Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
CILLIAN
“Mo chuisle.” As I’m doing my best to stay conscious, I smile at Isla, a vision of vengeance at the top of those stairs.
She bursts into tears, running toward me.
A burst of adrenaline and endorphins have me standing up with effort.
Everything hurts, but I open my arms for her.
As I can almost smell her, already feel the ghost of her touch, one of Cormac’s men grabs her from behind.
She screams, and I don’t even think, just react.
I aim and shoot him in the forehead.
He slumps to the ground, and Isla screams again.
The man who was climbing down the stairs has long since expired, and I step over him to get to her.
She throws herself into my arms, sobbing, wetting my shirt with her tears.
“Oh, thank God you’re okay, mo chuisle. I missed you so much. I love you more than word can describe. And I know the timing sucks, but I couldn’t wait another second to tell you.”
It’s the wrong time and the wrong place, but last time she stopped me, and I had to let her know.
Especially since I have no idea if I’ll even make it out of this alive.
And there is no way I’ll die without telling her at least once how I feel about her.
And if we get out of this alive, I’ll tell her I love her every chance I get.
She doesn’t say it back now, of course, she doesn’t. She just cries harder, so I pull away from her long enough to cup her cheek, scanning her injuries.
“Isla, are you all right? Aw, your poor face.”
A black eye that’s yellowing, her nose swollen and slightly crooked.
I pull back a little further without letting her go, and what seems to be bruising is peeking from under her shirt.
My eyes fly to hers. “The baby?”
“I requested a doctor. They said everything was okay, but I need an ultrasound.”
I’m more and more grateful I pummeled that fucker, Reese, to death.
“And you?”
“I’m… I’m fine.” The stutter in her voice worries me, as does the haunted look in her beautiful eyes. She suddenly clutches at my shirt. “Cill. There’s a girl here, a daughter. She… she’s being abused, we need to get her.”
I nod, but I know we don’t have time to do it. Who knows what’s happening to Liam right now since this has all gone balls up.
“We will, mo chuisle, as soon as we can, we’ll come back for her.”
She searches my face as if looking for answers, and then nods.
“We have to go to Liam,” I say finally.
“Liam’s here?”
I can’t help but feel a stab of jealousy at the way her eyes light up, but maybe that’s okay. Maybe I can learn to deal with those jealous feelings. For Isla.
“Aye, and Dare’s waiting outside.”
“You came for me,” she whispers hoarsely, cupping my face. “You all came for me.”
“Of course, we did. You’re our girl, aye?”
“Aye.” She kisses me, and all the world is gone, just me and Isla, in this bubble in between time and space.
But then someone shouts from the hallway above, there’s grappling, someone screaming.
I take her hand, and we rush into the house on the top floor.
I freeze, looking at what seems to be an impossible scene.
A man groaning and grunting on the floor and Dare, bloody and looking haunted with a gun in his hand.
“A gun? Thought you hated them?”
“Aye, well, I thought I might need it. Haven’t shot anyone yet.”
I glance over to the man on the ground, who is rolling around and clutching his chest, and then back at Dare.
He shrugs. “Well, I didn’t say I didn’t stab anyone.”
I laugh, doubling over, and wonder if the laugh is hysterical.
Isla looks at me with concern in her eyes when I straighten up, so I compose myself.
“Dare, you’re hurt,” Isla says, and Dare gives her a pained smile.
“Just a scratch, a ghrá. Nothing to worry about.”
But I can see the way he’s favoring his right side, how tired he looks. I almost say something, try to convince him to go back to the car, but it’s too late now. I’m not faring any better.
Besides, he won’t leave her, and I can’t blame him, because neither will I. Not now, not ever.
“Liam,” Isla reminds us, and Dare makes his way toward Cormac’s office, wincing as he walks.
Isla swallows visibly as I move her behind me.
“Stay here.”
She frowns at me. “Cillian.”
It’s just my name, but I know what she’s thinking.
She’s thinking Dare is hurt worse than he lets on, and I am, too, but we’ll deal with that when we get Liam the hell out of here.
