He turned his head a fraction, and I could see the heart-stopping grin from the dim lights on the warehouse. He went to leave again when I called out for him once more.
“I fucking mean it.”
He nodded toward me. “I put my heart on a chain for you, darlin’. It’s wrapped around your neck. No safer place for it to be.”
“That’s not good enough.” I was surprised that my words came out so strong. A lump had lodged in my throat, a clot coming straight from my gut.
“You love me,” he said, like he was having a second revelation of what he’d realized in Ireland.
“From the moment I saw you,” I whispered. “I loved you. I love you.” He had brought life to me in that cemetery.
“I’m all right then,” he said, nodding behind me. “Get inside and lock the door.”
He waited until I did, but a minute or two later, I opened it again, looking out. He was gone. He’d melted with the darkness that surrounded him, nothing but his green eyes to bring attention to the force that walked these streets alone.
* * *
My fingers wrappedaround the pendant. Even though he told me I wore his heart around my neck, it felt like he had taken it with him.
“Keely,” Lachlan said to me, laying a card face down. “You’re going to wear a hole in the floor. Go to sleep.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I snapped.
It’d been an hour since Cash left, and even though it was normal for him to be gone for hours at a time, it bothered me for some reason. I kept telling myself it was only because we’d spent so much time together, and my attachmenthadgrown strong, too strong for me to feel comfortable when he was gone. I understood then why Harrison used to call Mari “Strings.” My heart felt like it had been taken over by hundreds of threads, and every single one was connected to Cash Kelly.
My feet, which seemed to have a direct connection to one of those strings, burned some tension by pacing in front of the kitchen, close to the front door.
“Keely Kelly,” Owen said. “You out of beer in this New York mansion?”
“Are you gonna play or complain all night?” Declan said.
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose, not sure what else to do. No—I knew. I was about to leave. Surprise Kelly at his office. He’d fuck me on his desk and then carry me home, like some twisted villain in a fairytale written for me by me.
I’d fallen madly, hopelessly, irrevocably in love with that fucking villain in my story.
I swiped my key from the table by the door, my hand on the knob. “I’m going out for a bit,” I said.
Harrison stood. “I’ll go with you. We need more beer.”
“No,” I said as I opened the door. “I’ll—” My breath left my lungs in relief and my heart lightened.
Cash was coming down the street. His head was down, and one hand was tucked into his pocket. The closer he got to me, though, my eyes narrowed even further. His face. I’d never seen it so hard. His strides were not easy, as usual, but almost brutal. He wasn’t stomping, or being loud, but I could almost feel the anger rolling off of him from where I stood.
“I wonder who told him you were in love with Stone and then stole his whiskey?” Harrison said from behind me.
Good, I wasn’t the only one who had noticed it.
I didn’t want him to think I was a helicopter wife, like those parents at the park who constantly hovered over their children so they wouldn’t fall and break something, so I went to close the door. Before I did, though, I noticed another shadow coming up from behind him.
“Is that Susan?” Harrison said.
“Yeah,” I said. I had never warmed up to the old bitch. She was evil wrapped in pink fluff, sort of like ambrosia salad. I’d never met one that I liked. Texture was important to me—even with people.
Cash kept her around because of a debt his old man had owed. She’d needed the job, wanted it even, to keep her busy, and there she was.
Cash had stopped at the same time I’d noticed her shadow creep up. Though the lights were dim, I could see that she was upset. She waved her hands some, and I heard her sniffing. If I really narrowed my eyes, I could see that her eyes were red-rimmed, and the tip of her nose was an even brighter red.
“Like a sadistic Rudolph,” Harrison muttered, and I elbowed him. He made a breathless noise before he started laughing—it was quiet, but it was there.
