Luck of the Irish: Complete Edition (16 page)

“You didn’t get fire, did you?”

“No, I didn’t. I had some overdue vacation days I had planned to use, when you returned to Dublin. I figured I’d better use them to come meet you and drive you back home.”

“That was sweet,” she kissed the back of his hand.

“Jennifer noticed I cared for you more than I would admit to myself. When she pointed that out to me, I denied it but she convinced me. She also said I had to tell you that.”

“I know you do, Declan, just as much as I care for you.”

“I was terrified, though. I feared… No! I’m still afraid that my past experiences will get in the way. I didn’t want them to ruin our chances. So, during my flight here I decided to stop by my father’s house to confront him.”

He stopped talking because Keira leaned forward and kissed him. It was a sweet kiss, in which she hoped he could feel her feelings for him.

“It must have been tough on you, seeing your father, I mean. You’re not close, right? When did you last talk to your father?”

“Nine years ago. Since I left for Dublin, to be more accurate.”

Her jaw dropped. “Why talk to him now?”

“I went to his house looking for some kind of closure. I wanted to talk to him, not as a son talks to his father, I needed to talk to him as a grown man talks to another man, you know? I wanted to confront him about the horrible things he did to my mother, to me, and to my brothers. I wanted to put the past behind me, once and for all.”

Keira heard the frustration in his voice, “What went wrong?”

He raised an eyebrow and smiled, “Now, you’re the one who’s starting to know me too well, miss. It turns out my father doesn’t remember much of anything.”

“He’s got Alzheimer’s?”

Declan nodded and Keira sighed, rolling her eyes, “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.”

“I won’t deny it I was frustrated. There’s a nurse, Rose, taking care of him. She is a very nice lady, who made me go inside and sit down for tea. She told me my brothers never visit my father. Apparently, my grandparents had set up some trust fund before they passed away for my father. He benefits from it, now. Rose said that’s how she gets paid. The whole time I was there, my father looked at me funny, as if he was trying to remember who I was.”

“Did he?”

“No.”

“It must have been disturbing.”

“I was pissed off; that’s how I felt. The bloody bastard is screwing me up even now, I mean, being sick and all.”

Keira ran her fingers through his soft hair for a while analyzing Declan’s situation.

“Maybe life is giving him what he deserves. Have you thought about that? I mean, Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease. The idea of losing my memory creeps me out.” she shivered at the thought.

“I think it’s quite the opposite. It’s a mean disease for the relatives, who see their loved one fading away before their eyes. Scientists say people who have Alzheimer’s, at a certain stage of the disease, barely understand what’s going on with them. To people like my father, forgetting the past might be a blessing.”

“I don’t know about that, Declan. I do know, though, you won’t be able to get the answers you wanted to get from your father. The best thing you should do, now, is concentrate on your future.”

Declan sat upright in front of her and grabbed her face with both his hands. He stared into her blue eyes until she thought she was drowning in a green sea. When she couldn’t bear the intensity of the emotions she saw in his dark green eyes, he kissed her. He knew he couldn’t let their kiss get too passionate in the middle of the day, in a public park, so he used all his self-control to keep the fiery kiss from consuming them both. She kissed him back with the same abandon and they were breathing heavily when he finally let go of her mouth.

“You don’t get it, baby. If I want to concentrate on my future, our future, I need to understand my past. Now that I’ve found you, I can’t risk losing you, Keira.”

“Lose me?” she scoffed. “Where is this coming from? Why would you lose me?”

“As far as relationships go, I have a terrible track record. I’ve told you I tried having a relationship with one girlfriend after another, and got disappointed every time. They told me I was afraid of commitment, but that wasn’t true. I wanted to commit. I
want
to commit. But, I’m afraid I’ll become like my father,” his voice broke off.

For the first time, Declan admitted, to another person, he harbored those fears. For years, they weren’t clear, even to himself. He had realized he had them when Jennifer broke up with him. Since Keira had entered his life, those fears tormented him day and night.

“Your innocence has captured my heart from the start, Keira. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself, if I destroyed it, like my father destroyed my mom’s.”

Keira knelt on the grass and, lacing her arms around his shoulders, pulled him close to her. She held him in a tight embrace without uttering a word. Declan was surprised and confused, but didn’t complain. When she let go of him, she sat on her heels and held his hands, keeping her eyes locked on his.

