“What is this? Who did it belong to?”
“It’s just a burner phone. No one has used it. It’ll be safe for you to look at ads. Just do not sign into any of your personal accounts or check email, any of that. Can I trust you to do that?”
“Sure. I don’t need any of that right now,” she told him.
He was on edge, but she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps he knew something he wasn’t telling her, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. She was probably best off not knowing more about his business than she did already. It was only after she’d finished her scrolling through ads, making a note of some to call that she looked up to see him watching her intently.
“I was a good girl,” she said. “I didn’t break any rules.”
“I know. That’s not why I was looking at you.”
“Then why were you looking at me?”
“Because you’re fucking gorgeous.”
A sound from outside caught their attention. Fergus stood up and went to the window to look out, being careful to keep his body to one side of the frame. He motioned for her to get down, just in case, and she slipped off the sofa onto the floor, watching him from the safety between the base of the couch and the coffee table in front of it. After a few minutes, he laughed and turned back toward her.
“It’s just a raccoon. He tried to get into the trash can, but I have them weighted down so he can’t. He got tired and ran off down the road. Those things are nothing but overgrown rats.”
“I can get up out of the floor then?”
“Yes. Sorry about that. I’m just a little antsy today.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Something just seems off, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“How so?”
“The more I think about it, the more I feel like Doyle gave up too easily.”
“You took me. Regardless of what kind of monster I know him to be now, he wanted me back. I don’t know if he ever really loved me or not, but I do know he deems me his property. You took what belonged to him. He had to explain to a lot of guests why his wedding would not be taking place, which of course would be a lie, whatever he told them. To not get me back would only require further explanation.”
Eimear looked up at him, wide-eyed. The penny dropped, and she realized exactly why it felt wrong to him and should have felt the same way to her.
“You humiliated him in front of his friends and family. Women don’t just not show up for their wedding. There is no excuse, short of some of the guests actually going to a hospital to see she’s in traction from an accident or attending her funeral. You’re right. He won’t just let that pass, and he won’t’ just roll over and do what you want without there being something more to come. Oh, God.” Her eyes met his. “He’s going to come after you.”
“Yes, but he’ll wait to get you out of the way first. Whether he loves you, whether he doesn’t, he can’t be the one to put you at risk. He can’t be the one that might be the cause of you getting hurt. As far as he knows, I still have you tied to that bed where I’m doing who knows what to you. He needs to pay me back for that, and he needs to be your shining knight in the process.”
Eimear looked at him, knowing he was right to be concerned. Ciaron was no match for Fergus one on one, not as a man and certainly not if Fergus shifted, but Ciaron was also a coward. When he came for him, he’d bring reinforcements. They would intend on destroying Fergus for what he’d done. For the first time since she’d first been kidnapped, Eimear felt scared, this time for far different reasons.
“We’re going to sleep upstairs from now until we leave here,” he told her.
“Why?” she asked, not understanding.
“Because if he’s stupid enough to come in here, it will give me the edge,” he told her.
Eimear nodded in agreement, her heart racing at the thought of what kind of trouble he might be in out here all alone. Then again, she wasn’t as certain as he was that Ciaron would want her back. He’d shown more than a bit of disinterest toward her in the days leading up to their wedding. He might be content to just write her off to everyone as having been abducted and murdered.
The thought chilled her to the bone.CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVEFergus
“How many?” Fergus growled into the phone.
“Six, possibly seven. We’ve found six so far, but one has disappeared,” Olcan told him.
“And how many unaccounted for between our list and his?”