Roxanne grinned, “Leave that to me.” She fished in her purse for her cell, clicked a few buttons, and held it to her ear. “Zara, babe. Are you at the clubhouse yet?” She paused, then her eyes lifted to mine. “Perfect. I need you to do me a favor. Can you get into Pagan’s room and grab Aislynn’s stuff?” She paused while Zara replied, then gave me a little wink. “Bring it all to my place and grab a bottle of wine from the bar as you leave, babe. I think we’re gonna need it.”
—————
The next day,I sat at the kitchen table with my mam and told her everything.
Anyone who knew Maureen O’Shea would tell you that she had an opinion about everything, and she never held back. As soon as I got to the part about Pagan disappearing with a stripper, her eyes darkened, and her cheeks flamed with emotion.
I had to give her props, though; she sat back and let me finish my story without interruption, even though it was clear she was fit to bursting at more than one point during the whole sordid tale.
When I finished, she sat back in her chair and sighed. “This is a test,” she declared.
“You think?” I asked. “Because at this point, Mam, it feels more like mental abuse. Maybe I’m being dramatic, but there was no reason for him to do this except to either hurt me or himself.”
“Daughter,” she breathed. “Mental abuse is all he knows because it’s all he’s ever had.”
“It’s no excuse,” I bandied back.
She patted my hand. “Aislynn, it’s not an excuse; it’s an explanation.”
My phone began to buzz again for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning, and I eyed it nervously.
“Is that him?” Mam asked.
I turned my phone over so I could see the caller ID on the screen, and I sighed. “Yeah.”
“You can’t ignore him forever, Aislynn, and we don’t bury our heads in the sand in this family.”
“I’m not ignoring him, Mam. I just don’t know what to say.” My thumb went to the keypad, and I rejected the call.
“Do you think he knows you’re onto him?” she asked.
“I’m not sure of anything; though, knowing Pagan, he’s got to the bottom of it for sure. My car wasn’t there when he got back to the clubhouse because Zara drove us to Roxie’s in it last night. Honestly, I thought he’d have looked for me then, but he didn’t. Maybe he was at the club until this morning. It wouldn’t be the first time he stayed there.”
My heart panged as I recalled all the times when we spoke on the phone, when he told me he’d stayed at Vortex because he was up late doing paperwork. Now I knew what he was really doing there, and it made me want to puke.
Mam picked up the pot from the table and topped up her tea. “I thought he would’ve been here by now.” Her eyes darted to the gun resting beside her cup. “I’m waiting all locked and loaded for the little fecker.” Her voice turned low, and she mumbled, “Fuck around on my daughter, and you’ll find out.”
Even though it felt like someone had reached into my chest and ripped my heart out, my lips twitched. My Irish mammy telling me she had her gun locked and loaded wasn’t on my bingo card that morning, but here we were.
Just another day in the life of Aislynn O’Shea.
My phone buzzed again with a notification.
“Ga’wan with ya,” Mam cut out, jerking her chin toward the phone. “Let’s see what the little bastard has to say for himself.”
I looked at the phone as if it were a rattlesnake.
“Aislynn,” Mam snapped. “See what the boy wants.”
With an audible sigh, I picked up the phone and clicked onto the latest of a long string of WhatsApp messages that had started coming through earlier. I clicked on the most recent one to see a picture still, with the play icon over it.
Glancing up, I told her, “It’s a video.”
“Scooch up,” Mam demanded, scraping her chair closer to mine.
I shifted my chair toward her so she could see my phone screen better and pressed the icon on the video, squinting at the grainy picture that began to play.
“That’s Vortex,” I murmured. “It’s a security video.”
