He chewed the mouthful and took a sip of his coffee. “Never ye mind, Aeval. If I die, at least I’ll die happy.”
“Oh you’re not dying now Mr. O’Kelley. Not after everything we’ve been through. No way, you’re going to die of high cholesterol just like every other happy husband out there.”
Cullen smiled. “Well, so Ó Cléirigh thinks I’m loopers. He just left ten minutes ago. I told him that my attacker called me but he thinks I dreamt it.”
“What? Your attacker called you? What did he say?”
“He claimed to be Liam.”
I sat down hard on the chair next to the bed.
“Aeval, are ye okay?” Cullen leaned forward and took my hand.
“I’m fine,” I uttered.
“What the hell, maybe I am going daft. All these bloody painkillers, and for what? I’m fine. Give me a pint of the black stuff and I’ll deal with the pain.”
I nodded, knowing that Cullen hated being drugged as much as I did. “Just do your best to be patient, honey. The doctor is coming today and when he clears you, they said I can take you home. And anyway, the Inspector may very well believe you. He doesn’t give away much.”
“Climb up here with me, Aeval. I can’t take another minute bein’ apart from ye.”
I climbed up into the confines of the hospital bed and Cullen was nibbling at my collarbone before I’d even settled in. Before I knew it, he was dragging his sweet kisses up my neck as his breathing escalated and his hands started to roam over my front.
“Why, Mr. O’Kelley, aren’t you supposed to be resting?” I whispered.
“I’ve rested enough. What I need is some quality time with my fiancé. And if ye don’t give it to me then I shall climb up on this bed and tack mistletoe above it, leavin’ ye no choice.”
I gasped as his hands gripped at my breast. He wasn’t slowing down. I was pretty sure he was planning to do more than just get frisky right here in the hospital bed. It was wrong but still I enjoyed seeing this side of him again. The robust colour had returned to his cheeks. I swallowed and peeked beneath the sheet that covered us.
“I’m afraid if you keep touching me like that, we’re going to get kicked out of this respectable place.”
“I expect you’re right.” I lay back against him as he kissed my neck.
“I’ll settle for holdin’ ye right here as long as we finish this later today.”
“I couldn’t agree more. So how have you been sleeping?”
“I dream about the attack every time I close my eyes. I wish this was all a dream,” Cullen replied. “Every time I wake up, I pray that it has all just been one bad dream.”
“I hear you.”
“But I didn’t imagine that phone call, Aeval. Ye gotta believe me.”
“I do. Of course, I believe you. I thought the same thing. Cullen, there are so many signs that point to your brother being alive. Leslie and I even went to his grave and it’s dug up. Either he somehow cheated death or someone is working really hard to convince us that he has.”
He pulled me in close and I allowed myself a moment’s peace, feeling safe and warm in his big strong arms. “Whether he’s alive or not, there’s someone out there messin’ with us again and ye need to be careful.”
“I will be careful, but it’s hard to worry about myself right now. I just keep thinking of Leslie —where she could be and what’s happening to her. If she’s being kept somewhere, what are the conditions like? She’s been gone for over a week now. Are they feeding her? I wish you could remember what you went through so I’d at least know that she wasn’t being hurt.”
“I know,” Cullen said. “It’s like they kept me drugged or somethin’. I don’t feel like they mistreated me. In fact, I have memories of a woman taking very good care of me.”
“But Cullen, the bruises…”
“I know. Maybe I was dreaming of my mother or maybe they were good to me up until the end, but anyway, ye can’t think the worst.”
“I know. And hopefully the Inspector will find something from the couriers who delivered the picture of Leslie.”
“Hopefully—although he could have paid cash and used a fake name.”
“You’re not helping.”
“Sorry, Aeval, but it’s my nature to be realistic. Ye’re the unfailingly optimistic one, or are ye after forgettin’?”
“Right. Well, not anymore I’m not,” I said, dryly. I kissed Cullen’s forehead and got up from the bed. “You need to lay back and rest, so that the doctor will let you out of here.”
