Chapter Nine
I’d ignored the nagging feeling I still had of being watched as I returned to my room.
As soon as I got inside, I went to shower.
The last thing I wanted to do was wash any bit of my Anamchara off me, but I did so anyway.
Afterward, I had dried off but kept the towel wrapped around my waist as I padded back into my room.
My cell phone illuminated as I walked toward the window, and not sure if it was Reagan or not, I walked over to it.
A single glance at the caller ID had me inwardly grimacing.
It was my grandfather, and judging by the number of missed notifications from him, whatever it happened to entail was urgent.
Well, sometimes it wasn’t, but when the godfather of our Irish family spoke, you listened.
And when he called, you either answered or called him back.
The eerie feeling I’d had back at the pier came rushing back, and I was now sure I already knew what the man wanted.
I now also knew why I’d felt like I was being watched because I had been.
Shaking my head, I decided to make him wait a few minutes longer as I took my time throwing on a pair of gray sweatpants and grabbing a T-shirt.
That came on much more gingerly, and before I pulled it down the length of my torso, I saw the deep bruises on my bronzed flesh in the corner of the mirror.
My cell phone rang again, so I cursed and let the shirt fall completely down as I grabbed the damn thing. Quickly, I answered it. “Daideó,” was all I managed to get out before I heard a loud growl that stopped me from saying more.
“Where have you been, Cillian?”
If my suspicions were correct, his voice was a lot calmer than I thought it’d be.
That wasn’t surprising though when I truly thought about it.
After all, I’d seen him kill in cold blood while never once losing his cool.
Raised by his own father to rule with a deadly calmness, he never lost his composure.
At least not when it came to others. When it had come to Kingston, Princeton, and especially me, the same couldn’t be said.
I’m still wearing the scars to prove it.
“I was out, but I think you already know that,” I responded to his question, knowing patience wasn’t a virtue of his. It was not one of mine, either.
“Don’t play with me, garmhac. You were with her.”
I didn’t miss the way he spat out the last word as if the very thought of Reagan made him sick. In a way, I suppose it did. He surely wanted me to stop seeing her, and on my latest trip home to Dublin, that message had been beaten into me.
I didn’t want to think of the multiple weeks he’d kept me imprisoned in one of his cold, dank cells as he’d tried to break me.
When the conditions didn’t do me in, he’d let a couple of his men take a few shots at me.
That was just as unsuccessful as other methods, and I was finally allowed to return to school.
Only, I hadn’t heeded his final warning before I’d left, and I’d now face whatever the consequences were for my act of defiance.
“She has a name. It’s Rea—”
“I don’t give a damn what it is. I forbade you from seeing the likes of her again.”
“I’m eighteen now,” I reminded him, especially as I remembered spending the milestone birthday a few days ago in that same dark cell. “I can see whomever I want to see.”
“Enough!” His voice had a sharp, powerful cadence, and it was much like the crack of a whip.
“I don’t know why you continue to defy me.
I’ve warned you time and time again, yet you insist on learning everything the hard way.
A summer in the hole did little to convince you to see things my way, so I’ll have to resort to other methods. ”
“W-what are you going to do?” I hated the weakness that the slight stammer provided, and I could imagine the old fool smirking at the sound of it.
For all my defiance, as he called it, I’d always done what was told of me.
I knew what was expected in this world. My cousins did as well. “Answer me, Daideó.”
“You do not give me orders, garmhac. Since you consider yourself to be grown, why don’t you tell me what I should do?”
“You should let me live my own—”
“I was talking about the girl. Regardless of what I choose, you’ll suffer as you should. The little succubus, however...”
“Do not touch her,” I quickly said before he could even start formulating a plan. “I’ll never see her again if you spare her.”
The very thought of never holding her in my arms, or being balls deep inside of her again, made me sick, but I knew my grandfather would do so much worse to her.
“I could have her swept up and sent northbound. She might be a decent piece for my men in Boston. I mean, she only needs to lie there. The crew will do the rest.”
This time, I growled before I remembered I needed to hold it inside. “She doesn’t need to be harmed. I’ll cut off all contact with her. I promise.”
“Your promises are as worthless as your own father’s ever were.
If she isn’t to be a whore for the organization, perhaps she’d fare better on the market.
You’ve already seen to it that she can’t be advertised as pure, but I think she’ll still fetch a pretty penny.
That flaming mop of hair...sky blue eyes.
..porcelain skin...She’d be a welcome sight compared to most of the women I put on there. ”
Hearing my grandfather nonchalantly talk about sex trafficking the girl I love made the rage inside of me build.
At first, I was seeing red, but as he started to detail the vulgar things those creeps would do to her, the room around me began to spin.
I wanted to speak, but each time I opened my mouth, nothing would come out.
The pain in my chest that hours ago had been from the metal pipes, steel-toed boots, and fists my grandfather’s crew used on me was now replaced by a fear I never even knew I could feel.
I’d refused to allow any of those men to break me, including my own grandfather, but if he followed through with what he was proposing for Reagan. ..
“I’ll come home to Dublin and stay there indefinitely. We won’t be able to ever see one another again.”
The very thought was causing the rarely used organ in my chest to splinter, but there was nothing I wouldn’t do for Reagan.
She was my soulmate. I’d known it the first time I’d drawn her into my arms, and I was reminded of it only an hour ago when she was back in them.
I’d give it all up though if it would save her.
“You’ll cut off all contact with her and return to Ireland tomorrow.”
“I will,” I promised.
“And you’ll never think or speak of her again.”
“I promise.”
“Very well, garmhac. I’ll have your flight arranged. And Cillian...”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Don’t cross me again.”
“I won’t.”