Page 124 of Redeeming 6

“Don’t!” Reaching across him, I grabbed the door and slammed it shut. “No. I don’t want that. I just want to go home, okay? Just home. That’s it.”

“Molloy.” Joey exhaled a pained groan and turned to look at me. The pain in his eyes, the absolute fucking devastation, seemed to mirror exactly how I felt. “He tried to rape…” His voice broke, and he shook his head before quickly looking away. He dragged in a pained breath, hand slamming against the steering wheel. “He tried to do that to you.”

“I am not going in there,” I warned, eyes filling with tears. “I am not.”

“You have to tell them what he—”

“No, all I have to do is go home,” I insisted, cutting him off, my skin crawling with unease and shame. “That’s all I want you to do for me. That’s it. Just take me the fuck home.”

“Aoife, please.”

“This is not your call to make!” I screamed, pulling on my hair in sheer frustration. “You don’t get to make this decision, Joey. I do. This is my choice, my decision, and I choose not to go in there, okay? I choose to forget about it. That’s what I fucking choose. All I want to do is go home. I don’t want anyone to know about it, okay? I just want to go home, erase it from my mind, and forget that I ever stepped foot inside of that house!”

Joey watched me for the longest time before releasing his hold on the door handle.

“Fuck!” he finally roared, slamming his hand against the steering wheel, and then sagged forward, wrapping his arms around the wheel and burying his face in them. “Fuck!”

“Where were you?” I heard myself croak out, delirious with pain and upset. “I had work! I wasn’t supposed to be there, but you…” I stopped short of blaming him, knowing that it was my hurt talking and not the reality of the situation, and released a pained cry. “I was supposed to be at work.” Tears blurred my vision, and I quickly pushed my hair back, not wanting to feel it touching my neck. “I wasn’t supposed to be there.”

“I know,” he strangled out, looking like he was physically dying inside as he banged his forehead repeatedly against the wheel. “Fuck, I know! It’s just… Something came up, okay? And I forgot to call—”

“Something came up?” My voice rose with my incredulity. “Oh, that’s fine then, isn’t it? If something came up!”

“I’m sorry, okay?” A distressed sob followed by an anguished roar tore from his chest, and he pulled back to look at me. “Let me go in there.” Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks as he implored me with his eyes to give in. “Let me do this for you.”

“No.” I shook my head, refuting his plea, and roughly batted my tears—and then his hand away. “Just take me home, Joe. Please.”

“I don’t know what to do here, Aoife ,” he strangled out, chest heaving. “I hear you, I do, but it’s not the right thing here.”

“If you give one iota of a shit about me, then you will take me home,” I warned, holding a shaky finger up. “I mean it. If you don’t move this car, I’m getting out and walking.”

When he made no move to respect my wishes, I pushed open my door and reached for my seatbelt.

“Okay, okay!” Joey quickly turned the key in the ignition and the old engine roared to life. “I’ll take you home.”

Sniffling, I closed the door, keeping my tear-filled eyes locked on the road ahead of us.

Releasing a heavy sigh, he pulled away from the Garda station, taking me straight home without any more detours.

“Shannon,” he finally said, when we were pulled up outside my house. He pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, “I left her at Johnny Kavanagh’s house. I need to go back for her. I, ah, I can’t leave her there. If they find out she’s with him—”

“It’s fine.” Unfastening my seatbelt, I threw the door open and scrambled out of the car. “You can take the car.”

Closing the car door behind me, I hurried across the road and swung my garden gate inward, desperate to get inside the safety of my home.

“You could come with me?” he called after me, as he climbed out of the car and hurried across the road to reach me. “It won’t take—”

“No, I’m going home,” I repeated, slipping inside and closing the gate, effectively keeping him out.

“I’ll bring the car straight back afterward.”

“It’s fine, I don’t need it.”

“Fine. I’ll come straight back afterward,” he offered, opening the gate and following me inside.

“No.” I shook my head. “You don’t have to.”

“Aoife.” His hand shot out and grabbed mine, and the pain in his voice was too much. “Please don’t do this.”

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