Luck of the Irish: Complete Edition (29 page)

Inspector Heller stood by her bed as they waited for the young
doctor in charge of her case to return with his findings.

“Could you call the hospital in Cork again, Inspector Heller? I’d love to talk to them.”

“I’ve called Dwyer’s mobile twice but it went straight to voicemail. Let’s wait for the doctor to gives us his feedback. Then, we’ll have more information to relay to them.”

“This might take forever.”

Keira knew she sounded whiny but she really didn’t care at that point. She would do anything to talk to Declan and her family.

Heller and Keira turned to the door when they heard it open, expecting to see the doctor. She shrieked, got of the bed and ran to hug Declan, who entered the room in a wheelchair pushed by Dwyer. Aided by the investigator, he stood up to take her in his arms, holding her close to him, burying his face in her hair.

“Thank God you’re alive, Keira. I thought I had lost you.”

“So did I.”

He framed her lovely face in his big hands, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs, staring into her blue eyes as if probing her very soul. When he spoke, his words came out slowly and clearly, “I love you, Keira. I love you more than my own life. I couldn’t live without you.”

“I love you, too, Declan. I can’t tell you how much I love you. I guess I’ll spend the rest of my life repeating it to you.”

“Promise me you will and I’ll be the happiest man on earth.”

Instead of using words, Keira laced her arms around his neck, and offered her mouth to him. Declan feasted on her sweetness until they were both breathless. As their hungry mouths sought each other, their eager hands grasped, clenched and caressed each other’s flesh. Both of them needed to make sure the other one was real; that they were together once more, against all odds. Shutting the rest of world out of their bubble of happiness, they whispered sweet words into each other’s ears, their hearts swelled as they gazed into each other’s eyes, resting their foreheads together and catching their breath before resuming kissing again.

While the couple celebrated their reunion, Dwyer offered Heller an apologetic smile as the other man shook his head, “Don’t ask,” the young officer answered his senior colleague’s unspoken question. “It was either bringing him along or throwing him in jail for public disorder and assaulting a couple of police officers. Present company included.”

“Did her family come too?”

“They’ll get here soon. They stayed behind waiting for confirmation from me that you had found Keira. Gardai Dean is driving them.”

“I take it Slane didn’t want to wait, huh?”

“That’s the understatement of the year, Heller. An army wouldn’t have held him down. He demanded to come with me. The hospital staff refused to let him go saying he was too weak to travel. He threatened to get out of there without their permission. They finally agreed to release Slane into my care, only after he signed the waivers, only if we came here in an ambulance. He’s still in recovery, you know. He’s a nutcase, if you ask me.”

“That bad?”

“Heller, you know me. In all these years with the police force, I never came so close to punching a victim in the nose as I did with Slane earlier today. The man drove everyone crazy until he got the hospital staff to do his bidding. He was relentless.”

“You didn’t tell them we had found out O’Hallon had rented a house here, did you?”

“I most certainly didn’t! That was sensitive information, which I wouldn’t divulge prematurely and risk giving them false hope. I just said the gardai had found the car. Slane insisted that he knew we would find Keira and that he wanted to be here for her. I don’t know how Slane knew it, but he was right, after all.”

“Watching them together now, can you blame him?”

“I can’t,” he grudgingly smiled at the couple, who still ignored the two officers.

Young doctor Green’s return to the room put an end to Declan and Keira’s passionate kiss, but not to their embrace. They didn’t want to let go of each other for fear of waking up from a pleasant dream. Declan kept his arm around her shoulders and she hugged his waist as they sat on the bed to listen to Doctor Green’s explanations. All the while, they exchanged little tender gestures, quick kisses and feathery caresses.

“The scans showed no internal injuries, no broken bones, and no brain injuries.”

“That’s excellent news.”

“Indeed it is. There’s a small concussion on your temple but you have nothing to worry about that, Miss Ashe.”

“Was that why I had amnesia?”

“You did? Oh, we have so much to talk about, love,” Declan said as he kissed her cheek.

“We do, baby.”

“No, Miss Ashe; but, it probably caused the loss of consciousness.”

“Why did I lose my memory, then?”

“Since the amnesia wasn’t related to a physical problem, as the tests showed, I can only assume it was caused by a psychological one. Judging from your report of events, Miss Ashe, it’s safe to say it was caused by shock.”

Keira frowned and was about to say something to the doctor when Heller interrupted her.

“You had plenty of reasons to be in shock, my dear. You saw your boyfriend being shot and thought he had died. You were kidnapped and taken to a strange place. To top it off, you had to deal with a former aggressor, who also happened to be a delusional creep, and a well-known serial rapist. You’re strong, Keira, I’ll give you that. But, you’re not a superwoman.”

“I’m not as strong as people think.”

“You’re much stronger than
you
think, little brat.”

“Megan!”

Keira stood up and was immediately swallowed by her parents’ and her sister’s arms, hugging her in a tight embrace. The emotional reunion of the Ashe family brought tears to Declan’s eyes. He had witnessed their distress first hand and, now, he was delighted to be able to release Keira into their welcoming arms. He sat on the bed, watching the family hugging and kissing Keira, at last. Everybody laughed, cried, and talked at the same time and he wondered how they understood each other.

Doctor Green discreetly called the detectives over to a corner of the room, “I’ll sign Miss Ashe’s release papers. She doesn’t need further treatment, but I advise you to take Mr. Slane back to the hospital in Cork, as soon as possible. He’s doing his best to put up a brave face, but I can tell he’s in severe pain. His paleness worries me, too. I understand he’s lost a lot of blood recently, which means his body is most likely still compensating for it. If he goes into shock again, he can have a heart attack or other vital organs may shut down.”

