Page 188 of Three Irish Kings
I take her hand, and we rush into the house on the top floor.
I freeze, looking at what seems to be an impossible scene.
A man groaning and grunting on the floor and Dare, bloody and looking haunted with a gun in his hand.
“A gun? Thought you hated them?”
“Aye, well, I thought I might need it. Haven’t shot anyone yet.”
I glance over to the man on the ground, who is rolling around and clutching his chest, and then back at Dare.
He shrugs. “Well, I didn’t say I didn’tstabanyone.”
I laugh, doubling over, and wonder if the laugh is hysterical.
Isla looks at me with concern in her eyes when I straighten up, so I compose myself.
“Dare, you’re hurt,” Isla says, and Dare gives her a pained smile.
“Just a scratch,a ghrá. Nothing to worry about.”
But I can see the way he’s favoring his right side, how tired he looks. I almost say something, try to convince him to go back to the car, but it’s too late now. I’m not faring any better.
Besides, he won’t leave her, and I can’t blame him, because neither will I. Not now, not ever.
“Liam,” Isla reminds us, and Dare makes his way toward Cormac’s office, wincing as he walks.
Isla swallows visibly as I move her behind me.
“Stay here.”
She frowns at me. “Cillian.”
It’s just my name, but I know what she’s thinking.
She’s thinking Dare is hurt worse than he lets on, and I am, too, but we’ll deal with that when we get Liam the hell out of here.
I hang back, letting Dare scope out the area.
Three men come rushing up the stairs, their footsteps thundering closer.
Dare turns toward me, a wicked grin on his face.
“Hey, Cill, this is like that time in Belfast, aye?”
I snort out a laugh. “Aye, it is.”
Isla looks at us, mouth agape, and I push her against the far wall.
“Don't move."
She listens, maybe for the first time in her life outside of the bedroom, and I move toward the stairs, standing shoulder to shoulder with Dare.
I throw out my left hand as the first man gets up the stairs, and he chokes as I punch him in the solar plexus, making him fly over the railing.
He screams as he falls, and the next man comes right after him.
Dare’s dagger flashes, glinting in the sunlight coming through the open patio doors. He gets the man right across the throat, not deep enough to kill but deep enough to disable.
