Page 130 of Sins of Innocence

"I'll make sure Dagda and another guard are available to take you."

She hugs herself, pressing curves into prominence that I've had to show too damn much self-control around since we got back from Anaheim. "Can you be there?"

"You want me to be?" I ask, surprised.

"Yes. More importantly, the girls will be disappointed if you're not. Even when I was working for Kenneth, I got that afternoon off to spend with them."

The last day of school is this Friday, two days after the emergency school board meeting.

I mentally juggle some things on my schedule and grab my phone to update my calendar before sliding it back into my pocket. "I'll be there."

"Thank you."

Something is wrong. I look toward Dagda asking him silently what the fuck is going on.

He shrugs. "Maybe something happened when she dropped Sadie off at class."

Áine looks at Dagda and frowns. "I didn't walk her to class. I went to the office to confirm the boys who hurt her weren't at school today."

"I told her they wouldn't be." I don't like the fact Áine felt the need to confirm it.

"I didn't know that, did I?" Áine's not so happy gaze is set squarely on me now.

"No?" I ask rather than state.

Why didn't Sadie tell her if it was important to her?

"No," Áine confirms. "I didn't know because you didn't bother to tell me."

Oh.

Well, fuck.

"Was I supposed to?" I ask, to make sure I'm straight on what I did wrong.

Dagda snorts. Is he laughing at me?

"Yes, Kieran, you were supposed to tell me. Unless it doesn't matter to you that I've been worried about how to keep them away from her since I found out what happened."

"Uh oh. Uh, boss, I think I should go help with training the new recruits."

"They're not new," I grouse.

Some of those fuckers have been made men for years. Decades even.

Dagda shrugs. "Might as well be."

I jerk my head toward the gym in silent agreement to his plan.

"Is there someplace we can talk that's not a hallway?" Áine asks with enough sarcasm to let me know she thinks I should have offered to take her somewhere more private already.

But there's no one in the corridor and the facility is secure. No one's going to sneak up on us either. Somehow, I don't think that's going to impress her.

"I still have my rack." And I'll be keeping it until we move into a house.

There's no room for my things in Áine's crowded apartment. I'm living out of the same duffel I took on vacation, plus a garment bag with a suit hanging in her closet in case I need it.

"Rack?" Áine asks.