“Help!”
Someone’s coming. I hear the sound of footsteps, but it isn’t from outside the door where everyone else is. It’s from the street side. The door yanks open, and a large, angry man stands in the doorway. Moonlight illuminates him from behind, casting the rest of his features in shadow.
“Motherfucker,” my assailant mutters. “Get the fuck out of here. This has nothing to do with you. She’s consented. Likes to be fucked like this.”
I turn to him, my voice wobbly and plaintive. “Please! It’s a lie! Help me!”
“You fucking bitch,” the guy says, and he raises his hand to slap me again.
The man in the doorway lunges. I scream when the men collide like rock on rock. My assailant stumbles off me, and I scramble away to gather my tattered clothing and get the hell out of here. I run to the exit, but find it locked.
My stomach plummets to the floor. What the hell am I going to do now?
Fists are flying, as they curse and roll on the floor, when a stream of moonlight hits my rescuer’s head. His hair’s tinged red, and he’s already bloodied.
Tiernan? I blink. Is it?
He assaults the other man as if he’s trained for just this moment, his movements violent and terrifying but somehow, some way, beautiful in their fluid grace. My assailant draws a knife, and I scream, but Tiernan knocks it out of his hand.
“I’ll fucking kill her!” he screams. “You might have stopped me this time, but I will find her and when I do —”
It all happens so fast, yet it feels like slow motion. They roll and tumble and he reaches for me, as if he’s going to attack me again, right here in front of Tiernan. And Tiernan seems to lose his mind. He snaps. His movements grow feral, his growls filling the room, as he reaches for the man’s neck, restrains him, and in one vicious, final move, snaps his neck.
I fall to my knees as the body slumps to the floor.
He’s dead.
I just watch a man murdered.
Tiernan murdered a man.
For me.
I’m on my knees, both palms braced on the floor in front of me. I don’t know if I’m breathing or trying to keep the contents of my belly in place. I’m swaying, and the room seems both too bright and dim. I close my eyes, but when I open them it’s no better.
Someone else is in the room. There’s a pounding of fists on the locked door from the main arena, but others enter from the large doorway with the moonlight. In my crazed state of mine, I fancy them werewolves or some mythical creatures, but a little voice in my head tells me otherwise.
It’s the McCarthys. They were your friends once. It’s the McCarthys.
I can’t place them like I did in the ring, though. I can’t seem to grasp a thread of logical thought long enough to identify them. There’s a large, bearded one—no, two. There’s one who looks older than the rest, the leader, I know him. One’s gangly and thin, and one is very familiar to me. He’s Fiona’s. That much I can remember. He’s the one that goes to Tiernan.
“Fucking killed him,” Tiernan says, looking with disgust at his bare hands that just took a man’s life. “Motherfucker. He said he’d never let her go. Said he’d always find her.”
The leader jerks his chin at the door. “Talk later. Move fucking now.” He grabs Tiernan by the arm and yanks him toward the door. “Boner, take him to the bunker until we lock this situation down. Tully, you and Carson get rid of the body.” He jerks his head toward me. “I’ll take the girl.”
I blink.
Take the girl?
“You bloody well will not,” I say through gritted teeth. “If you do, I’ll tell! I saw everything! I’ll tell everyone!”
But the leader’s with me now, and I faintly remember him.
Keenan?
He shakes his head. “Which is precisely why you’re coming with us.” He reaches into his pocket, takes out a handkerchief, and in moments, he’s got me gagged and tucked under his arm like I’m a little straw doll and this is just what he does on a Tuesday.
Jesus.
Tiernan’s eyes come to me but he doesn’t speak. For a guy who just defended me, he looks bloody fucking pissed.
I fight against my bonds, but a part of me doesn’t want to. I’m terrified about what they’ll do to me.
A part of me knows that what happened right now has changed my life forever, that there’s no going back to bloody anything. The McCarthy family is the most powerful crime ring in all of Ireland, maybe even all of the United Kingdom. And I’m being taken into their custody.
I shake my head and fight, but I’ve no more chance of getting away than a mouse does from a lion. I’m easily overpowered.