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The first thing I feel is relief, which I never thought I’d ever feel when I see Cillian, but I’d rather be with him now than where I was before.
“It’s me,” I whisper back, striding in his direction so that I don’t wake Taylen. “I escaped.”
Cillian moves from the door, offering me a path to exit so that we can talk without disturbing her.
I’m surprised that he closes it softly behind me, showing some humanity coursing through his veins as the lights in the hallway bring him fully into view.
“How the hell did you get out?” he solicits, towering over me with a look of shock written all over his features. “And where’s Collins?”
My chin immediately drops into my chest. “I think…I think he’s dead.”
My brother reaches for me and pulls me a bit down the hall. “What do you mean he’s dead? Did you see him?”
I shake my head and can’t bear the thought that one of my father’s men, someone who was always so kind to me, suffered under the hands of the monster that is legally my husband. “I didn’t see him. But—” Cillian’s hand slams across my face so hard and fast that I gasp before taking a step away from him.
But he’s quick to pull me right back into his clutches again.
“How the hell did one of mybestmen get killed by an O’Clery when it had something to do withyou?”
“I didn’t—”
“Can you do anything right, sister?” he leers in my face, that’s still downcast in shame and regret. “It was a waste to rescue you.”
My lips part as I try to keep a sob from taking over my body. I’ve endured more than Cillian over the course of the last few weeks. He’s not going to make me feel guilty for this. “I’m your family. How couldn’t you want to—”
“Because I wasn’t about to storm their house again just to save you,” he barks back. “We’ve already lost father because of how—”
“Don’t youdaresay you lost him because of me,” I sharply retort, peering up at my brother, who looks enraged. “In fact, I saved you from getting shot.”
“You didn’t. You just hid somewhere, uselessly as you always are.”
“How do you know? Where were you when I shot the eldest O’Clery brother?”
Cillian glares at me. “How are you here?”
“I drugged Finn and snuck out. Since you weren’t going to do anything—”
“This is a trick.” His head shoots up over mine as if looking for Finn to be standing at the end of the hallway, waiting for him. “You brought them with you.”
“I didnot,” I grind out. “Are you out of your mind, Cillian? I didn’t want to marry into that family in the first place, and now you’re accusing me of—”
“There’snoway that you found a way out of that house,” he professes. “You’re not the most agile woman in the world, and Finn O’Clery might be a fucking asshole, but he’s not stupid.”
“I found myownway out of that house, Cillian. I obviously didn’t wait on you—” His fist finds my face this time and almost sends me toppling over.
But my brother isn’t done with me. He clutches my shirt and holds the fabric so tightly that it begins to dig into my arms.
“You brought them here, didn’t you? They made a deal with you.”
My palms promptly find his chest to keep him away and for me to find my balance. “What deal? What would I have to gain?”
“I don’t know, but you wouldn’t mind me gone.” His voice is a hiss, and now that he mentions it, I don’t think I would cry if my brother died. He’s been nothing but mean and cruel to me my entire life, and I don’t believe I have a speck of empathy for him anymore.
“I find out that there’s someone lurking outside or—”
“Cillian,” I plead through the throbbing in my head. “There’s no one out there. I’m alone.”
He’s paranoid.