“Keeping him in the hospital might turn out to be a little difficult. He’s one stubborn fellow,” Dwyer said it with the conviction of somebody who had dealt with that stubbornness and lost.

“At any rate, it’s getting late, doctor,” Heller observed. “Driving him back to Cork tonight wouldn’t be advisable, would it? What if you kept Slane here overnight for treatment? We can arrange for his transfer back tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that, detectives. Mr. Slane needs medical assistance and that’s a fact. The hospital administration can’t argue against facts.”

“Thank you, doctor.

Watching the small group together reminded Heller of why he had joined the Garda in the first place, so many years ago. Bringing hope to otherwise desperate people; reuniting loved ones; catching the bad guys. Even though he knew it was impossible not to let people down sometimes, moments like those with the Ashes made its hardships worthwhile. Seeing the relief on their faces was a huge reward for him.

On the other hand, now that he had returned Keira safely to Declan, Heller knew he would have to find courage to make amends for his role in Declan’s troubled past. He just didn’t know how to approach the man. He knew he couldn’t postpone that uncomfortable conversation for much longer. He had already done that for almost a month, since he had arrived in Keira’s hotel room after her attack. He had found himself endless convincing excuses but now he had run out of them.

But this is something I’ll worry about after he recovers completely.

* * * *

Keeping Declan in the hospital in Youghal proved to be much easier than anyone had anticipated. After all, he was so glad to be with Keira again that he didn’t care where he stayed, as long as she stayed with him. The Ashes and the detectives had gone out to buy something to eat and to give the couple a little privacy, so Keira lay beside Declan, on the hospital bed, resting her cheek on his chest. He had been hooked to the monitors and IV bags again and she needed to be careful not to hurt him.

Playing with the buttons on his shirt, Keira talked without looking up at him, “I have to tell you something, baby. I don’t know how, though. I’m afraid of your reaction.”

Recognizing fear in her voice frightened Declan to his core. He could deal with most things, except the fact that Keira might be afraid of him at all. He cupped her shoulders for emphasis.

“Keira, love, look at me, please,” he waited for her to lift her gaze to his before he continued. “Whatever you think of me, I beg you, do not fear me. I can’t stand thinking you are afraid of me, love. You know I could never harm you, don’t you?”

“Oh, Declan, absolutely. I’m sorry if I gave you this impression. I know you would never harm me,” she offered him a weak smile. “I’m not afraid of you hurting me. It’s the other way around, in fact. I – I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“Why? How would you do that?”

She looked at her fingers resting on his chest as she absent-mindedly tugged at the thick hair there. She couldn’t find the right words to tell him about what had happened between her and O’Hallon in the cottage, about how she had managed to escape.

“Keira? What happened?”

She looked up and chickened out when her eyes met his dark green gaze. She didn’t want to see the hurt in them knowing she was responsible for it. She decided to change the subject.

“It’s so comforting to feel your heart beating under my hands like this,” she caressed and kissed his chest. “I thought I’d never be able to do it again.”

Unable to fight the effects of the drugs, which were beginning to take their toll, Declan closed his eyes and rested his head on the pillow, clenching his hands in her hair. He tried to focus, to stay alert, but it was very hard. He hated the weakness he was feeling.

“You’re making no sense, love. It must be these painkillers. They’re making me dizzy,” he sounded groggy. “I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to waste time sleeping. We’ve spent too much time apart.”

“Hush, Declan. You need to rest.”

He lifted his head and opened his eyes but his eyelids weighed a ton each. He couldn’t keep them open, “I want to get out of this bed and get you in bed for a whole month.”

“I guess the meds
are
working, Declan, because you’re talking nonsense,” she stretched her neck to reach his mouth and kiss him gently. “Sleep tight, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”

He didn’t answer her but his hands held her close to him when she tried to get out of bed so that he would be more comfortable. She lay her head down on his chest again, and closed her eyes, allowing the soothing sound of his heartbeats to lull her to sleep.

* * * *

True to her word, Keira stuck by Declan’s side, both during the ride on the ambulance back to Cork and later at the hospital there, while he recovered from the surgeries. As soon as he was settled in his new hospital room, and while the Ashe family checked in at a nearby hotel, Declan patted a spot on the mattress beside him.

“Come sit here, love, I want to talk to you.”

When Keira sat down on the bed, he laced his fingers through hers and looked into her gorgeous blue eyes. He would gladly drown in those deep pools.

“The painkillers did a number on me yesterday but I clearly remember a conversation we were having before they kicked in,” he lifted her chin when she tried to look down. “Please, Keira, don’t avoid it. No matter how hard an issue might seem to be, it’s better to deal with it than run away from it. Don’t you trust me?”

A sharp pang of guilt cut through her chest, “Of course I trust you. That’s not an issue. That would never be an issue for me. I – I…”, her voice broke off again and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “Maybe I’m overreacting a bit, Declan; but, I did something very out of character for me. I loathed myself for having to do it, too. You’ve got to believe me, though, that I didn’t see a viable alternative.”

“Keira, the more you dodge the issue, the more worried I get. What
did
you do? I’m freaking out, here.”

Another deep breath and Keira searched his dark green eyes for any traces of anger. Finding none, only concern and love, she stopped fidgeting with the topic.

“We already knew O’Hallon was a dangerous psychopath, but over these last few days, I found out he was completely delusional. While I had the amnesia, he fabricated a complex, detailed story about me and him, as a married couple, and fed it to me. I could tell he believed his own tale. On my part, I had some flashes of memories that seemed to confirm his story to some extent. Deep down, I felt something was wrong. Also, I felt very sick and weak and slept most of the time. The good thing was that my debilitation didn’t allow him to make any advances. When I recovered my memories, I figured I would have a better chance of survival if he didn’t know I knew his story was bogus.”