“Did you tell him we arrived?”
“Aye. Hours ago.”
I frown back at him, my own fears rising. I peer at his phone. “You don’t have cell service here, looks like.”
He squints at the phone. “How do you know that?”
I roll my eyes. I know he’s not much of a tech guy. “No bars,” I say, pointing to the top of his screen. “That will usually indicate whether or not you have service.”
“How can I have no cell service here. Makes no fucking sense.”
I shrug. “Certain places just don’t have it is all.”
I freeze, and his eyes immediately narrow.
“What is it?” he asks.
I feel my jaw tighten. “We aren’t alone, Tiernan.”
He looks to where I point to a boy crouching in the bushes, his red hair evident even in the dimmed light. Tiernan’s body goes tight, and a warning bell clangs in my mind.
“Easy, Tiernan,” I whisper. “He’s only a boy.” He hasn’t even spoken to him yet, and I already fear for the boy’s safety.
I jump at the deep bellow of Tiernan’s voice. Bloody hell. “Get out here and show yourself.”
Deacon, the boy from earlier, comes out from behind the hedges, trembling.
“Please, sir,” he says. “I didn’t do anything.”
Tiernan stalks over to him and grabs him by the back of the shirt, hauling him straight off the ground. I gasp. Oh, God.
“What the bloody hell are you doing spying on us?” His eyes are narrowed on the boy, who trembles in Tiernan’s uncompromising grasp. I hold my breath, unable to talk. My heart thunders in my chest, but at the same time, I want to know as well. What is he doing?
“Wasn’t doing anything, sir,” the boy says, his face turning purple.
“Put him down, Tiernan!”
Tiernan predictably ignores me and gives the boy a rough shake. “That’s a fucking lie, and I ought to whip your arse for that.”
The boy gives a little squeak. “I swear, sir, I didn’t do nothing. Nothing at all. Just dropped something behind the bush is all. Bent to get it, heard you coming, didn’t want to get in the way.”
“Did you hear anything we were discussing?”
The boy shakes his head vehemently, but even I don’t believe him. He’s lying.
“What’d you drop?” I ask, suddenly not feeling so sympathetic toward him.
He gulps and doesn’t answer.
“He’s lying,” I say to Tiernan, half wishing I could give Tiernan the go ahead for making good on his promise to punish the lad.
“Tiernan. Everything alright?” I look behind me to see Malachy strolling over toward us.
Tiernan turns but doesn’t release the boy.
“Caught him spying on us, right here behind the bush.”
Malachy gives the boy a stern frown. “Is that right, Deacon? The very day you already got in trouble with the headmaster?”
For some reason, the boy’s eyes shift away from us and back toward his hiding place.
I frown. What’s that about?
“Said he dropped something behind the bush but when asked, he wouldn’t tell us what,” Tiernan explains.
“Ah,” Malachy says, nodding thoughtfully. Malachy speaks to Tiernan the way one might coax a rabid dog from attacking. “Well, put him down then, Tiernan, and let’s see if he can retrieve it.”
Tiernan puts him down with a growl, and the boy takes off at a full run away from us.
“Bloody hell!” Tiernan says. He runs off after him. The boy’s a damn fool, for Tiernan catches him just paces away. He gives him another proper shake and he looks like he wants to do more than that.
“Take him,” Tiernan says, half shoving the boy toward Malachy. “I don’t trust myself not to beat his scrawny arse.”
Malachy laughs mirthlessly. “And you think I’ll rescue him, do you? You’d be better off giving him to Ruby.”
Ruby. God, I hate that.
“Don’t give him to me,” I mutter. “I’m no more pleased with him than you are.” But the boy casts his eyes down and looks as if he’s about to cry. Naturally, that pricks at my conscience. I sigh.
“You ought not stick your nose where it doesn’t belong,” I scold. “Tiernan, let him go with Malachy. I’m sure he can deal with him properly.”
Malachy’s brows go heavenward, and he purses his lips. “Oh, aye, I can guarantee you that.” Deacon winces.
Malachy takes him by the arm and leads him away.
I sigh and look to Tiernan. Tiernan’s eyes follow the two of them until we can’t see them anymore. And still, he won’t look at me.
“Tiernan?” He’s a million miles away.
Finally, he faces me. “Something isn’t right. My phone won’t work, and the boy shows up out of nowhere for what?”
“Maybe he was hoping for a bit of a peep show? You know how teenaged boys are.”
If I thought that was supposed to set Tiernan at ease, I was sadly mistaken. His eyes go even narrower, his lips thin, and he clenches his fists by his side.
“Fucking hell,” he grates out. “A fucking peep show? As in, watch me and you together, or watch you get dressed or something?”
I shrug. “It’s what horny little teenaged boys do, Tiernan. Now let’s go and settle down, maybe we can reach Keenan.”
“Should’ve kicked his arse.”
“Ah, no you shouldn’t,” I say in what I hope is a placating tone. “Tiernan, he’s half your size and a minor! Not allowed.”
“And he ought to learn the lesson that you don’t bloody mess with a member of the fucking McCarthy Clan. There’s a hierarchy to the brotherhood.”
I sigh. Clearly, there’s no appeasing him.
“Well, no harm done then.”
He sighs and opens the door, mild amusement written on his features. “Do you always try to look at the bright side of things, Ruby?”
He groans.
“What?”
He shakes his head and tugs me in, but I realize before he even says a thing.
Oh, God. Just a moment ago Tiernan called me Aisling, I know he did. Did the boy hear?
And if he did… will he tell anyone? Have we ruined our cover?
He slams the door behind us. “You called me Aisling,” I whisper. “And he was right there, wasn’t he?”
I swallow hard and cover my face with my hands. This is all wrong. It’s all going terribly wrong.
I shake my head and get myself together. “Now, Tiernan, wait. Keenan wouldn’t have sent us here unless it was safe, I know he wouldn’t.”
Tiernan paces the room. “Bloody hell, Ais, he sent us here because it was comparatively safer. Thought between the disguise and the like, no one would know your identity.”
“And now you think we’ve been compromised?”
“I don’t think it, love,” he says, sitting heavily on the bed. “I know it.”
A chill runs down my spine at the way he says it, like he’s a man who’s just been summoned to war.
“Should we go back to Ballyhock?”
“Not until I get confirmation from Keenan.”
“Can you call Tully or your other brothers?”