Page 75 of Guilty as Sin

Beside me, Brady drifts in and out of consciousness.

“Don’t you fucking die on me, asshole,” I scream.

Sirens and horns of firetrucks blare at me, an incoming stream of flashing lights. I keep to my side of the road but I don’t pull over. I don’t even slow down.

Brady slumps against the passenger door. As I swerve through a red light, I lean over to smack him awake.

“I fucking swear, if you die on me—” I smack him again.

Brady stirs, then goes limp. I’m sobbing now, my voice choked with tears and smoke.

“I’ll never be able to tell you the truth.”

Chapter 35

Brady

Distantly, I become aware of a faint beeping. My mind is filled with dark smoke and black thoughts. I made her despise me. It was the only way.

She should despise me, the cruel husband she didn’t choose. She married me to save her brother—he’s the only person in this world she’ll ever love. It’d be best for her to go back to him. To return to who she was. Cora Muloney, the fierce, independent woman more than capable of surviving on her own.

She’s safest without me.

Without me was the goal. If I’m not around, then she’s in less danger. And if I’m permanently not around, then all the better.

But I’m still here.

Knowing that, I flash through all the selfish things I still want from this life. Cora happy. My family safe. Cora at my side, our enemies defeated. Together.

The steady beeping grows louder, sharpening in my ears. A heart monitor. I take a deep, painful inhale, and the monitor’s beeping gets faster.

Shit. It’s mine.

The details of the warehouse fire come roaring back.

Someone next to me gasps. They’re holding my hand, and they squeeze it as the beeping speeds up. I open my eyes to the most beautiful, terrible sight in the world.

Cora’s sitting by my hospital bed. She shouldn’t be here, next to me. Next to me isn’t safe. That’s what makes this so awful. But she’s here, and she’s wearing that sexy red dress I gave her, the one she cut short. It’s streaked with dirt and soot. There’s soot on her forehead too, but her cheeks are smeared clean, her eyes puffy. She’s been crying.

I know why she’s here.

And yet I can’t fathom why she’s here.

I own you.

I saw the hatred in her eyes when I told her that.

And yet she’s here.

When her gaze locks with mine, she gasps again. Her expression ignites with hope, and it nearly crushes me. She whispers my name as the door to my private room opens.

Da enters, followed by Mam, Liam, Finn, and a nurse in blue scrubs. I’m glad they’ve chosen to keep Kieran away. He doesn’t need to see me like this, in bed wearing a hospital gown, an oxygen tube across my face. For that matter, I don’t want Cora to see me like this either.

I know I look weak. But I’m far from it. Whatever combination of inhaler meds and oxygen they’ve given me, it’s worked its magic.

The nurse goes to the monitor, back to its regular beeping. She adjusts the oxygen meter on my finger and checks my vitals in silence. She must be on payroll.

“Can we…?” Mam asks her, gesturing to the monitor and tubes. The nurse double-checks my numbers. Then she nods and begins disconnecting me, starting with the tube across my nostrils. Yes, she’s definitely on payroll. While the others watch her, Cora looks only at me.