"The damage was done the moment our eyes collided."
~Xavier De Luca
***
One life-altering night ignites a soul-scorching passion between a gangster and a good girl...One that could burn everyone they know and love to ashes.
Loyalties and legacies...
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I woke up on my family's floral couch to Cillian flicking ice water in my splotchy face. Everything was blurred at the edges and my eyeballs ached like they'd been boiled and then put back in my skull.
"Jaysus!" Cillian exclaimed a little too loud. "She's comin' to!"
"Wha-?" Lifting my arm to my throbbing temple sent fiery tingles up my leaden limb. "What happened?"
"We were gonna ask you the same thing! You passed out, Gracie!" Mamo announced, escorting two mugs of piping hot tea my way. "And you hit your head on the counter, so you're going to have a nasty bruise."
I groaned and searched Cillian's tense expression, he was eyeing me like he was still deciding whether to hug me or have it out with me.
"Grand," I muttered. "Got any ibuprofen in that tea? Or Demerol?"
That got a morbid chuckle out of Cillian who reached into the pocket of his plaid shirt covering a fitted white tee to hand me a small bottle of liquid gel ibuprofen.
"I can't stand the hard stuff the docs prescribed for my foot," Cillian explained with a humble shrug. "So, Laoise's sister, the nurse, told me to take these."
He held my grateful stare until I blinked a few scratchy tears out of my eyes. Mamo set a hand-scorching mug on a coaster in front of me with a kind smile.
"How long was I out?" I winced when I tried to move my head.
"A few minutes," Cillian replied. "Long enough for us to cancel the rest of your lessons."
"You need to get some rest dear," my Mamo covered me in one of her old crochet blankets. "Try and get some sleep."
"Sure," I rolled to my side and felt the press of my phone against my thigh.
My body seized and I jolted upright with the memory of that terrifying text from beyond the grave.
"Oh, wow! That hurt so much!" Immediately, I curled in on myself to hold my splitting head together.
The pain was dazzling and spotting my vision with tiny flashing lights. Cillian rushed to ease me back against the cushions with a look of wild-eyed surprise on his face.
All I could think about, however, was Gannon's text.
I needed to do something!
I had to tell someone!
Well, actually, I wanted to tell Xavier, but I wasn't exactly sure when that was going to happen.
According to Detective Bryant, Gannon's phone and wallet weren't found with his body. So, whoever was texting me could potentially be my brother's killer!
I didn't have any memory of what the message said, though.
"Um," I pursed my lips and made my most pathetic face. "I have to go to the bathroom."