Cullen did as he was told for once and leaned back against the bed, which had been propped to a forty-five-degree angle. I took a seat in the corner and checked my phone to see if I’d missed any calls.
“What are ye doin’, Aeval? Ye waitin on somebody?”
“I can’t seem to get a hold of Sam. It’s bothering me. I know it’s silly but I’m a little concerned that someone’s taken him, too. He was looking for Leslie on his own and now he’s not answering his phone, he’s not at his apartment, and I don’t know where else to look.”
We crossed the parking lot to my green ‘74 Triumph Spitfire and Cullen struggled to get into the passenger seat.
“Are you sure you don’t want some help?”
The seats were low and probably not ideal for a newly released patient, but he refused my help.
He practically growled the word “no” at me so I marched around to the driver’s side and buckled up. After turning the key in the ignition, I fiddled with the radio and switched it to Cullen’s favorite station. We were still desperate to jog his memory. So far, we’d come up empty.
I drove across the hospital parking lot and noticed a familiar sedan parked across the street about half a block ahead. There was supposed to be no parking there so it stood out. “Wait a minute. That looks like Leslie’s rental car,” I said, squinting. “The gold one parked in front of that brick house. I remember it because gold is such a rare colour for a car.” Cullen turned his head in the direction I was pointing.
“Pull up beside it, Aeval, and have a look.”
I put the car in gear and paid to exit the parking lot, when the suspicious looking sedan pulled away from the curb and sped off.
“Follow it,” Cullen shouted.
As soon as the toll arm lifted I turned hard onto the street and practically drove through the stop sign at the end in an attempt to catch up.
Three additional turns later I began to wonder whether this had been a good idea. “Where is it going?” I said, doing my best to keep up. There were several cars between us and I got stopped at a red light heading out of town. By the time it turned green, I’d lost sight of the car.
“Damn!”
“Oh well. It probably wasn’t hers,” Cullen said. “Let’s go to the house. Da knows a few good private investigators. It’s probably a good idea if we start our own search anyway. We’ve the money and the garda have enough cases to work.”
We were quiet for a while, both enjoying the rolling hills of the countryside and the music.
“Ye know, Aeval, there’s something that keeps nigglin’ at me.”
“What?”
“I’m no quite sure. That’s what’s drivin’ me mental. It was somethin’ that gobshite said to me on the phone. It came back to me when you pointed out that car but it’s gone again.”
“The drugs are wearing off so maybe things will get clearer soon. Maybe we should call Chandler Jarrell.”
“Who?”
“You know, Eddie Murphy’s character from that movie I made you watch on the plane, where that guy has to rescue that kid from the bad guys.”
“Which one—wasn’t that the plot of every cheesy eighties movie.”
“What? No. There were also tons of martial arts, summer camps and body switching. Is it so wrong to want a happy ending?”
The road curved, and then straightened out, when I noticed a car behind us off in the distance. I couldn’t be sure who was driving but
it looked like the same car we’d seen earlier. I slowed down, but the car slowed, too. Pulling my purse open, I rifled through it. “We need to try Leslie’s cell.” I glanced down. “It’s in the recent calls section,” I said.
“Aeval?”
“What?”
“What was the name of that movie?”
“The Golden Child?”
“That’s it. I know who has Leslie.”
“Who? Sardo Numspa and his band of villains?”
I looked up in time to feel a jolt; the sedan had sped up while I’d been fiddling in my purse. We were rammed from behind and I did my best to maintain control of the steering wheel, my knuckles so tight and white they ached. But control came and went and came again in spurts too quick to pinpoint. Then the gold sedan pulled alongside and rammed us again from the back corner. The right tires began to skid on the gravel shoulder, while the lefts bounced maniacally over rocks and holes and leafy brush. A fence and a row of trees loomed directly ahead.
I hit the brakes, and reflexively jerked the wheel away from the trees, giving us just enough leeway to avoid a direct hit. I heard the side mirror snap off, or maybe it was Cullen’s head hitting the glass. Then metal against tree, and we were upside down. My eyes closed and then flew back open.
