by Henry, Jane
“We should use her as bait,” Cormac says, looking at me apologetically. “So sorry, Aisling.”
I snort. “Don’t be. I want this all over as soon as possible, just like the lot of you.”
Nods all around.
“I want her safe,” Tiernan says. “I’m not comfortable putting her in any compromising position at all.”
“Of course not,” Keenan says. “We’ll be sure of it. We just have to make sure she isn’t alone, at any time.”
I nod. “Aye. I can agree to that.” I sigh.
Tiernan drapes his arm around me. “You’ve done well, lass. Soon, this will be behind us.”
The others leave, and Tiernan lays me out on the bed. He kisses me until my back arches and I reach for him, and we make slow, languid love until my worries have fled for the time being.
Tiernan’s phone rings. We both look at it in surprise.
“Guess you have service?”
He answers, and a moment later, frowns. “It’s for you.”
I take the phone.
“Hello?”
“Oh, Aisling, thank God,” says a familiar voice.
I sit up straighter.
“Y’alright, babe? My God I was worried!”
“I’m fine. How did you get this number?” I ask.
“Fiona!”
“Ah, Fiona.”
Tiernan rolls his eyes.
“Karla, how are you?”
“I’m good. Just worried about you. I heard you’re with one of the McCarthys now?”
“Aye. How did you hear that?” I look to Tiernan and feel my brows draw together. How does she know this?
“Vivian told me.”
“Vivian told you… what?”
Vivian? Tiernan’s lips thin and he gets that look on his face that scares me a little. I mute the phone. “Will you stop looking like you’re going to murder someone with your bare hands?” I unmute the phone and he only narrows his eyes on me.
“That you were with the McCarthys and that they were keeping you safe.”
“Oh, aye,” she says with a sigh. “That’s why they ransacked our place.”
Jesus.
My head is spinning. Who knows what? There are people in Ballyhock who know I’m with the McCarthys. There are people right here at the school that know my identity as well.
I hate that I’ve brought more trouble to these good people. I hate it.
“I have to go, Karla,” I tell her. “I’m so sorry but I can’t talk right now. Thanks for calling.”
“Aye, I understand. Stay in touch, love, will you?”
I nod. “Will do,” I whisper. My throat is tight, and my nose is all tingly. Tiernan takes the phone from my hand and stares at the screen, swipes, and glares at me.
“What are you looking at me like that for?”
“I don’t like Fiona giving my number to your mates.”
“‘Tisn’t mates. It was one mate, and she was worried.”
The truth is, though, I hate that I’ve brought trouble here to the McCarthy Clan, I need to ensure I don’t do so again. I get to my feet and pace the room.
“We need to do something, Tiernan. Keenan said that he wanted me to bait the headmaster.”
Tiernan scowls. “I hate that idea. There has to be another way.”
I shake my head. “I won’t let him actually touch or hurt me, for real. But we need to know. Who knows what? Who’s after us? Keenan doesn’t want us leaving until we’ve found some answers, for real. So let’s find him. Let’s bait him. And let’s find out some answers for real.”
Tiernan nods. “Fine, but under one condition.” I turn to look at him.
“You do exactly what I say, Aisling.”
“Of course, of course, I know that—” he crosses the room, picks me straight up in the air, then sits heavily on a chair and pulls me onto his lap so I’m straddling him.
“This is no joking matter, lass.”
His uncompromising gaze meets mine. He holds my chin in his hand. “You have to do what I tell you.”
I blow out a breath. “Fine, Tiernan. I will, okay?”
He nods. “I mean it, Aisling. You put yourself in danger and I’ll whip your ass raw. Don’t tempt me.”
I lean over and kiss his forehead. “Tiernan, honestly. I don’t have to put myself in danger for you to do that.”
That gets a chuckle out of him. He chucks me under the chin. “Let’s go. Keenan just texted me, says the headmaster’s by his office.”
“Convenient,” I mutter. “You can’t exactly saunter in with me, can you?”
He shakes his head and grimaces. “No. I’ll have to stay apart but within earshot. Bloody hell, maybe this is a bad idea.”
“Nope,” I say with a nod. “This is a fantastic idea.”
I head out to the door. “You’ll be by real soon?”
He scowls. “I’ll follow behind as soon as I can, but Keenan said to give you a bit of a lead.” He looks like he doesn’t like this plan. He takes something out of his pocket. “Here. This is a burner phone, we’ll get rid of it as soon as we’re done here. My number and Keenan are programmed in in case of emergency. Hope to hell you have reception if you need it.”
I take the phone and slide it in my pocket, feeling as if this means something. He must trust me if he’s given me a phone, even a temporary burner.
I hope I don’t have to use it.
He goes on. “You’re not to let him hurt you. I don’t care how close you come to finding out the truth that you need to know, he does not hurt you.”
I nod. “Of course not. Absolutely.” I nod my head. “You have my word.”
I leave, and it feels odd walking by myself. Even though I know he’s monitoring me, even though I know he’ll be right behind me, I feel alone, and I don’t like that. It’s been a while since I’ve been apart from him.
I remind myself there was a time not too long ago that I enjoyed being independent. That I could handle things on my own just fine, and I’m still capable of being a strong, independent woman.
