Chapter 29

I skulk through the dank,dark alleyways, stepping over things I cannae and dinnae want to identify on yet another trip away from my boy. I second guess myself with every trip I make. Even more so since Tavish agreed to be mine. This trip appears as fruitless as all the others I've made to find Maeve.

Every trip, I weigh the options. Stay with Tavish or go and hopefully find my sister. If Maeve is still out there, I need to find her. Yet, this quest has already taken Simon from me, and now I've found Tavish. I still dinnae think I'm the one for him. He does, though, and I'm through fighting how he makes me feel and what I feel for him. Plus, people know o' our attachment and I dinnae want his life to be forfeit because o' me.

The problem with that line o' thinking is the threat to him at the moment has nae anything to do with me. This is the Order and I'm fucking petrified I'm gonna lose Tavish as I did Simon.

Pulling out my phone, I pull up his contact. The little shit thought I dinnae ken he took the photo o' us in bed, but I did and sent it to myself one day when he left his screen unlocked. It's the only thing that gets me through these times away from him.

Well, that and the meals I leave behind. There's nae anything I can do to ensure he sleeps, but I can at least leave him healthy food I ken he likes. It's nae the same as being there, though. And that's what I want more than anything.

Unable to help myself, I ring him. We dinnae talk about anything important, but the giggles and squeals brighten my mood. He makes me smile and laugh. Two things I've nae done in a verra long time.

When the call disconnects, I turn back to the building I've been watching. I've searched it twice and nae found anything that leads me to believe it's a hiding spot for one o' the Order's purchasers. At least nae anymore. Iffn it ever was. There's also nae anything to suggest Maeve was once held here.

Turning away, I head to the airport. This was another waste o' time.

On the plane, I contemplate my life and the mission I've given to myself. I was twenty-five when I first learned o' the Order. Over the last ten years, I gave everything I am and everything I have to avenge my parents and then to find Maeve.

I gave up normalcy and my relationship with Simon, all to hunt down the people who robbed me o' those I love.

Poor Simon.

The worry he felt when I first showed him the stuff from my grandfather that first day. I should've heeded it, but I didnae, and instead o' giving me and my family closure, it took the one person I had left from me. Simon gave up his life to help me.

Now there's Tavish. He's immersed in this world. Has been for nearly twenty years. Sacrificing everything only to be used and abused. He's never known love or family or normal. When most kids were learning to drive, he was working for the Order o' Death and being raped.

He's not said it outright, but my gut kens the truth o' it. The things I've heard from some o' the victims I've rescued are the stuff o' nightmares. Knowing what little Tavish has told me, and what the victims have gone through, the leap isnae a difficult one to make. The thought o' my boy being hurt in that way enrages me. How he's still so sunny and bright, I havenae clue.

Yet he is.

He is the epitome o' light and laughter.

All I want now is to make sure he has a chance to nae just live, but to thrive. To experience and enjoy all life has to offer. I cannae do that if I keep hieing off to places unknown to search for someone who's been missing for nigh on twenty years.

I've read everything I can lay my hands on about human trafficking. The chance Maeve is still alive is slim. These people dinnae want a woman who is nearing thirty years old. They can get that without all the secrecy and risk. Nae. They want young girls and boys.

Maeve disnae fit that description any longer.

I pray I am wrong and that she is still out there, that she lived a happy life. I hope one day we are reunited, but I can't keep risking everything to chase a phantom. Simon deserved better, and I ignored that in my rage and grief. I ignored him and his love and then, one day, he was gone.

I'll nae do the same to Tavish. I will give him what I couldnae give to Simon. I will give him all o' me.

If ye are out there, Maeve, I love ye. I miss ye every day, and I hope ye can forgive me.

The last words whisper through my mind as the wheels touch down. When the plane rolls to a stop, I grab my gear and I walk to the door. As I step out onto the stairs leading down to the tarmac, I look up at the sky and a feeling settles over me.

It's been lurking in the back o' my mind and the depths o' my soul since I glimpsed a small, beautiful boy in a dark, dirty, falling down warehouse. It's grown and swelled into something I couldnae contain and nae longer will I deny it.

Love.

A smile spreads across my face, and I make my way down to the car Tavish arranged for me. I need to get back to my boy, and I'll nae leave him again.