Caged by His Twisted Love novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: What He Kept

I did not wait for the car to start.

"What did he mean?" I said. "Who called Kieran to the pier?"

Ronan stared out through the wet glass.

"Ask him."

"I'm asking you."

"And I'm telling you to ask him." His voice was tired. "It's his to say. Not mine."

"Stop it. Stop hiding behind that."

"I'm not hiding."

"Then say it!"

He turned and looked at me.

For the first time since the gala, I saw a thing in his face that I could name.

It was dread.

"Ask your brother first, Neve," he said. "If he lies to you, come to me."

The driver took us to Orla's.

Kieran was in the kitchen, peeling potatoes at her sink, a dish towel on his shoulder and his lip scabbed.

Orla was out at Mass, and the old driver sat in the next room with a newspaper.

"Neve!" Kieran dropped the peeler. "You were so good. Everyone's saying it. They're saying you stood at the grave and..."

"Who called you to the pier?"

He stopped talking.

The color slid out of his face again, slowly, from the forehead down.

"What?"

"Three years ago. Declan said you were called there. Who called you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Kieran."

"I went to a bar. That's all I remember. They said I owed money, and they took me down there."

"Who took you?"

"Declan's guys."

"And who told them where to find Ronan?"

His mouth trembled.

"I don't know."

"You're lying to me."

"I'm not," he said, and then he started to cry.

It wasn't the crying of an innocent man.

I had seen him cry as a boy, with scraped knees, and it had been loud and clean.

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