Stolen Hearts (Hearts 1)

I said all of that but did not get up from the chair.

He sat down in the chair next to mine. “You all right?”

“You know, I’ve never really spent much time in this room.”

“I understand that.”

“Did you know?” I asked. It was a stupid question, really. Of course he knew. “About him? I mean the senator?”

“Know what?”

I stared at him until his cheeks turned pink. “We . . . I mean, some of the staff had an idea. Of what he was like with you.”

What he was like with you. That was actually hilarious. I mean as far as euphemisms go that was a real doozy. I laughed into my coffee cup.

“What’s so funny?”

“I think my life,” I said. “I think it’s my life that’s funny.”

I stood up and felt the room spin around me. I braced myself against the chair. The coffee cup suddenly so heavy in my hand.

“Poppy?”

“I’m sorry . . . I just—” Whoa. Maybe I was tired. Just really tired? There’d been a lot of stress.

“I hated that he hurt you,” Theo said. I turned to find him right beside me.

“You and me both.” Oh, my mouth was weird. I clenched my teeth and let them go. My lips were so . . . big.

“Poppy.” His hands cupped my shoulders and slowly ran down to my elbows, and I felt like I was melting. Right into the ground. Right into him.

I put my hand against his chest, pushing him away. I did not want him to get the wrong idea.

“I hate that I have to hurt you.”

“What? I’m sorry . . . I don’t feel too good.” Hurt me? Was that what he said? Or he hated that the senator hurt me? That made more sense.

He grabbed my hand and yanked me towards the door. I tripped and fell, and he all but dragged me as I tried to get to my feet. “Theo. Please . . . Theo!”

He half-pulled, half-dragged me down the hallway, and everything was tilting. “What is happening?”

“You’re fucking shit up.”

Yeah. I had a way of doing that. I was grabbing onto the wainscoting, trying to find a way to slow this all down. To get myself upright. To make things make sense. But the world was water around me, and my body wasn’t under my control.

“What did you give me?” I asked. He ignored me, and I fought to keep myself present. Aware. Fighting. Keep talking, I thought. If I stopped talking I would pass out, and then I’d be in real trouble. “Where are you taking me?” I asked.

“Where I should have just taken you the second that asshole caught a bullet in his head.”

“Did you . . . did you kill the senator?” I asked as he shoved open the door from the office wing into the main part of the house.

But Ronan was there. In a black overcoat and black gloves, holding a gun. Pointed right at us.

The world tilted again as suddenly I was held up against Theo’s body, and a gun I didn’t know he had was pressed against my forehead.

The world was an acid trip around me, but that gun was very real.

And so was Ronan.

“Rivers,” Ronan said. “You’re making a mess of this.”

Behind my back, Theo was breathing hard, his heart pounding against my ear.

“Clear out, Byrne. This doesn’t concern you.”

“It doesn’t concern the girl either.”

I’m the girl. Theo’s arm around my chest was making it hard to breathe and whatever I guess he put in my coffee cup made it even harder.

“Ronan,” I panted, terrified.

“Leave the girl and go,” Ronan said, ignoring me, his eyes on Theo. “Leave right now. I won’t follow you.”

Theo laughed. “That’s not happening. You’re a scary motherfucker, Byrne. But you’re not the scariest person who wants this girl.”

“Who?” I whispered. “Who wants me?”

“We can get you out of the country,” Ronan said to Theo. “No one will know.”

“The way you did for the senator?” Theo asked. “You gonna help me disappear with a bullet in my head?”

“What?” I jerked against his hold, trying to strain away from him and towards Ronan as best I could.

“Yeah,” Theo said against my ear. “Ask me again. That question about what I did to the senator.”

“Did you kill the senator?” I asked, my eyes on Ronan, but he didn’t look back. He didn’t even look at me like I mattered in this situation.

“I didn’t,” Theo said and pointed his gun at Ronan. “He did.”

“Is that true?” I whispered, and Ronan’s silence felt like confirmation.

“It’s true,” Theo said. “And because that asshole killed the senator, you have to come with me.”

“Let her go,” Ronan said.

“You know what will happen if I do that,” Theo said. “The Morellis want blood. I’d rather they had hers.”

The world was spinning, but the thought I grabbed a hold of and hung onto was that neither one of these men were here to help me. Both of them would hurt me.