Page 77 of Bargain with the Irish Devil

The key is in the door when my phone starts ringing. Declan. “Hello?”

“Jesus, Miranda. How could you? I trusted you?—”

“It’s not true. And how the hell could you answer her call and not mine? You ignored my call, didn’t you? I trusted you to be honest, but you already have a baby. A baby you left for her to raise alone.”

He growls low. “It wasn’t like that.”

It was like that. “Fuck you, Declan. I’m not going to do what she told you. I should have listened from the beginning. You said you didn’t want kids. I didn’t ask for the prescription. But I’ll be damned if you ever see this baby or me again.”

I don’t know where the words come from, but I mean them. I end the call.

Climbing the stairs of my home at a run. I’m guessing I have twenty minutes before Colm or whoever the hellhe sends gets to me. Unlocking the door, I head straight for my office.

I unlock my safe and grab all my paperwork for my accounts and the deed for my home. I shove everything in a tote bag. Idon’tneed clothes. I can buy what I need later.

It takes three minutes to back up all my contacts and a few photos to the cloud before I drop my phone in a glass of water, leaving it on the counter for Declan to find.

All my important things are in one bag. I’m out the door only ten minutes later. I open my carriage house and find my car a little dusty but still there. It was a gift from my father. I don’t drive it often, but I’m glad I kept it.

Tossing everything into the car, I drive away from my home and the life I thought I was going to have.

CHAPTER 24

Two weeks later

Miranda

I wake with a start. The room is dark. But it’s different from when I fell asleep.

Declan.

I sit up to find him in the chair beside my bed. The chair that’s been propped up against the door for the last week. This extended stay hotel is scarier than the last few. But my car broke down when I got here so I didn’t have a way to check into another without pulling out more money. The clerk had demanded an extra three hundred dollars not to have me use my card to hold the room.

I’m not surprised. Not even a little. I felt him right behind me every step of the way to this crappy hotel in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico. My hope was to cross into Mexico before he caught up with me. If my car hadn’t broken down, I might have.

“You look like shit.” He murmurs low. “You haven’t been taking care of yourself. Or our baby.”

It stings the way he intended. I couldn’t help it. I tried. I’ve been taking prenatal vitamins. Mainly it was protein shakes and protein bars that kept me going. I didn’t care about eating because I didn’t care about anything when I realized what I left behind in Chicago.

“A baby you didn’t want. That you left me alone to find out about by myself. A baby I called to tell you about but you didn’t answer my call. You only answered hers.” He doesn’t get to make me feel like shit when he’s the cause of it to begin with.

“I didn’t let myself call you or answer your call because every moment I was gone, I was tortured by the thought you would come to your senses and leave. I picked up the phone again and again to call you, terrified you wouldn’t answer. Day after day, I begged my uncle to let me come home to you.”

“What?” I hit the lamp to turn it on.

He nods. Holy shit, he looks as bad as I feel. “At first, I was there for them to test you with the FBI agents. You passed, and they were happy. Then, the discussion became for me to take over completely. The few I answered to wanted out. It was a discussion of how to buy them out and close out other agreements we have in Ireland. But I made the mistake of telling them that I needed to talk to you first. To ensure you were okay with it all.”

My mouth drops. He wanted to talk to me before agreeing?

Blue meets mine. “I wouldn’t have agreed if you said no. This was aboutourfuture. Without you, none of it mattered. And if you wanted out, I would walk away. If they were ready to retire, then I could too. Walking away would never be easy, but if I handed the reins off, it would be now. They didn’t like that.”

His sigh is heavy. “Stupidly, I was adamant. Finally, they understood it was no joke. They were sure I would give in any day. When I agreed, they would let me come home to you. But I couldn’t sign it. Not if you weren’t all in with me. They jammed my cell phone so that I couldn’t call you. Every night, I dreamed you were in my arms, and I was inside your beautiful body, and woke to find myself alone.”

The pain is clear in his eyes. Oh god, his family wouldn’t let him leave.

“I gave in on the morning you called me. I couldn’t take it anymore. I signed, telling them I’d get you to agree. And if it came down to it, I would let you go. But it was only for them to let me go. When you called they were driving me to the airport. If I’d answered, they would have known I was lying to them. Brenna didn’t call me. She texted me.”

His eyes drop from mine. “The baby wasn’t mine. But it was my fault he was without a mother. His mother was a worker in the brothel. We didn’t protect her the way we should have. It was right after I got you to agree to stay with me. I didn’t want you afraid of my world. So I dumped the baby on Brenna and Colm. I’ve done all I could to ensure things weren’t as scary as you thought they were. But it all blew up in my face, and maybe it’s what I deserve. Only I can’t lose you. If you couldn't live in my world, then neither could I. There is no me without you.”

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