Page 104 of Reckless Promises

There’s a long beat on the other end of the line while the white hospital walls close in around me. Beeping machines eat at my patience, and voices kick up all around.

“I’ll get it done, Cillian. Promise.”

There are a lot of reasons my brother has hated me these last few years, but I don’t doubt him when he says it. His loyalty is to this family, above all, always.

“Thank you.”

Shane hums, pausing only a beat. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to get my wife.”

38

Odette

The moment my eyesopen, I roll onto my side and my insides give out. Everything I’ve been holding back for the past day releases with the contents of my stomach.

“What the fuck?” a man shouts and I try to blink my surroundings into focus.

The car turns, and I have to brace myself so I don’t roll into my own vomit. Sealing my eyes shut, I grip the leather seat, propping myself up as the world spins. I feel it. Everything tilting off balance and I’m at the center.

“Sit up.”

Someone pulls my shoulder. Their fingers tug at my hair as they drag me to sitting. And I manage to steady my breathing just enough to bury the nausea once more fighting to get out.

I’m in the back of a town car, and a man is bending over the front seat to pull me up. My head aches, and myhospital gown is stained with vomit. My stomach turns each time the car does. Swirling my insides around.

“She got it on the seat.” The man with beady dark eyes and black hair says to whoever is driving.

“It’s fine, we’re almost there.”

“Who are you?” I lean against the door and tip my head to the window. “What do you want?”

“We don’t want anything.” The man grins at me. “Our boss on the other hand…”

His words trail off. And I want to ask who his boss is, but if I open my mouth again, I might puke. Besides, the identity of his boss isn’t important when everything they’ve done is proof of what I’m in for when they take me to him.

I close my eyes again and try to steady my breathing. Between the poison and the sedatives, my stomach won’t settle. So all I can do is grip it and pray they haven’t done anything worse to the baby.

My baby.

And once more I didn’t get the chance to tell Cillian. I had him on the phone earlier but hesitated. I wanted him to hear it face-to-face, and now I may never get the opportunity to say it.

At this point, Cillian probably knows I’m gone, and I can only imagine what he’s doing to rectify this situation. If he was scared before, I have no doubt it’s slowly morphing into something much more terrifying with me missing.

I spent so much of the past twenty-four hours mad at him for leaving me when I should have been more understanding. He’s torn because he’s the onewho put me in this position, and now all his worst fears are playing out in front of him.

I should probably be scared too, given there’s a chance I might not make it to the end of this day. But if I give in to my fears now, there might be no surviving this. And for my baby, that’s not something I can risk.

The car slows, and I open my eyes to see we’re stopped at a gate. I’m not sure how long we’ve been driving, just that the road is empty and we’re in the middle of nowhere. A forest surrounds us, so there’s nowhere to run and no one to hear me scream.

It’s terrifying, if not poetic.

I’ve been screaming into a void my whole life, but Cillian’s the only one who understood it.

The gate clatters open, and the car drives through.

I can’t help but look back as it closes behind us, wondering how far away Cillian is. Or how he’ll figure out where I am. I’m not sure if he’ll get here in time—or at all.

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