Getting Cian away from the active slave auction becomes my goal, and as we melt away from the crowd and sneak off backstage, he slowly seems to come back to himself. He doesn’t mention the auction, but he keeps a watchful eye on me as we sneak through the corridors beyond the ballroom and trail one hurried man to a small office tucked at the back of the building. It’s filled with CCTV footage and countless computers. One shows the name of the bank we got Evri’s name from, so that becomes my focus while Cian works on wiping all the CCTV from the files.
Hawk is my target name and within a few clicks, he pops up on the computer along with a handful of other names and addresses. It’s all information that’s far too good to pass up, so Cian goes to keep watch in the corridor while I download as much as I can onto the pen drive I brought with me. I get the majority of it, but I don’t have time to erase my presence as Cian suddenly bursts back into the room, takes my hand, and we’re forced to run.
While we’re not directly chased, our escape from the manor is slightly tricky as all security suddenly seems on high alert. Bysome insane stroke of luck, the couple we knocked out and robbed in the parking lot finally wake up and cause such a commotion by their car that it draws the majority of the front door security and we’re able to make our escape.
To throw off any tails, we don’t head back to the motel immediately and instead head to the beach where the water twinkles like black ink under the glittering moonlight and anyone suspicious of us will hopefully think we’re just a couple seeking a moonlit stroll on the beach.
“Are you okay?” I ask softly after taking off my shoes to sink my toes into the sand.
“Yeah, fine. Why?”
“You didn’t seem fine back there.” I tilt my head slightly and loop my arm through his. “That was hardly a pleasant situation.”
“You mean the auction?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
I don’t believe him for a second. “You know, if you’re not, then you can tell me. Either because you understand that I care about you or because I need you a hundred percent, and if you’re not on top of your game, then it risks my life. Whichever reason suits you.”
He sends me a sidelong glance while we walk. “There’s not enough time in our little world for me to even give you a fraction of why I’m not okay.”
“I know.” My heart beats heavily. “If I could take any of that pain away from you, you know I would.”
“I know.”
“Did it remind you of back then? With your sister?”
Cian’s jaw tenses into a sharp line and under the moonlight, even the shadow of his beard isn’t enough to hide the edge. “I read Saoirse’s report. She wouldn’t talk to me about it. I think when Domenico took her, she resigned herself, y’know? She spent a lot of time in their captivity thinking I was dead. Seeing those people up there…” Cian shakes his head. “It made me wonder what the fuck I’m doing.”
“How do you mean?” We come to a stop near the shoreline where the water lazily creeps forward and laps at my bare ankles.
“When I woke up in that hospital, I had one goal. I was going to tear the world apart and hunt down the bastard responsible for stripping my family away. I was going to make him hurt for as long as I was hurting, and then I would join them.”
My chest squeezes at the thought but I remain silent.
“But seeing that auction? The sickening way those rich assholes were bidding on people like it was some easy-living show? All I could think was how on earth am I going to even get close to that fucker? And when I do, what if I can’t do it? What if I get so far and then I just can’t make him pay the way he deserves?”
“You’ll be able to,” I answer gently.
“How do you know?” Cian’s eyes meet mine and even in the darkness, the pain is clear. “What if I freeze up in front of him the way I froze up back there?”
“You’re forgetting something.”
“Which is?”
“Me.”
Cian’s brow dips faintly. “You.”
“Not to get all egotistical on you or anything, but Cian, you’re not in this alone. I’m not saying we share the same level of pain to get to the bottom of this, but we both have the same goal and I’m not going to let you fall.”
His lips part but no words escape him. For a moment, he looks incredibly pained and then he tears his gaze away to the ocean. “And how do you plan on doing that?”
“You mean with how fucking stubborn you are each time I try to help you?” I snort softly. “Well, we have a list of very important people and I’m assuming killing Hawk isn’t going to be easy. So we’ll get his attention.”
Cian looks back at me. “By killing the list of very important people?”