A cloud of dust billowed around the wreck, swirling inside the car through a shattered rear window. I coughed fitfully, and then cleared my throat.
I could feel a tender bruise across my torso, where the shoulder strap held me in place. It was times like this I cursed myself for driving a vintage car that lacked airbags. I hit the button and my head as I fell.
The world was unnaturally quiet. I looked over at Cullen. He was unconscious.
Great, and I still had no idea who was trying to kill us.
I had to get him out but was it safe to move him? Help me, God. What was I supposed to do? Had our attacker simply given up and driven on, afraid to take any more chances on a public road?
With fast, feverish hands, I reached around his hip, seeking out the little red button. There it was. Why wouldn’t it release? Again and again I punched it. Then every muscle in my body clenched as the passenger-side glass, only inches from Cullen’s head shattered. Was someone shooting at us?
Cullen opened his eyes with a moan. I knew the answer for sure three seconds later when the next shot hit him.
SEVENTY-ONE
S o much for a good day—Cullen was still hanging upside down and now he was shot.
“Bloody hell. I can’t catch a break.” He croaked as he moved his arm, revealing a tear in his leather jacket.
“Cullen. Who the hell has Leslie?”
“Sam,” he whispered.
“No way.”
“Aye. It just came back to me. He’s the bastard who kidnapped me.”
I reached for his jeans to see if he was wearing a belt.
“Easy there, kitten, I’m not exactly in the prime shape to please ye, at the moment.”
“Very funny—I was thinking we should stop the flow of blood.”
“I don’t think I’m bleedin’, and if I am, it’s definitely not enough to require a tourniquet. Get me out of this car before ye investigate—we’re sittin’ ducks like this.”
“Your seatbelts stuck.”
The gunfire stopped. Maybe our shooter left, thinking us dead.
“Where’s the mobile? We need to call the Inspector.” I whispered.
Cullen closed his eyes. His face was growing paler by the second. He was still hanging upside down.
Thanks for the dramatic exit, Cullen. What to do? I looked to my left and saw my cell phone in the dirt two feet from the window. It must have flown out on impact. I looked back at Cullen but it was clear he’d passed out. I stuck my head out of my shattered window. No sign of our shooter. I slowly crept toward the phone, as silently as possible.
Too late, I heard the crackling of leaves. “Turn around slowly,” a voice said.
I obeyed and fixed my gaze on Sam, about four feet behind the car, a tiny but lethal .22 pointed at my chest. Well, I guess Cullen was right about that. Ugh. I hate it when he’s right.
Sam looked disheveled. His shirt was unbuttoned and dirty. There was a red birthmark on his neck. It dawned on me that he’d always hidden his neck, always wearing a scarf or a collared shirt. It reminded me of the groom I’d jilted at Dunlace Castle.
“Sorely Boy,” I said out loud, thinking of him.
He laughed. “No one’s called me that in the longest time. It makes me nostalgic.”
“You remember?” I said, wondering if I’d somehow brought him back from the 16th century.
“The Institution ye mean? Goldie told ye about my time with Liam?”
What was he talking about? Goldie was a derogatory name Cullen’s brother Liam had nicknamed him because he was jealous of him. Always saying that he was the favourite—the golden child who could do no wrong. Cullen’s brother had spent many years in a mental institution before becoming a Priest.
“No. Cullen didn’t tell me anything. You kidnapped him then? Why?”
“I called him Goldie on the phone and he recognized me. It just slipped out. I had no choice after that. He would never have let me around ye after that.”
“And so you hid him in the basement of Dunlace Castle. How did you even find that room, Sam?”
“Find it? I always knew about it. I read about it in my ancestor’s journal. How he saw his bride-to-be reading spells from the witches books in there—the same lass who claimed to be a woman from the twenty-first century. He overheard her telling her Da and believed she’d said her name to be Sophia Marcil. I didn’t give ye that book to study—I’m no fool.”
