Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Considering he’s the second person I’ve hit in less than twenty-four hours and the second person who’s told me that, I’m starting to wonder if they might be right.
“Give me a second.” I walk into the bathroom and spit blood in the sink.
“What is happening here?” Ollie asks. “You guys just hit each other.”
“Feeling left out?” I hear Cillian ask.
“What? No!”
Cillian laughs, and I wipe my mouth, rinse the sink, then head back into the room.
“I’m just giving you shit,” Cillian tells him. “We’re coming to an understanding, is all. I’m sweet as pie. I’d never hurt you.” He winks at Ollie.
“You’re an idiot,” I grumble.
“You have a fat lip.”
“You have a black eye.”
“Didn’t hurt at all. You need more power in your swing.”
Jesus, he’s annoying as shit. I change my shirt because this one has blood on it, then put my sketchbook and laptop in my backpack before setting it on the bed.
“Aren’t you bringing that?”
“I’m coming back here tonight.”
“No. You’re not.”
I cock a brow. “Your boss tell you that?”
“Don’t call him that. He’s my best friend, and no, he didn’t, but I know him, and you need to be at home.”
“Why? What’s going on?” Ollie asks. “And are you dating Tiernan O’Shea?”
“No,” I say in unison with Cillian’s, “Nothing.”
“I’m coming home tonight,” I tell Ollie, but still pick up my backpack and put it on. “I’ll see you later.”
“I’m so confused.” Ollie collapses onto his bed as Cillian and I leave.
Cillian orders a car service. We’re both quiet on the drive to the Bar. It’s killing me not to ask him what’s going on with Tiernan, if he’s heard from them and if everything is okay, but I’m determined not to let myself do that. They don’t want me involved in their shit, and I need to remember that.
The Bar is packed, probably half the people here too young to drink. All the tables are full, but that doesn’t stop Cillian from walking toward one in the very back and telling the two guys sitting there, “Leave.”
“Are you shitting me?” one of them asks.
“Does it look like I am?”
They both curse but get up and leave. Cillian signals for me to sit down first, and I do, shaking my head as he slides into the booth across from me. “You guys are fucking ridiculous. Do you always get what you want?”
He shrugs. “Most of the time. It’s one of the benefits.”
“To what?” I ask, seeing my way in.
Cillian winks at me, but it looks kinda fucked up with his bruised, swollen eye. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Do you think you hide who you are?”
“No. But that doesn’t mean we don’t try to control the narrative, to have some restraint and keep certain shit to ourselves. That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier. You have a lot to learn, especially if you’ll keep spending time with Tiernan. You’re going to be a liability to him.”
Something tightens in my chest. My instinct is to tell Cillian to fuck off because I’m not a liability to shit. No one needs to take care of me or clean up my messes. But then another part of me, one that makes my head spin and my palms sweat, seems to want that, to be a liability to him, not because I want something bad to happen to Tiernan, but because that means he cares about me. Who has ever cared about me other than my parents?
“I can take care of myself,” is what I land on. “And I won’t let anything happen to Tiernan.”
He cocks a brow. “You’re going to take care of T? He’s the most capable person I know, and if he needs anything, he has me and Rory.”
“Then why did you tell me I need to go to the house tonight?”
I can see him mentally stumble as he searches for the answer. “He wants you. He’s never wanted anyone like he does you. I don’t pretend to understand it, and I must admit, it’s worrisome. Tiernan has a lot of responsibility. He doesn’t need anyone to make his life harder.” Cillian signals for the bartender to come over.
“I don’t make his life harder.”
He shrugs. “We’ll see. I’m telling you right now, if you hurt him, if you fuck with his life, if you do anything that makes me question your integrity or loyalty to him, you will disappear. There won’t be anything left of you to find.” There’s an icy coldness to Cillian’s voice I’ve never heard before, more intense than he was the first time I showed up at their house.
There’s not a part of me that doesn’t believe him. If he finds out who I am, he’ll kill me. If I do anything to Tiernan he disagrees with, he’ll kill me. I already don’t expect to make it out of this alive, but his isn’t the last face I want to see.