Page 82 of Playing for Possession
“You think I’m an idiot.”
He winced. “I don’t think that. Why would I think that? That was never my intention. I promise. I don’t think that at all. How can I make this better?”
You can’t.Heat pressed behind my eyes. He couldn’t just say words and win me over. Words were easy. The damage was done. This couldn’t be fixed.
“I just want you to leave me alone.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “I get it. You need space. I understand. I can wait. I’ll wait.”
I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t forgive him. This had been so good in Menorca but now it was broken. I had enough broken things in my life. It had taken nine months to heal my ruined knee and maybe even that wasn’t long enough. Maybe it was too far gone. There were no physios to fix a shattered heart. The realization settled over me like a heavy blanket. I couldn’t lose myself in that kind of pain. This was over. It had to end now.
“I don’t want you to wait.”
“What do you mean?”
“This isn’t about taking some time out. This is broken. We can’t go back. I should never have trusted you. I don’t want to see you ever again.”
He paled. “You’re pushing me away. We can work on this. It doesn’t need to be the end.” Frustration laced his tone. “Please give me a chance to make things better.”
“There is nothing you can do. I mean it. Don’t talk to me again.”
“Kieran Earnshaw?”
The unfamiliar voice came from behind. I turned to see two police officers. It had to be two of Dad’s guests dressing up for a laugh. Now really wasn’t the time.
Kieran exhaled a glum breath. “Yes?”
The police officer produced a pair of handcuffs. “You’re under arrest for assault. We need you to come with us.”
My heart dropped to my stomach. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. I haven’t done anything.” Kieran gave the police officer a dismissive glance and grabbed my hands again. “I need to sort this out. It’s a misunderstanding. I’ll come for you as soon as I’m done.”
The police office put a hand on Kieran’s arm. “You need to come with us, Mr Earnshaw.”
Kieran’s expression shifted as he struggled to smooth his agitation. His anguished eyes locked with mine. “As soon as they let me go, I’ll come for you. We’ll sort this out. I’m not losing you like this.”
My mind whirled with the times we’d shared—his tender kisses, soft words, and the way he’d made me feel at ease in a way I never had before—but I hardened my heart. Kieran was bad news. He’d lied to me, humiliated me, and now he was getting dragged away by the police for goodness knows what crime. It didn’t even seem to faze him.
Who was this man? He’d taken me for a fool. Iwasa fool. I’d lived this strange, sheltered existence, and I’d never understood how to fit in. Maybe Dad was right, and he’d had reason to try in his own way to protect me. I wasn’t like other people, who moved through their lives with ease. I was on the outskirts all the time, looking in, trying to figure out how to live in this cage of other people’s assumptions about me. I’d known exactly what kind of man Kieran was. I should have trusted my gut from the start.
“I don’t want you to come for me. I want you to leave me alone.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes.” I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to soothe this dull ache of foreboding. “I do. Please. Enough. Look at you. We’re too different. It would never have worked. This is the end.”
“You said you’d always come back to me.” Kieran’s head hung low as the police officer cuffed him. His voice filled with despair. When his eyes lifted to mine, they shone with tears. “It looks like we’re both liars.”
Chapter 37
Kieran
There is nothing more humbling than a prison cell. Last week I’d been sunbathing on a private beach, now I had a hard bench and a pool of vomit in the corner that had been hastily covered in sawdust. I’d lost her. I’d seen it in her eyes when they wrapped those cuffs around my wrists. Everybody said I was a thug. I didn’t want to be like the man who left me, Mum, and Jack to fend for ourselves. Every shitty thing that had ever been written about me was confirmed in that moment.
The heavy door creaked open and the police officer peered at me. A wave of sickness rolled over me. My face ached. I hadn’t had a wink of sleep on the narrow mattress that passed for a bed.
“You’re free to go.” The police officer summoned me with a cheerful smile. “Charges have been dropped.”
