Page 46 of Until Ireland

She’d had started to tell me her involvement in Lux when she called me but was pulled away when Cobi had questions.

“Talk to me.” I felt her soft sigh across my neck. “Cobi is waiting on me. I brushed him off to get to you first. I give him about ten minutes before he comes looking for me to get answers, so every minute you don’t talk is less time we have.”

I got comfortable on the floor, situating her so we were face-to-face, her legs on either side of my thighs.

“Little over a year ago, I used to work for Lux.” Her long pause had me watching her emotions as they played across her face. Whatever she was about to tell me, my gut said I wasn’t going to like it. “I was…ah…” She took a deep fortifying breath. “Involved with the owner. Edgar.”

“Involved?” I inquired, needing her to confirm what I already suspected. I knew she wasn’t a virgin. I also understood I had no say what she did before meeting me. What angered me, however, was the fear and guilt in her gaze. I could kill the son of a bitch who put that in her gaze.

Her eyes dropped to mine. Pain filled those pretty green orbs. “Yeah. I’d worked at his garage for about nine months. We dated for six of those nine months.” Her eyes dropped to her hands, her cheeks bright red with embarrassment. “Until the first time I was working on a car, and I realized it was stolen.”

“And?” I nudged when she went silent. I needed to know as much as possible before Cobi banged on the door.

Ireland sighed and continued. “I brought it to Edgar’s attention. He told me he’d take care of it. All he did was feed me a line of bullshit.” She snorted in disgust. “As a mechanic, you come to realize shit happens with cars. Often, people don’t know they’re driving a boosted or chopped car, trusting the person they purchased the car from or the mechanic who worked on it.”

“You believed him,” I said, ignoring the churn of my stomach just thinking of her with another man. It did shit to me on a caveman level.

“Yeah, and I was stupid, Mack, because it didn’t just happen once. Three more times in less than six weeks. I brought it to his attention each time, and he always told me he’d take care of it. I stupidly assumed he had. Hunter worked in a different garage, and I finally explained to him what was going on. He wanted me to go to the cops and pleaded with me to. I didn’t. And that,” she said, pounding on her chest with her hand, “is on me. My inability to do the right thing ended up endangering my family, forcing us to sell my dead parents’ house and leave the only home we’d ever known under the cover of night. The place Dad bought for our mom and where she brought each of her kids home from the hospital—gone.”

“The boys don’t hate or resent you, Ireland,” I reminded her. The siblings were close. Sure, they busted on each other all the damn time, but under it all, there was love. And they weren’t afraid to show it to each other.

Tears welled in her eyes. “They don’t have to. I resent myself enough for all of them.”

Getting off track would eat up time we didn’t have, so I prodded, “What happened the last time you brought it to Edgar’s attention?”

Ireland laughed. “It became pretty obvious I was the only one in the shop who was clueless as to what they were doing.” Her eyes met mine, and her body stiffened. “He threatened me and my brothers. He made his point abundantly clear what would happen if I didn’t keep my mouth closed.”

I tensed. I wasn’t going to like her answer when I asked my next question. “How?”

Her dainty but strong hands pushed on my chest as she tried to get off my lap and stand. I wrapped mine around her wrists, stopping her.

“Mack—”

“How’d he make his point clear?” I snarled between clenched teeth, holding her in place. I needed to get everything out on the table, so we knew how to deal with the situation.

“He got rough with me,” she whimpered as if afraid of me. The thought made me sick to my stomach. Ireland had yet to see me truly angry. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, all fucking bets were off.

I jerked her small body close, ignoring the rage pulsing through my body at someone daring to lay hands on the woman I was madly in love with. “How fuckin’ rough, Ireland?”

“Rough enough to leave bruises.”

“Motherfucker,” I hissed under my breath, feeling the urge to find Edgar and introduce him to my fist.

Repeatedly.

“We didn’t leave Nashville just because of my bruises, Mack.” Figured as much. In the short time, I’d known her and her brothers, I saw how protective they were of their sister. “Random shit started happening around our house. One morning, I found a dead cat on the front porch, and another time, our mailbox had been taken. I didn’t see it while we were dating, but Edgar’s crazy, Mack. He had some of his friends tail us, do drive-bys with guns hanging out of the windows, and left me threatening notes.”

She shivered in my arms, and I understood she was reliving every damn incident in her mind.

I just held her tighter. “And when the shit started with your car and then your bike, you didn’t put two and two together?”

“More like I put it together and chose to ignore it other than making police reports to cover our asses. We left no forwarding address, and no one knew where we went. How’d he end up finding us? More importantly, why’d he wait so long to start his shit back up?” Her tone was mixed with anger and fear.

Whatever threats Edgar had made against the Banks family, Ireland felt her ex was capable of following through. Which meant so did I. “First, we’re not far from Nashville. Second, a quick search on the internet would locate you, your brothers, or even the garage. Third, people are unpredictable and often do shit without any rhyme or reason. Just because you left didn’t make you less of a liability for him.”

Leaning back against the desk at my back, I took a breath. “Which brings me to another issue, cupcake.” I grasped her chin between two fingers and tucked my head down, so we were looking in each other’s eyes. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me what was going on?” She flinched at the harshness in my tone, and her eyes went wide. I ignored both and continued, my tone gruff and firm. “Damn, baby, you should’ve told me about what had been going on with your car and then your bike this morning. I thought we were working on building a foundation together. Did you think we were playing fast and loose?”

Ireland always had something to say. She was mouthy and always willing to voice her opinion. The fact she didn’t meant she probably believed I’d leave too, which pissed me off even more, because obviously I wasn’t getting my point across properly.

---