“Exactly. Your silence confirms everything I suspected.”
The line goes dead, and a strangled sound escapes me.
It’s over.
Lorcan knows.
He knows, and he’s going to kill me.
I stand frozen, my heart hammering against my ribs.
Cormac places a hand on my shoulder, and I flinch at his touch, but he doesn’t let go.
“Breathe.” His voice is low and calm. “It’s not ideal that Lorcan knows?—”
“Notideal? You do realize what this means?”
“Fiona—”
“You might as well put a bullet in my head and put me out of my misery?—”
“Fiona.”
“He thinks I’m betraying him!” I am seconds away from throwing up because of how much I’m panicking.
Cormac takes me by the shoulders and moves to rest his forehead against mine. “First of all, you need to stay calm. Panicking won’t solve anything.”
“You can’t be serious?—”
“Fiona. This situation is completely manageable. We can use it?—”
“Use it?” I push back against his chest so that he’s forced to let go of me. “How exactly is this manageable? He’s dangerous, Cormac! He could ruin everything!”
“I won’t let him.”
“How?”
“I’ve got a plan, but I need you to follow my lead, and you can’t do that when you’re not thinking straight.”
I run my hands through my hair as I pace back and forth.
My chest feels painfully tight, but I force myself to try and calm down.
Cormac’s right. Panicking isn’t going to help, but at this point, I don’t know what will.
“Here’s what you’re going to do. Wait until I leave the room, and then you are going to text Lorcan. I want you to tell him you couldn’t talk while I was there. Make it clear it’s not what he thinks. Say that I found out you’ve been working with him, so you’re letting me think you’re on my side when, really, you’re not.”
I stare at him in disbelief.
“That’s it? That’s your big plan?”
“Yes, but I need you to make it very clear that you know what would happen if you double-crossed him. That you understand what’s at stake. Can you do that?”
I have no idea, but at this point, I don’t have much of a choice.
“And what if he replies?” I pick up my phone.
“Tell him you’ll be in touch when you can. I need you to follow my instructions, Fiona,” he says, and I can hear the unspoken warning in his words. “Can you do that?”
