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Seamus reached out, taking my phone and hanging up the call as I stood frozen in the middle of the room. My breath caught in my throat, and I didn’t breathe until Seamus had me by the shoulders, shaking me as he told me, “He’s okay.”
I realized those were the words he’d been saying as I called Dev’s phone, hoping he’d pick up and I’d hear the ever-present smile in his voice as he spoke.
What? You thought a car could take me out, Red? How little faith you must have in me, he’d say with a laugh.You could’ve waited a couple minutes, and I would be in the driveway.
But instead I stood in the middle of our bedroom, Seamus’s words finally registering past my panic, allowing me to suck in the much-needed air.
“What happened?”
“His car was run off the road, likely by the same men who are coming after you. Xander tracked him down, and your father brought him to a safe house. There’s a doctor working on him now, and he should be fine, but your father sent me to bring you to him and Dev. If whoever is after you found Dev, it’s only a matter of time before they find you, too.”
By the end of his explanation, my fully packed bag was hooked over Seamus’s shoulder. He led me down the stairs and ushered me into an SUV with blacked-out windows, urging me to curl low in the passenger’s seat, just in case.
Pulling my hood over my hair and slumping my shoulders used to be second nature to me, had been a disguise easy to put back on a few days ago, when I was trying to escape Dev and his friends after dinner. But it felt uncomfortable now, like wearing something had become misshapen after overuse.
“How doyou feel about your father grooming Callan to take over?” Seamus asked casually from the driver’s seat as we drove further into the country, weaving through the winding roads. “It’s your birthright, truly.”
I appreciated his attempt at trying to take my mind off everything, but I could barely muster enough energy to respond, my mind too focused on how Dev was doing.
“Callan wants it, was born for it. I was never that interested,” I said, shrugging my shoulders as I watched out the window. We’d been driving for half an hour, maybe more, and Seamus had finally deemed it safe enough for me to uncurl from the ball I’d been twisted into.
We’d gone from seeing large plots of land with even bigger homes to the middle of nowhere, ramshackle houses and abandoned barns littering the landscape that nature had reclaimed.
“I could’ve succeeded Liam,” Seamus said casually, speaking of my grandfather, who had run the business until my father took over. “As his younger brother, it would’ve made sense for me to take the reins until your father had a little more experience. But he passed the business to Cillian. I wasn’t upset about it, was willing, even, to head back to Ireland and work with our associates in Europe. I made great relationships, helped Cillian’s business grow to what it is today.”
I nodded, wondering where this history lesson was leading, the clenching of my gut only increasing with each word out of Seamus’s mouth. “Yeah, Dad talked about how well-suited you were to work overseas.” I couldn’t recall Seamus monologuing quite so much when I was younger, but my annoyance with him might’ve been due to how anxious I was to get eyes on Dev, to ensure he was truly alright.
We finally pulled down a gravel road, flanked on either side by waist-high brush, parking in front of an abandoned house. Looking at it, I couldn’t help but think back to that first day I met Dev.Pretty nice for a murder shack, I’d joked. But it didn’t seem like a joke now, because as Seamus got out of the car and led me toward the building, I realized thatthiswas truly a murder shack.
Not that shack was quite the right term. The house was large, multi-storied, with what looked like what used to be awraparound porch dangling precariously in the front. Someone had laid out a few two-by-fours to allow safe passage across the dilapidated porch, the house clearly in disrepair, but I imagined it used to be a large farmhouse that belonged to whoever owned the acres of land that surrounded us. But it was long-since abandoned, left to the elements, and supposedly a safe house for a crime organization, though my gut screamed at the unlikeliness of that scenario.
“Come on, Dev is right inside,” he called over his shoulder. He no longer seemed concerned about Dev’s or my safety, walking easily toward the building in the distance, and it wasn’t lost on me that nobody was around. No cars, no electrical lines, nothing that pointed to any sort of technology existing inside that building.
And even though everything screamed at me to run, I didn’t.
I'd always had a pretty strong survival instinct. Came with the territory, I guess. Growing up surrounded by death, knowing that my death could be worth just as much as my life. It was what had me learning to hide in the shadows, taking advantage of the men sent to protect me, marrying Dev without complaint if it meant another day breathing. It was part of the reason I’d kept my feelings for Dev to myself, worried I’d scare him off and I’d no longer have the protection I needed.
But despite having such a strong instinct to live, I hadn’t really been living. I didn’t have friends, didn’t have anyone outside of family that I could be honest with. I kept to myself, went through my days like they were a chore rather than something to enjoy, and had resigned myself to living out my life under a microscope with little to show for it.
It was almost funny that I finally had so much to live for - friends, a family, Dev - and my survival instincts were suddenly nonexistent. Because my survival, my life, was worth nothing without Dev in it. And if he was inside, needing me, waiting forme, I had to be there. So despite my gut telling me it was a mistake, I followed Seamus anyway.
I crossed the planks behind Seamus, holding my arms out to maintain my balance as we passed through the front door. It wasn’t impossible that I’d walk into a surprisingly well-refurbished home, medical equipment beeping quietly in the background while my family - my father and Cormac, Alex and Bex - stood vigil around Dev’s bedside. I’d seen a couple of my father’s safe houses in the past, been fooled by the abandoned façade on the outside, only to be pleasantly surprised at the inside.
But this wasn’t one of those cases.
“Dev isn’t here,” I said as I confirmed what I’d been fearing, the situation I’d gotten myself into. “Was he even attacked?”
“Of course, darling. The best lies have an edge of truth, don’t they? I wasn’t lying when I said he was run off the road.”
“Is he hurt?” I asked, my voice shaking. Not even for myself, for the danger I was bound to be in, for the betrayal of one of my last living family members, by a man who helped raise me. But for Dev, the only person outside my family to look at me and seemore, to show me how strong I could be. And that reminder was enough to convince me he was okay. Because despite not picking up his phone, Dev wouldn’t let anyone keep him from me.
“Can’t say for sure,” Seamus shrugged. “After all, I paid some men to run him off the road, but I didn’t specify how serious the wreck needed to be. He could be dead, alive, dying. If they’re smart, they killed him, but I don’t care either way. I just needed him out of the way. Same reason I paid someone to call John and tell him his husband was in the hospital. I figured that would keep him busy for a while.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed you alone. Now, don’t give me that look.” Seamus tutted at me, shaking his head. “This is your fault, afterall. If you hadn’t ruined our plans the first time around - or the second, really, - then I never would’ve had to hurt your darling Dev.”
“You’re the one who tried to have me killed?” The answer had become abundantly clear when Seamus had started talking like a movie villain, but I still wanted confirmation.Besides, I thought to myself,it gave Dev more time to come rescue me.
