Chapter 28
Chloe
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My nerves feel like they’re on fire and will explode any moment now.
Cillian and I are back at home. We’re sitting next to each other on the sofa in the living room.
The tension filling the room is so strong my body feels tight and heavy with it.
Cillian told me what happened to Harlan and the message he received. He also assured me that he’d doubled the guards at the hospital and restaurant, so my family should be safe.
He wanted to wait until we reached home to talk to me about everything else.
The threat was bad enough and has left me feeling like I’m walking on threads, but I know what he’s going to tell me is so much worse.
“Morgulis septum stasis,” Cillian starts. The words sound like he’s chanting some sort of magical spell.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’re in danger. It’s a secret language made up by the Creed. If something happens to me, find any of the guys—Seamus, Dante, Virgo, Jaxon—and speak those words.”
“Cillian, you’re scaring the shit out of me. Just tell me what’s going on.”
“Say the words, Chloe. I need to hear you say them so I know you’ll remember them. Morgulis septum stasis.”
“Morgulis septum stasis.” I don’t even know if I’m saying it right but I try, and feel relieved when he nods.
“Good. Anyone you speak those words to is bound by the blood oath to help you and protect you and your family.” He gives my hand a gentle squeeze, then he places a hand at his head and pauses for a moment before he looks back at me. “All of this started with my parents' murder.”
At the mention of his parents, I realize why he wanted to wait to talk to me here. “Your parents?”
“Yes.”
“Even the stuff with Harlan?”
“Harlan was a pawn used to screw with me.”
Cillian continues by explaining what happened to his parents.
He tells me about how Lance attacked his home while Cillian was away. All the staff there were massacred. He explained how his father was shot and butchered, and even though his mother and Olivia managed to escape, they were tracked down too. Then his mother suffered the same fate as his father.
Olivia on the other hand, got into a car accident while she was trying to escape and lost her memory. She didn’t know who she or anyone was and no one could find her for over two years.
By the time Cillian finishes giving me the rundown of what took place, I see exactly how the past broke him. And that he doesn’t talk about his parents because it’s too painful. I understand that so much better now.
I lost my father, and that was painful, but his parents were slaughtered. I’ve never known anyone who’s lost people they love that way.
Cillian then tells me about Lance Polinsky. The faceless man who no one has seen. I had a feeling there was someone seriously dangerous in the background. I was right.
Cillian finishes by filling in the blanks about how Mom and Harlan got mixed up in the tangled web of deceit, lies and corruption.
Harlan has been working with Lance. Then Lance turned around and killed Harlan. The question of why now pulls at the walls of my mind.
Mom is coming out of hospital on Friday. She was worried that Harlan would find out and go to the house. Now she doesn’t have to worry, but I know her. Despite how terrible Harlan was, she’ll feel something when she hears he’s dead. He was her husband for two years.
Cillian sighs, looking haggard, as if the conversation drained some of his life. I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
“I’m so sorry about your parents.” My voice sounds rough, as if I’ve just woken up.
“Thank you. I was hoping I would never have to share that story with you, but things have taken a turn for the worse.”
I understand what he’s saying and the thinking behind it, but it reminds me again that I’m temporary. “If something hurts you, I want to know about it. I should know no matter how long I’m to be with you.”
He reaches out to cup my face and nods. “You’re right. That’s not what I meant.
“I don’t want you to keep me in the dark.”
“I don’t mean to hurt you.” He sounds like he’s talking about last night.
He must have known I was hurt then, too. I haven’t been able to shake the feeling or that funk. The same funk is messing with my head now and making me think he’s being protective because he feels responsible for me. Not because he loves me.
Then I look into his eyes and I see love. It’s confusing and complicated.
“What’s going to happen now?” Better to change the subject to more pressing matters than my feelings.
“I’ll double the security but we need to be extra careful. I don’t know why Lance killed Harlan other than maybe he’s passed his sell-by date. But I don’t know what that means. To be honest, it’s a wonder Harlan lasted so long.”
“Really?”
“Yes. He knew too much and saw too much. Men like Lance only use people like Harlan for a limited time. I was hoping to find Harlan first so he could identify Lance.”
“What about you? You’re not safe.”
He places his hand over mine and I look at our wedding rings. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Of course I worry about you. How am I supposed to not worry? You’re the Irish king. Aren’t you?”
“This is my life, Chloe. Danger. This is the place where monsters live and right now, I’m at war. People die in wars but I’m not going to let anything happen to you. My job is to keep you safe.”
“Then don’t you dare die on me.” A tear falls onto my hand and another follows. Before the rest come I pull him toward me for a hug and hold him as if I can protect him, too. “Stay alive, Cillian.”
“I’ll do my best.” He cups the back of my head and pulls me closer. We share another tender moment where my love for him deepens.
We stay like that for what feels like hours, just holding each other. It’s only when his men come by to speak to him that we pull apart.
Cillian leaves with them for a few moments then comes straight back to me, hardly wanting to leave my side.
The next day he accompanies me to the hospital. I spoke to Mom on the phone last night and told her about Harlan but I wanted to see her as early as I could today because I knew she’d be upset. She is.
Cillian came in briefly to see how she was, then he left us to talk.
Mom can move around now without a wheelchair, so she gets off the bed and walks over to the window. I join her and we sit opposite each other in the window bay.
“I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel.” She stares out the window, focusing on the ducks swimming in the pond in the garden. “We were married for two years and it didn’t start off badly. He left me to die. Now he’s dead. And I just feel numb.”
“I think that’s understandable, and it’s okay.”
She looks back at me and really stares deep into my eyes. “Harlan put us in this danger. The gravity of it really hit me last night. He put me, you and Roxanne in this danger, and he was never going to stick around to keep us safe.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
“I made such a huge mistake when I married him.”
“You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes.”
She brushes my cheek. “You’re young. People are allowed to make certain mistakes when they're young. I should have known better. There were so many times when I could have said no to him. I didn’t. Even the marriage. I married him after six months of dating. I never took the time to exercise the care most people show when they meet someone. Now look what’s happened. We need protection.”
“Please, try not to worry, Mom. Please. I know it’s all bad but the last thing you need is to stress yourself out when you’re recovering. You’re going home on Friday. Focus on that.”
She sighs and tries to look positive. “I’ll try but it’s hard when so much has happened. Thank God we have Cillian.”
“Yes. I don’t know what we would have done without him.”
“It’s his love for you.” She touches my cheek again and smiles, then she reaches for my wrist with the friendship bracelet she gave me from Dad. “I hoped you’d have someone to love you the way your father loved me, and you do.”
“Mom, we’re not even going to be married in a few months’ time.” I don’t want to build her hopes up.
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. That part is just a detail that the two of you need to figure out.”
“I guess so.”
Mom is right. And like a fool, I dare to hope that maybe Cillian and I can figure it out.
But I’m not sure if we can because Cillian already made up his mind from the start.
I knew what I was getting myself into and shouldn’t have fallen for him.
I just couldn’t stop myself.