After my shower with Conor, I put on some fresh clothes and go into the den where all of the brothers are waiting. Liam and Mikey rush over to hug me as soon as they see me and I hold onto them both for so long, I get cramp in my arm. When I finally let go, Conor hands me a mug of hot, sweet tea and I sit on the sofa.
“You ready to talk about what happened, baby?” Liam asks softly as he takes a seat beside me and takes hold of my free hand. Mikey sits on the other side of me while Shane and Conor sit in the armchairs opposite.
“I was in the hotel suite waiting for Shane to come back and he just walked in. The Wolf. He told me that he was your Uncle Paul. He had Shane’s key. He said that you had given it to him.” I look at Shane and his face is full of guilt and anger and I wish I could take it away for him.
“You know that I didn’t though, Jessie?” he frowns at me.
“Of course I do.”
He nods and leans back in his chair and I continue telling them what happened. It’s so hazy that I’m still piecing it together for myself. “I saw him and I just froze. I wanted to run. I wanted to find the gun but my legs wouldn’t work.” A tear runs down my cheek. “I’ve waited so long to confront him and when he was standing right there in front of me, I was paralyzed.”
“That’s completely understandable, Red,” Mikey brushes the tear from my cheek with his fingertips.
“I just couldn’t believe he was standing there, you know? And when he told me he was your uncle, I couldn’t even process what was happening.”
The four of them keep watching me and I wonder if they are waiting for me to have some sort of breakdown, but that’s not about to happen. What happened in the past twenty-four hours is nothing to what the Wolf has put me through before, and if that didn’t break me, then this won’t either.
“What happened after that? How did he get you out of there without anyone noticing?” Conor asks.
“I don’t know,” I shake my head. “There was a struggle and then the last thing I remember from the hotel room is that everything went black. He must have drugged me.”
“Yeah,” Liam nods his agreement.
“And then I don’t remember much at all. I woke up a couple of times in that basement. It was dark and I was cold but I was so out of it. I remember words or things he said but they’re not always in order. I remember parts of what he did, but I think I was out for most of it,” I shudder and Liam squeezes my hand. I don’t need to say out loud what he did. They saw the bruises on my thighs. I was naked for Christ’s sake. I would hate if it made them see me differently though. I am not a victim. I am a survivor.
“Tell me about him,” I say as I take a sip of my tea. I feel like knowing more about him will help me to defeat him. He is not a wolf, he is a man. And I refuse to call him the Wolf any longer. “Tell me about Paul Ryan.”
The three brothers look to Shane who rubs a hand over his jaw. “He left Ireland when I was thirteen, not long after our mum died.”
“And before that?”
“He was in the army. Special Forces. We never saw much of him as kids, but…” he swallows.
“But what?”
“When we did, he was… he was our uncle. He taught me and Conor to shoot a rifle and how to skin an animal. He was damaged, yeah, but he was…” He shakes his head. “I can’t fathom how he went from that man I knew to the one who did that to you.”
“Why did he leave?”
Shane’s face pales but it is Conor who answers. “Patrick Ryan drove everyone away eventually. He and Paul had a love-hate relationship – but mostly it was just hate.”
“And you never heard from him again?” I ask with a frown.
“Not until a few months ago,” Shane replies. “He was a hired gun and we knew he’d worked for some of the most dangerous people all over the world. We assumed he was dead.”
“But he got in touch recently?”
“Yeah. I thought it was because his brother was dying, but now I wonder if it was because he’d found out where you were,” Shane replies.
“Is there anything else I should know about him?”
“I don’t even remember him,” Mikey says with a shake of his head.
“Evil cunt!” Liam spits. “Just like his brother.” He looks at me and squeezes my hand again. “He’s our uncle, Jessie. How the fuck?”
“I don’t know. It’s so hard to fathom,” I admit.
“Can you ever see us the same way, Red?” Mikey asks.
“What?” I blink at him. Here I was worried that they would see me differently and not even considering the repercussions for them of discovering who their uncle is. “I see you exactly the same as I always have.” I put my mug on the coffee table and take hold of his hand. “You are nothing like your uncle.”
“I love you,” Mikey whispers and lifts my hands to his face, brushing his lips over my knuckles.
“I love you, too.”
