Ruthless Salvation

32

TORIN REALLY DID MAKE me work the following night. I wasn’t upset about working per se, but I didn’t feel like allowing his possessive behavior to go unchecked was a good idea. If I was going to work on trusting him, he would have to do the same for me.

“You have plans for Thanksgiving?” he asked while I was getting the bar set up for the night.

“I’ll be staying home. Why? Were you hoping to have me work Thanksgiving as well?” I lifted a brow, making sure he knew I disapproved of his behavior the day before.

“You know the club is closed that day,” he grumbled with a touch of contrition.

“Do I? I figure I never really know where you’re concerned.” I finished scooping cherries into a container and dropped the empty jar in a trash bin.

“You’re not going to let me live that down, are you?”

“I would if I knew you wouldn’t go all caveman on me again.”

His eyes dropped to his hands in an uncharacteristic show of uncertainty. “What if I backed off the Oran thing?”

“What exactly do you mean by back off?” I asked, my voice softening.

“If there’s someplace you need to show him, I don’t need to act as a chaperone. You two can go see whatever it is he needs to see.” He flitted his fingers in the air dismissively.

A part of me wanted to shoot back a patronizing thank you for his generosity, but despite the absurdity, he was trying. I needed to acknowledge and encourage this unexpected concession rather than mock it.

“I’d appreciate that show of trust,” I offered in a sincere, sober tone.

He casually leaned forward, reaching across the bar to extract a single cherry from the container and raised it to my mouth. I had to fight back a grin. Parting my lips, I took the sweet fruit on my tongue. His tropical eyes darkened with a raging storm of desire as he plucked the stem from the cherry. I took my time savoring the sugary treat and lavishing in the feel of knowing I affected him so profoundly.

For the rest of the night, we performed a seductive dance from a distance. Furtive glances. The accidental brush of a hand. A tease of skin on display. By the time I got home, every nerve ending in my body tingled with the need for release. Even more so when I opened the drawer to my nightstand and saw the note next to my vibrator.

Think of me when you’re using this.

I couldn’t help but grin as I shook my head. That man had no freaking boundaries, and that should have been a problem. What did it say about me that I didn’t seem to care?

TORIN KEPT his promise and bowed out of my excursion with Oran. As expected, the outing was brief and purely informational. Torin’s cousin was entirely too fixated on uncovering information about Darina to even think of hitting on me. I was glad he was so focused on finding her. It was far too easy to make a woman disappear. If anyone knew that, it was me.

A few days later, I was on a second outing with yet another Byrne family member. Rowan was a vivacious breath of fresh air that I took to instantly. She’d come by the bar a few times—even danced on stage once to piss off Keir before they ended up married.

The girl had balls, and I was there for it.

She might even have become my hero. I got the sense she blazed her path in the world on her terms, and I loved that. When I was given the opportunity to go shopping with her one day, I jumped on the invite.

“You know I’m dying to ask you about Torin,” Rowan said as we strolled by racks of clothes at H&M. I was pretty sure she could afford way nicer stuff, but she didn’t push to go anywhere fancier. Another point in her favor.

“Torin? What about him?” I didn’t know where to begin, so I played dumb instead.

“I’ve seen the way you two are around each other. Your s****l tension is off the charts! You can’t tell me nothing’s happened between you.”

Heat crept up my neck and blossomed on my cheeks. “I suppose I won’t deny it, but that still doesn’t mean I know what to tell you. Torin is … complicated. Things between us are beyond confusing.”

“Say no more.” She lifted her hand and dipped her chin as though singing praise in a small country church. “If there’s anyone who understands, it’s me. Keir acted like he was equally likely to kiss me as he was to kill me. Hell, he married me without my permission after drugging and kidnapping me. That’s not normal. None of them are, if you ask me.”

I froze, my mouth gaping wide. Rowan took a second to realize I’d stopped before grinning on her way back to me.

“Are you freakin’ kidding me? He really did all that? And you’re still with him?”

She shrugged. “I told you. If there’s anyone who understands, it’s me. Sometimes life is complicated, and it sucks, but sometimes life is complicated in the most incredible way imaginable. I’ve never been happier since Keir came into my life. With a knife. After breaking into my parents’ house.”

I grabbed her hand. “Okay, that’s it. We’re finding a place to sit, and you’re telling me everything.”

She laughed and let me tug her along.

We sat in the mall food court for over an hour, completely forgetting about shopping. I ate up her words far more hungrily than the soft pretzel in front of me. Their story was fascinating. It helped me realize that unconventional wasn’t necessarily bad.

“I appreciate you sharing all this,” I said with a warm smile.

“Absolutely. I just hope it helps. I may not know Torin well, but I know Keir, and I’m learning more about their family every day. They’re good people. Maybe not the most lawful, but still good. It took me a while to understand the difference.”

Rowan didn’t know, but she’d just touched on the crux of my dilemma. One of them, at least.

I was relieved to hear that Torin might not be as dangerous as my mind led me to believe, but that didn’t change my situation, did it? Even if he was a good man, was I willing to bring so much danger to him and his family by having a relationship with him? Keir and Rowan and Oran and all the other Byrnes. Could I, in good conscience, drag them into my nightmare?

Is that your decision to make? They’re freaking gangsters. Maybe what you think of as dangerous is just another Tuesday to them.

Time seemed to grind to a halt as the thought formed. Had I nurtured my fears so ardently that I failed to consider they might not be a problem for someone else? Or was I merely being selfish? I didn’t want to rationalize away the dangers just because I wanted to be with Torin.

I would have to give it some thought because my past was dangerous. It had long, pointy talons that could shred my world to pieces. My present wasn’t all that innocent, either, but was I willing to pit them against one another in a fight to the death?

The possibility chilled me to the bone.