“What else?”
“It was my confirmation. She said it belonged to her mother and grandmother. So, it must be a family heirloom. My dad was there…”
“Was there anything about him that stood out?”
I shook my head. “I never saw his face, but…” I chewed on my lip as I thought back. “I don’t think I liked him.” Looking up at him, I could tell he was hoping for more. “I don’t know that I want to remember. What if I don’t like what I find?”
32
Antonio
I studied her face, but I couldn’t answer right away. I wasn’t sure what to tell her. She definitely wasn’t the woman I thought she was, but she was involved in something, and it wouldn’t do any good to ignore it. However, I could make her think that everything was fine and still talk to Knight to see what I could find out. Still, she had to be aware of what was in those photos.
“Ciara, I can tell you these photos show a deal going down.”
“What kind of deal?”
“Nothing good. Whatever you’re part of, we need to know.”
“Why? I’m lost out here. No one knows I’m here. Can’t we just…go on with life?”
I could hear the desperation in her voice. I knew she was strong. She had been since that first day here, but maybe this was something she just couldn’t handle right now. I had no idea what it was like to not remember a single thing. At first, she wanted to know, but this was too much for her.
I couldn’t let the matter drop. I had to know what was coming, but I could let her think that we’d leave it alone. In the meantime, I’d have to make sure she was prepared for whatever was coming. The guy I killed wouldn’t be the last to come. Word would get around that he was missing, and if he was found dead out here, it wouldn’t be long before someone connected the dots and realized that he was murdered.
I figured we had a few days tops before we needed to get out of here. If I rushed her out of here, it would freak her out, but if we stayed, we took the chance that they would find us before we left. I didn’t know what the right choice was, but my gut was telling me that leaving right now wouldn’t be good for her.
I needed to teach Ciara to shoot, and I needed to make sure she could drive on the mountain roads. Her cast was coming off tomorrow. After that, I’d teach her what I could over the course of the next few days, then we’d head out.
“Alright,” I finally said. “We’ll let this drop.”
Her shoulders sagged in relief. “Thank you.”
I nodded and turned to leave, but she stopped me. “Can you tell me something?”
“What’s that?” I asked, dreading what she would say.
She held up the photos. “You said a deal was going down. How do you know?”
“A past life,” I said after a moment.
“What kind of life were you living that you know about shady deals?”
I didn’t know what to tell her. Nobody knew who I was, and it had to stay that way. I trusted her to a certain extent, but I wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t let it slip to someone, and that would end badly for all of us.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past, and that’s where it’s going to stay.”
I turned and walked out of the room, not giving her a chance to ask any more questions.
“No!”
I jerked awake, sweat pouring from my body. Was I dreaming? I didn’t remember any bad dreams, but as I sat up in bed, I realized that Ciara was dreaming beside me. She was the one that cried out in her sleep. I shook her shoulder, trying to wake her up. Her fist shot out, striking me in the nose. My head snapped back with the hit and blood gushed. The woman had a mean right hook, though I didn’t know where she learned it.
Straddling her hips, I quickly grabbed her arms and pinned them above her head. “Ciara!” She jerked beneath me, her whole body fighting for control. She bucked her hips once, and then shocked me as she contorted her body, ripping one of her hands out of my grip. Thrusting her hips up, she tossed me off her, throwing me onto the floor.
She sat up, chest heaving as she blinked awake. Jumping to her feet, she spun around, looking for any threats. I knew that look in her eyes. She was ready to kill. But who exactly was she killing in her dream? Slowly, I got to my feet, holding out my hands.
“Ciara?”
Her brows furrowed as she glanced around the room. Her body relaxed slightly as she ran a hand through her disheveled hair. “What happened?”
“You tell me.”
She shook her head slightly. “I don’t know. I…”
“What were you dreaming about?”
She thought about it, but said nothing. I walked over to her, lifting her chin to meet my gaze.
“Tell me.”
Her eyes widened and she tore her body from mine. “Oh my God! Did I do that to you?”
I swiped at the blood under my nose, trailing down my chin. “It’s no big deal.”
“No big deal? You’re bleeding!”
“I’m fine. You just hit me the right way.”
She shook her head, pacing the floor as she thrust her hand into hair. If I didn’t know any better, I would say she was a mad woman on the brink of collapse.
“Ciara, it’s fine. Just tell me what happened.”
She stopped and stared at me. “I was fighting someone…I don’t really know. It’s fuzzy. It was life or death, but…” She grunted in frustration. “It’s all slipping away. I can’t remember!”
“Okay, it’s fine. It was just a dream.”
“Just a dream? What if I killed someone?”
“So what if you did?”
“How can you say that?” she asked incredulously. “It’s okay if I’m a murderer?”
“Do you remember killing someone?”
“Well—I don’t know.”
