Page 99 of Into Temptation

Dr. Shannon saw Hannah early this morning and gave her some strong medication to help deal with the pain. He assured me nothing is broken. She got lucky, he said, but there is no such thing when a young girl gets beaten within an inch of her life.

I haven’t slept. I can’t. I’m sick of waiting…waiting for everything.

I’m hoping that by pummeling this punching bag, the answers I need will miraculously appear. No such luck sadly. But I won’t give up. Ethan and Eva are relying on me.

“Hey.” Babydoll appears in the doorway of the barn, dressed in one of my T-shirts.

She crashed on the couch last night, exhausted and emotionally drained.

She’s handling this well, but I know deep down, she’s beside herself with worry. Her sister has been kidnapped by a psychopath, and there isn’t a fucking thing I can do about it.

“Hi,” I reply, focusing on the bag as I wallop it a few times.

She comes a little closer but keeps her distance as she knows I don’t want to be smothered. “Hannah is looking a little better.”

“Aye.” I can’t look at her because I know what she’s doing. She wants to assure me that everything will be all right. But we don’t know that.

Every step we’ve taken has been a risk, but this is different. Ethan’s and Eva’s lives are on the line if I make the wrong move.

“Punky, please don’t do this.”

“Do what?”

“Don’t shut me out. I want to be here.”

“Ya shouldn’t want that,” I snap, punching the bag so hard, the cord snaps from the rafter, and the bag drops to the ground with a thud.

Babydoll sighs, folding her arms across her chest. “Well, too bad because I do. I’m not going anywhere. So can you stop sulking and listen to my idea?”

I don’t have a choice in the matter so I gesture that I’m all ears.

“We need allies, ones we can trust. Ron Brady and his friends proved they could be trusted last night. What about Brody’s men? Do you have a list of names?”

I nod. “Yes. I met them. Well, most of them. I don’t think they can be trusted, though.”

“They’ll be looking for a leader,” she says. “Brody paid their bills, and in the end, they’ll go where there is stability. They don’t care about our family feuds.”

“Ya don’t think Liam will be the one they turn to?”

“Not after word spreads about what you did. We just need to make sure Sean doesn’t get to them first. With enough people on our side, we can still beat him. We can still stick to the original plan.”

“Everythin’ has changed now. With Ethan and Eva gone, it doesn’t matter how many men and women we have on our side, Sean will always have the upper hand.

“He will undo all the progress we made with Ethan and just get him hooked on that shite again. If that happens, then he’ll be lost to us for good.”

I’m not trying to be negative, merely realistic because no matter how big an army we have, Sean will always have an advantage point. Until I can findhiscollateral, then we’ll always be playing with a losing hand.

“I know, but it can’t hurt to see who’s on our side, right?” she says, half pleading. “We can’t just sit around doing nothing.”

She needs to do something because something is better than nothing. And then, I’m suddenly struck with an idea. Probably the most foolish one I’ve ever had.

I think I’ve found Sean’s collateral.

“Yes, yer right.” I remember the conversation I had with Logan Doherty the night I introduced myself to Brody’s men.

He was supposed to run the list I asked for over to me days ago. It slipped my mind, seeing as I had other shite to deal with.

Babydoll recognizes the look on my face and smiles.

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