How the hell is he here? He’d been piss drunk when I snuck out of the house in the dead of the night.
His hand seizes around my wrist and he pulls me to him. “You thought you could run?” he asks, leaning down to whisper in my ear. “You little fucking whore. Did you forget? Did you forget what you are?”
My heart is thundering so hard against my ribcage that I can barely breathe. My eyes look past Tristan’s shoulder to the cars queuing up outside the airport. Dozens of pairs of eyes, all watching in shock and horror—and not a damn one of them lifting so much as a finger to intervene.
“You belong to me, whore.”
The doors of the airport slide open. A new batch of people spill out onto the sidewalk.
I catch a glimpse of blond hair bobbing above the crowd.
Old habit kicks in. My eyes zero in on the man stepping out of the airport.
And I go still.
Because for the first time in as long as I can remember, I’m searching a crowd for that familiar smile…
And I’m finding it.
Tristan’s still talking in my ear, but I can no longer hear him.
The man who’s just walked out of the airport is the fucking spitting image of Cillian.
Older, yes.
But then, Cillian himself would be older, wouldn’t he?
Thirteen years have passed. The boy I knew would have turned into a man.
A man very, very much like the one who’s standing a few feet away from me right now.
Tristan’s breath scorches at my ears, but for once, I don’t care.
I need a closer look. I need this maybe-Cillian to make eye contact with me.
If only to confirm what I know in my heart to be true.
That it is him.
This is Cillian. It has to be.
Look at me! Cillian, please… Just look at me.
I say it in my head because Tristan has his hand tight around my throat and I can barely breathe, much less scream.
But it’s as if maybe-Cillian hears me loud and clear all the same.
Because he turns.
His eyes meet mine.
Light blue eyes, like the Irish sky right after a heavy rain. I feel the breath leave my body as recognition startles through me so fast that I seize up.
It’s him.
There’s no denying it.
Cillian O’Sullivan is back in Ireland.