Page 95 of Ruck Me

Chapter29

EOIN

A car pulledover to the side of the road, its headlights flooding the interior of my Audi and startling me awake. With squinting eyes, I checked the time to see it was two hours later than when Aoife was supposed to have returned. With my eyes trained on my rearview mirror, I watched her slide out of the back of the taxi. Before she’d taken a step away from the car, I was out the door, closing the distance between us with purposeful strides.

“Where the fuck have you been?” I demanded, the fury I’d been trying to suppress these last couple of hours bubbling to the surface and spilling over. When she didn’t immediately respond, I gripped her arms and shook. “Answer me, damnit!”

Aoife tried wiggling free, which only made me hold on tighter.

“Get your hands off her!” came a snarl as the taxi driver ran around his car and grabbed me in a chokehold from behind.

Like a gnat, I swatted him away, but he came formore.

“Mind your own fucking business,” I growled, pushing him back a second time. “She’s my girlfriend.”

“I don’t care if she’s the blessed Virgin Mary, you don’t lay yer fecking hands on agirl!”

He pulled out his phone to call the guards when Aoife stopped him. “No, it’s okay,” she said, rushing to his side. “It’s just a misunderstanding.”

The man sneered, “Like that shiner he gaveyou?”

As if in slow motion, Aoife’s hand rose to hover in front of her face. “He didn’t do it. This happened when I wasaway.”

Staring at her black eye, I stood deadly still, my heart clanging in my chest. Under the illuminating glow of the street light, her face came into focus. The entire right side of Aoife's face was marred by black and blue marks, the worst of it concentrated near her eye and temple.

“What the fuck happened?” I asked, stepping forward tentatively, suddenly afraid to touchher.

Aoife’s hand dropped from her face. “Let’s just say a woman named Dot is not my biggest fan.” She turned to her taxi driver. “Really, it’sokay.”

He looked between the two of us. “Yousure?”

She nodded and her eyes brimmed with a shimmering light. “He wouldn’t hurtme.”

Shaking his head, the man walked back to his car and once he was inside, pulled away without a backward glance.

I took a hesitant step toward Aoife, my hand outstretched. My fingers hovering over the bruises, I asked again, “What happened? Forreal.”

Aoife’s eyes flicked between mine, and she sighed. “Let’s go inside. We have a lot to talk about.”

She moved away, and I had to fight my instinct to spin her back around. “Aoife,” I growled from behind.

She paused and her back straightened. I heard her sniffle and then she shook her head and continued, leaving me to follow in herwake.

Testing the limits of my patience, she took her time hanging up her coat and putting her things away while I sat on her bed, my back against the wall. Finally, after several long, tense minutes, she turned and leaned against the wardrobe. “What do youknow?”

“Aidan invited us over to dinner tonight. The second I told him you were in London, he pulled out his phone, dialed Tanya, and left me to hear the news from her.” Before I could temper my tone, I continued, “I had to stand there and listen while she told me you’d gone to London to kill our fucking baby.” I clenched and unclenched my hands to diffuse my need for violence as I glared at her, the silence of the room charged with anger and deception.

“I did,” she eventually confirmed, her eyes dropping shut and her shoulders slumping forward as a deep breath filled her lungs. “My appointment was today.”

“You fucking cunt.” I slid to the edge of her bed, sheer determination keeping me from surging to my feet and stranglingher.

Her eyes flew open on a gasp. “What?”

I gripped my knees until my knuckles turned white and laughed bitterly. “Don’t act so surprised.”

Aoife rose to her full, yet diminutive, height. “I’m not acting surprised. I am surprised. You told me you didn’t wantkids.”

She pushed away from the wall and stalked toward me, fiery determination propelling her forward. “You called it the worst fucking thing that could happen to you. You compared it to dying, remember?” Aoife’s voice grew louder with each step until she was directly in front of me, her nostrils flaring.

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