Page 91 of Arranged Scars
He looks straight ahead. “I have a question. I need honesty. You and my brother are sleeping together.”
The way he jumps around between topics is extremely unsettling. I shift uncomfortably in my seat. “I mean, we’re married, and I guess?—”
He holds up a hand. “I don’t care. I want to know something. Do you love him?”
I laugh, unable to help myself. He’s not smiling at all. “That’s a little… I don’t know. How am I supposed to answer?”
“Love isn’t complicated.”
Yep, he’s definitely a crazy person, because that’s just about the least true statement imaginable.
I rub my forehead. “Liam didn’t call in because you wanted to come talk to me without Finn, right?”
He nods once. “Yes. You figured it out. Now answer me.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
I open my mouth to tell him no, our marriage is fake, it’s an arrangement that neither of us wanted, but I can’t make the words come out. I don’t want to lie to him, and I realize that wouldn’t be true. In shape maybe, but not at the heart of what we’ve become.
“I think I do,” I say quietly, my voice very small. “We fit together. We went through the same thing… but he’s also a good man. He survived it in a way that I didn’t. I want to be around him all the time… I think that’s love, isn’t it?”
“Love was overwhelming for me. It nearly broke me. I felt like I was dying, like if I was apart from her, my body would crumble. Anything less and what’s the point? So tell me the truth. Do you love him?”
I nod slowly. “I love him.”
“Good. He deserves that. Maybe you do too.” Cormac gives me the ghost of a smile. Probably that’s the closest he gets to happiness. “Welcome to the family.”
Finn comes striding across the street. He looks unhappy when he spots Cormac sitting with me and leans down to talk into the window. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to still be inside?”
“All done.” Cormac gets out and steps aside. “I was just having a chat with your wife.”
“Don’t tell me you were being an asshole to her.”
“No, Finn, it’s fine,” I say quickly?—
But my words get cut off when a car comes screaming down the road.
Both men react instantly. Cormac draws a weapon and drops to a knee. Finn throws himself into the car, grabbing at me and covering me with his body.
“Get down!”
I try to throw myself to the floor. Finn practically uses himself like a shield. Then the world goes berserk.
Gunfire erupts from the van. Bullets rip into our car like needles through skin. The sound is insane. Cormac’s shooting back, his unnaturally calm face lit up by muzzle flashes. Blood explodes from the window of the van and the wheels spin wildly. It lurches forward, smoke kicking into the air, and races out of sight.
For a moment, all I can hear is ringing in my ears.
Then Finn’s pulling me up. “Caroline, talk to me, are you okay?” He’s yelling and touching me, and it takes a second to realize he’s looking for wounds.
“I’m fine,” I say loudly, probably yelling like a lunatic. “What happened?”
“Ambush.” Cormac is still alive. He seems unhurt and totally unfazed. “We have to go.”
“He’s right. We’ll meet back at the house.” Finn nods at his brother, slams the car door, and starts the engine. We pull out quickly as Cormac jogs away to his own vehicle on the block over.
My head’s spinning as we drive. That makes no sense. How did someone attack us like that? How did they even know we would be there?
