Chapter 20

“Get me another whiskey, sweet thing.” An older gentleman creepily winked at Clare over the bar at O’Leary’s.

“Sure.” She turned away to grimace, hoping he didn’t notice her disgust. She needed the tips.

While pouring out another round for the customer, Clare thought about how quickly everything in her life seemed to be moving lately. She was so excited for classes to start next week that she had thought of little else. Rory’s family was keeping tabs on Travis’s location, and it seemed he was still in California, so her worries were eased there. Plus, she was rarely alone now that she lived with Casey and spent almost every night with Rory.

She had been volunteering more at Woodlawn Rescues and had even convinced Rory’s mother to tag along with her a few times. It turned out that despite her penchant for gossip, Dee was good friends with Patty, the manager of the shelter, and the women spent more time chatting than helping Clare with the animals. She didn’t mind, though, because she was enjoying the time spent with Dee.

Cian entered the bar from the back, balancing a large stack of menus.

“Cian, I need to head out soon. When’s the evening shift getting here?” Clare asked, leaning her hip against the bar as he circled around her.

“Why do you need to leave early?” he asked, dropping the menus into the bin at the end of the bar where they belonged.

“I’m going to the big charity fight over at Legends tonight.”

“That’s not exactly an emergency. I need someone to change out the syrups for the fountain sodas in the back,” he said, shuffling through the menus, pulling out the lunch specials to change over to dinner specials.

“But I put in this request five days ago. You said it was fine for me to leave now if I came in early this morning.”

Cian glared at her, but the sound of the phone from the office ringing distracted him.

“Fine, fine, whatever. Go ahead and clean up. Just do me a favor and answer the phone before you go?” He sounded deflated.

“All right,” she agreed, and untied her apron as she headed to the office.

“O’Leary’s Pub,” she said into the phone as she sat down in the sole office chair a few seconds later. Every time she went in the office, she felt claustrophobic. There were no windows or color, just shelves of paper and binders and a giant, old computer that genuinely could have been the first computer ever created.

“Hello,” she said, having not heard any response from the caller.

“Is Clare there?” a gravelly voice asked.

“Speaking.”

The line went dead.

Frowning, she stared at the receiver, noting that it was still active but the caller was gone. Panic rushed through her instinctually as she contemplated the possibility that it could have been Travis on the other end. She bit her lip, though, as she realized that that didn’t make much sense. Travis knew already where she worked, since he had called her here before; he would have no need to call again. Plus, the restraining order forbade him from contacting her, and it had been just over a month since it was put into effect.

She rationalized with herself that it would be more characteristic of the Travis she knew to yell, insult her, or try to scare her somehow. The last phone call she had with him was menacing and threatening. It was more likely that Travis had given up. She was pretty sure that Seamus had more contacts than she realized. Maybe he had one of his associates scare Travis away, since it had been over a month since the original call.

Pushing the worries out of her mind, Clare stood up and left the office, going to her locker to get ready to go. She kept telling herself it was nothing, just a dropped call maybe. She would tell Rory about it when she saw him tonight, since she had promised to be honest with him about anything that came up.

She couldn’t hold back the happiness that radiated over her face as she thought about Rory. Just another reason why she shouldn’t fall apart over a dropped call, she told herself. Rory was with her now and he was strong, protective. He certainly would never let anyone hurt her, especially a jerk like Travis.

But even more than that, Clare knew she wasn’t the same person she had been a month ago. Dating Rory and spending so much time around his family had shown her a side of herself that she had forgotten. It had reminded her that she was worthy of love, and that she was strong enough to take care of herself.

Grabbing her things out of her locker, she swung her jacket over her shoulder and headed out to go back to Casey’s and change for tonight. Casey had been with the rest of her family all day, preparing both the gym and Kane for the fight, so Clare knew that she would have the place to herself. Honestly, she was kind of excited to have some solitude for a few hours, as she hadn’t had much alone time lately.

Exiting O’Leary’s, she found that there was still plenty of daylight; it was only the late afternoon. She didn’t normally work day shift, so it was nice to be able to walk home and feel comfortable this time, getting there safely within ten minutes.

Clare pulled her keys out of her purse and unlocked the door to the apartment building, stepping forward into the foyer. Suddenly she was knocked off balance and pitched forward, stumbling to catch her breath. Someone had followed her into the apartment lobby, shoving her further inside.

“Don’t turn around,” a deep, chilling voice spoke quietly behind her as she immediately felt someone pressed against her back.

“Please, don’t,” Clare whimpered, unsure what was going on but very aware of the sharp point in her side that told her the assailant was holding a knife.

“Don’t make a sound. Go,” her attacker commanded, pushing her forward and digging the blade in deeper, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Where?” She moved forward slowly, surveying the lobby and praying that someone would walk out of an apartment right then.

“Your apartment, bitch,” he seethed angrily, a surprising level of animosity in his voice as he continued to push her forward and they began to take the stairs.

