Allow him to seduce me, but not touch me.
Nice guidelines, Tier.
My phone rings. I frown at the screen and quickly silence it.
Tiernan.
“Hello?”
But there’s no answer.
“Hello?”
Again, no answer. I hear him moving around the room, and figure he likely butt-dialed me.
“Tiernan?”
Nothing. I’m just about to hang up the phone, when I hear something that makes me freeze in my tracks.
Is that… a woman’s voice?
“She just left,” says the voice. “You’ve got her occupied, don’t you?”
A low, manly chuckle. Oh, God.
I’m standing outside the headmaster’s door with the phone up to my ear. Oh God oh God, no.
No no no no.
I’m trembling as I hear panting, and the unmistakable sounds of clothes coming off and kissing.
I take my phone and whip it as hard as I can. It hits the wall and shatters into shards, making a terrible noise. The door to the headmaster’s office opens. He looks at me in surprise, then his face breaks out into a slow, wicked grin.
“Hoped you’d take my offer.”
I’m sick to my stomach. I want to vomit.
Tiernan sent me here so I… Christ, I can hardly think straight.
“Come into my office,” he says, tilting his head to the side. He gives me a wicked grin which makes my queasy stomach ache. No. No.
I go into the office, dread suffusing my limbs.
I brought trouble to the McCarthy clan. This isn’t going to work.
And whether Tiernan’s an arse or not, I will do my part in bringing trouble away from them.
The door shuts with a sickening click. He reaches for me, his hands on my arms. I shiver. I can’t believe I used to let men touch me for money. The thought of letting this one touch me for information is almost more than I can bear.
“Just like that,” a female voice comes from the other side of the room. “She loves a little foreplay.”
I whip my head to the back of the office but can’t see who’s sitting in the shadows.
“Who’s there?”
I should run. Tiernan made me promise I wouldn’t let myself get hurt, but here I am, outnumbered.
The woman rises to her feet and crosses out of the shadows into the light.
I gasp.
“Vivian.”
Clifford is still touching me, his sick hands on my back, stroking up and down. I push him away. I feel dirty and tainted.
Vivian takes her bag out and pulls out a syringe.
“What’s the matter, Aisling? Can’t perform without a hit first?” Her voice is sickening sweet, making the nausea in my belly even worse. It’s like a terrible, wicked dream, but I can’t wake up.
Tiernan’s with another woman.
Vivian spied on me.
She’s given me away to the police and framed me for murder. And the worst part is? The needle in her hand calls to me.
I want to forget that Tiernan did this to me. I want to forget that he means anything to me at all.
“You betrayed me,” I whisper to her.
“Betrayed you? No, doll,” she says, shaking her head. “I’m your friend, remember?”
She hands me the needle. “Here you go, darling. You don’t need me to do it for you, do you?” She gives me a placating smile. “Here you go.”
I want the blissful relief.
I want to forget.
I take the needle from her.
Chapter 17
Tiernan
I hate watching her leave that room, and a part of me screams inwardly when she does.
Don’t let her go.
How could I have such feelings for her so soon?
But this is the way of the Clan, I remind myself, just as I’ve reminded her. We don’t do things conventionally. We don’t do things the way others do. And it’s not like I’ve only just met her.
I knew the girl she once was. I knew the innocent lass who was my sister’s best mate. And I know the woman she’s become, unencumbered with the dull effects of the needle.
I go to take my phone so I can track her, but it isn’t there. Jesus. I look all around the room, but time’s wasting. I’ve sent the woman I love to the fucking sharks, and I’m still treading water on shore.
I yank open the door to find Lachlan on the other side.
“Y’alright, brother? You look like you’ve seen a fucking ghost.”
“Aye,” I grate out. “Jesus, Lach.” I fill him in quickly. He trots by my side.
“Fucking hell, Tiernan,” he says. “And you don’t have your phone?”
I shake my head.
“Last time you saw it?”
I think. “Right before she left the room, goddamn it.”
Lachlan scowls. “You don’t think Malachy…”
I shake my head. “Hell, no. He’s one of us.”
We trot, heading toward the headmaster’s, when bright blue lights nearly blind us.
“Fucking hell,” I grate out. “Police?”
Have they come for her?
Have they come for me?
I run faster. I burst into the hall to the headmaster’s office and see a phone, shattered into pieces on the floor. I pause and stare at it. I recognize that pearly lavender phone case.
“Jesus,” I mutter, stooping to pick it up. “Aisling’s?” My throat feels strangely tight.
Lachlan frowns. “You recognize it?”
“Aye.”
“What the hell is it doing here? And why the hell is it all smashed up?”
I shake my head, listening for the sounds of the cruisers outside. I need to find her fucking now.
“Headmaster’s office,” Lachlan says, pulling out his own cell. “I’m calling Keenan.”
He dials and I try the door. It’s locked, but I can hear voices inside.
Damn our plan to hell. I need her safe. I need her with me. I’m not fucking risking anything else and risking her safety.
“Open the door!” I bellow. The voices inside go quiet. “Open it!”
Lachlan scowls as he talks to Keenan, jerking his head toward it. I know what I need to do. I take a few steps back, then run at full speed, my shoulder slamming into it. The door creaks on its hinges but doesn’t budge. Lachlan comes up beside me.
“You hit it with your shoulder while I kick it,” he says. “Keenan’s handling the police. Tully and Cormac are on their way here.”
I nod, relief flooding through me. Thank Christ I’m
