December 25, 2019

"I'd invite you up," she laughed as we kissed against her condominium's lobby wall, "but I think it's best if we take some time to get to know one another first."

I had been trying to say goodbye to Aoibheann (Pronounced "Ay-Veen") for the last ten minutes.

First outside under the entrance way, then inside while checking her mail. Moving on, we came into the lobby where neither one of us wanted to walk away.

When the guard went on break somewhere outside, and Aoibheann leaned over to kiss me, it wasn't long before we were pinned against the furniture making out like two horny teenagers. Standing from under her, I tried to find my equilibrium but was doing a piss-poor job of it, now holding the drywall up with Aoibheann and our tongues.

"Hmmm," she hummed while suckling my neck, the four-alarm fire in my netherlands blazing against my sense of decency.

Cripes.

I leaned into her mouth and captured her tongue with my teeth, sucking the lingering trace of syrupy cheeries from her.

When a flash of movement caught my eye a moment later, though, I found sure footing and tried to scale things back slowly without giving any outward signs of my awareness.

"Dillon," she whispered stoicly, catching me off-guard.

"Yeah?" I replied seriously, now assessing the situation while she continued caressing my neck.

"Do me a favor, will you?" she asked quietly determined.

"What?" I asked absently.

The large front window was a problem. Two stairwells; one to the immediate left, the other to the rear. I couldn't find the fire exit the way I was currently positioned. It was behind us but I couldn't see where. A wall was in the way.

Shit!

"When I reach for the gun under my bra, cover me," she instructed, calm as could be. "Then I'll do my best to distract our tails while you retrieve the pistol on your ankle. Hopefully, we won't need either of them, but I'd feel better just the same if we had them in hand when we ran out of the exit door behind us. It's hidden behind a mailroom partition on the right. The lobby halls should give us some cover in case we need it, but we have to be quick."

If not for the fact that I had just spotted the additional threats she had referred to, I would have fallen on my ass into the plaid excuse-for-a-couch the condominium company provided. As it was, I didn't have the luxury of a what-the-fuck moment.

Doing as she said, I made sure no one saw her reach into her holster. Then, when she turned towards the glass window to all but flash our enemies with her boobs, one hand on them, the other on her Glock behind her back, I cursed and got to my own gun as fast as I could. Son of a bitch!

Grabbing my hand, Aoibheann pulled me into the recesses of the building, skirting around the vased décor of silk flowers at the elevators and behind the mailroom. We wasted no time running through the frame of the first floor exit, and she pulled me down a dark alley hidden off to the side.

"Don't worry," she explained. "This leads to a bakery. I know the owners. At this time of early morning, they'll be baking specialty loafs to sell in a few hours.

"On Christmas?" I whisper-yelled, still rattled by the fact that we were running from multiple assassins and that she had marked me from the start.

"They're only open for 2 hours," she continued. "They love their customers. What can I say?"

When she knocked furiously on a heavy metal door I waited on anxious feet for it to open.

Come on. Come on.

It only took seconds but it felt like an eternity as the goons surrounding us closed in. Just as I was about to drag Aoibheann out of the alley a short and ancient-looking, portly man with a dusty, white apron opened the door with a smile. Taking one look at Aoibheann, however, and sparing only a cursory glance my way, he stepped back to let us in, shutting the door quickly, but silently behind us.

Leaning against the door once inside, I could hear the voices and footsteps of those tracking us run by. It was all I could do not to curse out loud as I watched her reholster her gun as I automatically put mine away as well. I couldn't stop staring at Aoibheann. I wanted to throw up.

I could have gotten her killed.

I was so ever-lovin' stupid.

I dropped my head into my hands and closed my eyes. I needed a minute to compose myself.

So close!

Glancing up, I found more than I bargained for. The baker was standing in front of me with a shotgun in his hands. The thing was pointed center mass and I was the target.

Held in the crosshairs, I'd normally be upset in a situation like this. What threw me for a real loop, however, was the small charm hanging from Aoibheann's necklace. I hadn't noticed it earlier in the evening. Looking at it now, however, made the hairs at the back of my neck stand up.

"Where did you get that?" I choked. "The necklace; where did you get the charm on it?"

"We were just almost killed and you're asking me about my jewelry?" she asked. "Are you out of your mind?"

I stalked forward and grasped the charm in my fingers. "Who gave this Celtic shield knot to you?" I growled, but before she could answer the baker got between us and chambered a round in the shotgun. Backing up reluctantly, I never broke eye contact with Aoibheann before repeating the question. "Tell me. Now."

"Why?" she asked me cautiously, and used her hands to calm down her friend. He took a silent walk down the hall when he realized she wanted to talk with me in private. I could feel an invisible mark still on my chest. Waiting somewhere in the house, he only needed an excuse to use his weapon, and made sure I continued to feel the weight of his trigger finger before he left.

"I want to know," I replied, my temper thinning rapidly.

"Obviously."

"Damn, it, Aoibheann," I almost yelled. "Just tell me. I need to know."

"Your mother gave it to me," she whispered. "It was Christmas Eve. I was just about a month old and we were almost killed. She saved my life. Jane, your mom, she gave it to me for protection against evil and wrongdoers."

Shaking my head, I mumbled. "She would."

I couldn't help but laugh. I was only 16 when I forged her signature and got the damn symbol tattooed onto my shoulder for my mom. She wasn't too happy about the ink, but what could she say? The damage had been done. My mom was a serious woman, but she had her ways, superstitions included.

Glancing around, I found a stool and fell onto it.

Images and flashbacks of shouting assaulted me. I remembered blood. A lot of it. My mother, running between it all, trying to help a tall man with a booming voice keep pressure on another man's wound long enough for a doctor to arrive.

Wait. There was a woman. Vivian! Pale. She was bleeding. She had been shot. There was blood all over the white couch in our study.

I looked up at Aoibheann in alarm.

"It was you!" I spoke. "The baby. That night. It was you."

Standing up, I started to pace. "I remember. My God, I was a toddler."

I pulled at my hair as the memories flooded me. "I heard shouting! So much shouting. I ran as fast as I could to our study and it was awful. Your father; my God, that was your dad! He was crying for my mom to help yours. We almost lost your mom that night. I remember!"

I bit my lip and closed my eyes, sitting back down on the stool behind me. "And he knew. All this time, he knew!"

"Who?" Aoibheann interrupted.

"What?" I asked, not comprehending, and lost in my own thoughts.

"Who, Dillon?" she repeated. "Who knew? What are you talking about?"

Standing up suddenly, I thought my head was going to explode. "Your dad!" I yelled.

"He almost got my mother killed that night!"

"Whoa, Dillon," she stopped me. "My dad would never-"

"The hell he wouldn't!" I hollered, raising my voice unfairly at her. "And he did!"

"And now he does this? That-" I started before she stopped me in my tracks.

"He did what, Dillon?" she asked, eyes squinting at me venomously.

Damn it! First the trails on our ass, and now this. Shut the hell up, Dillon, you jackass.

"Nothing," I tried. "Nevermind. Come on, we gotta get out of here."

I started to tug Aoibheann towards the door, but she was having none of it. "Oh, no you don't. You sit right back down, and you better tell me what my father has to do with tonight, so help me."

Aw, shit...