Page 54 of Bargain with the Irish Devil
More than an hour later, the doctor declares he’s done what he could. It’s up to Liam if he heals. However, it would be good if he had someone who could watch over him. While the doctor can stay the night with him, he can’t shut down his practice tomorrow to do it. The men move him to the bedroom in the bloody apartment.
Fuck. I’m about to kill two men, meaning we’re already short men. The thought is there before I can push it down. Clare, Seamus’s daughter, was a nurse. An ER nurse—so she had to have seen gunshot wounds and cared for them.
I pull my phone and call her.
She answers on the first ring. “Mr. Kelly.”
I hate how hopeful she sounds. “Clare, I have a favor to ask of you. One of my men was shot tonight. Things don’t look good. Would you be willing to take care of him for a few days? Just until he’s out of the woods. I’ll double the salary you’re missing away from the hospital.”
Her sigh is heavy. “I, um…”
“Make it triple your salary.” I offer.
“Okay, yes. You don’t need to do that. It’s just that I’m on the verge of being fired if I call in. They’re angry I won’t work overtime. But this is what I need. The push to quit and find something else. Where is your man?”
I give her the address in relief.
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” She promises.
Telling the men she’s on her way, I give them the instruction that whatever she needs or wants, she gets. But remember not to sayanything about Seamus or business in front of her. It might be a moot point since she’ll be in the brothel, but the charges on this are next to nothing. The last thing I need to worry about is a murder charge.
James is waiting in the lobby, and he’s pissed.
Fuck that, so am I. “This wasn’t getting him under control. You helped make this mess.”
“You shouldn’t have done that. The old men will be angry. How could you kill your own flesh and blood?” James hisses at me.
“He was coming unraveled. Do you think he was going to get away with what he did to Rhonda and Liam? She had nothing to do with this shit. We’re paid to protect her from men like him. The only good thing about this is it happened where we can contain it, but that’s it. I warned you, and you did nothing.” Fuck him and the old men.
I don’t want to go home. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt this way. If I go home, there is no way Miranda won’t see the blood. The questions she has that I can’t answer will eat away at her—at us.
What kind of curse did someone put on me to have Miranda tell me she loves me tonight and she wanted to stay with me, then less than two hours later cover me in the blood of my man? The last week has been close to perfection. Every day felt better than the day before it. I wasn’t shocked when she told me she loved me. It was in her touch and her eyes. She was at last exhaling in relief. It was why I asked her to stay.
When she said yes, the relief was so immense I could barely breathe deep. My woman and she wanted to be. She didn’t want to leave me. Her place was with me, and she knew it at last.
Inside the house, I’m glad to see the lights are off downstairs. Colm wouldn’t have gone to bed before he was sure Miranda was asleep. I decide to go downstairs and use the guest bathroom to clean up and dump my clothes in the laundry room.
My foot has barely hit the bottom stair when Colm appears. “Dec? Do you think Liam is going to make it?”
I shake my head as I begin unbuttoning my shirt after tossing my jacket into the hamper for dirty clothes. “Hell, if I know. If it were anyone, it would be his crazy ass who could live through that amount of pain.”
“I don’t know Dec. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have Clare in the brothel. What with us ordering her father’s death and all.”
I’m in boxers, and I can’t fucking believe where all the blood got to. “It’s a few days. She keeps Liam alive or at least comfortable until he passes, and she walks away with cash. There’s no one else to be there with him. Without her, he likely dies. Clare is a good girl. As long as the men keep their mouths shut, it will be fine. Now, I’m going to take a shower so I can clean off Liam’s blood—if you please.”
Hanging his head, he sighs and leaves me be. The water runs over me, turning the bottom of the tub brown with the blood and soap. I don’t know if the blood is worse or the tears of a woman clinging to me… The woman, definitely the woman. I might have been the cause of them both—for not getting Tommy under control and ordering the death of Seamus. But Liam knew there was a risk. Clare was an innocent civilian without any idea of the world she walked into.
I feel it, and it freaks me out… Miranda’s worry, her fear. It sends me out of the shower with a towel wrapped around me, drying myself as I go upstairs. I’m wrong. I have to be.
Only as I open the door to our bedroom, I’m not. She’s awake, her eyes open with fear find me the second I’m through the door. The sigh that comes out of her touches me and turns my blood cold.
“Are you all right?” Her eyes run over me and she holds her hand out to me.
I take it and press my lips to her palm. She caresses me, running her hand over my cheek. “I’m fine.”
Shaking her head, her eyes are wide. “You said you wouldn’t lie to me. You aren’t. Something happened.”
Closing my eyes, I want to hide and curse the heavens. Her hand is gone. I open my eyes to find her blinking back tears as she pulls away from me. No. Catching her behind her neck, I hold her still as I allow my head to fall to hers. A shaky breath whispers over my mouth from her.
