Page 87 of The Catalyst

Martin chuckles. “Yes,Ido.”

“Well, where is she?” I press, but his eyes narrow.

“See, there’s thistinyproblem. She kind of asked me to keep her location a secret and unlike some people, I actually keep my word, so…” I don’t know if that was supposed to be a dig at me or not.

Martin shrugs as if this is all inconsequential to him.

In a flash of anger, I grab him by his shirt and slam his back into the gate before growling in his face. “Where. The fuck. Is.She.”

I need to know where she is. I don’t care if he keeps it hidden from Nigel–by all fucking means–but I need to know she’s safe.

I’ll do whatever the fuck she wants me to do. I’ll make sure Nigel keeps his distance. I’ll do anything for her to hear me out about what happened. None of it was fucking intentional and, if I could do it all over again, I would just so I could prevent myself from hurting her.

I’d do anything for her.

Martin smiles. “You don’t scare me, cuz. You can kill me if you want, but then there would be no way for you to find out where she is. Don’t worry. She’s safe and she is there of her own free will. That’s all that should matter to you, right?”

He’s not an idiot. He knows that this is more than my duty to my brothers or to Nigel. I’m desperate for her.

“However, she did give me something to give to you before she got settled in,” he adds before I release my hold on him.

He’s right though. If I kill him, I’ll have no hope of ever finding her.

I will find her though.

I take a step back as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of neon pink lacy fabric. “She said to give these to you, but I’m not sure which one of you she wanted me to hand them to. She wasn’t specific, but if I had to guess, it was both of you.”

He unrolls it and holds it up by a fingers and then I realize it’s her fucking underwear.

She gave him her underwear.

What?

Why?

“You motherfucker!” Nigel growls and I quickly grab his arms, restraining him. It’s one thing for him to fight Martin in the ring. It’s another for him to attack Martin in public with Bernadette as a witness.

“Stop it!” I snap at him.

“I swear, if you touched her, I’ll fucking kill you!”

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Nigel is a fucking idiot. I swear, he’s asking to go to prison at this point. He doesn’t have the fall back that I do. He doesn’t have an influential family member who could bail him out of every crime he ever does. He needs to be careful.

However, he does deserve to go to prison for what he did to Beth. I’d do way worse than any prison inmate would if Beth had confirmed my suspicions.

“A little too late for that, O’Reilly. Based on what she said, you’re already aware of our little tryst before she moved to town. It’s such a shame that the girl that you picked also happened to be one of the ones who spent a good portion of time riding my dick. It was quite impressive actually. She was mine before she was ever yours and that’s something you can’t erase, can you?”

He’s baiting Nigel. He knows it and I know it, but I doubt Nigel realizes it.

That is one skill that Martin has completely mastered. He can make Nigel go from zero to a hundred in two seconds flat.

“Let me go!” Nigel groans as he tries and fails to rip his arms from my hold.

“Not happening.”

“Go ahead. Let him go. It seems he has something he wants to say.”

Martin gives me a look as if to say “do it” and I do. It’s his funeral if Nigel rips his head off and pisses down his throat.

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