“Maeve!” my father growled, trying to get to his feet. But he was too weak. He probably had a concussion. “No. I won’t let you do this! Don’t listen to her, O'Callaghan! It’s me you want!”
The man looked at Cian.
Cian’s face was still hard, and his eyes were narrowed, making the grooves in his forehead even deeper.
Cian nodded, and my fate was sealed.
It’s better this way.I wouldn’t have to suffer a slow, poisonous death while Dermot kissed my lips and took my body for his own pleasure.
Maybe Cian O'Callaghan would be more humane.
He’d kill me quickly.
My father wailed, like I’d fallen to the floor and would never rise again.
Before I could react, the man hauled my dad up and whisked him out into the storm. The woman wrapped her arms around my waist before I collapsed.
Chapter5
Maeve
My dad was gone. I was never going to see him again.
I held all the emotions in while the woman held me. It was awkward, and I was sure she was doing it to restrain me, but for some reason I thought she was doing it to be nice too. Maybe like she was trying to offer comfort and really didn’t know how.
It seemed like after she knew the man had taken my father away for good, she set me on my feet. She took me by the hand and led me up the steps to a bedroom.
It was fancy, nicely decorated, with a huge four poster bed in the center. I craved to crawl on top, break to pieces, then wait for numbness to settle over me. Then maybe Cian O'Callaghan would do to me what he’d planned to do to my father.
Kill me.
The woman seemed to be hesitating at the door. I turned toward her before she could leave. “Can I have your name?” I whispered.
She touched a knife, like a nervous person would touch a security blanket, before she gave it to me. “Fiona Plum.”
“Ms. Plum, is that man taking my dad to the hospital?”
“The name is Fiona. And that man is Keenan Ere. He’ll take Pauric to the hospital, then to a safe house after. Or maybe he will throw him out at Oran’s doorstep with a message. Cian Cillian O'Callaghan, who they call the Beast of Boston, haswhatbelonged to them. You. That’s the deal you made with the Beast.”
My head rushed with questions, but I held my tongue. I hadn’t even had a chance to think that far ahead—the fate of my father if I wasn’t around to marry Dermot.
Maybe Cian would send them my body in a bag as revenge. Then my dad would be off the hook. He’d be considered a victim instead of a martyr for his daughter’s cause.
For a brief second, I considered my life, and all the things I was going to miss and all the things I’d never experience.
I’d miss my dad.
I’d miss Delaney and the bookstore.
I’d miss falling in love with a new world and the people on the page within it for the umpteenth time.
I’d never beeninlove with an actual man, and for some reason, that was the only regret I had. Something I wished I could have experienced. Even the heartbreak of it because that meant someone had meant something to me.
Delaney called me a true romantic. I was. I didn’t regret not traveling more, or spending more money, or going to wild parties or college.
It hurt that my heart had never experienced romantic love before. The true kind. I’d always assumed I had more time. That soulmates found each other at any age.
The thought was too depressing, so I switched gears.