“So, you hired Cullen to gain access to me? Why? Sorely didn’t even love Sive. He re-married. I saw the picture and the certificate.”
“I expect ye know far more than I do about any of this but the witch says we always revolve around one another. It’s my job to help Liam. We’re all connected, aren’t we? Bound by this bloody curse.”
“The curse was broken when Liam died. Now where’s Leslie?”
“Ye haven’t found her yet? Well, maybe ye won’t get to her in time then. Oh, and I know Cullen’s in the car, so please be a good lass and just step aside. I know yer stallin’.”
So he wanted Cullen? This puzzled me.
I held my ground, praying Cullen had regained consciousness. “What do you mean, in time? Sam, please, Leslie is innocent. Please tell me where she is.”
“It’s not up to me,” he whispered. “I wasn’t the one who took her.”
“What does that mean? Who took her if it wasn’t you?”
“The Witch. She was furious with me for taking Cullen. She knows I love ye girls. She thought I told Leslie about her.”
“So, the witch likes Cullen? Can you tell me her name?”
“Alexandra Cuza.”
He glanced around, and then shrugged, so relaxed and arrogant, the muzzle of the .22 still trained on my chest. “She got really angry when she saw the bruises, I’d left on him. I didn’t mean to lose my temper but he killed my best friend. Liam and I were the best of pals. Who do you think helped him? I even spied on you sometimes, which was a nice little bonus. Ye like yer bubble baths, to be sure.”
I grimaced. “He made you into a peeping tom and that made you happy.”
“It was more than that,” he spat. “I was his ally. We were connected by our past lives—by our mutual betrayal by you. The witch told us so. And Cullen killed him and now I have no one.”
He pointed the gun at the car and I was momentarily worried he was going to shoot Cullen again.
“Please, Sam. Put the gun down. Cullen had nothing to do with Liam’s death. It was an accident. He fell off the beam trying to kidnap me.”
“It never would have happened if it wasn’t for his brother... He stole ye from Liam.”
Clearly Liam had poisoned Sam with his delusions. I’d heard this all before. Liam had gone off
like a lunatic when he’d kidnapped me, saying Cullen was never supposed to be there the day they’d pulled me from the sea and rescued me from drowning. Liam believed I only fell in love with Cullen because I’d opened my eyes and seen him first. It was complete bull because I didn’t even remember the moment he spoke about. I needed to keep Sam talking and keep his attention off of Cullen.
“So, you were still friends with Liam? Still in contact with him when he died?”
“Aye. Of course.”
“Why were you trying to make me think he was alive?”
“I knew ye suspected me. I had to do something to throw ye off my scent.”
“So, tell me what happened in the past Sam —after I left—since you seem to know so much. When I last saw Sorely and Uilliam, they were enemies. I rejected you and you and your men attacked the castle. You’re telling me Uilliam just forgave you and the two of you called a truce?”
Sam laughed as if I’d just told him the funniest joke in the world. “First of all, I never really wanted you back then. I wanted the castle—I knew you would never love me but you were part of the package. Conal stole your heart when you were just a girl but the two of you couldn’t be together. That’s why the witch stepped in and gave you the sapphire. She knew it would provoke Uilliam to kill you. The sapphire always makes him kill you. She controls him with that sapphire.”
“So, you do remember being there? You remember that life, Sam?”
“No, but Alexandra does and she told me.”
“The witch? Where can I find her?”
Sam seemed to ignore me, looking off in the distance as if he was having his own conversation in his head. Then he spoke. “Liam got me out of that institution and he was going to take us away. Ye and me and Leslie—Liam was going to take us to a better place where no one could lock us up again. He promised we would live like kings. I was counting on that. I won’t be locked up again.” He smiled. “And now ye’ve ruined that but I’ll have my revenge.”
“Revenge is only going to get you locked back up.”
“No. I won’t go back.” He jerked away from me, spinning to face something behind and to the left. Startled, I crouched down and looked in the same direction. No one was there.
Cruel Fortunes Omnibus: Volumes One to Four Page 67
