“That’s good to know.” She didn’t sound like it was, and I guessed, in this situation, ‘good’ was relative. “Look, you must be tired, and I have to go. If your brothers are coming for me tomorrow, there are things I need to wrap up. Even though the lawyer Brennan sent over has been working miracles, I’m still at the house and they’re only just letting us leave.”
“What things?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking that question, even though I knew she might not answer.
Just the thought of her heading off to a lover’s house to say goodbye sent white-hot jealousy roaring through me.
I had no right, and yet every right to feel that way.
Sure, that made no sense, but I was doped up, for fuck’s sake. Cut me some goddamn slack.
“Things with work. I need to hand in my resignation.” She sighed, and it was poignant enough to tell me she’d miss her job, which made me feel guilty again. “Things with the police. I killed a man, Declan. Christ. That comes with repercussions in the real world.”
“You don’t live in the real world anymore, Aela. I’ll sort it out. Now, you get yourself checked into the Grande. Brennan will pay the tab in the morning—”
“I can pay my own way,” she ground out.
“I heard you’re a wealthy woman, but that means shit to me. I pay for my woman and my kid.”
“Who the hell said I was your woman?” she snarled at me, all fire and venom. “I’m only coming because of the danger—dangeryourfamily put us in—”
“Me. I said it. You’re mine. Always fucking have been, and always fucking will be.”
And because I didn’t have the energy to go to war, not with a woman who couldn’t apologize for keeping my son away from me for fourteen years, with a woman who made me accept she’d been justified in doing that, I put the phone down.
Conor, eying me warily, muttered, “That’s one way to get the last word in.”
My lips twitched. “Watch and learn, C, watch and learn.”
“How did you know about Hoskins?” he asked carefully.
“Heard you all talking. You should have told me. Shouldn’t have to eavesdrop in on that conversation.”
“You were at death’s door, bro. Not the kind of stuff you need to be hearing right now. Not when we got it covered.”
“I needed to know they’re safe.”
“And they are. You should have trusted us. We’d never put them in danger.”
“They don’t matter to you like they do to me.”
“I respectfully disagree. Either way, you shouldn’t have told her about Hoskins,” he chided. “The phone might be tapped.”
“As if you’d ever let that happen. Anyway, you’ll understand the rest when you get a woman.”
“Already have plenty. All of them dying to get with me.”
I snorted, but as the cell tumbled from my hand, before it collided with the bed, I was asleep.
I could rest easy now, knowing she and Seamus were safe. I could sleep.
Heal.
Because something told me that when I was back on my feet, she’d give me a run for my money, and hell if that wasn’t something to look forward to.