Before Cian can tell me what a bad idea this is, I open the door and step onto the footpath. The young lady has her headphones on, so she yelps in shock when she almost bumps into me.
“I’m so sorry,” she says, removing the headphones. “I didn’t see ya there.”
“Oh, no bother,” I say with a smile. “I love yer dog. What’s its name?”
She brushes a blonde strand of hair behind her ear. “This is Coco.”
Coco growls the moment I crouch low to get a better look at her. She must sense my ulterior motive.
“I was wonderin’ if you and Coco would help me out?” I ask, coming to a stand.
The young lady arches a brow.
“I’ve not spoken to my friend in a qaure long time. She lives just up the street there. We didn’t part on good terms, and I’m awful sorry for that. I think she still lives there, but I can’t be too sure. Do ya think ya could just knock on her door and ask for a drink for yer wee Coco?”
She tongues her cheek, clearly weighing up what to do.
“Please,” I add, digging into my pocket for my wallet and offering two hundred quid. “Ya can buy Coco a new sparkly collar.”
She eyes the money before accepting it. “All right. I can do that. What’s her address?”
“Thank you. And thank you, Coco.” I can’t believe this worked.
The young lady changes direction and walks to the address I give her as I keep to the shadows and follow her. When I’m close enough to the house, I take cover behind a tree and watch the young lady and Coco walk up the front steps and knock on the door.
If Sean has eyes on the house, no one will think twice about a stranger knocking on the door and asking for a drink of water for her dog. I’ve done this as I hope to catch a glimpse of whoever opens that door. I can’t act until I know what I’m up against.
When the young lady knocks on the door, and it opens, I’m transported back in time.
“There’s somethin’ different about ya.”
The ghosts of my past are here, in the flesh, threatening to drag me to hell with them.
I didn’t know what to expect, but seeing Aoife is the last thing I ever expected. I am completely dumbfounded. Aoife was the nurse who helped tend to the many wounds I sustained when in Riverbend House. She was also one of the only people who showed me true kindness in a place which thrived on pain.
I watch as Aoife offers the young lady a bowl of water, still not believing my eyes. The last time I saw her was in prison. One day she was there, and the next, she simply wasn’t. I never asked about her because I always thought she was too good for that vile place.
I was happy she got out. But now I wonder what exactly drove her to leave? Does it have something to do with the child Ethan saw her with?
The young lady and Coco leave, their job done, but Aoife doesn’t close the door. She stands in the doorway, peering into the darkness. I shift farther behind the tree, suddenly paranoid she knows I’m here, watching her.
A moment later, she closes the door.
My legs feel like jelly because I am shook. Why is Aoife messed up with Sean? I need to speak with her, but I can’t do that right now.
So, even though every muscle in my body is demanding I stay, I turn and jog toward Cian’s car. The moment I get in, he turns to look at me, instantly recognizing the look on my face.
“Fuck,” he curses, shaking his head and pulling onto the road as he knows I’m in no state to drive. “Ya feelin’ all right?”
Peering out the window, I numbly reply, “No, I’m not.”
“Who was it?” Ethan asks. “Did ye recognize her?”
“Aye, I did.”
He waits for me to elaborate, but I don’t have the words right now. I can’t explain why Aoife, the prison nurse who I had sex with on a few occasions, would have anything to do with Sean. I can’t explain why he’d give her money. And I can’t explain who the father of her child is.
She never mentioned a chile. Or the father of the child.
It can’t be me. Aye, we had sex, but I never came inside her. I made sure of it—I think I did. This world doesn’t need another Puck Kelly. So why can’t I shift this heaviness pressing on my chest?
“What did ya do, Punky?” Cian sighs in defeat.
“I don’t know, Cian, but the woman was the nurse in prison. She and I—” I don’t need to explain any further. They understand.
“Why is she takin’ money from Sean?”
“I don’t know, but it can’t be good.”
We drive the rest of the way in silence as no words can describe the mess I find myself in.
“If ya don’t eat, y’ll starve ’cause I’m not bringin’ ya any more food. This isn’t a buffet.”
Curling into a tighter ball, I close my eyes and wish for this to end. But it never does. I don’t want to believe this is my punishment for breaking Rory’s heart because he got his revenge when he tricked me.
He told me it was over; that Punky had defeated Sean. That’s why I went with him. He said we were going to meet Punky, but he lied. When he took me to the flat, I knew that I had been tricked, and when Liam was waiting for me, I knew Punky had lost.
Liam was beaten, which proved Punky fought until the very end, just how I knew he would. Liam told me Punky was dead, but they weren’t done with me yet, which is why I’m a prisoner in here; wherever here is.
Rory betrayed us because we betrayed him, and now, we’re all paying the ultimate price.
“I’m sorry, Cami,” he said with tears in his eyes.
“You fucking coward!” was my response before I was knocked out cold.
“I won’t tell ya again. Eat. Y’ll get sick otherwise.”
Truth be told, I’m already sick. I can barely keep anything down. My nerves are shot because this waiting, this not knowing, it’s the worst form of torture.
“Let me go, and then I’ll eat,” I stubbornly spit to my captor.
She doesn’t reply.
With a sigh, she closes and locks the door.
The single mattress whines as I turn over as best I can with my hands cuffed to the bedhead and examine the bedroom where I’m kept hostage.
It’s fitted nicely, and if I wasn’t bound to the bed, I would say it has everything a bedroom requires. But all I see is a prison cell. The window doesn’t have bars, but it’s just a tease as the outside world is within grasp, but I can’t fucking move.
My arms ache, as I’ve been bound since I arrived here eight or maybe ten days ago. I’ve lost count. Days and nights all mesh into one. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to live in a world where Punky does not exist.
My captor is a spiteful woman—a woman with a small child. I was blindfolded when brought here, but when she’s come to give me food, she doesn’t conceal her face. And I hear her young child’s happy shrills through the thin walls. His name is Shay.
I don’t know who she is or why she would be involved with whoever they are. There must be a reason. I need to find out what that reason is because I need to see for myself that Punky is…
I refuse to even think it. He can’t be. All of this can’t have been for nothing. I need a plan. I need to think like Punky. I can’t leave this room. I need someone to help me. And when I hear the happy cries of the young child, I realize he is the answer.