“Don’t ever say such a thing again, please. You are nothing like your father, do you hear me? You are kind, caring, and patient. You are a good man, baby. This is something nobody could say about your father. You’ve got qualities, which your father never had. The ones that convinced me I could trust you. I don’t trust people easily. Today, I trust you with my life – literally,” she lifted his hand and put it over her heart. “Do you feel it? My heart told me I could trust you. If you doubt yourself, don’t doubt my heart. It knows you well.”

Forgetting where they were, Declan crushed Keira against his chest and kissed her like he had never kissed her before – with his heart and soul. He wasn’t convinced he deserved her but he was surely going to do his best to be worthy of her love.

Keira wanted that kiss to wipe away all the sadness and the pain that Declan’s father had caused him. She gave herself freely to him, letting her defenses down and opening up her heart to let him in.

Neither one of them heard Keira’s cell phone ringing because they were too wrapped up in the moment to notice such a mundane thing. Eventually, the annoying sound penetrated their cocoon and Keira reached for the phone.

“Don’t bother with that, please,” Declan begged, out of breath, grazing her lower lip and trying to take the phone from her. “The only people that matter in this world are right here, right now.”

“Hello,” she answered the call, chuckling and wriggling out of Declan’s strong arms. “Yes, this is she,” she paused and listened. Declan saw her face turning ashen before she shouted into the mouthpiece, “What? When? How did that happen?”

Declan waited impatiently for Keira to hang up, which she did without saying another word to whoever had been on the other side of the telephone line. She slumped onto the hard ground and stared at him, sheer panic clouding her blue eyes, “Paul has escaped.”

“How did that happen?”

“They didn’t say. Inspector Heller told me he’s at the hotel, waiting for us,” she stared into space. “I can’t believe this.”

“I’m here and I won’t let anything happen to you, love.”

Collecting their things, they ran out of the park and took a cab back to the hotel. When the car pulled over, it was surrounded by a crowd of reporters, all trying to get a statement from Keira, all shouting their questions at the same time. Declan got out of and pushed them out of the way to let Keira pass through the people shoving microphones and digital recorders in her face.

“Miss Ashe, how long did you know Mr. O’Hallon before the attack?”

“Is it true he was your boyfriend, Miss Ashe?”

“Are you going to testify in the trial or are you going back to America?”

Keira had never been the center of attention, so she felt cornered, uncomfortable. Declan’s arm around her shoulders gave her a sense of safety, even though his anger was evident by the swear words he mumbled under his breath. His muscles tensed up under his shirt and she noticed a bluish vein pulsing in his tighten jaw, when she looked up at him.

“Miss Ashe, are you afraid Mr. O’Hallon might come after you now?”

Inspectors Heller and Dwyer met with them on the sidewalk, also pushing through the crowd, trying to help Declan get Keira inside the hotel.

“Come on, fellows, leave the girl alone. She’s been traumatized enough,” said Heller, walking ahead of Keira and Declan towards the hotel doors.

“Let us do our job,” cried a young redheaded woman.

“We’re just doing ours,” replied Dwyer, who stood by Keira’s right side.

“The public has the right to know what’s going on,” shouted an older man in a dark green suit.

Inch by inch, they fought their way through the crowd. When they were about to enter the hotel lobby, a reporter shouted, “Why did you help Mr. O’Hallon escape, Miss Ashe?”

Before anyone could move, Declan threw a punch at the man, his fist connected to the reporter’s chin, who reeled from the sharp blow. Caught by surprise, the man lost his footing, sprawled on the sidewalk. Inspector Dwyer wasn’t fast enough to hold Declan, who dove after the reporter, straddled him by the collar, and kept beating the man up.

All hell broke loose with cameras flashing and rolling around them, people shouting and shoving. Heller embraced Keira to shelter her, but she wriggled away to stand beside Declan.

“Stupid motherfucker, I’ll kill you,” Declan threatened, as his fist hit the man’s bleeding nose again.

“Declan, stop it!” Keira shouted, holding his upper arm.

He turned to her, his forest green eyes were unfocussed, his face was a mask of rage. For a spit second, he didn’t recognize her, but she recognized the dark hatred in the depths of his tormented gaze. She squeezed his arm to get his attention and shook her head, whispering so that only Declan could hear her, “He’s not Paul or your father. He’s just doing his job. He didn’t harm me.”

Her soft words wrenched Declan from the bloodthirsty trance he had fallen into. He shoved the poor man as he stood up. Looking down, he discovered the front of his shirt was covered in the reporter’s blood. His knuckles were bruised, but his pride had taken the hardest blow. He was ashamed of the spectacle he had made of himself.

