Page 28 of Celtic Dragon
“No.”
“No? Just no? You’ve got to give me more than that. Something’s going on.”
“Fuck, I don’t want to get into this with you right now.”
“Well, I’m not giving you a fucking choice. You either tell me now or we are getting back on a fucking airplane and going home.”
“You’re serious? You would really just leave?”
“Damn straight, I’m serious. You know me well enough to know that I will not take any shit from anyone, not even you. We are walking into unfamiliar territory here. I need you to be rock solid and I need to know everything. So tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“I never told you this—and before you ask, Ari knows—but my ex-fiancée lives here in Belfast.”
Well shit, that was the last thing I expected to hear.“Fiancée?”
“EX-fiancée,” he reiterates.
“Ok, so you have an ex-fiancée. What’s the problem?” I ask, confused.
“Ok, before I go any further, just promise me you won’t go ape-shit crazy on me before you have heard everything.”
What the fuck?“Ape-shit crazy?” I ask. “Why do I have a feeling that I’m not going to like what you’re about to say? And why do I have the feeling that this has something to do with my sister?”So help me, if he is fucking around on my sister …
“Before I left for the States, I had a girlfriend and we were supposed to get married. When my parents decided that they wanted me out of Ireland, they offered to allow her to come with me. She refused saying that her life was in Ireland. I took her refusal to mean that her life in Ireland was more important than a life with me, so we called off the wedding. As you know, I have not been back to Ireland since.”
“Ok, that doesn’t sound so bad.”
“That’s not the bad part, that’s just the backstory. Over the last several months, Ciara—that’s her name—started texting me. She has been telling me that she wants to come to the States. She says she still loves me and wants us to get married. I’ve told her several times that I’ve moved on, that I’m in love with someone else, but she seems to be having a problem taking ‘no’ for an answer. I’m just worried about what she might try now that I am here.”
“I really don’t see the problem. Just tell her no.”
“You don’t know her. She’s conniving and vindictive. I don’t trust her and I don’t trust what she might do.”
“What could she do?”
He shrugs. “Just about anything. She’s conniving. If she finds out I’m dating someone, even if that person is thousands of miles away, she will find a way to sabotage the relationship. I care too much about Ari to put her at risk from a woman like Ciara.”
“What the fuck kind of psycho were you dating, Rebel?”
“She seemed normal when we were younger, but I can tell from her texts and the few phone conversations that I have had with her that she is desperate. She’s even threatened to kill herself because I won’t take her back.”
“You know, I have enough shit to worry about because of you, and now I have to worry about my sister as well. I’m telling you, Reb, if this touches Ari in any way, you’re answering for it. So I suggest that you straighten this shit out with psycho ex-girlfriend before it becomes a problem.”
“I will,” he says, defeated. “You have my word on it.” He hesitates for a minute and then adds, “There is something else that I haven’t told you.”
Oh fucking hell, what now?I look over at him and give him a look that says,You better fucking spill everything now.
He continues, “I don’t get along very well with my brothers.”
“Ok, and is this gonna be a problem for us?”
“Well, it’s not that we don’t get along exactly, it’s more that they still think I’m still a kid and have no respect for me at all. They disregard everything I say and every idea I have. Because of this, I think they’re gonna have an issue going along with our plan. They need to be in charge of every situation; I don’t think they’re gonna like us coming in and taking over.”
“That’s an easy fix. I didn’t fly across the fucking pond to sit back and let someone else get the job done. It’s not in my nature. They called us in to help and if they can’t do things our way, then fuck them. This situation is too serious for petty bullshit and I won’t have it.”
He smiles. “Somehow, I knew you were gonna say something like that.”
“It is what it is.”
