Damien (Slater Brothers #5)(83)

Silence fell upon the room until my laboured breathing could be heard.

“He’s goin’ to kill me.”

I practically felt Keela cringe. “I agree; he is goin’ to kill ’er.”

Aideen inched her way towards me. “He won’t, hon. It was an accident.”

“Ha!” I shook my head. “He’ll lynch me before I could even explain it was an accident.”

“We’ll get ’im a new Harry Potter cup before he comes home,” Bronagh said with a snap of her fingers. “He won’t know the difference.”

“He’ll bloody know,” I grumbled, staring down at the reason for my impending murder. “He has secret marks on the stupid thing so if I ever switched it with a different cup, he’d know.”

Keela laughed. I jerked my gaze to hers and glared.

“I’m sorry.” She chuckled. “He is just so funny. I love ’im so much.”

I rolled my eyes. “Will you love ’im so much as you’re helpin’ ’im bury me body?”

Keela laughed harder, so I ignored her. She was a lost cause and was already corrupted by the terror that was Alec Slater.

“I’ve no other choice,” I said, placing my hands firmly on my hips. “I have to leave the country.”

Bronagh made a sound awfully close to a laugh, and when I looked at her, she had her body turned away from me, but her shoulders were shaking.

“You dare laugh at me when I’m facin’ murder, Bronagh Murphy?”

“You have to admit …” She cackled, turning to face me. “He is goin’ to throw the biggest bitch fit known to humankind.”

Christ, I thought. He will.

I cleaned up the mess I’d caused, and after I emptied the shattered cup pieces in the bin, I felt sick. Alec was definitely going to kill me.

“I have to get out of—”

“Kitten, are you here?”

I froze and so did time itself.

“No,” I whispered. “No feckin’ way, why is he ’ere?”

“It’s Wednesday,” Keela answered, her eyes widening with alarm. “He finishes work early on a Wednesday. I forgot.”

Before Keela could finish, I rushed over to her and stood behind her chair. Instinct told me to unlock the back door in case I had to make a run for it, so I did. We all stood still when Alec entered the room. Even the kids went quiet and stared at him. Alec’s eyes darted from Keela to everyone else, then finally to me, and he narrowed them to slits.

“What did you do?”

I inched my way closer to the back door, bringing Keela’s chair and her with me. When she stood up, I held her in front of me, not feeling the slightest bit ashamed to use a pregnant woman as a human shield.

“It was an accident,” I stated calmly. “Remember that before we tell you.”

“What. Did. You. Do?”

I choked on panic, and couldn’t find the words.

“Keela,” Bronagh murmured. “You tell ’im.”

Alec focused on her, and when she spoke, his right eye twitched with each word.

“It was an accident, a total accident … Alannah broke your Harry Potter cup. Again, by complete accident, I’ll testify on ’er behalf if it’s needed.”

Keela pointed at the bin, and he silently walked over to it. Alec stared into the bin, and I swear to God, his eyes welled up a little bit, before fury filled them and they turned on me. From where I was standing, the lighting made his normally grey eyes seem black, and it was at that moment, I believed he was the devil incarnate.

“I knew you’d do this eventually, you cup murdering little demon.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.” I frantically shook my head. “I cross me heart and hope to die.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said shockingly calm. “You still did it, so you better get to hopping.”

Jesus.

“She’s pregnant with your child.” I gripped Keela’s waist. “You can’t come at me when she’s pregnant.”

“Watch me,” Alec said and began to walk towards me, his eyes unblinking and his movements calculated.

I held my ground for all of two seconds before I turned, yanked the sliding door open, and sprung out into the back garden. My eyes darted around for an escape route, but everything was blocked by damned toys. The only thing I spotted was the trampoline, and in my head, I planned to get inside it and zip up the netting which would form a barrier between myself and Alec. That plan didn’t work out because when I managed to get inside of the poxy thing, Alec was hot on my heels.

“Get back here!”

I screamed with fright and scrambled away from him as he entered through the gap in the netting. He was a big man, but his towering height intimidated me even more inside the enclosed space. Trying to flee on a trampoline was nothing but a complete failure I quickly realised, and all I could think of was to jump as hard and as fast as I could to knock Alec off his feet to give me a chance to break free. He threatened me the second I started jumping, and when he advanced, I screamed louder and bounced faster. Amid my screams and Alec’s threats, I could hear my so-called friends laughing like fucking hyenas.

“Stop jumping!” Alec ordered.

I jumped harder, making his legs wobble a bit more.