“I want this caveman arrested for assault and battery. You can’t go about punching people for doing their job, man.”

“You wouldn’t have gotten a black eye if you had done your homework. You were trying to rattle Miss Ashe with that question, Connor,” Inspector Heller replied.

“I’ve got a picture that says otherwise, Heller,” the reporter insisted.

He looked quite confident about the information he had gathered and the investigators couldn’t pass up a potential lead. Heller and Dwyer exchanged glances and the latter grabbed the reporter’s forearm, “Not here, Connor. Come with us.”

It was harder for them to move with the journalists in their way, but they ignored everyone as they entered the hotel. Heller went to the reception and asked the manager for a room with some privacy. He offered them a meeting room.

Walking down the corridor, Keira turned to Declan, “Are you okay, baby?”

He blushed and stared at her in awe, “I should be the one asking you that. I’m such an ass, Keira. I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am for having put you through that.”

“For defending me, you mean.”

He stopped in the middle of the corridor and held her hands. Staring into her eyes, he didn’t say a word, just shook his head.

“What?” Keira asked when the silence got too uncomfortable.

“You amaze me. How do you do it? How do you see a good intention behind the Neanderthal-style stunt I just pulled?”

“Because I know your heart. It’s in the right place,” she assured him, putting a hand over his racing heart.

Dwyer came back for them and Declan didn’t have a chance to say anything else. They sat down around a large oval table. Heller didn’t waste any time, “What was that all about, Connor? I know you very well. You enjoy a bit of drama but you’re a serious reporter. We know Miss Ashe hasn’t been anywhere near that hospital today. You say you get a picture that says otherwise. Care to explain?”.

Before Connor answered, Keira turned to the inspectors, “I haven’t been there, but how do you know that?”

“We’ve followed you. I’m sorry about that, Miss Ashe,” Inspector Dwyer apologized. “We were afraid you’d go back to Dublin or something. You’re our only witness in this case. We couldn’t risk losing you.”

“I have to say I don’t like the idea of having the Garda spy on innocent people like that, Inspector,” Declan replied on her behalf.

“You’re not exactly innocent, sir. You put the man in the hospital in the first place,” Connor stated, adding more fuel to Declan’s already quite volatile mood. “You didn’t do the same to me just now because we were in public.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Declan banged his fist on the table.

“Mr. Slane, if you don’t get a hold of your temper, I’ll have to remove you from the room. This is your last warning, sir,” Inspector Heller scolded him.

Keira squeezed Declan’s thigh under the table and he turned to her. “Please,” she mouthed. He visibly relaxed, sitting back on the chair. He didn’t look pleased, though. His beautiful features were screwed up in a scowl, and he had crossed his arms over his chest.

“Connor, do you have the picture with you?” Inspector Heller asked.

Unlocking his cell phone screen, he put it down so that everyone could see the picture. It was quite grainy, however, they could see a woman talking to the officer outside Paul’s room. She resembled Keira. Inspector Dwyer used his fingers to enlarge the face. He whistled and handed the phone to Heller.

“Damn, she’s a dead ringer to you, Miss Ashe. What do you know about this woman, Connor?”

“I don’t know anything about her. I just got this from a fellow who works as security guard at the hospital. He owed me a favor and was on duty in the surveillance room. He sent this to me as soon as he found out O’Hallon had escaped.”

“Thank you for your cooperation, Connor. We’ll take it from here. You can go now”

“Is that all, Heller? I don’t get an exclusive or at least some info?”

“You’ve got plenty as it is. This is an ongoing investigation, you know.”

“What about him?” Connor nodded towards Declan.

“What about him?”

“Aren’t you going to arrest him?”

“We’ll take him in for questioning. However, if you want to press charges, you’ll have to come by the station later.”

Heller waited for Connor to leave before resuming their conversation, “This doesn’t feel right. It can’t be a coincidence. Nick, the garda in the picture, never mentioned this woman.”

“What happened exactly?” Keira asked.

“We know he attacked a nurse who was changing his bed sheets, stole his clothes, put them on, and sneaked out of the room. Nick knew O’Hallon couldn’t receive visitors, so he wouldn’t have let this woman inside the room. We need to find her,” Dwyer replied.

“We’ll relocate you to a safe house. We can’t gamble with your safety,” Heller added.

