“If he’s smart, he won’t return. Not tonight,” Perry points out.
“I just want to go home,” I admit, my voice small.
Grant glances over at me. “You want to go back to Mom and Dad’s?”
That sounds so downright… quaint, him calling our parents “Mom and Dad.” And it’s interesting that he assumes that’s what I consider home.
“No.” I shake my head, glancing over at Perry, who’s terribly close. His face is practically in mine and I can see the stubble lining his jaw. The exhaustion in his gaze. “I want to go back to our apartment.”
Perry nods once. “Let’s go back to the deli and I’ll take her home.”
“This is bullshit.” Grant slams his hand against the steering wheel, making me jump. “Why would we leave now when we’re so close? You really just want him to get away with this shit, Constantine?”
“Fuck you,” Perry mutters. “The moment I see that McAsshole, you know I’ll kill him. And I’d rather take care of my traumatized wife tonight versus spending the rest of my life in jail for murder.”
My heart soars because I’m a complete idiot, but really. Hearing your husband admit he wants to kill the man who kidnapped you is actually kind of hot.
“Valid point,” Finn says, making Grant mumble a string of curse words before he shifts the car into drive and pulls back onto the road with screeching tires.
Men. They’re ridiculous.
We return to the deli and I go with Perry in his car. The drive back to our apartment is mostly silent. I’m not in the mood to talk and neither is Perry, I can tell. Though maybe it’s more that he doesn’t know what to say, versus wanting to say anything at all.
I get it. I do. What just happened to me, I can barely wrap my head around it. It’s almost as if it didn’t happen at all. The moment with Seamus in the lobby was just a dream.
More like a nightmare.
“Are you hungry?” he asks as we get closer to our apartment building.
I shake my head. “I had a sandwich at the deli.” I sit up straighter, realizing something. “I never said goodbye or thank you to Arthur and Martha.”
“Who?”
“The people who saved me.” My tone is solemn and I swallow down the burst of anxiety that flares. “We should go back.”
“You can call and thank them tomorrow,” Perry suggests.
“No. I need to tell them now. Turn around, Perry.”
“It’s late,” he says, his voice firm. “Tomorrow.”
“No!” I burst into tears, my entire body shaking. “Arthur saved my life. What if Seamus had found me after I ran away? What would he have done to me then?”
“Charlotte…”
“He’s completely unstable, you know.” I nod again and again when Perry glances over at me, trying to emphasize my point. “I don’t care what my brothers say. We should call the police. They should be involved. We don’t know what he might do to me. Or to you.”
“Once they become involved, he’ll be charged and most likely released. His family will find the best criminal lawyers in the state—because they have them all on retainer—and he’ll get a slap on the wrist. They’ll send his ass back to Ireland or wherever the hell he’s from. The end. That’s it.” He sounds frustrated, and it hurts, knowing that what he says is most likely the truth.
A sob rises in my throat and I cover my face with my hands, crying noisily. I can barely handle the thought of what would’ve happened if Seamus caught me before I got to the deli. He would’ve been so furious, especially after I flung burning hot soup in his stupid face. The man claims he cares about me and wants me back, but he also said he wouldn’t hesitate to end me if I did something to make him angry.
And I believed him. I still do.
“Babe.” I drop my hands from my face and whip my head in Perry’s direction, surprised he’d call me that. His expression is one of pure agony. “Please don’t cry. You’re breaking my heart right now.”
I think of his tattoo. How he believed no one could break his heart. When he admitted to me he wasn’t interested in love or any of the trappings that comes with it. Back then, I felt the same way.
The same exact way.