Page 15 of Sins of Innocence

And why exactly is it your watch?

I've got no answer to that question except, it just is.

Áine fidgets with the top button on her blouse, her eyes darting around after one of the interior guards opens the door for us and lets us into the big-assed entry hall. I want her to undo that button and all the ones below it so I can see the big tits mashed into an amorphous shape under the black cotton.

Why the hell is she wearing long sleeves on a day that's supposed to reach the low eighties? It's not quite summer, but the weather doesn't know it.

"They're in the sunroom," the guard tells me. Then he fucking smiles at Áine. "Miz Fitzgerald said to go in when you got here."

Putting my hand on her back, I shift my body so I block his view of her. "Come on."

Kara and Mick are sitting on a couch together, talking in low voices while the kids and Fiona are playing some card game at the table.

As soon as Sadie sees us, she jumps up and hot foots it to her mom, hugging her and dislodging my hand at Áine's back. "It's okay, mom. Nothing happened."

I'd like to know this kid's definition of nothing because it sure as hell isn't the same as mine. Taking a step back, I give them room for their hug, but that's as far as I'm going.

Kara comes over and introduces herself. The women agree to call each other by their first names in that way they do, implying some kind of friendship when they're actually strangers.

Áine doesn't acknowledge Mick verbally but she nods at him, a fine tremor in her hands before she clasps them in front of herself.

"The boss isn't going to eat you," I tell her with exasperation.

She gives me the stink eye and criticizes me for saying something like that in front of her kid. Why shouldn't I? Won't it make the girl less nervous to know Mick's not a cannibal?

"Don't worry, mom. Mr. Fitzgerald isn't like Mr. Shaughnessy," Sadie assures Áine. "He's nice."

That's not a word I would ever apply to my boss, but to each their own. Áine doesn't look reassured by her daughter's claim.

Fitz stands up from the table and comes to stand near Sadie. "My da will take care of it," he promises Áine.

I look to my boss to see how he's taking his offspring making that kind of vow on his behalf. But like usual, his expression isn't giving anything away.

"Thank you for bringing Áine, Wraith," Kara says, clearly intending for me to leave. "Let's all sit down."

Áine spins, tipping her head back so she can scowl up at me. "You said your name is Kieran."

I'm enjoying the way her choler is putting pink in her cheeks and thickening that pretty circle of brown in the center of the blue as her pupils shrink, so I don't answer.

"His name is Kieran, but his nickname is Wraith," Kara explains unnecessarily.

Áine is smart. She would have figured it out. But she's smiling at Kara in gratitude.

Huh.

Áine moves closer and peers up at me. "I don't see it. You're hardly as insubstantial as a ghost."

Does she want an explanation for this too? If she does, I'll be the one to give it to her.

It's not such an obvious one anyway. "But I can move as quietly as one when I need to."

"Oh." Áine bites her lip and her cheeks are pink again, but I don't think she's mad at me for telling her.

Her gaze snags on Mick again and Áine's back to looking nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I put my hand on her shoulder and guide her to the couch where Mick and Kara had been sitting. I push Áine to sit on the center cushion and I settle myself beside her, leaving the other side for her daughter.

Both of them are going to need the comfort of physical closeness for this. My gran always said that being near the ones you loved made even the worst day better.

The boss and his wife take two armchairs, Mick giving me a narrow-eyed glare when he doesn't get to sit beside Kara like he was doing.