Page 55 of Killian

“One, two…three.”

We kicked at the doors together just as the van hit a large pothole. I flew through the air, rolling to the best of my ability before I hit the ground hard, still rolling. Each roll on the ground hit some part of my body hard. When I finally stopped rolling, I felt like I couldn’t move. The air was coming out of my lungs very weakly as my body ached from hitting the ground hard. The van stopped. I heard the massive brake and skid as they realized we had gotten out.

Sinead was going to come and kill me now. She had no use for me anymore. I closed my eyes, waiting for surely what was coming but instead, I felt myself being yanked to the side of the road. I landed in the ditch to the side of the road, the hedges scratching my skin. Teeghan put her hand over my mouth and told me to keep quiet as we hid amongst the bushes on the side of the road.

The pain in my body was hard to fathom. I didn’t know how I hadn’t passed out from the pain but here I was with a splitting headache, a body that didn’t want to move and a best friend who was doing everything possible to get me out of this predicament.

I heard the tyres from the van screech down the road, past us and Sinead yelling at Darren to do something. He was trying to placate her and tell her that they didn’t need me anymore but she was hellbent on getting me back to Killian.

And that was exactly where I wanted to be.

Sinead and Darren finally got in the van and took off again.

“Can you move?” Tee asked me as she tried to look me over.

“I don’t think so.”

“No worries,” she said, sitting down next to me in the bush. “Lorcan knows where we are. He has pinged my phone, so now, we just need to sit back and wait for help.”

“Lorcan? Not Conor?”

“Conor didn’t exactly sign off on me jumping in the van.”

I chuckled, knowing just how much of a screamathon was coming when she got home. Poor Conor. All he wanted to do was keep her safe and she kept putting herself in danger.

“Is anything broken?” she asked me.

“I don’t know, but I fucking hurt, that’s for sure.”

“You didn’t look great before we jumped out of a moving van. I can only imagine what you’re going to look like in the cold harsh light of the day.”

“Thanks, Tee.”

She giggled which made me chuckle even though that hurt me to do as well. When our laughing died down, I could feel tension reach between us.

“Is that a car?”

She looked up onto the road but ducked down quickly again. “It’s not them. We stay down until we get a message.”

I nodded, thankful I wouldn’t have to move yet.

“So, what are you going to do when we get back?” she asked me. I could tell it was a question she’d been wondering herself.

“Heal.”

She chuckled, but I could tell she wanted a real answer.

“I don’t know, Tee. Honestly, at this point, I’m safer with Killian, and I know that but I know his reputation.”

“He’s not the guy you met in school?”

“He’s darker than that guy,” I told her.

“Aren’t you darker than the girl you were back then?” Teeghan asked me. “You’re not all sunshine and roses anymore.”

That was true. I’d been through some real shit in the years after I had left Killian.

“Well, what do you want?” Teeghan asked. “Do you want a life away from the town you loved and grew up in or do you want to fight for the man who would do literally anything for you?”

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