Page 44 of Still Burning

I glanced around and realized it was an office and there were more books. Brady locked the door and let go of me at the same time.

“I was hoping we’d enjoy the evening. However, my hand is being forced, and I don’t have time for details.” He sounded exasperated.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” he muttered and stalked over to a cabinet, opening it and taking out a bottle of whiskey.

“We’ll need to disappear,” he continued, then took a pull from the bottle.

“What?” I asked, my voice rising with alarm.

“Ye heard me,” he said, giving me an exasperated glance, then taking another drink. “Just do as I tell ya, and I can answer yer questions later. No time for it now.”

“I’m sorry, but you abducted me, threatened to kill those I cared about, and now you’re telling me that we have to disappear.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What is going on?”

He looked at me pointedly. “I smuggle hash and coke into Ireland, Salem. It’s what we do. I distribute it all through Europe’ Eamon was in charge of it but now it’s me. No oneknows I exist. It wasn’t just a lie my brother told ya. It was one he’d lived his entire life, outside of the inner circle ye met in there.” He pointed at the door. “We have men who work for us who don’t know my face. But for a few years now, they’ve been sniffing around, thinking we don’t know who they are. The feckin’ CIA.” He let out a hard laugh and shook his head. “Calling meThe Ghost.” Brady put the bottle back into the cabinet.

“Time to go, sister,” he said, then nodded his head for me to come to him instead of him coming to the door.

How did no one know he existed? What about birth records? Those couldn’t be hidden.

There was one sharp knock on the door, and Brady sighed, then stalked to me. He grabbed my wrist and began pulling me again back toward the bookcase behind the large ornate desk.

“That’d be Emmett with the signal to leave,” he said. “No more time.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to stop dragging me around when he took a book from the shelf and pulled it out slightly. There was a faint click, and Brady moved us back as the bookcase began to swing open. I stared at it, wide-eyed.

What the hell?

He forced me to move with him into the dark passageway that had appeared. Once we were inside, the bookcase began to close instantly. I could barely make out anything in the darkness, but Brady moved us through the narrow passage quickly, turning without slowing. He had to have every inch memorized to keep this pace without light to see the way.

“Stop pulling so hard,” I hissed at him.

“If ye obeyed requests, I wouldn’t have to,” he replied.

“More like demands.”

“It’s just ahead,” he told me.

As if I knew what was just ahead. He’d told me little. I didn’t know where we were going.

“How are we going to disappear?” I asked, almost having to jog to keep up with his pace.

“Eamon wasn’t the only one with a double life,” he replied. “Steps here. Be careful.”

Steps? How was I supposed to see them?

He slowed some for my sake, I assumed, as we went down a flight of stairs, then continued a bit longer before he stopped.

“Stand still,” he told me, then let my wrist go.

I could barely make out him moving, and it seemed like he was climbing up a short ladder. Then I heard a faint creaking sound as an opening appeared over our heads and the moonlight flooded the space. It was wider than I’d realized. The narrow passage must have changed at some point.

Emmett appeared above us as Brady moved back.

“Go on up,” he told me.

Not wanting to stay down here any longer than necessary, I went to the ladder and climbed the three rungs. Then Emmett held out a hand to help me out. Reluctantly, I gave it to him, and he lifted me up and onto the grass before letting me go. I looked around to see we were in a thicket of trees. It had to be somewhere on the property.

“Take this,” Emmett said, handing me a raincoat.

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