Page 33 of Intimately Faithful

It was his turn to pin her with a look. One that said not to push him. “I’m trying to help you, you crazy woman. You tell me you’re on the run from a Russian member of the mafia. I’ve seen every episode of the Sopranos, that’s my whole involvement with this kind of shit, Aoife. Forgive me if I’m trying to do what I know to keep you both safe without involving the authorities, which I still think we need to do.”

“I’m safe here with you. No one knows about our connection. Being in a church is the last place those guys would look for me.”

She had a point, but it didn’t give him ease.

He went about fixing sandwiches until he’d placed a heaping pile in front of her, which she dug into instantly.

“These are good,” she mumbled with her mouth full.

“Cora usually cooks actual meals. I’m not very good with a stove.”

“I can cook. Remember that venison stew ma would make sometimes?” She smiled around a pouched cheek of food and all Danny could think about was tastingherfood.

Tasting her food so fucking long and hard.

He swerved his mind because he needed to not think of the ways Aoife used to feed him on a regular basis. It had been a long time since heate, and he was feeling more on edge than he usually would.

Nothing about this situation and having Aoife back in his vicinity put him at ease.

“I’ve been in touch with the local MC. Motorcycle club,” he clarified when her brows pinched in the middle. “They’re going to make sure the house is watched at all times and they’ll allow you to stay there if need be. Trust me, they’re men we want on our side.”

Our side.So easily he aligned himself with her.

Later he’d think more about that but for now he sat opposite Aoife and grabbed a doorstop thick ham sandwich.

“I’ve known of them for a while because more than once I overheard Grigori bitching about them.” The mood in the air shifted suddenly and her expression was not hard to read. She was hurt that he’d tried to get rid of her, as she would think.

“What if I don’t want to go to the bikers?”

“We don’t have choices here, Aoife. You asked for my help. This is me doing the only thing I know how. Without your passport we’re down to very few options. Maybe we can get your things back somehow. Was your apartment guarded?”

“No, I could come and go as I pleased. I’m not bothered about my clothes, but I would like my ID and wallet back, plus a few personal effects.”

Without thought, he slipped his phone from his back pocket and put a call through. “It’s Danny Murphy. Is there a way one of your boys could retrieve some items from a place over on …” He supplied the address Aoife whispered to him. The call was kept brief. Lawless told Danny he’d get back to him.

“Are you friends with these men?”

“Not really.”

“Then why would they help?”

“Because I asked.”

She seemed to accept his answer and went on eating with the baby sleeping soundly on her lap. His eyes roamed over the rosy cheeks and he wondered how the birth was. Had she been alone, did she have someone to hold her hand?

His chest tightened into a balled knot.

“I don’t want you to hand me over to someone I don’t know, Danny. I might as well have taken the chance on my own.”

He sighed and rubbed his face.

He could no more hand her over to someone else than he could summon the devil.

He figured the latter would be easier.

But having her around him, smelling her unique Aoife scent and catching her watching him was playing holy hell on his heart.

“I’m not going to, not how you make it seem. But we need help,youneed help and these men know how to contain the Russians.”

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