Page 48 of The Celtic Resolution
“You are, I can tell. No wonder she took you for a ride.” He scoffs to himself and turns his attention to an array of documents before him. “Pussy is a man’s greatest weakness.”
“I’m not?—”
“Did you fuck her?” His eyes dart up to me and I’m rooted to the spot, unable to move or think under the weight of such an abrupt accusation.
“I mean?—”
“Enough. I don’t need details.”
Am I that obvious? “That’s not why I’m defending her, Dad. I really think you’ve misunderstood what I was trying to tell you.”
“No,” he says flatly. “I don’t think I have. It’s simple, Bruno. She took advantage of you and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. It’smyname she’s been dragging through the dirt and whispering in connection with something so heinous as human trafficking. You understand how this world works, Bruno. Rumors like that cankilla man.”
“But in prison?—”
“Listen.” He cuts me off once again. “I need you to do something for me.”
I hesitate, the words weighing down my tongue but escaping.
“With Rocky gone and a lot of my people working on the Irish, a few positions have opened up and I need someone trusted, someone who truly has my back to keep an eye on the next haul of deliveries coming through customs. Are you up for it?”
Someone… trusted?
And just like that, I’m suddenly my father’s number one guy and it feels great. Even Mary is happy for me and for a few days, it really feels like our family is starting to get back on the right track. Dad keeps me busy constantly and by the time I crash into bed each night, I’m so exhausted I don’t have time to think about anything else.
But Saoirse is in my dreams.
And in my thoughts when I’m sitting at a red light waiting for the stupid driver in front of me to fix his tire so we can get out ofhere. I still need to fix this. I need to keep my head on straight and fix this.
Understandably, Saoirse doesn’t reply to any of my calls or texts, and after the third attempt, she blocks me. I try again with different numbers, but she doesn’t pick up. Her message is clear.
But I need to talk to her. I need to explain to her properly that I was stupid and I got caught up soothing a pain I’ve carried for fourteen years. And then I want to assure her I will fix everything and we can get right back on track, hunting down the real culprit behind this whole mess.
I’ll get my family back, she’ll get her name cleared and the Italian/Irish treaty will be back the way it was.
It has to be like this.
If only I could get in contact with her.
When all my desperate attempts fail, I turn to Mary who’s much more savvy about this kind of thing than I am. While the majority of us are trained to a specific level in secrecy and covering our tracks, Mary never has been. Her skills lie in social media and deduction, which I can only wish to have. She justknowsthings about people, things that seem painfully obvious when she points them out.
With her help, I compile a diary of possible places I can run into Saoirse naturally and force her, in a not-so-gentle way, into having a conversation with me. It’s my last attempt to fix the carnage I’ve caused.
With the sudden workload from my father and the secrecy Saoirse keeps in her day-to-day life, I’m not able to catch her until a warm evening in August, where I finally spot her by chance. I’m driving past the Black Ox with a delivery and spot her heading inside with her twin brother, Cian. I almost stop dead in the road and follow her, but the last thing I need is a late delivery alerting my father to my plans. So I continue work after leaving a guard across the street to keep an eye on the Black Ox.
By the time I’ve delivered the pallets to the warehouse, an hour has passed and I race back to the Black Ox with my heart pounding the entire way. Who knows when I’ll next get a chance to catch Saoirse and talk to her?
I arrive a little after midnight. My guard assures me no one has left the bar since I stationed him there. Relieving him of duty, I settle into the shadowy doorway and wait.
A little after one in the morning, Saoirse finally leaves the Black Ox. There’s a faint smile on her face and I hang back, waiting to see if her brother will follow her. She remains alone. She walks down the street with her hair swept to one side over her shoulder and her stance seemingly relaxed.
I follow at a distance on the other side of the street. Does this make me a creep? Probably. But it’ll be worth it if I can just talk to her and set things right. I’ll apologize until I’m breathless, I’ll get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness, hell at this point I will do everything and anything in my power to make it up to her. I just need one chance, one moment of her time and?—.
I halt at the edge of the curb and stare down the now empty street that I saw her turn down only a few seconds ago. There’s not a soul to be seen.
Where the hell did she go?
There are no alleyways and no cars, and I didn’t hear any passing vehicles that could have picked her up and vanished within ten seconds. Even if she sprinted I still would have seen her. Where the hell did she!
