Page 19 of Irish Daddies
It’s like they’re discussing whether or not to open a second franchise location of a pizza place. A sick laugh bubbles in my throat, and I rest my chin against my chest as the truth of where I am and what position I’m in washes over me.
Both of their heads whip around to face me, and the one with the angular face stares at me for a moment. He looks at Rian, then back at me. “She thinks you’re a joke,deartháir.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Rian says quickly. “She’s traumatized. Stop. Look at me and listen to me. I think we should wait. We can bring her back home and plan from there.”
“More time means?—”
“More eyes, I know. When you said that, it got me thinking, Declan. What if she told someone?”
“What?”
“It’s been four years. We’ve looked for her, and she’s done a good job hiding. What if she’s told people? The police? FBI? It’s been four years. We don’t know what’s happened in all that time.”
Declan steps toward me, and my breath stutters. My nipples tighten. I hate that my body reacts. He leans down until our eyes lock. Storm-gray meets hazel. His voice is low and clipped. “Did you tell anyone what you saw,doll?”
My breath hitches. He’s so close I can smell faint spearmint on his breath. A scar curves over his cheekbone. I have the strangest urge to touch it.
I don’t know what the right answer is. If he thinks I told someone, they might torture the answers out of me and then go and kill those people too. If he thinks I told no one, they might kill me now. Worse, I can’t lie to him, tothem. I’ve been lying to people for four years about why I moved and what brought me here, but faced with lying to these men, I suddenly justcan’t.
“No,” I say honestly, setting my jaw and sucking on the inside of my cheeks.
“She says she didn’t,” Declan says resolutely, standing.
“We can’t have any loose ends,” Kellan finally speaks up from the door. He’s been silent so long that I’d forgotten he was there. He looks at Declan sternly and shrugs. “We don’t have a choice,mucker. We need to be sure.”
Declan sneers, the life gone from his eyes. I get the sense he’d beenexcitedto kill me. “Dress her,” he snaps, and he leaves theroom so I’m alone with Rian and Kellan who, for reasons I can’t explain, seem to want me alive.
For now.
12
KELLAN
As soon as Declan leaves,I gesture to Rian to follow me out into the hall. His eyes flit toward the woman, still young, still almost a girl in my eyes. Her round, hazel eyes follow every movement we make, the terror brightening them. Tears well in them but never fall. “She’ll be all right alone. Won’t you, darlin’? You won’t do anything crazy, will you?”
She shakes her head fiercely, and her blonde hair sticks to her bottom lip. I reach out to pull it off her mouth, and she flinches at the movement. That flinch cracks something in me I wasn’t expecting. I pause with my hand near her, and then follow through, pushing the strand away from her face. Her skin is clammy and cold. Her breath catches, but she doesn’t pull away. The resilience in that alone startles me.
I glance at Rian and say, “She’ll be okay here. Look at her. Come on. I need to talk to you.”
He hesitates. His eyes linger on her, troubled. It’s not just guilt—I know what that looks like. This is something else. Something messier. He looks…torn.
He swallows hard. His hands curl at his sides, then release. One shifts like he wants to reach for her but stops halfway.
“Rian,” I say more firmly now.
At last, he nods once, just a sharp downward jerk of his chin, and he follows me into the hallway. The bedroom door clicks shut behind us, but I can still feel her presence like static in the air. She’s rattled something loose in both of us.
Even the hallway is colder. Less body heat, the humidity of their tryst gone.
I hear Declan upstairs, slamming drawers—packing. Preparing for something. Rage sharpens his every movement.
Rian turns to me. “Kellan, I swear to you I’m not a rat. It’s nothing like that.”
“I know.” And I do. He’s never been a traitor, but lately I’ve started wondering if I’m still on the list of people he’d never betray. “But Declan?—”
“Can’t be reasoned with when he’s like this. I know.” Rian nods once. Swallows hard. He rubs a hand over the back of his neck and looks like he wants to crawl out of his skin. The vein in his temple pulses with something too complicated to name. The tendon in his neck pops. He’s trying to look calm, but I can see a storm in his chest.
And I think I know why.
