Page 47 of A Game So Reckless

Maybe I can trust the things he does. He’s come to my aid more times than I’d like to admit.

Perhaps this really is no different.

Screw it.

I get into the passenger seat.

Darragh shuts the door.

Chapter22

Valentina

Luckily for me, Darragh doesn’t take me out into some farmer’s field and leave me there. He drives in silence, while I squeeze my legs together on the seat, praying that the toilet paper holds up. I still can’t believe he put down his own shirt for me to sit on, and I absolutely refuse to bleed on it, even if I have to break every law of physics and biology to make it happen.

Turns out we don’t have to drive all the way into Meaford’s tiny downtown. The grocery store out on the rural highway into town is still open, though only for a couple more minutes.

“They’re about to close,” I say as I note the closing time listed on the sign compared to the time displayed on the clock inside the car.

“Not for us, they’re not.” He says it with such certainty. Like the thought of a shop closing before he gets what he needs is unfathomable to him.

But when you’re six-foot-something of tattooed, boxing champion mob boss, maybe you’re right.

It’s energy I recognize. I’ve seen it in my own papà and cousins more times than I can count. The sort of confidence that comes from having killed ten times more men than you’ve ever had to capitulate to.

I wonder if Darragh has ever had to submit to anyone in his entire life.

“I’ll be right back,” I mumble as Darragh pulls into a parking spot right in front of the grocery’s store’s glowing sign.

I thought those words would be indication enough that I plan to go in alone, but Darragh either doesn’t understand my meaning or willfully ignores it. Knowing him, it’s probably the latter. He gets out of the car at the same moment that I do.

“You don’t have to come in with me,” I tell him as he stalks around to my side of the vehicle.

“Please,” he says. “I know the rules. Good little Sicilian girls like you aren’t supposed to be out and about without a chaperone.”

Good little Sicilian girls shouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near Darragh Gowan.

“I’m not sure I qualify,” I mutter. I go to close the car door, but Darragh catches it with his hand, holding it open for an extra second or two. With his other hand, he reaches around me into the vehicle. His chest brushes mine, and my nipples and belly jump to attention in tandem.

When he pulls his hand out of the vehicle, he’s holding the shirt that he put down on the passenger seat. I expect that he’s about to put it on, but he doesn’t. Instead, he snakes it around my hips so that most of the fabric covers my ass, then he ties the sleeves together in a knot at my front.

So. Not only does he not want to let me bleed, but he apparently doesn’t want to let anyone else see it, either.

Is this protectiveness?

Or possessiveness?

I don’t even know if I’m leaking yet, but I decide not to bother arguing with the positioning of Darragh’s shirt around my hips. He gives the knot another small tug, letting his hands linger at my front just a little longer than is necessary.

Then, he lets go.

The doors open automatically as we walk through them. Mounds of colourful produce greet us ahead. Peaches are in season around here, dominating the displays. Darragh snags one from the top of the pile. His hand is so big that the fruit basically disappears in his fist.

To the left, a lone cashier sighs and turns towards us, no doubt about to tell us the store is closing. But as soon as she sees Darragh, all ink and skin and muscle, her mouth snaps shut so hard I’m almost a little worried about the state of her teeth and jaw afterwards. Her eyes, though, do the opposite. Widen to their limits in her young face.

Darragh apparently doesn’t even notice. He walks through the place like he owns it, despite his state of undress. We pass by a sign stating thatvalued customers are asked to wear shirts and shoes inside. Darragh takes no heed of it.

It’s bizarre, seeing someone like Darragh in a mundane place like this. A little grocery store on the edge of rural Ontario.

---