“Remainin’ silent will only lead to more bad shite happenin’ to ye’, Shane. Do yourself a favour and tell me where the shipment is. I know ye’ tried to jack it. I’ve eyes everywhere along the docks.”
Shane laughed, then spat in Joe’s direction. “If ye’ have eyes all along the docks, then why did none of them see where your shipment got to?”
Joe took out a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped his face. “I don’t have time for games. Tell me what I want to know or me friend ‘ere will breaks your legs. Your choice.”
Still, he remained silent. One of the men who brought Shane into the room didn’t wait for an order from Joe before he advanced forward and threw a punch at Shane, who couldn’t defend himself. There was a lot of shouting, cursing, and screaming that followed in the next twenty seconds, and I looked away from the beating just as the other man who brought Shane into the room opened the door, and a gasp sounded.
“I took a wrong turn. I’m so sorry.”
My heart stopped because I knew who that voice belonged to. Just before the man could go after Aideen Collind, I stepped forward and moved in front of him.
“I’ve got her.”
He shrugged and turned back to Shane getting his ass handed to him. I looked at Joe, nodded and then left the room knowing I would never take another job offer from him again. I didn’t want to be involved in people getting hurt anymore. That part of my life was over, and I wasn’t revisiting it for no one. I jogged out of the room and followed the sound of heels clicking against the floor, as well as laboured breathing. I turned onto a hallway and silently walked up behind Aideen, who turned and walked head first into my chest.
“Ow!”
She lifted her hand to her forehead and rubbed it.
“You should watch where you’re going.”
I watched as she recognised my voice, and I wanted to laugh when her fear fled, and annoyance took root, but then I was reminded where she was and just how dangerous things could have been for her if I hadn’t been the one to come after her.
“What the hell are you doing back here?”
Aideen swallowed and looked from left to right. “I could ask you the same thing,” she replied with confidence I knew she didn’t feel.
I set my jaw. “No, you fucking can’t. This is no place for someone like you.”
“Someone like me?” she asked, offended.
I walked forward, and she backed up towards the wall. “Yeah, someone like you.”
When her back pressed up against it, she blurted, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She sucked in a startled breath when I surged forward and gripped both of her arms with my hands.
“It means”—I leaned in close to her face—”that good girls don’t belong here. Understand me, baby doll?”
Her eyes were wide, and her plump lips were parted. She was scared, but she was trying her hardest not to be, and I admired her for it.
“What makes ye’ think I’m a good girl?”
I allowed my eyes to roam over her and felt my lips twitch. “I don’t think you’re a good girl, baby doll. I know you are.”
“That just goes to show ye’ really don’t know me because I do belong ‘ere... I’m ‘round ‘ere all the time. I’ve actually hung out in Darkness since before ye’ even moved here. I’m practically an OG of this place.”
I wanted to laugh.
“Oh, really? Then tell me something, OG, why do you look lost walking down these hallways?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it because she had no clue how to answer me because she was lost. She was too stubborn to admit that, though, so instead, she said, “I don’t have to justify meself to you, Slater.”
I did chuckle then. “That you don’t, baby doll.”
She tried to pull free of my hold, but my grip tightened on her.
“Let go of me!” she demanded. “And what the hell is with this baby doll crap?”
I hadn’t realised I had called her baby doll, but I looked at her from head to toe and shrugged, “You need babying, and you look like a doll so... baby doll.”
“Is that your way of implyin’ that I’m fake like a doll?”
I tilted my head. “Uh, no, you little weirdo.”
“Now you’re callin’ me short?” She huffed. “You’re a real—”
I surprised her when I began to laugh. She went completely silent, and I concluded it was because she never heard me laugh before.
“You need to calm down,” I said. “I’m not insulting you. First, all I’m saying is you need looking after. You being here proves my point, so that’s what I meant by babying. Second, you look gorgeous, fucking unreal, so that is what I meant by a doll. Put them together and you get baby doll, baby doll.”
Her voice was soft as she said, “And little?”
I grinned. “You’re a little bitty thing, what can I say?”
Her cheeks flushed a pretty pink, and she couldn’t look me in the eye. She was pleased with what I said, but her damn pride wouldn’t allow her to admit it.
“Your observations and sugar sweet words won’t get ye’ anywhere with me, so ye’ can let go of me arms.”
The challenge in her tone amused me. “Make me.”
She scowled up at me. “I don’t have time for this. I just saw somethin’ I shouldn’t have, and I have to leave before they find me—”
“I already found you,” I interrupted.
Her jaw dropped. “You were in that room?”
I shrugged in response.
She placed her delicate hands on my chest and tried to push me away. “Get away from me.”
She looked scared of me then, and I hated that.
“It’s not what you think. I was more of an observer than an active participant in that room.”
Her eyes widened. “So ye’ watched a helpless man get attacked? How fuckin’ noble of ye’, Kane.”
“Aideen, you take people at face value too often.”
She regarded me. “I clearly do because I thought you weren’t into anythin’ bad. Looks like I was very wrong.”
She rounded on me then and turned right, trying to find her way out the club. I followed her.
“I’m not a bad man, Aideen.”
She scoffed. “What are ye’ doin’ back ‘ere then?”
“Working.”
She stopped midstride and turned to face me. “What type of work?”
“It’s nothing that concerns you, babe—trust me.”
“Bite me, Slater.”
I took a step closer to her. “Tell me where and I’ll be happy to oblige.”
Her pupils dilated a fraction, and her breathing became audible as I moved closer to her. She stared up at me with doe like eyes, and said, “Kane?”
I lowered my face to hers. “Aideen?”
Her lips parted ever so slightly, and her eyes locked on my lips.
“What’re ye’ doin’?”
I wanted to kiss her so badly it hurt.
“Call it an act of impulse.”
She shivered. “Ye’... ye’ better not be thinkin’ what I think you’re thinkin’.”
“I bet our thoughts are pretty identical right now, baby doll.”
“Get away from me,” she said with no conviction. “Lose the stupid nickname, too.”
She didn’t want me to do either of those things. Her cheeks were flushed, her body was leaning into mine, and she was all but panting before me.
“Not a chance in hell on either count, baby doll.”
Before she could yell at me, I pressed my lips against hers. I waited for any sign that she truly didn’t want me. I had it planned out in my head, and I’d let her smack me if she wanted to, and then I would apologise profusely if she wanted nothing to do with me. But the possibility of that vanished when she opened her mouth and flicked her tongue against my lips. She moaned when I kissed her back she slid her hands up my arms to my shoulders where she pressed her fingers firmly into my flesh.