“You’re a bunch of liars,” Luís said, big tears rolling down his cheeks as he finally straightened and glared at us. “You’re fucking liars. You said I wouldn’t be hurt.”
“Aye,” Cillian snapped. “And what are ye, then? A sprite of an angel with yer twee halo and wings? Feck off and shut it.”
Luís moaned and sobbed out garbled words while swinging back and forth where his hands were secured to the beam over his head. Cillian wrapped his arms around us, his right hand cradling my side in a firm grip, and I assumed the other was doing the same to Aspen.
“I was going to take the piss out of ye for mollycoddling our lad here... thing is, I get the appeal of pulling that trigger together.” He licked his lips and danced his gaze between me and Aspen. “It’s a thing of beauty.”
The hum that Aspen let out vibrated against my back. “Wouldn’t it have been easier with someone else on your side those first few times?”
Cillian shrugged, and I envied his lack of empathy. It was awful but almost a superpower. I let out a quivering breath as my arms began to ache and shook out my shoulders. Luís stared at me and all at once shrieked as he seemed to notice the gun, making me wince while my stomach flipped. He didn’t stop, and I flinched back, but Aspen was there to keep me in place.
“Ye know I love this shite,” Cillian said. He grinned. “Ye think what ye want, but I never worried about the killin’. It was that I might get caught someday that kept me awake at nights in the beginning, not the death of feckers who deserved it. That never bothered me, mate.” He stared me dead in the eye. “Just ye remember, each and every one deserve the bullets and blades and fists ye’re using on them.”
Rowen paced closer to us, almost as if he wanted to torture himself with a better look at Luís because he didn’t seem happy. “It’s okay not to love it. It’s okay to get the job done and feck off back to the rest of yer life.” He nodded at me, his grayish-blue eyes glittering in the overhead light. “No shame in a good day’s work. It doesn’t have to be a... a passion.”
Cillian made a face like he didn’t agree, and I chuckled.
Aspen slid a hand down and rubbed at my belly, and I stepped back to rest completely against him.
“Okay, guys, so the walls in here... are we going to catch ricochet when I shoot this yutz?” I glanced behind Luís at the heavy gray brick wall and felt like maybe I was buying time, but it also seemed like a valid question.
“Between the silencer giving the bullet farther to travel and the low caliber, it’s unlikely. The bullets should stay in the body,” Rowen answered fast.
Cillian rolled his eyes.
“That’s not a bad question,” Aspen said, and the longer they discussed the bullets the better I felt about all this.
“He’s not goin’ ta feckin’ miss,” Cillian said sharply, dragging me back to reality. I let my arms drop and shook them out because I’d already stood there for a long time pointing the gun. “I’ve had him out to the gun range meself. He’s a decent shot.”
“Just sayin’,” Rowen grumped. “If he did, that’s when it could be an issue in an enclosed space like this.”
Aspen’s low chuckle moved us both, and I loved the feel of being close to him.
“Oh, he’s going to put that bullet right in Luís, aren’t ye, Fallon?” Cillian asked, and my abs clenched and everything in my groin simmered. He sounded a lot like he had before he’d fucked me.
Aspen pressed a kiss behind my ear.
“I want to kill him, not draw it out.”
Luís began to sob, and Cillian beamed between him and me. Aspen’s hand still covered my right one, and I closed my eyes for a second as I focused on how the metal in my palms had warmed and wasn’t cold.
“You’ll have your own style, baby.” Aspen dragged his nose along my ear and shivers danced in my stomach. “Do what feels right. He needs to die, but it can be on your terms.”
Holding my breath, I nodded. “My own style, huh?” If I had to put a bullet in a man, what would be the best place? I was feeling weird. Scared and loved and taken care of... and still lost. I took a step away from Aspen, and he massaged my shoulders but let go when I took another step toward Luís. Cillian walked with me, that smile still on his face.
“I don’t want to die,” Luís whispered, over and over again, stuck in a loop.
“This is the best part,” Cillian said, and pure bliss slipped across his features. “Look at his eyes, that’s where the fear lives. It’s like a scent.” He took a deep breath near Luís, and I shivered when he reached over and tugged at a few strands of my hair that had slipped free to curl around my ear. Cillian’s excitement began to have me feeling better about this even as tension coiled in my gut.
“You know what? I’m not into it. Not like you,” I murmured.
He hung his head and peered up at me. “Ye’re not?”
“No. This isn’t my sauce. I would like to go back upstairs with all of you. Get Vail. Be together. I don’t.... This is always going to be something for me to get through so I can get back to where I want to be.” I glanced over my shoulder at Aspen, and he gave me a slow nod.
Rowen smiled. “That works, ye pixie.”
My heart flipped as I turned toward him, and Cillian spun around to glare at Rowen, who stuffed his hands into his pants pockets and stared at the floor. The air felt heavy in a thousand different ways. Cillian stepped closer and stared into my eyes, gaze intense. It scared me a little, the same way being underneath him did.
