Page 24 of Dublin's Danger Dancer

“Ok. I’m coming now.”

I return to my chair, pushing my elbow into the table as if I’ve been there the entire time. I’m grateful the long tablecloth has given me cover.

He opens the door and kneels beside me, taking my hands. He kisses each one. “I’m afraid dessert is going to have to wait to go have something important.”

“Promising pleasure and then failing to deliver. Perhaps you should start a new career as a stripper.”

“I wish I had time right now,” he says, moving towards me. I stand up, but he pushes me back into my seat, his breath comes to my ear.

“Stay and enjoy the food,” he whispers. He turns my chin towards him and places a tender kiss on my lips, but the kiss turns hurried and frantic, his tongue exploring my mouth.

He pulls back, “Ciara. I really have to go. Can I come to your place later? To smell the roses?”

“Is this payback for all the years of teasing?”

He pushes his down into his lower lip.

“I wish it was. But it’s not. It’s really not. I have something to do.”

“Then come by later.”

He leaves me in a cloud of Joop as I curse myself for feeling giddy after kissing him.

I return home to find a huge heart-shaped tray of chocolates waiting for me at the doorstep. I was surprised no one else in the building had taken them inside. Perhaps Liam had one of his men watch. I pick up the tray and take out the note.

Dessert before pleasureread the note.

I dial Ferg. “Can you call the dog pound in Dublin and ask them to send over as much dog fur as possible to my address?”

“Why?” he asks.

“I need it to deter a customer at the club. He’s allergic and he’s getting a bit close for comfort.

Ferg laughs on the other end of the phone.

“You never cease to amaze me,” he says. “I’ll get someone to deliver it to you tomorrow.”

My mind is racing through all the different ways I’d make O’Shaughnessy’s life unbearable. Starting, of course, with blue balls. I take off my dress and pull on my running gear. It was so hot, I only needed my high waisted leggings and sports bra.

I bounce down the carpeted stairs of the building, thinking of the promotion I would surely get for discovering the submersibles smuggling across €50 million in cocaine.

I lock my door and run towards the water. As always, my joy is submerged by the pain in my chest. I run faster, as if the stamps of my feet and the burning feeling in my lungs could erase the unwanted memories flashing before my mind. All those days and nights spent locked in my foster parents’ attic.

I stop to catch my breath. I stare up at the sky. The clouds have gone, revealing a smattering of stars through the plumes of smoke produced by the factories dotted around this area. I start running and only stop when I find myself surrounded by the yellow sweeping showing Dublin get even larger at the entrance to the dockyards.

Behind me, a purple double-decker bus whizzes by. I wander the unlocked docks looking at the names of the ships until I see Princess Kathleen. The boat Liam had referenced in his call. The plinth to the boat is open, but I can’t see any lights on.

I know I shouldn’t, but my feet carry me up the plinth and onto the boat. I pull out my phone that’s strapped to my arm and turn on the torch. I keep moving around the deck or the ship until I find myself at the top of a white metal staircase that goes below deck.

A strong smell of salt residue and diesel reaches my nostrils. “Who the hell are you?” comes a voice from behind me. Before I can turn to answer, I feel a crack at the back of my skull and I tumble to my knees.

Chapter Eight

Plastic ridged cable ties dig into my wrists. I’m tied to a chair. There is a gag in my mouth that tastes like an unwashed tea-towel. My vision is blurry, but I can still make out a gigantic man in his sixties wearing a Polo shirt. Its starched collar popped like he’s a sixteen-year-old on a moped.

“She’s garda, I’m telling you,” the round bellied man says to a full-bearded younger man.

“Now, what would garda be doing boarding this boat with no warrant and on her own, doesn’t make any sense to me,” says the younger man.

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