“Then don’t worry about it. For all you know, it was just a dream.”
“My dreams tend to tell me about my past,” she muttered, chewing on her nail. “It felt so real.”
“So do a lot of my dreams. The difference is, I know what’s real and what’s not. You can’t let yourself get all worked up over something you don’t remember.”
She took a deep breath, blowing it out. “You’re right.”
Now that she was finally calm, I took her hand and guided her into the bathroom. “Take a shower and cool off. You’ll feel better.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you always feel better when you feel clean again.”
As she got into the shower, I washed my face, stemming the blood still pouring lightly out of my nose. I knew she was rattled, but that convinced me even more that we needed to make sure that she could handle herself. By the time Ciara was done in the shower, she looked a lot calmer.
“Better?”
“Yeah, I’m ready to go to bed.”
I followed her out of the bathroom and laid down in bed with her, but there was no way I was going to sleep now. I held her in my arms until her breathing evened out, then slipped quietly from the room and pulled on my winter coat and boots. Walking out to the truck, the only thing on my mind now was finding out anything I could about Ciara. I had waited a week for Knight to get back to me, but I was done waiting.
It was still early morning, but he was a couple hours ahead of me, so I took the chance that he was awake. It rang twice before he answered.
“You’d better be running for your life if you’re calling me at this hour.”
“Not yet, but I need to know what you found.”
“Why the rush?” he asked skeptically.
“She had a dream about killing someone.”
He grunted. “And?”
“And she’s freaked out about it.”
“Did you try finding other ways to get the answers out of her?”
“I’m not torturing her. It wouldn’t do any good.”
“You don’t know unless you try.”
I bristled in irritation. “I like this woman. Besides, I�
�m out of that business.”
“Yeah? Is that why you killed that guy?”
“He was following me,” I argued. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“I hate to point this out, since I’m usually the one to shoot first and ask questions later, but you didn’t even know if he was after you before you were ready to kill him.”
“He was following me,” I repeated. “You know as well as I do that’s enough to go on.”
“You’ve proved my point.”
“Which was?”
“If you were so willing to kill that guy for answers, a little light torture seems in line to get answers from a woman that you really don’t know anything about.”
“Look, I’m not torturing her. Stop telling me to do it.”
“You must really like her.”
“Do you like your wife?”
“Don’t ever fucking talk about my wife,” he growled.
“Then don’t ask me to torture an innocent woman.”
“She’s not that innocent.”
“What?” I looked back at the house, checking to see that the lights were all still off. “What are you talking about?”
“She’s not the woman you think.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I ran her face through recognition software and I found her.”
“Wait, so you knew who she was and you still wanted me to torture her?”
“You might still decide to when I get done telling you who she is.”
I gripped the phone tighter in my hand. I was about ready to kill him if he didn’t just spit it out. “She’s from Vegas. Is she involved in something there?”
“Not even close, and she’s not from Vegas.”
“Then where is she from?”
“Chicago.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Her name is Ciara O’Sullivan.”
I felt like my heart stopped right then in my chest. It took me a minute to finally take a breath as I let that information wrap around me. “No.”
“Ciara O’Sullivan, daughter of Kieran O’Sullivan.”
I shook my head, still not able to believe it. “No, it’s not possible.”
“Really? Think about that for a minute. Do you really think it was a coincidence that she showed up right by your place? That she went off the road right in front of you?”
“She couldn’t have planned that. It was dark. There’s no way she would have known I was coming toward her.”
“Then you explain how the daughter of the Irish mob, your enemies, ended up in the cabin with you.”
It wasn’t possible. No one knew I was alive. Yes, at first I was suspicious of her, but then I saw with my own eyes that she was truly lost. But it made sense at the same time. She knew how to fight, and then there was the necklace…Christ, what the hell?
“Even if it’s true, she doesn’t remember any of that. What am I supposed to do with her?”
“I’d kill her, but that’s me.”
“It’s not that simple,” I hissed. “She’s not just some random woman. I’ve spent time with her. I like her.”
“And the moment she regains her memory, she’s going to kill you.”
“No, they wouldn’t send her in here on her own to kill me. That’d be suicide.”
“Then to gain information. They set up a pretty good background for her. My guess is they made it look like she was running from an ex.”
I sighed, rubbing my hand across my forehead. “She would have the perfect cover. They made it look like she was from Vegas.”
“And you live in a town with casinos,” Knight supplied.
“How the fuck do you know that?”
“What, did you think I wouldn’t find you? You called me. Of course I looked for you.”
“But how—”
“Because I’m fucking good at my job. You called me, and you didn’t exactly mask your call.”
“I’m on a burner phone.”
“And you thought that would stop me? Next time, don’t stay on the phone so fucking long.”
“Fuck! That doesn’t matter right now. I have bigger issues on my hands than you stalking me.”
