This hotel room was small, and upon noticing the bathroom door was partially open, I sat upright and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. There was the slightest damp spot in the center, and I knew what it had been from. After we’d eloped, I’d taken her so many times throughout the night. It had made up not onlyfor all the time we’d spent apart when I’d been in Ireland, but also for all the nights we had to say our goodbyes much earlier than the other wanted.
It was very possible she was in the shower. Getting up, I walked to the bathroom, and my brow arched slightly when I heard no noises coming from behind the door. There was no running water or the rhythmic sound of her brushing her hair. Not a single sound of her brushing her teeth, or even the sound of life.
It made me remember my grandfather’s order to one of his men. A frisson of fear entered me, but I remembered that I had gotten her away from danger, and we were going to be okay from this point on. Maybe she had simply gone to get us breakfast. Sure, that was all it was. I moved back toward the bed and was about to sit back down when I noticed the folded up piece of paper on the desk.
“You did just go to get us some breakfast,” I murmured to myself.
I got dressed before moving back over to it. Once she got back here, we needed to leave. The sooner we left this godforsaken state, the sooner we could determine where we would settle down. I had no idea whether she wanted to move north toward Canada or much farther south toward Mexico. Regardless of which option she chose, we’d be together, which was all that mattered.
I sat down and picked up the paper. I slowly unfolded it and realized the message was much longer than a few simple words. My eyesight grew blurry, and it was only when I realized they were growing damp with something unshed that I swiped at them, then began to read.
My dearest, Cillian.
I know you wanted to wake up beside me this morning. It was nothing more than I wanted, too. Unfortunately, I struggled with sleep last night over how we’d left. I can’t cause my Mamma undue worry, so I’ve returned back to school to let her know that I intend to leave town with you. She deserves to know I am safe and to hear my plans from me in person. I’ll let you know once we’ve talked, and you can come back to Summit Crest to pick me up. I love you, husband, and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.
~ Reagan
No one else would’ve begrudged her the chance to say her goodbyes in person. They also wouldn’t have made her leave in the dead of the night without so much as a word to those she was leaving behind. There had been reasons why the events had played out the way that they had, and remembering my grandfather’s death order, another type of fear quickly spread through my veins like adrenaline.
My cell phone was sitting nearby, so I grabbed it, and that was when I saw a multitude of missed messages, and they were all from my grandfather. There was also a flight reminder and check in, and after glancing over my shoulder at the alarm clock time, I realized he would’ve known that I did not get on the plane as he’d demanded I do. That meant just one thing.
Reagan!She was headed to the very place my grandfather’s men would first look. Hell, they wouldn’t even need to go far, ashe already had men there. They’d caught the two of us together the night before, and now her very life was in jeopardy.
A rational man would’ve called the police and wished upon any star that they got there in time to stop the worst from happening. My grandfather’s men did not respect the law any more than he did, and they would go through whoever to follow the orders given. Any hesitation or defiance would seal their own death warrants, and ones Ronan Brannington wouldn’t hesitate to enforce. He had hundreds of men spread throughout the world, and one word from him was all it would take.
There was no time to waste. Grabbing my bag and hers, I then snatched my cell phone, keys, and wallet from the desk and strode toward the door. I also remembered her note, and deciding to leave it behind, I headed to my car. It wasn’t long before I was on the road and racing back toward the school.
I had gotten nearly halfway there when my cell phone rang. Seeing that it was once again my grandfather, I ignored it. He called again twice in rapid succession. Deciding to just mute the call, I slapped at the keypad in my car only to accidentally answer it instead as I navigated around a sharp curve.
“You’re not on the plane, garmhac.”
“I...ahhh...I know. I overslept. If you send me another ticket, I’ll?—”
“I’ll send you another ticket, but what’s done is done.”
There was an ominous tone to his voice, and dread quickly started to fill me, replacing the worry I’d felt just moments ago. “What have you done?”
He chuckled wryly, the sound grating on my nerves like that of nails on a chalkboard. “You might want to pull over for this.”
How do you know I’m driving?
It was either his men, a tracker on my cell phone, or the vehicle itself. As I saw the small shoulder upcoming that manywould stop at to catch a view of the spectacular mountain range and its valley, I quickly veered off upon reaching it.
My hands were shaking, as was my voice, as I spoke again. “Okay. Just tell me what the hell you’re talking about, Daideó.”
“You’ll show respect when talking to me, garmhac.”
“Understood. I’m sorry. Just please tell me what you’ve done.” A few seconds passed by, and I could feel the inside of this car closing in on me. Having suffered recently from claustrophobia, it had only been made worse during the months my grandfather had kept me imprisoned in the makeshift prison on his main property. “Please,” I croaked out.
I couldn’t breathe as my lungs constricted painfully in my chest. Slapping for the door handle, I was able to get it open, then I fell to the earth below. I scrambled back onto my feet, then was about to repeat my question when my grandfather spoke before I got the chance.
“I can show you better than I can tell you.”
A second later, a message came through. Something told me not to click on the file, but I did. “Nooooooooo!” I cried out the moment I saw a familiar redhead lying lifeless on the floor. The woman I recognized as her mother was lying there beside her. I turned back to my girl, and as I stared at her face, my own tears blinded me from seeing her eyes.
I quickly swiped at my eyes, then narrowed in on the girl whose face was bloodied, and as I looked deeper, now missing those blue eyes I had stared into so many days and nights. Blue eyes that I had dreamed about on the darkest and coldest nights of my life. Blue eyes that were now...
Another message came through, and this time, when I opened it, my heart sank, as well as my body, as I fell back to my knees. My cell phone slipped from my hands, reaching the ground before me, but I ignored it as my worst fear had come true. My grandfather’s men had followed their orderscompletely, and he now had the eyes of the woman I loved, and ones I would never be able to see again outside of my dreams.
