Surely there were people on this boat that could be leaking information back to those Percy was trying to take out.

“My name is Ebony,” she smiled, her dark hair reminding me of a raven. It was long and hung over her shoulder in a side plait. “I can take you to Perce.”

“Thank you.”

She linked her arm through mine and led me down the corridor I just came from, then opened a latch on a door I thought was there for decoration.

“I’m not sure how you got down this far,” Ebony said. “Most of the girls don’t travel around as freely. I guess not all of them have the courage you do.”

“You think I have courage?”

She urged me forward and I climbed up a stairwell until I was out on a familiar corridor. Ebony was close behind and linked her arm with mine again.

“I know you have something about you,” she said. “After all, how else could you possibly hook Lorcan O’Farrell?”

My mind raced at his name, my heart hammering in my chest, wishing like anything I could be near him. The feeling confused me more than I cared to admit, but for now, I needed to keep myself straight. I had a job to do.

“You know Lorcan?”

She nodded. “Yes, he and my Jett have business from time to time. He’s always been such a gentleman but I know a damaged man when I see one. It takes a strong woman to look past the damage and see the beauty…but once you do…what a beauty it is to behold.”

I knew there was something about Lorcan that made him the way he was. Teeghan had told me a little bit about it but how did I know he wasn’t just hoping for another Clementine? What if that’s what he thought of me as?

“Here you go,” she said, sweeping her arms out on the deck before us. It was larger than I remembered, gorgeous oak slats with a white table off to the left side, complete with chairs and a bench all around the side, with cushions along the edge of the boat if you wanted to sit out in the open. A long bench ran along the cover, with a fridge complete with a frosted glass window underneath, and several bottles of champagne in ice buckets.

“Wow, how rich is this black market business?”

“Oh you don’t want to know the answer to that, honey,” Ebony said. “Never mind though, this is all Percy’s family money anyway. He’d never profit off the black market, no matter how lucrative it might be.”

“You sound kind of let down by that,” I replied.

“Honey, this world is twisted and demented. If there’s money to be made, why not use that to rescue more girls? I don’t know…it seems like a wasted opportunity to me, but then again, I am crazy.”

She winked at me before she left me alone on the deck. I looked out at the blue water around us and wondered why he chose to live in the middle of the ocean rather than buying an island or something and living off that.

“Ah, Bridget,” I heard Percy say. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, sorry,” I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed all of a sudden. “I…don’t even know why I left my room.”

“You’re welcome to,” Percy said, putting his hand on my shoulder in a comforting gesture. “You’re not a prisoner here. Are you hungry?”

I looked over at the bench that served as a kitchen and shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

“Whoa,” Percy said, taking me by the hand and leading me over to the seats by the table. “Take a deep breath, you’re going to pass out.”

“I just…don’t know how to do any of this.”

“Don’t lose control of yourself,” he said, “You don’t need to do anything, Bridget. The whole reason you’re here was to get away from your father. You’ve done that. They aren’t looking for you anymore. Just stay here on the boat for a couple of weeks, you can stay in your room if you want, or sunbathe naked on the deck, honestly there’s no real harm in doing nothing. Then I’ll return you to Lorcan.”

He was so comforting, it made me think of Lorcan. He was tough on the exterior but internally, he was a giant teddy bear and I knew that. I missed that.

It was just so easy with him. I didn’t have to pretend to be anyone else. I could just be me, not to mention the way he said Bridget had my insides doing flips.

“We may have a problem,” Halen said from behind. I turned around to see him looking very aggravated. “We have someone coming to visit with Bridget.”

“Who?” Percy stood instantly. “Tell them she’s been sold off.”

“He’s already on the way. If we’re going to do that, we need to give him a name.”

---