AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Another eleven or twelve.”
“Can we tie any of those last ones to him?”
“No. They are gone, but he didn’t acknowledge anything to do with it. We can either let it go or branch out to some more of his associates. We dealt with some of them when we went to retrieve the women.”
“He won’t be happy with that.”
“Aye. He won’t.”
“Still got the clan on high alert?”
“I do.”
“Okay. I’m going to give you another day to find anyone else we might be able to recover. I want as many of those women brought back as can be found, and I trust your judgment regarding who needs to pay now and who can go on a wait-and-see list. It’s always possible that by leaving some of them to continue their operations, if they dare, we can trick them into thinking they are off the hook and retrieve more of the lost down the road.”
“My thinking exactly.”
“Let me know when you’ve done what you can and I’ll come back down.”
“And Doyle? What do you want done with him?”
“Nothing. I’ll take care of Doyle personally.”
“Aye. Talk soon, then.”
“Aye,” Fergus replied.
“Everything okay?” Eimear asked as she walked in from the library.
“Yes. The clan has done all they can, and we’re going to go back in the morning.”
“Is it safe?”
“It’s as safe now as it will be in a week or a month. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether people want me dead or not. I’m hard to kill. All who have tried have failed.”
“Okay,” she said, biting her lip.
“Listen, Eimear. I’ve put you in the middle of this. I’m sorry for that, though I do think you are better off for knowing who you were about to marry. Still, I don’t know how he will react when you return. I can protect you here, but there are too many eyes and ears when we return to Boston.”
“Yes. I know. It’s not your fault that my soon-to-be ex might be a raving lunatic. What he did to some of those women was unhinged.”
“Aye, and he’s capable of far worse. I’ve learned a lot more through my contacts back in the city. He’s a dangerous man, even to you. When we go back, I don’t want you to go to your mom’s. I want you to come home with me until I can guarantee your safety.”
“I don’t know. At some point, I have to go back to work and I have to get on with my life. I can’t hide behind a bear for the rest of my life.”
“You could.”
“What?”
“Well, not hide behind me. I don’t want that for you. I want you to feel safe, but I also want you to feel like you can go out and do the things that make you happy. I guess what I’m saying is that maybe I have ulterior motives for wanting you to come home with me. I want you there. I want whatever this is that is going on between us to play out however it is supposed to. If it goes somewhere, that’s great. If it doesn’t, I can promise you that I’m no Ciaron. I will let you walk away without so much as a scratch if that is what you choose to do.”
Eimear smiled up at him, raising herself onto her tiptoes to kiss him softly on the lips before dropping back down to the floor. “I’d like that.”
“Good.”
What Fergus wouldn’t tell her was that he knew exactly how depraved Ciaron could be. He’d seen photos of that too, but even in his anger, had spared her the worst of the photos he had in his possession. His fear for her was that once Ciaron had her back in his sights and knowing that she was no longer just an innocent in all this, that she knew who he really was, he’d see no need to hide it any longer. Who knew what he would subject his new bride to in order to scratch his sick little itches?
The other thing he would not tell her was that he planned to rip him apart. It wasn’t often that Fergus felt the need to shift in order to do the dirty work that had to be addressed in the course of his work, but if anyone was deserving of the special effort, it was Ciaron Doyle. Fergus had received photos of some of the women who had been taken by his men. Their gaunt, haunted faces had infuriated him.
Then, there were the dead, at least three of them still in their teens. They’d been used and discarded like garbage before they’d even had much of a chance to live. Some of them had taken their fate into their own hands with the needle, succumbing to the very same strain of heroin that Ciaron has not exactly agreed to take off the streets just yet. Fergus had been willing to let that part go until he could get the women back, but now that all who could be recovered that probably had or would be, he was done playing.
