Page 35 of Guarding Salvation

“Fine.”

“Get ready to leave,” Bás turned away before turning back. “Oh, but Peyton stays put.”

Bram understood; if they were to split them up and one was a leak or a threat then they’d be easier to identify. Now he just had to hope Aoife was on board with this new plan.

Chapter 15

The last six hours had been a whirlwind and she was still trying to catch her breath. After the building had been locked down, Aoife had paced her room, panic filling her chest that somehow her father’s men had found her and these people, who she was beginning to care about, would get hurt. Front and centre had been her concern for Bram.

The last two days had been pure torture, trying to stay away from him, denying herself his touch and company, when all she really wanted to do was curl up on his lap and let him hold her, kiss her. As each interaction passed between them, she’d seen the hurt behind the hard mask he wore. The scruff on his chin became thicker, his hair more ruffled as if he was swiping his fingers through it on a regular basis.

Bram arriving thirty minutes after the building had locked down and telling her to pack as they were leaving had spun her head. She tried to get answers from him then, but he seemed het up, an urgency to him that she didn’t like or understand. She trusted him though, so she’d done as he’d asked. She’d been the one to pull away from him, not the other way around.

Aoife had come to understand the last few days that the connection they’d shared was stronger than she knew and walking away would be impossible. She liked him, a lot. Not just the fact he was sex on legs and could fuck like a god, but she trusted him. He made her laugh and was easy to talk to. Feelings were beginning to get involved in a way she hadn’t anticipated. She knew it was easier to pull away now than get her heart broken again when she lost him. She needed to get out of this mess and find out who she was before getting involved with anyone else. Yet, when the alarm had gone off and he’d kissed her, she’d known her denial was for nothing. The fear she felt that he might die or get hurt was almost paralysing, and it was that which made her see that whatever was happening between them was unstoppable.

Shaking the thoughts of things she couldn’t control from her head, Aoife watched the countryside fly past the car. Yet more wild beauty that called to her, mountains and forests, lush trees changing colour from green to the most beautiful deep orange.

Aoife glanced across at Bram, who was driving the Land Rover, the sleeves of his shirt rolled to the elbow, exposing the thick divers watch and the strong fingers. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going yet?”

“My place in Scotland.”

Aoife felt her eyebrows meet her hairline in surprise. “But why?”

“Your father’s men found you and we wanted you far away from him so we can figure out what the hell is going on.”

She pondered that for a moment. The thought of running her whole life was exhausting, especially as he kept finding her with such ease. It would be easy to let defeat win, but she was sick and tired of being sad or feeling weak. She wanted to have fun, to enjoy every drop she could squeeze out of life. Fuck Jimmy Doyle and his men, she was done letting him control her; and that’s what she was still allowing him to do by turning away from what she wanted.

“Do you recognise these men?”

He passed her his phone, motioning for her to scroll through his phone. As she did, faces of men she’d known for years, who’d been her jailers, came into view. They were clearly dead, and she didn’t feel a second of regret over their lives being extinguished. What did that say about her as a person, that she couldn’t show any remorse for their deaths?

“I know them. They were my father’s guards. Those five, in particular, were tasked with guarding me.”

Bram nodded and took his phone back. Silence filled the cab of the car as the night began to draw in, the light of the afternoon fading to twilight and the beauty of the Scottish Highlands highlighted by the waning sun. They drove through a small village called McCullum, full of quaint shops, a butcher, a bakery, a general store, and a fruit and veg shop. As well as a few clothing stores, a toy shop, and a pharmacy.

“It’s beautiful here! Have you had a place here long?”

Bram glanced across at her with a strange smirk on his face that she found charming. “All my life. I grew up here. Went to school in the village before going to high school in Inverness.”

“Wow, really? It’s beautiful.” Aoife was realising that she didn’t know much about Bram. Oh, she knew he was great in bed, that he could make her laugh and protect her from danger, but they seemed to have skipped the getting to know you phase and she’d withdrawn without saying why, which was unfair. “Bram?”

“Irish?”

She smiled, loving him calling her that. “I’m sorry I pulled back from you without saying why.”

Bram shrugged. “You don’t owe me an explanation, Aoife. Your body is yours and if you don’t want to share it then, I can take it.”

Aoife angled towards him in the huge vehicle. “It’s not that, I do want you, but the shooting and how close I came to dying made me realise that I like you.”

“I like you, too.”

“But we both agreed we don’t have the time or inclination to get involved and I didn’t want to get hurt. The truth is I like you a lot and I was scared of losing another person who I’d come to care for because of my father.”

Bram flicked the indicator on the car and made a left turn up a narrow track road, with woods bracing the backdrop and sides.

“I think we missed a step when we slept together. Don’t get me wrong, it was fucking phenomenal, but we missed getting to know each other and instead put labels and restrictions on things before we even knew each other. I propose we go back and get to know each other and see what happens from there.”

Bram pulled around a corner and a huge castle lit up with lights came into view, momentarily stunning her into silence.