I take off my belt and fasten his wrists behind his back, barely tempering the need to wrap it around his neck and strangle him.
I want to kill him. I want to end his fucking life, but Lachlan pulls me off just in time.
“Call Keenan.” He’s got Vivian in a choke hold. He twists, and she slumps over, passed out.
He pulls out his phone and makes a call. Keenan answers on the first ring. He tells him where we are as I unfasten Aisling’s bonds.
“Aye,” Lachlan says, looking at the two restrained before us. “Motherfucker.” He jerks his head to the back.
“Back there, Tiernan. Leads to the changing rooms. Wait there with Aisling until we come to get you.”
I lift her in my arms. She struggles, trying to get down.
“Put me down,” she says. “I can walk.”
Why is she fussing at me like this? Jesus.
“No. I want to hold you.”
“Put. Me. Down.”
Lachlan’s eyes go wide at the tone of her voice, and he nods to me. I put her down. She stomps out in front of me, but she’s trembling. Bloody hell, what the hell is it? Is this how she reacts when she’s traumatized?
“Aisling?”
“Go away,” she says, her voice muffled. I shut the door behind us, crouching into our hiding place. I feel like a teen again, being back here in this room. I once played a part in a musical we performed here at the school and remember this room well.
“Sit down,” I order.
She stands, her back to me, and her shoulders are shaking. I walk toward her, but her voice arrests me.
“Leave me alone,” she snaps.
“No.” I try to keep my temper in check, but I’m furious. I damn near had a heart attack when I thought she was harmed, when I thought she’d been taken from me. And now this.
I grab her shoulder and spin her around. She’s crying, tears flowing down her cheeks, her lips wobbling.
“Is it because of what just happened?” I ask. “Are you… traumatized?” I didn’t kill either one of them, though I bloody well wanted to.
“You!” she says, pointing a wobbly finger at me. “You! How dare you pretend as if you care for me?”
“What?” I want to take her by the shoulders and fucking shake her. “What?”
“I heard you,” she says, her voice trembling. “I heard you with another woman.”
I blink. What the bloody hell is she talking about?
“When?” I ask. “Jesus, I haven’t been with a woman in months.”
She was damn near killed, and this is how she responds?
“You didn’t mean to dial me,” she says. “But as soon as I left the room, I heard you. You said, ‘she’s gone now,’ and then I heard you… kissing her.” Her face contorts in disgust. “And… and fucking her.”
The broken, shattered mobile…
I blink in surprise. “Jesus, Aisling. I didn’t. You’re out of your bloody mind, woman.”
She wags her finger at me. “Don’t you dare! How dare you try to pin this on me?”
She takes a step toward me and shoves at my chest. “You lied to me. This was all a lie. You were only trying to protect me. Why? What was in it for you, Tiernan, hmm? What was it? Recognition? Approval from your Chief?” Her voice catches. “Someone to warm your bloody bed?”
I grab her shoulders and try not to shake her. I’m tempted to fucking hurt her, but I can’t let my anger and frustration get the best of me.
The door bursts open the next moment, and Keenan stands in the doorway, his eyes blazing.
“Jesus Christ,” he says. “You two are okay.”
He looks at my hands on Aisling’s shoulders, then looks to me, question in his eyes. “Let’s go,” he says. “The police are here. But we have evidence.”
Fear glimmers in Aisling’s eyes.
“Tiernan, I…” her voice trails off. “I don’t want to go to jail.”
Keenan shakes his head. “It will come alright in the end, Aisling. Come now, let’s get the two of you seen.”
Even though his words and gestures are paternal, I can’t help but want to pull him away from her.
I’m the one that’s supposed to comfort her.
Aren’t I?
And why the hell did she think she heard something on the mobile? It isn’t possible. Someone’s framed me, or she’s mistaken. I mean to find out which. I go to pull her away from Keenan, but he looks at me and shakes his head. He lets her go ahead of me, stays back, and whispers in my ear.
“She’s traumatized, Tiernan. She’ll be alright. Let her be seen and let her go answer the questions. Brady and Lachlan have been talking, and this will be okay. You’ll see.”
I blow out a breath. I bloody hope so. I watch her walk away from me. She looks so little, but her head’s held high and she walks with purpose.
My Aisling.
Chapter 18
Aisling
I feel numb. I feel… I don’t know how I feel.
Right now, if the police were to put those cuffs around my wrists and cart me away, I might welcome it.
How? Why?
I feel as if I’m out of my body, like my physical being is down here on this earth, but I’m rising above it somehow. The woman that was just threatened with death no longer resides here. I’m… detached, somehow. Apart from it all.
When I reach the main auditorium, uniformed police officers wait for me, but Keenan puts up a hand when one of them comes to take me away.
“No. She’s innocent. You won’t take her away today, please.”
One of the officers looks at Keenan sharply.
“And you are?”
Keenan crosses his arms on his chest. “Keenan McCarthy.”
The officer visibly swallows. “Aye. Heard about you. Walsh called me about you.” Walsh, our trusted advisor, is the Ballyhock police chief and on our payroll.
Keenan