I hang back, letting Dare scope out the area.
Three men come rushing up the stairs, their footsteps thundering closer.
Dare turns toward me, a wicked grin on his face.
“Hey, Cill, this is like that time in Belfast, aye?”
I snort out a laugh. “Aye, it is.”
Isla looks at us, mouth agape, and I push her against the far wall.
“Don't move."
She listens, maybe for the first time in her life outside of the bedroom, and I move toward the stairs, standing shoulder to shoulder with Dare.
I throw out my left hand as the first man gets up the stairs, and he chokes as I punch him in the solar plexus, making him fly over the railing.
He screams as he falls, and the next man comes right after him.
Dare’s dagger flashes, glinting in the sunlight coming through the open patio doors. He gets the man right across the throat, not deep enough to kill but deep enough to disable.
The guard chokes and claws at his throat, dropping to his knees.
I know it’s deliberate. Dare doesn’t kill, but these guards are unlucky because I bloody well do.
I shoot the third man in the middle of his chest, and he groans as he falls backward down the stairs, tumbling to the bottom floor after an almost hilarious fall.
Dare, chest heaving, holds one hand to his side.
Blood spills over his hand, and new worry stabs at my chest.
“Dare.”
He looks at me and grins.
There’s blood on his teeth.
Panic shoots through me, and I know I should try to stop him, should try to get him back to the SUV.
Dare may be smaller than me, but he’s not small by anyone’s standards, and it’s not like I can carry him to the car. I have multiple wounds too, and though I’m putting on a brave face, I’m also running on fumes. The adrenaline crash alone will drop me. But I’ve still got work to do.
We both do.
I hide behind the office door when Dare opens it wide, and then there’s a muffled pop, and I jump out, my throat tight.
Liam.
Cormac stands behind his desk with his gun drawn, but there’s a red spot on his chest.
The spot grows larger.
He drops the gun with a groan, clutching at the wound.
Isla gasps from behind me, and that seems to break Liam out of his spell, because he leaps up from his chair, running out toward her.
He picks her up in his arms, hugging her tightly, and she chokes out a sob.
Dare stands there, looking at the ground, still holding the gun high.
I slowly walk toward him, the way I would toward a cornered animal, and take the gun, dropping it on the floor.
“Dare…” I keep my voice soft so I won’t spook him.
He looks up at me with wide eyes. “I—I killed him.”
His first confirmed kill.
I remember mine. It was a boy around my age at the time, maybe fourteen. I’d been doing my first job for Ronan, a simple surveillance job, but he’d come at me, yelling as he tackled me around the waist, and I’d stuck my pocketknife into his throat.
I’ll never forget the gurgling sounds he made and how long it took for him to stop making noises, how long it took for the stillness that followed to swallow me whole.
I feel for Dare, but right now, all we can do is get him to the car.
I have to pull on Liam’s shoulder to get him to let go of Isla, and still, he keeps a tight hold on her hand as I all but carry Dare down the stairs.
Fuck, I just hope I can make it to the SUV. Fuck, if we could leave through the front door, even Liam’s car seems a hundred miles away.
He’s flagging, and I’m worried. The adrenaline has probably kept him going this long same as it is doing with me.
With all the calm in the world, Liam guides us to the front door. He kisses Isla and looks at me and Dare.
He frowns. “Wait here a second.”
There are two guards at the front gate, at attention, but no one else around.
Liam takes them out with two bullets before turning to us and, holding Isla’s hand on one side and helping me with Dare on the other, he guides us to his car.
Isla climbs in the back, holding her hands out for Darren, her hazel eyes wide and scared.
After Liam helps me get Dare into the back seat, Dare’s head drops to Isla’s lap, his legs crumpled up. He doesn’t even speak.
As Liam gets into the driver’s seat, I slam the back door and get into the passenger side.
Liam takes off before my door is even shut.
As he finally puts some distance between us and the mansion, my body sags and the world around me starts fading.
We’re out. We’ve got her.
We did what we set out to do, now I can finally let go…