Page 28 of Soulless Saint

“I’m waiting for a ride.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Excuse me?”

I started to walk but he eased off the brakes, following alongside me as I moved further from the party.

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

“Look, I’m not getting in the car with you. For all I know you could be a serial killer.”

“Name’s Aodhán,” he continued as if I didn’t just accuse him of mass murder, confirming my suspicion of his origin. Something in the way he said it. Not Aiden, though it was pronounced so similarly it would be an easy mistake to make. No. It was Aodhán, Irish. Traditional. And somehow… endearing?

No.

Not even a little.

I really needed to get laid. I promised myself I’d charge every single one of my toys when I got back to the apartment. This girl didn’t need a beating heart and brain attached to her dicks. Just a remote control and rechargeable batteries.

“Cool name, why don’t you go tell it to someone else.”

He tipped his head back against the leather seat and laughed, the sound of his low chuckle barely audible above the chug of the muffler.

“Here,” he said, and even though I tried to keep my gaze straight ahead I couldn’t help but peek out of the corner of my eye to see him holding something out to me. I stopped, and he hit the brakes in tandem, the little plastic card between us held out by his first two fingers. “Take it.”

I clenched my teeth, but I did, snatching it from between his fingers. It was his ID. And right there printed in black ink on the white card was his full name. Aodhán ó Súilleabháin. From Belfast.

“If you take a picture of it and send it to your pals then I can’t very well kidnap and murder you, can I?”

I bit my lower lip, looking down the long, dark road ahead and realizing that I had no fucking idea how to get back to the Row.

“For all I know, you could be the one doing the murdering,” he added with a wink. “Let me give you a ride. You look like you could use one and I wouldn’t be the gentleman I am if I left a lady alone in the dark.”

His green eyes sparked in the glow of headlights from an oncoming car, the twin beams painting his dirty blond hair with streaks of purest gold. Making the silver cross earring dangling from his right lobe reflect the light.

“Go on,” he urged. “Take a photo.”

I hesitated, my throat going dry. If Ava Jade knew I was even considering this she would have my head on a fucking platter. But Aves wasn’t here and unless I planned on going back into the party…

Biting the inside of my cheek, I bent, retrieving my phone from the inside of my boot. I made a big show of ‘taking a photo’ of his license and sending a text, careful to make sure the phone screen stayed out of his line of sight. I even went so far as walking around to the front of the impala to ‘snap a pic’ of the license plate, committing it to memory instead.

ANRCHST.

I slid into the passenger seat, the supple leather brushing against the backs of my thighs as I shut the door behind me. Aodhán reached between us to twist the knob on the sound system, turning up the radio to a low hum, filling the silence with a classic rock song.

“I didn’t catch your name, love.”

A permanent smirk seemed fused to Aodhán’s lips but it did nothing to make him seem happy. He was more… flippant? Slouching in the seat with an arm draped over the wheel as we drove through the quiet Sunday night streets of Santa Clarita. He lifted a chain from beneath his dark t-shirt, putting a silver charm to his lips.

“Becca,” I told him, passing him back his license, wondering if it was even valid over here. “Do you go to school here?”

“Becca,” he repeated, as though he didn’t think it suited me. “I wouldn’t have guessed.”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

Aodhán deftly used a single hand to open the wallet on his lap and slip his ID back inside. “I do.”

“Kilborn?” I guessed, trying to imagine him in my art class and failing. But then again, from what I heard about Kilborn, he didn’t seem the type to fit in there either. I couldn’t imagine him in a polo shirt, or a button up, or a blazer, attending classes on law or hedge funds.

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