He scoffs.
“Let’s go. We’re leaving.”
“Already? But we haven’t even finished lunch. Your mother said she made your favorite dessert.”
“I’ve lost my appetite. Move, Rosa. Now.”
I’ve never seen him this incensed. Fear above all has me moving my feet and rushing downstairs. I’m about to pop in the living room just to thank Saoirse for the lovely meal, when Tiernan grabs my upper arm and drags me out of his parents’ home.
“You’re hurting me,” I tell him, trying to break free from his unyielding grip.
He loosens his hold but doesn’t let go. He shoves me into the backseat of his car and tells the driver to head back to The Avalon. The whole drive home I don’t dare say a word. I thought I had seen the worst of Tiernan, but that was a lie. He’s capable of so much more. In fact, all this time, he was probably using kid gloves with me, only showing me enough of the brutish beast that dwells inside him.
They’re animals, Rosa. Filthy, unscrupulous, vicious animals.
That had been Alejandro’s warning to me, and now I see how foolish it was not to pay it more heed.
He’s going to punish me.
And by the way his nostrils flare, and his one blue eye is so dark it’s almost pitch black, I doubt he’ll use his hands.
But why?
I did nothing wrong.
His father completely dismissed me.
His brother tried to make a pass at me.
And his cousin stole a priceless work of art that I introduced him to.
In no way, during the entire two hours we were there, did I do anything that even compared to his kin’s behavior.
So why am I the one that is about to get punished?
By the time we walk into the apartment, I’m no longer afraid of what’s to come.
I’m angry.
I’m beyond angry.
I’m enraged.
We’re halfway down the corridor when I halt my steps, even though he continues in the direction of his room.
“I don’t understand what I did. What could I have possibly done for you to be this angry with me?”
He doesn’t even have the decency to reply while opening his bedroom door.
“So that’s it?” I throw my arms in the air. “So this is the part where you tell me I have to be taught another lesson?”
He turns around, eyeing me up and down with such hatred in his eyes, my heart shrivels to the size of a penny inside my chest.
“Class is no longer in session. School is officially out for you.”
And with those words, he slams his door in my face.
Chapter 13
Rosa
The next day when I wake up, I find Colin sitting on a stool next to the kitchen island and Shay sprawled out on the sofa, his legs crossed at his ankles on top of the coffee table, hands behind his head.
“Morning, petal. You’re stuck with us today.”
“Where’s Tiernan?” I ask since he wasn’t in his room.
To my bitter resentment, I checked to see if he was still avoiding me, locked away inside it. But when I woke up, his bedroom door was left wide open, his not-so-subtle way of notifying me of his absence. I stayed up most of the night waiting for him to step out of his room just so we could talk.
I mean, he had to leave sooner or later.
Either to eat or work. But he never left.
Apparently, I must have missed him when I finally dozed off in the early hours of the morning, exhausted after a long night of thinking of what I could have possibly done to make him so upset.
“So, are either one of you going to answer me? Where is Tiernan?”
“Where you’d expect a workaholic like him to be. He’s probably back at the office. Someone has to rule the world. Might as well leave that pesky task to the grown-ups.” Shay smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
Something is off.
“Why are you here, Shay? Colin is perfectly capable of watching over me all on his own,” I state somberly, walking over to the kitchen to grab some coffee. “Not that you’re my favorite person right now.” I throw a frown at Colin. “I still haven’t forgiven you for what you did.”
Colin at least has the good sense to bow his head in shame.
I guess not all of the Kelly men are arrogant know-it-alls.
I wish my husband was one of them.
“Big guy does okay with being a watchdog and all, but he’s not so hot at house hunting,” Shay jokes, jumping off the sofa and strolling over to the kitchen. He picks up a red apple from the fruit bowl, rubs it against his shirt, and takes a big chunk out of it.
“House hunting? I thought you lived with your parents? Are you moving?”