His jaw worked as he considered. Silence stretched between us for far too long. He wasn’t honestly considering this, was he? “Rían!”
“No. I don’t want that,” he muttered. With a vicious curse, he started pacing up and down the hallway.
“We must find another way out of this. Together,” Keelynn announced. “Rían, you’re the master at bargains and all that nonsense. Surely if you put your mind to it, you can find some way for my sister to escape.”
He scrubbed a hand down the back of his neck. “How long do we have?”
“I’m meeting him tomorrow.”
His jaw pulsed. Behind him, Ruairi muttered a curse.
I wrung my hands together, my chest so tight, I could barely breathe. “I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t give us much time. He showed up when you were with Leesha—”
Rían stilled and his head snapped toward me. “I was neverwithLeesha.”
“You know what I mean. I thought perhaps leaving wouldn’t be so terrible. And by the time you and I made up, it was too late.”
“I’ll need to know exactly what you promised.”
“I said I would leave Airren aboard his ship.”
A strand of mahogany hair fell over his brow when his head tilted. “That’s all?”
“I think so. But isn’t that enough?”
“You gave him no time constraints? You didn’t specify what was to happen once you left? Nothing more? Just that you would leave with him.”
“Yes.”
Rían glanced sidelong at Tadhg, who nodded. “Then you leave with him, and I will get you back.”
That would’ve been well and good if Caden had planned on spiriting me away in a carriage. “I thought your magic didn’t work on the water.”
“I won’t need magic. We’ll do this the old-fashioned way. Your good friend Lady Marissa will accompany you onto the ship and then she’ll relieve the good captain of his black heart.”
“I do miss Lady Marissa.”
Rían glamoured himself into the stunning, raven-haired woman, complete with bouncing curls and a heaving bosom. “Why, darling, how sweet of you to say,” he drawled in Lady Marissa’s honeyed voice.
“Will you be able to hold the glamour on the water?”
Rían picked at his manicured nails, the picture of nonchalance. “For a few minutes. But it won’t take me that long to kill the bastard.”
Knowing he’d be in jeopardy made me nervous. Caden claimed to care for me, but the same could not be said for Rían. Still, unless we came up with a better idea, this would have to work. And knowing I wouldn’t be facing the pirate alone eased some of the pressure surrounding my heart and lungs.
Inhaling a steadying breath, I wiped my clammy palms down my skirts. “I guess I’d better get packed.”
38
KEELYNN
“Tell me,my love, was our wedding everything you dreamed it would be?” Tadhg’s whispered words reverberated against my throat, his warm breath tickling the oversensitive skin.
I threaded my fingers through his dark hair, keeping him as close as our attire allowed. “It was certainly better than when I married your brother.”
Tadhg’s teeth caught my earlobe, making me cry out. “Not funny.”
It was a little bit funny. But my laughter quickly died when my gaze snagged on the bouquet of flowers left at the corner of the dais. Flowers Aveen had given me when we finished getting ready. One of the many opportunities she’d had to tell me the truth about her agreement with Caden. If she hadn’t wanted to sully our wedding day, she could’ve told me last week. When would she learn that she could lean on others for help? I’d relied on her for so much over the years. Did she not think me strong enough to handle the burdens? Did she not trust me?