Smoked (The Invincibles 5)

t. The reasons we’d never be a good fit hadn’t changed.

“I have a house in Dublin. It’s a shorter drive than from Kinsale to here. Do you think you’d be up for it?”

“Siren, you don’t have to—”

She sat up and turned her back to me. “When you’re able to travel, you can go wherever you’d like. Just allow me to help you like you helped me. Could you please just do that?”

“Yes.”

She looked over her shoulder at me. “Good.”

Since Hughes’ car was quite a bit bigger than Siren’s, I rode with him and, this time, agreed to stretching out in the back seat. There was really no way to strap me in, so Siren insisted we stop so she could buy pillows to stuff around me. Had I known that’s why we were stopping or what her intentions were, I wouldn’t have allowed it. On the other hand, this was Siren I was talking about. It wasn’t like I’d ever had much say about what she did or didn’t do.

“She drives like a damn bat out of hell,” muttered Hughes.

“You got that right. A blind one at that.”

He laughed.

“Smoke, you know it isn’t going to be possible for me to keep Siren’s condition a secret forever.”

I shifted so I was sitting up. “What do you mean?”

“The head injury.”

“The doctors in Asheville said there was no medical reason for her amnesia. Now that her memory is back, I don’t see what the issue is.”

“Her memory isn’t back.”

“Of course it is.”

He shook his head. “That’s why she’s on leave—not that I told Byrne that.”

“But that’s why she left the States and returned to Ireland.” Wasn’t it? I vaguely remembered her saying something about overhearing me before I fell into a pain-medicine-induced deep sleep.

* * *

“It looks like you,” I said when Hughes helped me inside Siren’s house when she arrived a few minutes after we did.

“What’s that mean?”

I stepped closer to her. “Warm, loving, never argumentative, stubborn, or belligerent.”

“Very funny,” she muttered.

“How did we arrive before you?” asked Hughes. “You were flying ahead of us.”

“I had to stop.” She held up what looked like a burner phone.

“Right. This brute crushed yours.” Hughes pointed his thumb at me.

“He was saving my life,” Siren mumbled. “You need to sit before you fall,” she said to me. “Or would you prefer to lie down?”

She was close enough that I could grasp her arm. I pulled her closer and leaned in. “If you’ll be in bed next to me, I’d much prefer it.”

Siren rolled her eyes. “Pain meds.”

We both looked in that direction when there was a knock at the door.