“I wasn’t stalking you. I was strategically positioning myself for the eventuality that you might be a threat.”
“If you thought I was a threat, then why the fuck are you helping me?”
“I never do anything for free. I told you, expect a call when I need help.”
“Yeah, I’m not deaf,” I grumbled. “What about the guy following me?”
“Hired gun, and a pretty shitty one if you ask me.” He sighed. “These assholes just get younger and younger, and half of them have no fucking training. It really disgraces the whole institution.”
I grunted in agreement. Though Knight had killed off everyone on the estate, that probably said something about me. The only thing I could say to defend myself was that I was taken by surprise. I had been deceived by my closest family, leaving me completely unprepared for what was really going on. And Knight was a really good assassin, I admitted to myself grudgingly.
“Look, I don’t know what your plans are, but you should probably move on, and leave the girl behind. She’ll only cause you trouble.”
I stared at the house, thinking about her warm in my bed. I knew it was the smart thing to do. If she ever recovered her memory, the chances of her taking my side were slim. I was her enemy, and whatever she was sent here to do, it wasn’t to make peace with me. Her family most likely wanted to know if I was alive, and when she told them I was, they would come after me and they wouldn’t stop until I was dead. They wouldn’t take the chance that I would start up the Family again and come after them. It’s what I might have done a year ago, if I hadn’t realized that my uncle had betrayed me so viciously.
But after finding out that I had killed my brother for no reason, I hit a low point in my life, wanting to kill myself more than once. I deserved death, but worse than dying, was living with the knowledge that I took my brother’s life every single day. It was my torture to endure. A quick death wasn’t nearly bad enough for me.
I knew that Ciara deserved better than me, even if I didn’t know who she was in her past. I knew who she was now, and I liked to think that despite the fact that we were enemies in a past life, we could find a way together now.
“Antonio,” Knight said sharply. “Are you listening to me?”
“I’m not leaving her.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Knight…what made you get out of that life?”
He was silent for a moment. “My wife.”
“Exactly. You saw your chance to have something better. Well, I see it now, and I’m taking it.”
“This is a different situation,” he said fiercely. “My wife knew who I was. Ciara knows nothing about you. Hell, she doesn’t know who she is, but when she does, do you really think all her loyalties will change?”
“I don’t know, but I have to try.”
“And die trying?”
“It’s nothing less than I deserve,” I said grimly. “Look, we’ve got something between us, and I have to believe that when she remembers, she’ll still look at me the same way.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Then she’ll have to put a bullet in my head. I’m not walking away from her.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. “I hope she’s worth it.”
“Worth dying for? If it comes to that, I wouldn’t have anything else to live for anyway. She’s my last chance to be happy. Without her—”
“Alright, alright. Fuck, why does everyone feel they need to spill their guts to me? I’m not a fucking therapist.”
I smirked, despite the disgust in his voice. The man had one of the worst reputations, but he gave everything up for a woman. He understood exactly where I was coming from.
“Don’t stay around there too long. You know they’ll send others.”
“I
have to prepare her. She knows how to handle herself, but she’s not ready to just run off. I need a few days to prepare her.”
“Just leave now. You can protect her.”
“Not if her whole family comes after her. I’m only one man. I need to figure out a way through this mess without everyone getting killed.”
“If things go south, you need to call Carly. She needs to be prepared. If they found you, they could find her.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
33
Ciara
I was falling for Antonio. It was ridiculous. How could I be falling for a man when I knew so little about myself? It felt wrong somehow, but every day I spent with him not only proved that there was something between us, but that I wouldn’t be able to easily walk away from him.
The crazy part was that I didn’t know anything about him. He was this big mystery, and he wasn’t forthcoming with information. All I knew was the man that spent his days with me, taking his precious dog for spa appointments, though he didn’t want me to know he did that. I knew whatever happened in his past made him hard and cold. I had seen that when I first came here, but over time, he had sort of melted for me. He still had an edge to him, but he must have realized that I wasn’t going to let him push me around.
The truth was, I didn’t know what made me so bold with him. That first time I held the knife on him, I should have been terrified. Any sane woman would have been, but instincts kicked in, telling me to fight back. Honestly, I think he liked that about me, but I didn’t know where we went from here. I could live with the man that was a mystery. I came to terms with that recently. I may never know who he really was, but then again, I didn’t know who I was. Maybe it was better this way.
“What are you thinking?” Antonio asked as he sat down beside me on the couch.
I smiled, brushing off my wayward thoughts. “You know, wondering about the world and all I don’t know about it.”
“Maybe we should think about seeing some of it.”
He sat there all cool and calm, like we were going to take a vacation or something. Maybe that’s what he wanted, just to take a vacation, though I didn’t understand why. It wasn’t like he had a job that he needed a break from.
Dead Man's Hand: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck Book 1) Page 21