Clare gulped nervously, fear coursing through her as she continued toward her apartment. She couldn’t decide what the best thing to do was, whether she should fight here and now or actually let this person into her apartment. The chances of the situation getting worse once she was in the apartment were pretty good, since there wasn’t anything of value for this person to steal, and she could already conjure a million terrible things he could do to her once alone.

She hoped that the slower she walked, the higher the likelihood of their being seen. She pretended that her fear and trembling were the cause of her snail’s pace, but he wasn’t falling for the ruse, and instead just pushed her harder up the stairs until they reached her floor.

This was it. This was her last chance.

As they got closer to her door, Clare summoned her courage and took a deep breath. In a swift motion, she pivoted her body away from the knife in her side and slammed her elbow back into her attacker’s body. She made contact hard, hearing a high-pitched cry as the wind was knocked out of his body.

Taking advantage of the moment, she sprinted forward while frantically searching for the keys she had dropped back in her purse. She just needed to get inside the apartment and lock the door behind her. Thankfully, she located the keys just as she reached her door and rushed to unlock it.

A blinding pain flashed before her eyes as she staggered into the open apartment, clutching her arm. She whirled around to see a dark hooded figure step inside the apartment, then close and lock the front door behind him. She moved her hand away from her upper arm, which she had been tightly gripping, only to see blood covering her fingers.

Shaking, she stared wide-eyed at her bloodstained hand as the intruder pushed the hood of his jacket down.

“Travis,” she gasped.

“Damn, you’re getting better!” Rory rubbed his shoulder as he winced in pain.

“Or you’re just getting soft,” Kane teased, following him out of the ring at Legends, where they had just finished up a practice round before tonight’s charity fight.

“You wish. I still beat your ass every time.”

“Only because I let you.”

“Fuck you.” Rory flipped off his brother as they entered the men’s locker room. They showered and changed, meeting up again at the entrance before heading toward the front desk.

“Do you miss it, Rory?” Kane asked him as they walked side by side.

“Miss what?”

“Being in the ring, fighting,”

“Wasn’t I just doing that a few minutes ago? And beating your ass while I was at it, too?”

“You know what I mean.” Kane waved him off. “Do you miss being in the spotlight like you used to be?”

“I did,” Rory mused. “For a while it was all I wanted, and I was pretty sure there was nothing else I would ever want to do.”

“And now?”

“I met Clare and realized that the end of my fighting career didn’t mean the end of my life. I don’t know exactly what I want to do, but I love training. I also love volunteering down at the shelter.”

“I forgot you did that.”

“Yeah, I love it. These dogs are so programmed to be one thing—to be fighters and survivors, nothing else. With some training and attention, they learn a totally different way of life.”

“They learn to love,” Kane said.

“Yeah, but they also learn that it’s not over, that life is just beginning.”

“That’s poignant as hell,” Kane teased him, landing a soft punch on his shoulder.

“What’s poignant?” Casey asked from where she was sitting at the front desk, Ace by her side. The dog perked up when he saw Rory, and wagged his tail.

“Your cousin is a philosopher, spouting the meaning of life and all that shit.” Kane continued to tease, which earned a reciprocated punch from Rory.

“Idiots,” Casey scoffed.

“But you love us,” Rory said, and nudged her.

“Where are we on prepping for tonight?” Kane asked Casey.

Casey began rattling off a list of things that still needed to be completed before the charity match, which was starting in just over an hour. “I need y’all to put up the signs, pointing people to the main cage. And maybe help get some chairs up?”

“On it, boss!” Rory gave her an exaggerated salute, then headed to grab the signs out of the office, with Ace on his heels.

Seamus was sitting at the desk with a grave look on his face. “Rory, I need to talk to you.”

“What’s going on?”

“Travis Creighton’s credit card was used to book a flight to JFK this afternoon.” Seamus rubbed his brows. “I’m seeing about getting the manifest to find out if he was on the flight, or if he bought the ticket for someone else.”

“Has the flight already landed?” Rory asked.

Seamus nodded. “Just under an hour ago.”

“Fuck, so he could already be headed here?” He didn’t need Seamus to answer that one; he knew exactly where Travis was headed, and why.

Rory pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time; Clare was scheduled to be at Legends in less than an hour. He felt certain she would be okay until then, because it would be impossible for Travis to get out of the airport and up to Woodlawn that fast. Still worried, though, he decided to send Clare a text.

Are you on your way, mhuirnín?

“Is she coming here soon?” Seamus asked, nodding toward Rory’s phone.

“I’m about to find out.” Rory’s eyes were glued to the screen, waiting for a response.

“Okay, get her in your sight, and I’ll have some associates try to tail Creighton. See what he’s up to. Jimmy said the restraining order is still in effect, so if we see him anywhere around here, your brother will arrest him.”

“Sounds good,” Rory answered, still distracted waiting for his phone to tell him there was an incoming message.

Yes.

Her response came through with a small ding as the phone flashed her name. Rory sighed in relief; although her response was short, it still made him feel better. When he saw her, he was going to wrap his arms around her and never let go.

He smiled at the thought.