Because You're Mine(3)

His intense gaze fastened on her, and love shimmered in his eyes. “Two souls bound and none can sever. This nightsong is for you. Our love will last through darkness, fire, and trouble. This nightsong is for you. Though death may try to break our hearts, I’ll find you where’ere you go. This nightsong is for you.”

The words bound themselves to the music and filled Alanna’s heart. “I’ve never heard anything so beautiful,” she whispered as the music stopped and faded.

He took her hand. “We’re beautiful together, love. We can’t let anything come between us. Not Barry, not Ceol, not our families.” He rose from the chair and took her in his arms. “Promise me.”

“I promise.” She burrowed her face against his chest and inhaled the scent of him deep into her lungs, into her very being.

His lingering kiss ignited her senses, and she snuggled closer, then sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “In just five months, we’ll be parents, Liam. We must tell everyone soon. Your parents, our mates.”

“It’s lucky we are that you aren’t showing much, but yes, we will need to let the world in on it soon.”

She put her hand on her belly, and his cell phone rang. She sighed and pulled away. “It’s Jesse wanting you.”

“I know.” He pressed his lips to her hair, then opened the door for her.

They found the rest of the group, along with Jesse, waiting by the exit. Jesse opened the heavy metal door into the dark alley where their van and Jesse’s car were parked.

Some fans lined the back alley and screamed out Fiona’s name. The beautiful blonde played Irish spoons and sang backup vocals. Fans bought the Celtic jewelry she designed, and Alanna spotted more than one of the beautifully crafted necklaces and earrings.

Fiona, Ciara, and Alanna stopped to sign a few photographs, but Ena kept her pink-dyed head down and ran for the van with her pennywhistle without looking at any of the fans calling her name.

Liam tugged Alanna to the van, then dropped a kiss onto her lips. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Have fun. You think Jesse will let you drive?”

He grinned. “I doubt it. He’s smitten with that car.”

She watched him disappear around the corner to join Jesse, then climbed into the back of the van with her friends.

“Deadly concert tonight,” Fiona said. “We’ll be having them all the time now.” When no one answered her, she glanced at the set faces and shut up.

Alanna wanted to say something to break the tension, but she ended up leaning her head against the back of the seat and closing her eyes. The music industry was filled with examples of people who left the operating room with their singing voices changed forever, husky and rough, and she refused to think about a fate like that. But the high notes she used to hit with ease had become harder and harder to reach, and Barry’s blather hadn’t dislodged her fear.

An explosion shook the van, and she turned to see smoke pouring from the corner where she’d last seen Liam.

“Liam!” She screamed. She pushed open the van door and rushed to the corner.

She rounded the end of the concert hall and gasped when she saw flames billowing from a yellow sports car. “Liam!” She started for the car, but Ciara grabbed her.

“The fire department is coming. You can do nothing.”

A siren’s wail grew louder and mingled with her own sobs as Ciara held her close. Alanna couldn’t tear her gaze from the burning car and could make out no figures inside. Deep inside, she knew no one could survive the intensity of those flames.





Two


Alanna rubbed her eyes, gritty from crying. She padded on bare feet to the window of her hotel room and turned up the air conditioning. Peering through sheets of rain, she stared down onto the wet street.

Liam was dead. She still couldn’t process the reality. The fire department had taken two men away, and the driver was clearly dead. She’d clung to hope that Jesse hadn’t allowed Liam to drive, but when a paramedic asked the survivor his name as he was loaded into the ambulance, the badly burned man had whispered, “Jesse.”

Generations of Irish women before her had faced widowhood with their chins held high. She must show similar strength. A cry of Why Liam, God? hung on her tongue, but she kept it locked inside. There was no answer to such a question. Liam had possessed a strong faith. Her own was weak in comparison, especially now when faced with such suffering.

When she had called the hospital fifteen minutes before, Jesse was still clinging to life. His parents had the top plastic surgeon in the country standing by for 3-D facial reconstruction, and that would be done as soon as he stabilized. She should be glad he lived, but why couldn’t it have been Liam? Why was her husband in the morgue while an eejit like Jesse would recover?

Alanna closed her eyes. Would she want Liam to go through what Jesse was enduring right now? Liam would have been grieved to see his old friend in such bad shape. The doctors had put him into a medically induced coma as they worked to save his life, and she’d been told he would require many surgeries. Maybe Liam was the luckier man.

Her eyes filled again. Liam would never flip his longish hair out of his eyes so he could wink at her. He’d never come in from planting flowers with mud under his fingernails. He’d never step into the yard with his bubble-blowing tools.