“Yes, of course,” she agreed without hesitation, terrified.

“When can we leave?” Declan asked.

Heller cleared his throat searching for the best way to explain the situation do the hotheaded boyfriend when Dwyer blurted out, “Slane, you’re not going with her. You’ll come with us to the station. We’ll book you for assault and battery.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. You attacked Connor in front of cameras.”

“I knew I’d have to pay for my actions. But you’d better make damn sure nothing happens to Keira, or I swear I’ll hunt you down. I don’t care if you’re the Garda or God Himself. That motherfucker slipped through your fingers. I don’t trust your competence very much right about now.”

“Don’t worry about Keira. She’ll be fine,” Dwyer promised as he stood up. “There’s one more thing, Slane. I’ll have to handcuff you - standard procedure. Turn around.”

“Miss Ashe, pack your things. I’ll send somebody to help you out and take you to the safe house,” Heller told her.

Keira wanted to go with Declan, to offer him her support, but the detectives wouldn’t allow her, so she decided not to cause any problems, even though her heart was torn to pieces. She stood up, holding Declan’s face in her warm hands, and had to stand on tiptoes to reach his mouth to kiss him. She forgot the other two men in the room. The only person who mattered to her was in her arms.

The inspectors left the room to give them a little privacy. When Keira let go of Declan’s face, he sighed, “What have we done to deserve this? We can’t catch a break. You’re still in danger. I’ll spend at least a night in jail. We should be going back to Dublin. You should be having fun on your vacation, not hiding from a lunatic.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. This is just temporary. The police will catch Paul again and we’ll have all the time in the world to be together and have fun. I promise. Stay safe, Declan. Don’t get in any more trouble. Come back to me soon.”

They joined the others in the corridor, then proceeded to the reception, where a young female Garda met with them. Her name was Katherine Murphy and she didn’t look much older than Keira.

After the introductions, Heller told the two women he’d return in half an hour to take them to the safe house. Dwyer got hold of Declan and the three left the hotel. Keira saw the ever growing mob of reporters swallow them up as the cameras flashed frantically, and the journalists shouted.

Keira felt her heart sinking because those images reminded her of the nightmare she had had, the one where Declan’s picture in handcuffs appeared under a headline saying he had been arrested for her murder. She had never had premonitory dreams. That wasn’t a good time to start having them. She shook visibly at those thoughts and turned around to face Garda Murphy, “We should get going, right?”

“Yes, Miss Ashe.”

They took the elevator to her floor and packed her things in less than fifteen minutes, which gave them enough time before their car arrived. Keira got her cell phone and unlocked the screen to call her parents.

“Excuse me, miss. Who are you calling?”

“My family. I haven’t talked to them today. They’ll worry when they hear about Paul’s escape on the news.”

“That’s not a good idea, Miss Ashe. We can’t tell anybody we’re leaving. The department will take care of your check-out later. We’ll have to hide you and leave the hotel undetected, so that we won’t be followed. No one can know where you’re going.”

“I know you worry about my safety. But, do you mean I can’t tell even my own family where I’m going?”

The young police officer hesitated a little before answering, “I know it’s a lot to process. Everything that’s going on with you, I mean. I don’t want to scare you further. You won’t be able to tell your family where we’ll take you because
you
won’t know where we’re taking you.”

“What do you mean?” Keira furrowed her eyebrows together.

“It’s for your own protection,” Murphy whispered as Keira felt the burning sting of a needle in her upper arm. “I’m so sorry.”

Those were the last words Keira heard before the world turned black as she lost consciousness.

* * * *

As Inspector Dwyer took Declan through booking, he couldn’t remember the last time he had been in such a foul mood. He had been in trouble with the law before but this time there was too much at stake. Keira needed him beside her and he had put himself in that helpless position and hated himself for it.

“Look, I know you’re worried about Miss Ashe. She’s in good hands,” Dwyer told Declan as a Garda collected his fingerprints. “That bastard will never find her in the safe house and we’ll get him before you know it.”

A thousand different and colorful swear words warred inside Declan’s head, all eager to come out of his mouth and describe to the man in front of him exactly what he should do with his reassuring comments but he knew better than to make a bad situation worse. He owed to Keira to control his temper. He took a series of deep breaths, swallowed those words up and said, “I certainly hope so. Keira’s been through too much these past couple of days. She deserved to be relaxing somewhere beautiful and calm, not hiding away from a psycho.”