Page 28 of Highballs & Hexes

Nothing.

Fi turned stricken eyes to Patrick. “What happened? Why isn’t he answering?”

“Who?”

“Tadhg. You had to hear him, yeah?”

When Patrick hesitated, then slowly shook his head, Fi’s jaw dropped. Shock caused her face to go numb.

“How is that possible?” She hadn’t realized she’d said it aloud until he touched her cheek.

“What is it, love? What did you hear?”

“My brother. He was calling to me, Patrick. He’s here, just down the hall!” Frantic, she searched his expression for some sign she wasn’t losing her mind. “Are you telling me you heard nothing?”

“I’m sorry, love.”

She fell to the floor, stunned and unable to process what had just happened. “He was there! I heard him.”

“No.” Any telling emotion was smoothed from his face, but a wild, panicked look entered his eyes, and the irises were darker than mere moments before. “I only heard you calling for your brother.”

She recognized the reaction. One didn’t get to her age without encountering falsehoods and the tools who tossed them out like candy at a parade.

“You’re lying,” she accused. Building steam, she surged to her feet and gripped the front of his shirt, scattering buttons in every direction when he stepped backward as if to avoid her wrath. “You heard him.”

His mouth set in a stubborn line. “I didn’t.”

“You know more than you’re saying, Patrick O’Malley, and if you want to live to see another sunrise, you’d best be telling me what it is you know.”

His humor flared, but he immediately tempered it in the face of her building rage. She supposed a man who’d been marriedunderstood the way of it when a woman was about to hand him his arse.

“I heardsomeonecall out,” he finally admitted. “But no more after you said your brother’s name. I’d a ringing in my ears, and when it stopped, you were holding your head.”

“But youdidhear him call out first, yeah?”

“I heard something, aye.”

Simmering inside, Fi walked to the cell opening. The desire to rattle the metal bars was overwhelming, but the resulting injury would be too severe and not worth the agony inflicted upon herself. Especially when she’d rather inflict harm on Patrick O’Malley!

Why had he lied? It didn’t sit well with her after he’d promised he wouldn’t. But he’d hidden the truth for a reason, and she intended to find out what it was.

“Fi?” Patrick walked up behind her.

“Yeah?”

“Can I give you my truth?”

The deep timbre of his voice, combined with his tentativeness, caressed her ears and washed away her fury. With a tired sigh, she faced him. “Speak.”

His lips twitched, as if her response amused him, but he wore his sincerity like a cloak.

“When we kissed, I was lost in the moment. Many a time I’ve questioned if an experience is real.” Lifting his shaking hands, he examined them before running trembling fingers through his hair. “Likely it comes from being caged alone as long as I’ve been, but my mind likes to play tricks on me.”

“But you promised you’d not lie, and you did.”

“Aye, I lied.”

His remorse caused her to ask, “Why not just tell me what you heard and trust in me not to think less of you if it wasn’t real?”

---