A light’s on in the headmaster’s office. I remind myself of my purpose.
Go to him. Try to find out who’s with him, who’s behind the plot to get us.
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. H
e 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 not alone. My brothers are at my side. They’re here.
I slam into the door at the same time Lachlan kicks, and it caves in, splintering. I jump through, and look around, but there’s no one in here. I heard her; I know I did.
“Aisling!”
I scream her name, and at first I don’t think I hear anything at all, then the smallest sound comes in the distance. I look to Lachlan.
There’s the muffled sounds of cries from another room. Lachlan and I both spent years of our lives here and know the place well.
“What leads into this room?” I ask him, my heart slamming against my rib cage.
He screws up his face in concentration. “Classrooms are down the hall,” he mutters, shaking his head, then his eyes go wide. “The fucking back hall to the auditorium, Tiernan.” He jerks his head to the back. “Here!”
There’s a little door that looks like a closet, and again, when we go to open it, it’s locked. We meet each other’s eyes, no words necessary. I rear back, shove into it and he kicks at the same time. At first nothing happens. We do it again. Wood fractures around it, and we run down a dark hallway.
“No more shouting,” Lachlan says. “Someone’s got her. We have to find her and not push them to run further, aye?”
I nod, but there’s no muting the pounding sound of our feet on the walkway. We suddenly come to the end of the hall, and bright lights blind our vision. I throw up a hand to cover my eyes, squinting against bright overhead lights.
“Mother of God,” Lachlan mutters, staring ahead. I look to find a huge screen with a projected image on it, the same one they used for assemblies in the auditorium.
Aisling.
Some sick fuck’s got her tied up, a gag in her mouth, and she’s writhing trying to get out of the restraints, her image large and luminous on the big screen for anyone to fucking see. Fury wells up in me like a beast, molten lava clawing at my insides. My hands are clenched into fists, I throw my head back, and I roar, “Where is she?”
“Bloody hell,” Lachlan mutters, blinded as well as I am, my eyes flitting from one thing to the next but she’s nowhere to be seen.
“Camera’s in the back room,” Lachlan says. “All the videography. At least it was when I was here.”
“Jesus.”
I want her out of the hands of whatever sick fuck has her. And I will end him.
“This way, Tier,” Lachlan says, jumping off the stage and running up a ramp that leads to the back, when the amplified sounds of Aisling’s screams fill the theater. My stomach lurches, and my fury intensifies. Jesus.
“It’s a trap, Tiernan!” Her voice nearly deafens me. Someone strikes her to silence her. There’s a sound of flesh on flesh, and she cries out. Red hot rage seeps into my veins. I’m ready to kill for her. Fucking kill.
“Go!” she screams. “Get out!”
Like hell. Lachlan doesn’t even slow, but gets to the back door and breaks it down with me.
The first thing I see is Clifford, sitting placidly in a corner, one ankle propped up on his knee. And there isn’t a man holding Aisling down, but a woman.
She looks up at me and smiles, her eyes cold and hard.
�
�Isn’t this cute? The man who’s in love with the little whore.”
Aisling whimpers and writhes, and I realize the woman has a needle up to her neck.
“Put that down.” My voice is deadly, my intent clear.
I will kill both of them. All of them. The bloody world if they come between me and her.
She shakes her head. “Aisling thought it another hit of her precious drugs,” the woman says. I realize she’s familiar.
Vivian?
“But it isn’t,” she says with cold menace. “This is a sedative, with enough tranquilizer to kill a small animal, as well as a full grown human.” She poises it at her neck. “I knew you were with the Prime Minister’s son, Aisling,” she says. “I was the one who set you up.”
Aisling shakes her head, her eyes wild with fear, but she keeps herself calm. Christ, do I love her.
“So when they found his body and knew he’d gone missing, I knew exactly who to blame.”
Aisling blinks. Lachlan and I stand, motionless, as Vivian continues.
“You killed him. Tell the truth, Aisling.” Vivian removes her gag.
“He tried to rape me!”
Vivian shakes her head. “Oh, really? He told a different story the night you stole from him.”
“I stole nothing!”
Vivian laughs mirthlessly. “They all say that. Now tell the truth, Aisling. The Prime Minister’s offered fifty thousand euros in exchange for information leading to his son’s killer.”
“I killed him,” she says, her eyes on me before she looks back to Vivian. “He tried to rape me, and it was self-defense.”
No. I can’t allow her to take the hit for me.
Vivian shakes her head. “Tsk, tsk. Now I’ll have to turn you in, see?” She gestures for Clifford to come to her. “It’s a shame I won’t be able to kill her, darling. But we can split the money, can’t we? The Prime Minister’s offering an ample reward.” She snaps her fingers. “Call off your men. The police are already here. Tell them where we are. Only you know I don’t share well. It’s why your wife isn’t with us anymore….”
Clifford’s eyes go wide a split second before Vivian makes her move.
She stabs him in the neck with the tranquilizer. Aisling screams, but Lachlan and I use this to our advantage. He kicks the syringe out of her hand, and it goes skidding across the room. Clifford screams, grabbing at his neck, and lunges at me. I fight him off, but he’s going for Aisling. I spring into action without a second thought. I lift him and throw him against the wall.