“Incapacitated?” I turn my head so I can see Deklan’s face, but he keeps staring at his whiskey. “What did you do?”
“I blew off his kneecaps,” Deklan finally says after a deep breath. He glances at me briefly before looking away again.
His jaw is set, and I’m not sure if he just doesn’t want me to know the details or if he’s embarrassed by them. Inside my head, I hear two blasts and screaming, but the memory fades quickly. It occurs to me that this is the first time he’s actually admitted to me that he’s killed someone, and I shudder.
“I needed to make sure you were really there,” Deklan says, continuing with the story. “If he lied, and they had moved you, I wouldn’t have anyone to ask.”
“You let him live?”
“Not after I saw you. You were in the hold, right where he said you would be. You were blindfolded, hogtied, and crying. As soon as I found you, I finished him off and went back down to the hold. You were shaking all over when I came up to you, and you tried to scream. You were…well, you were a mess. I just wanted to get you out of there, so I picked you up and carried you off the boat.”
My jaw is cramped. I hear footsteps on the stairs and struggle against the ropes. The footsteps retreat, and I hear another loud blast. Then another. The footsteps return, and I feel a hand on the side of my face. Fingers reach into my mouth, removing the gag before I feel myself being lifted from the floor…
“Once I had you on the dock, I took off the blindfold and untied you. You tried to fight me, and I kept telling you it was going to be all right—that I was there to help you. I don’t know if you finally believed me or just gave up, but you stopped struggling. I tried to lead you back to my car, but you couldn’t even walk, so I carried you to the car and got you out of there.”
“Was Fergus mad that you went early?”
“He never found out.”
“You didn’t take me to him?”
“Not right away.”
“Where did we go?”
“Back here.” Deklan stills as he says the words. “You were going back and forth from comatose to hysterical. It was almost daybreak by then, and I couldn’t risk someone seeing you like that, so I brought you here.”
I glance around the apartment, trying to remember, but it doesn’t trigger anything. I’ve been here long enough to have seen every inch of the place. If I was going to remember something, I would have already.
“Wait a minute,” I say. “What does all this have to do with you rubbing my wrist?”
Deklan runs his fingers down my arm, stopping at my wrist. He slowly begins to massage the skin there, and I reflexively melt into him.
“When I brought you here, you were exhausted. You’d stopped screaming, but you were still crying. I laid you down in the bed, but you latched onto my arm and wouldn’t let go, so I lay down with you. There were red marks from the ropes around your wrists. They…well, they looked painful. I started rubbing the marks, hoping it would make your wrists feel better. That’s when you finally started to calm down.”
“Did we stay there the whole time? Sixteen hours?”
“By the time I got us back here, it was more like fourteen, but yes. Once you calmed down, you slept for a long time. When you woke up, you started to panic. I don’t think you knew where you were. I rubbed your wrist again, and you relaxed. I got you to drink water and eat something, but then you went right back to sleep. I waited until dusk before I moved you. I didn’t want anyone to see me.”
“Did you take me to the Foley’s?”
“No, I took you to the hospital. I put a note in your pocket with your father’s phone number on it and left you in the emergency room. You slept the whole way over there, and you were still pretty groggy when I left. I waited in the parking lot where I could see you through the window. Once one of the nurses came over to you, I left. Your father came back the next day to thank us for delivering you safely. He said your mother finally stopped her bitching.”
Deklan shifts his legs and grabs my waist, moving me to sit beside him as he turns and glares at his glass. I try to process everything he’s revealed to me. From the few flashes of memory I do have, his story fits.
“So you knew who I was the day before the wedding. You knew I was the one you rescued when I came there, thinking I was going to marry Sean.”
“Yes, I knew who you were. I’d seen you a few times over the years, but you never really looked at me. While you were here, I told you a few times that I was going to take you home but that you couldn’t tell anyone about me. I told you to forget all about it.”
“I guess I listened to you.” I let out a short, humorless laugh.
“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Deklan says. “I guess you did.”
I watch as Deklan drains his second glass of whiskey.
“I’ve never seen you have a second drink,” I say.
“I rarely drink at all.” He glances in my direction. “I wasn’t sure how you were going to react to all of this, especially after…after last night.” Deklan furrows his brow and looks down at the empty glass in his hands for a long moment. “I was afraid you would blame me for what happened.”