Page 108 of Dirty Padraig: Dirty Dusters

Paddy and Jaine may not be here, but if they are, they may need urgent medical assistance given the time that’s passed. I’m not prepared to take any chances.

Not with him. Especially not with her.

The medical team will remain in the ambulance until they’re needed. If they are needed.

If it’s not already too late.

Dylan follows me into the church. I can’t help but whisper a silent prayer that they’re in here. Even if the worse has happened, I’d sooner they be found.

We search everywhere, but there’s no sign. We then sit on the family pew and stare up at the vaulted ceiling.

I feel hopeless.

For the first time, I’m confronted with a problem, and I have no solution. My person is going to die because I can’t find her. I curse myself that I don’t have the same in-built connection with her that she shares with my brother.

I think back to the raw pain and emotion that we witnessed at Cillian and Sarah’s wedding. Paddy was inside the safe room. Jaine knew he was there, their bond so strong.

I broke him that day. I broke her too.

The day I used their love for each other against them for my own selfish gain, and all because I wanted her for myself.

“The safe room,” I whisper. We run past the confessional booth, my eyes trained on the reflective glass. “Please, God.”

We push the door open, and my hand automatically reaches up to cover my nose. It stinks, but it’s not the smell of death. It’s the smell of human waste.

Dylan and I stop in our tracks as we take them in. As they lay there with their arms wrapped around each other as though to offer the same comfort in death as they did in life.

For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Tears prick my eyes as I stare at them. Were they always destined to be star-crossed lovers?

A love so pure. A love so simple. A love where nothing else matters. Where no one else matters.Not even me.

Dylan places his hand on my arm, then approaches them.

I run my hand down my face. I can’t let my emotions get the better of me. “Don’t move them, Dylan. Fetch Dr. Kelly and Tim.”

If they survive or don’t, the person who did this to them will pay. But what do I do when I was partially the catalyst? When my own love for her played a part in destroying them both?

I stand and stare, not sure what to do next. I watch as Dr. Kelly checks both of them over. I make eye contact with Tim as he stares down at Jaine. They grew close.

He looks upset.

It seems like a lifetime has passed before Dr. Kelly turns to us.“They’re alive.”

I know my cheeks are wet with tears. For the first time since I was a small boy, I’m crying.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR

JAINE

The O’Connell Home, Darling, New York

“Tim.”I smile up at my nurse friend with his unruly mop of red hair, his complementary freckles, and his beaming smile. A man who’s seen me at rock bottom more than once, and now, here he is doing so again, only this time, I’m the patient.

“Have you been doing as I asked, Jaine?” He pushes his round black glasses further up his nose as he stares at me, no doubt trying to gauge whether I’m lying.

“As much as possible, but I’m not really a bed rest kind of person. You know that.”

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