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“Oh, I’m sure we will. I’ll wait up for you,” she teased, before her tone hardened, darkened, enough to make my cock twitch. “Now, make the bitch pay.”
She cut the call for me, and when I stared into the pig’s terrified eyes, I smiled.
I had my orders, and like any good foot soldier, even one as high-ranking as me, I knew to always obey.
* * *
AELA
I stayedup for him like I promised.
Didn’t matter that it was past four AM and I was exhausted. Didn’t matter that I wanted my bed more than I wanted my next breath.
I told him I’d stay up for him, so stay up I would.
That was how we were going to work from now on.
No more secrets, lies, half-truths, or broken promises.
Just the truth. Nothing but.
I couldn’t cope with anything else, because I needed him more nowthan I ever had before, and that was really saying something.
The world was in chaos, and Seamus had been in danger long before he’d even entered the Five Points’ hemisphere. That told me something—some people were born to violence, and that was us.
That tied us together as well as blood.
I rested my head against the armchair’s wing and closed my eyes. I loved the brownstone. It was what I’d needed—solid and not paper screen walls—but it was in dire need of being spruced to my specifications. At the moment, it was a house and not a home.
If this was where we were going to put down roots, then I was going to make it that for us. Our nest. Our haven amid the insanity outside these walls.
The room had a fireplace, complete with mantelpiece, and atop it, there was a carriage clock that ticked and ticked, endlessly ticking. It was soothing, though, and it lulled me into a half-sleep until I jerked awake when Declan murmured, “Oh,laoch, you didn’t have to stay up this late.”
My eyes popped open, and I almost jumped back at the sight of him.
He was covered in blood.
Jesus.
He stared at me, and I knew what he was doing.
Letting me see the real him. Letting me see the monster who hid inside the love of my life’s soul.
As he leaned down, I reached out and touched his blood-stained cheek. I didn’t need to know what he’d done to see it was gruesome. No one bled this much from a nosebleed, after all.
His skin was crispy with it, and the prospect of him driving home like this had me shaking my head at him. “You have a death wish? Driving around looking like something from a horror movie?”
His lips didn’t even twitch, which told me his mind was elsewhere. “Needed to come home,” he rasped.
My throat was thick, because I knew why.
He’d heard filth, and he needed to be clean.
He’d heard things that made him think we weren’t safe, and he wanted to protect us.
“I love you, Declan,” I whispered.
He blinked, and for the first time, his features were less wooden. “I love you too.”
