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“Naïve little Saoirse. Did your mother teach you anything? Most of the time, all is not what it seems.” He plucks the keychain from the box and then twists the bottom like a Rubik’s cube. The base comes away, and right there, beneath the gold casing, is what he said — a USB.
I reach for it, but he holds it high above his head, far out of my reach.
“Ah ah ah.”
“Give it back.”
“A deal’s a deal.”
His hollow eyes drop to the box clutched against my chest, and he scans the intricate design carved on the lid. “Time for you to disappear before I change my mind. But don’t worry. I’ll see you real soon, love.”
A slow, smug smile curls at the corners of his lips. Then he pivots on his heel and struts away, leaving me stranded in the forest with more fucking questions and even fewer answers.
What the fuck just happened?
I can’t help it. My eyes follow him as he retreats towards the house, more than likely holding the one thing I need to piece all this shit together.
My rapid breaths pound my eardrums, a fast-paced tango mirroring the rise and fall of my breasts. Once he’s out of sight, I close my eyes and gulp in a lungful of the frosty night air. The burn rushes through my chest, trapping itself inside my lungs, but it’s soothed by the rush of relief coursing through my veins.
I don’t know what I was expecting from my hunter, but a snippy, careless attitude, paired with sarcastic goading, was definitely not it. He could have left me for dead, taking everything I possess with him…worse, he could have killed me. I could see it in his eyes. The flicker of darkness swirling beneath their depths.
Ruthless, cunning, and downright intoxicating — a lethal combination.
That man, whoever he was, could have murdered me with his bare hands, and he would have slept like a baby after the deed. So, the question is: why didn’t he?
The urge to follow him gnaws at me, but my mother’s words force me to retreat.
Never feed your fears, Saoirse. Because if you do, they will eat you alive.
Promise me; whatever happens, you will not turn back.
Run, Saoirse, and don’t you dare stop.
The night wraps around me like ivy vines, strangling my ability to breathe. More confused than ever, my mind races. Why tell me to disappear when it seems the goal was to find me?
I need answers, but I sure as shit won’t find them standing barefoot in the middle of the woods in this one-horse town. My focus shifts to the box clutched against my chest.
Flipping the lid for a second time tonight, I search for any sort of information I can use. A worn photo catches my eye. I don’t recognise the young couple or the building they’re standing in front of, but something inside me screams at me to look harder. Defeat eventually seeps in, but before I toss the photograph back, I flip it over. In my mother’s distinct cursive handwriting, there’s a note with an address attached.
Saoirse, if you are reading this, find the couple in this photo — Oliver and Fiadh Devereux.
3 Raglan Street,
Kingscourt,
Killybegs.
You’ll be safe there, for now.
And, Saoirse, remember…Trust can only be earned, not given freely.
Mam. X
Guess, I know my next destination. “Killybegs, here I come.”
