"And that's a bad thing?" she asks.
I almost laugh. "My brothers are the ones who killed him. Well." I pause. "They thought they did. It's a long story. But trust me when I say they won't be happy."
"Does your brother know?"
"Not yet."
"He's going to want to kill me."
She holds my gaze. "Then you need to tell him tonight. Not in the morning. Tonight."
She's right. I've known she's right from the moment I woke up clear-headed.
I look at her in the half dark. Hair loose, sheet pulled around her, watching me with those steady blue eyes like she already knows what I'm about to do and isn't going to stop me.
This is what I agreed to marry. Not an ornament. Not a political solution.
This.
I get up and walk into the sitting room. The phone is face down on the couch where I left it. I pick it up.
Three missed calls from Aidan. A message sent twenty minutes ago.
I open it.
"Fuck."
CHAPTER TWENTY
William
THREE MISSED CALLS from Aidan. A message was sent twenty minutes ago.
“Answer your fucking phone.”
I stare at it. Then a second message, sent four minutes after the first.
“I'm coming over.”
I'm already pulling on my jeans when the third one lands.
“On my way.”
I look at Aoife in the doorway. She's dressed, arms folded, watching me. A week ago, that would have irritated me. Now I just feel the weight of it.
"Aidan," I say.
She straightens. "He's staying close?"
Something moves across her face before she gets it under control. Something that looks like relief. I don't know if it's relief that Reilan is near, that her brother has been keeping watch, that she's not as cut off from her own people as she thought. I don't ask. It's not my business what she hopes for.
"I'm not sure," I say.
I check my phone. Three missed calls, both messages timestamped within the last twenty minutes. I do the math.
"He should be here in less than twenty minutes."
She moves first, going to the kitchen, filling the kettle. I don't tell her she doesn't have to. I don't tell her anything. I pull on a shirt and sit on the couch and look at the wall and think about what I'm about to do.
