Deidre looked like she’d been in a horrible accident that had left half her face drooping and the other half scarred and blotchy. She went to the bathroom and returned with the dress Sarah had provided on. It made her look about three sizes larger, with huge floppy boobs that hung low on her chest. She was a bloated, hideous nobody in this getup. It was perfect.
“Would it be wrong to still be aroused?” Niall joked when she returned.
“Ergg,” Sarah said, making a face at him.
“Wrong? I don’t know. Weird? Absolutely,” Deidre told him.
“All right, well, if everyone is happy, I have to get going,” Sarah told them.
“Oh, of course. So do we.”
Niall paid the woman and they left, stopping on the way to buy her a pair of comfortable boots and a cap and glasses for himself. There wasn’t much of a chance of anyone recognizing her, but they might recognize him and figure out she was the one along for his stroll about Belfast.
“This is where we part,” he told her as they approached the bus stop.
“You aren’t going to the ferry with me?”
“It’s best I don’t. If they look for you anywhere, it will be there, and they’ll be looking for me to drop you off.”
“Oh, okay,” she replied, disappointed.
He handed her the small duffle with her things just as the bus pulled up to the stop.
“There’s cash and your things in there, along with a burner phone with my number in it. Don’t text. If you call and I don’t answer, don’t leave any information on my voice mail that might give away your location or anything else. If I answer, ask me for the code word. It’s Europa. I’ll ask you for the same if I call you. You’ll need to say something else if you’re compromised,” he said, handing her change to get on the bus and turning to leave without another word.
“Bye,” he heard her say in a strained voice behind him, but he didn’t turn around.
Niall was afraid that if he tried to say a proper goodbye or if he turned back, he would give in and try to keep her there. That was the wrong decision for both of them. He couldn’t keep her safe there and trying to would only put an obstacle he didn’t need in front of him. It was better this way, and letting her go so callously might help her let go of him.
He’d not meant to imprint on her. It had just happened, and it wasn’t something he could undo. Now, they were bound together without any guarantees they’d ever even see one another again. He felt it too, and he knew the longing wouldn’t stop just because they were apart. If anything, it would only grow stronger.
He met Ronan in the coffee shop as they’d discussed during his earlier call to him from Sarah’s place.
“You get her off?” Ronan asked, obviously not aware of the double meaning that might hold.
“I did,” Niall replied, trying not to give anything away.
“What did you do?” Ronan asked, obviously still catching wind of something off about his reaction.”
“Nothing.”
“Jesus. You fucked her, didn’t you?”
“What I did or didn’t do isn’t our biggest concern right now,” Niall told him.
“Aye, but it’s a damned effective way to make things worse. Trill gets wind that you defiled his bride-to-be, he’s going to be even angrier than he is already.”
“He won’t find out.”
“And what about Duncan?”
“What about him?”
“You think we’ll still have his support if he gets wind that his former betrothed, who we saved from the clutches of Trill, was instead tapped by another Alpha?”
“No reason for either of them to know. We aren’t telling them, and she’s in the wind.”
“If she makes it off the island. He’s got both the north and the south crawling with people looking for her.”
“I’m sure he does. I’ve taken the necessary precautions to get her safely on the ferry and away.”
“I hope so,” Ronan groaned.
“Little brother or not, you’d do well to remember that I’m your Alpha and stop with all the sass,” Niall growled.
Ronan jerked his head toward him, eyebrows raised. It wasn’t like him to bite his brother’s head off like that, but he was in no mood for it right now. Ronan didn’t remark on it further, and it was probably in his best interest at this point.
“We have a meeting with some of the former clan Alphas.”
“Former?”
“Still, but not allowed to call themselves that under the thumb of the Maguire Clan. Trill is the only Alpha allowed to maintain his title.”
“Ah, yes. I remember mention of that fact.”
“Duncan will not be there. He doesn’t feel comfortable exposing his duplicity to the other clans. He’ll meet with us afterward, in private.”
“No wonder he didn’t make Alpha,” Niall responded.
The day was pretty busy once they arrived at the first meeting and only got busier after that. A bit of information from one Alpha spiraled out into information from another, creating a dire picture of where the clans stood in overall strength. There was no way they could match the Maguire clan.