Page 39 of His Kidnapped Irish Mafia Virgin

“Paddy, I need you to come to my office straight away. Bring Diggs and Michael with you. We have a situation that can’t wait, and I want all three of you here before we discuss what happens next.”

I released the button and leaned back in my chair.

Nora watched me quietly. “You’re angry.”

“I am,” I admitted. “Not because you came back to work. I’m angry because somebody managed to get close enough to you to make a point, and then he walked away. That’s a mistake I don’t intend to let him make twice.”

Less than a minute later, there was a knock at the office door before Paddy stepped inside with Diggs and Michael close behind him. Paddy looked from me to Nora and immediately realized something was wrong.

“We were checking tonight’s reservations when your message came through. Judging by the look on your faces, I don’t imagine this is about suppliers or staffing. Tell me what happened.”

Without saying a word, I slid the folded tissue across the desk toward him. Paddy slowly unfolded it. The room was silent while his eyes moved across the words on the tissue. Diggs and Michael waited beside Paddy without saying a word, watching his face before they looked at the tissue themselves. When Paddy finally passed the tissue to them, each man studied it carefully. By the time it was back on my desk, their relaxed expressions were gone.

Diggs was the first to speak. “The person who wrote this note knew what they were doing. This note wasn’t just to scare Miss Walsh. The message is for both of you. He wanted Miss Walsh to know someone was watching her, and he wanted you to know that he got close to her without being stopped.”

“Thank you for spelling it out like that, Diggs. I think that’s pretty obvious, don’t you?” Paddy said.

“Diggs is right, though,” I said. “He could have gone up to her anywhere if he just wanted to scare her. He chose the café, sat there for almost an hour, talked to her like a normal customer, and left without anyone noticing him. That tells me he was patient and confident that nobody would see what he was really doing.”

Paddy turned his chair to face Nora. “Miss Walsh, I know this is hard, but I need you to think about everything that happened. Start from when he walked into the café, and tell us everything. I would rather hear something that means nothing than miss the one thing that tells us who this man is.”

Nora took a breath before she started, and then she told them the story again.

“The strange thing was that he didn’t do what most people do. Most people look at their phones while they wait for their orders. He didn’t. Every time I went to his table, he talked to me. The conversation was always about me. By the time he left he knew a lot about my life, but I didn’t know anything about him.”

Diggs put his arms on his knees. “Did he tell you his name or where he was from? People usually say something about themselves without realizing it, even when they think they’re being careful.”

Nora slowly shook her head. “That’s what’s been bothering me since I found the note. He never told me anything about himself. Every answer he gave me made me talk about myself. He wanted to know how long I worked at the café, if I liked my job, and if I knew the customers. At the time it seemed like a conversation. Now it seems like he was collecting information.”

Michael crossed his arms. “That takes planning. Most people can’t have a conversation like that for an hour without saying something they shouldn’t. If he did it, then this wasn’t a chance meeting.”

I agreed. “Nobody spends that long talking to someone before leaving a message like this unless they had a reason. He went to the café to find Nora, and everything he did was on purpose.”

The room was silent again. I looked at Nora, who was staring at the tissue on my desk.

“There’s one more thing I want you to think about,” I said quietly. “Forget the conversation and picture the man. His face, his smile, his voice, the way he walked into the café. Sometimes you remember something before you know why it’s important.”

Nora closed her eyes for a moment. Nobody said a word. The room was still as Nora thought about the man. Then her eyes opened. She looked at me, and I could see she was starting to remember something.

“I know that face,” she said.

Everyone in the room turned to her. She swallowed before she continued.

“I didn’t recognize him at the café, but I’ve seen him before...and I don’t think it was just at the café.”

The words hung in the air for a moment. Paddy leaned forward first. His eyes were fixed on Nora.

“You know his face, Miss Walsh?” he asked. “Think carefully before you answer. Are you saying you recognized him from somewhere else, or are you saying you’ve seen him before this morning at the café?”

Nora looked from Paddy to me. Her expression was caught somewhere between confusion and certainty.

“I’ve seen him before,” she said slowly. “I just can’t place where. In the café he looked like any customer. He was polite, calm, and completely ordinary. But now that I’m thinking about his face properly, I know I’ve seen him somewhere else.”

I kept my voice steady. “Take your time, Nora. Don’t force the memory. Tell me the first thing that comes to you when you picture the man.”

She closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips lightly against her temple.

“I remember the man sitting down. That’s the first thing I can see clearly. The man was alone. He chose a place where he could look across the room without anyone paying attention to him. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, because people sit alone in bars all the time.”