Page 98 of Black Heart

“What’s your plan?” Tristan asked, sighing heavily as he opened his eyes, already knowing that she had one.

“I thought that you’d never ask,” Marty said, smiling as she readjusted herself on his lap, careful of his shoulder. “We interrogate your brothers,” Marty said, smiling as she easily said the word and making him want to roll his eyes, “and find out absolutely everything we can about the curse and the events that led up to the curse getting triggered. That way, we know what to watch out for and we can make a plan.”

He reached up with his good hand and pushed a loose strand of her hair back as he gently cupped her face. “What if this plan doesn’t work?”

“Then, we’ll learn from our mistakes and the next time-”

“I don’t want to put you or the baby through this again,” he said quietly.

She turned her face and pressed a kiss against his palm. “I would rather free the baby than to take the chance of sending him back to wherever he’s been, Tristan. If that means that we keep coming back until we get this thing right, then that’s what we’ll have to do.”

“I don’t think that I could keep putting you through this, Marty.”

“We don’t have a choice,” she said with a sad smile that made him want to take her in his arms and never let her go, “because it’s the only way that we’re going to get our happily ever after.”

He pulled her closer so that he could kiss her, praying that he didn’t fuck this up.

* * *

“What’s the verdict, then?”Finn asked as Shayne materialized in the kitchen.

“She talked him out of it.”

Just like he knew she would.

“Thank fucking God for that,” Connall muttered as he leaned back in his chair.

He’d never seen his brothers look so relieved before. Then again, they’d never been asked to remove their little brother’s soul before. It wasn’t as though they were really killing him. Tristan was one of them. He was a cursed soul and removing him from the body that he currently occupied would have only been returning him to his true form. Reminding themselves of that fact didn’t help.

As pissed off as the brothers had been, none of them had been able to do it. He was their youngest brother, their responsibility and they hadn’t been able to overlook that, even if it meant saving Marty and the baby from any more heartache. Tristan was right.

They were fucking wimps.

Now they had to make a few decisions. Did they make another attempt or did they go along with Marty’s plan and try to destroy this curse once and for all?

“What do we do now, Liam?” Declean asked as he frowned down at the apple pastries on the counter that he’d finally managed to steal for Marty.

“Other than wait for the curse to take them?” Liam asked, shaking his head. “I’m afraid there’s really nothing we can do.”

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t have to wait long before the curse demanded its due.

CHAPTER38

“What are ye doing, lass?” Shayne asked as he appeared right next to her, startling a small scream out of her and making her drop her cellphone.

“What’s wrong?” Declean demanded as he appeared on the other side, scaring the living hell out of her.

“What’s all this screaming for, lass?” Connall asked as she banged into him.

“Stop doing that!” Marty snapped, placing a hand over her pounding heart as she struggled to calm her breathing. Honestly, they were going to give her a heart attack.

“Doing what?” Finn asked as he suddenly appeared, sitting in the black leather chair that the brothers seemed to favor.

“Scaring the hell out of me!” Marty snapped, taking a deep breath as she bent down and picked up her phone.

“Ye didn’t have to yell, lass,” Connall said, pouting as he dropped down on the couch.

Shayne let out a long-suffering sigh that left her torn between rolling her eyes and smiling. “She always was a violent little thing.”

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