Page 173 of Dirty Padraig: Dirty Dusters

Until there is silence.

Until there is noise.

Until there are voices.

I struggle to breathe. Panic. I don’t want to inhale the earth into my lungs, but they’re suddenly burning.

I take a breath. Air.

Familiar strong arms wrap around me.

Eoin.

I take a second breath.

“I love you.” The words exhale from my lips as the darkness envelops me once more.

CHAPTERFIFTY-SEVEN

PADRAIG

Unknown Location

“I love you.”

Three little words are uttered just before she loses consciousness. The intended recipient was my brother, not me.

I knew she loved him. I’d just never heard her say it. I know she loves me too, but witnessing her declare her love for him still feels strange.

I watch as he holds her in his arms. She looks lifeless, but she’s not. Thanks to Nate, we found her just as she’d suffocated under six feet of earth.

Mouth-to-mouth and heart massage. I did the latter while Eoin breathed life back into her by doing the former. It took a solid minute to bring her back. Not that we would ever have given up trying. I would have given my own heart and he his final breath to bring Jaine Jones back.

I watch him cradle her like she’s the most precious thing in the world. To him, she is. To me, she is. His love for her is so visible when she’s not looking. As soon as she turns in his direction, his expression becomes completely indifferent.

Does he regret falling in love with her? All the trouble she’s been?

He could have had his pick. He could have selected a mobster female who would kill when necessary and do as she’s told the rest of the time.

Instead, he fell in love with a biker. One who still has a secret that she’s not shared with him. How will he feel when it’s revealed? How will he feel that I knew all this time and he didn’t?

I kissed her, even after I gave him my blessing. I know he won’t have cheated on her because he’s wearing the same look I do anytime I look at her.

It’s what unconditional love looks like.

You’ll take anything she has to give because anything is better than nothing, and nothing is what you’re left with when you don’t have her in your life.

She’s my reason for breathing, the same as his, so why is he pushing her away?

I turn my head, watching as Cillian and Dylan push Luciano’s two goons into the now-empty grave we just freed Jaine from. She survived her ordeal. They won’t.

Luciano and Sophia have been taken away by Liam. Are they headed for the containers or Play?

I found the download device in Jaine’s jacket as I pressed down on her still heart that very first time. Dylan then did the necessary with Luciano’s phone after he beat seven shades of shite out of him.

My brother, the recluse, is now my brother, the murderer. Someone tried to kill his friend today. The Robin to his Batman. And he acted in a frenzied manner. We had to stop him in the end. We need Luciano alive, as Nate has first dibs.

Sophia, the wicked fairy, on the other hand, is all mine. She’ll pay for what she did to my Disney fucking princess.

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