Page 134 of Three Irish Kings
I arrive at the bus station and step out of my car, stretching and groaning.
I need to put myself in Isla’s shoes.
It’s helping the void in my stomach, the ache in my chest, when I think about her, to focus like this.
I’m angry more than anything else, or at least that’s what I tell myself.
I walk into the bus station and then right back out, looking around to see what Isla would have seen.
There’s a drugstore within walking distance, and a bed and breakfast about a mile down the road. It looks sketchy even on the billboard, and I bet they would have taken cash. And I bet that’s where she is.
I walk down the street, heading toward the bed and breakfast, but I pause at the drugstore, wondering if maybe she would have gone there to get supplies.
She has to be out of cash by now. Someone’s helping her.
Her mother? Someone else?
There’s a couple outside, and the guy has the girl pinned up against the wall.
I chuckle darkly, thinking of when Isla and I were out on the balcony at the gala.
But as I get closer, their argument becomes clear.
“Get away from me.”
Isla.
Her low, husky voice with just the hint of an Irish accent is obvious.
It takes me only a second to process it, and then I see red, blacking out.
When I come to, I’m punching the guy in the face over and over, blood spattering all over my hoodie, and the guy’s yelping hurts my ears.
“Stop it! Dare, stop it, you’re going to kill him!”
Isla’s touch makes me stop instantly as she grabs me by the shoulder.
I stand up, turning around to look down at her, chest heaving.
She looks smaller than before, paler, her hazel eyes seeming to eat up her face.
How could she leave us? Leave me? She never cared, did she? It was all a game to her, I can see it now.
I wrench away from her. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
Her eyes well with tears. “Dare, we have to get out of here. The cops are coming, I heard someone saying they were going to call 911.”
I stalk back to the car, still trying to catch my breath, anger rushing over me all over again.
She’ll either follow, or she won’t.
I don’t care anymore.
Chapter Thirty-Three
ISLA
He found me.Dare found me, after all the care I took so that he wouldn’t.
