Chapter 31

Declan~

"M otherfecker," I hissed as soon as I saw the blood oozing from her shoulder. "Noah!"

"Declan-"

"Do no' feckin' shoot us," I ordered. "I feckin' mean it, Ke'vy."

Before she could agree or warn us, Noah, Brody, and Tearney were making their way into the cabin, and as soon as Noah saw the same thing that I did, his blue eyes widened before shaking his head. While he didn't look upset exactly, he did look bothered.

"How bad is it?" he asked me.

"The blonde got off one shot before I killed them both," Keavy answered as she let me pull the guns from her hands.

"Call Lochlan," I ordered. "Tell him to get here yesterday."

Doing my bidding, Noah pulled out his phone, but then said, "The service is spotty as fuck."

"Inna give a feck," I snapped. "Go outside if ye have ta."

Seeing no point in fighting it anymore, Keavy slid down the wall, and I could only imagine how badly her shoulder was burning. The fact that she was even still standing was impressive, considering how much blood was on her shirt. Having been shot before, I knew how painful it was.

"Baby, what happened?" I asked as Brody and Tearney started searching the dead bodies.

"Who are they?" she asked, instead of answering me.

"The blonde one is Tearney, and the one with the white hair is Brody," I answered evenly.

Keavy looked back over at me, then asked, "What are you doing here?"

Ignoring that, I asked, "Are you shot anywhere else?"

She shook her head. "No. They only got one shot off."

Before I could say anything to that, Noah was back. "He's on his way," he said. "He said to apply pressure to the wound."

"I already did that," she informed him. "But…I don't think I did a good job."

I took Keavy's face in my hands, and I could feel my entire body shaking with rage and fear at how pale she looked. "Yer no' gonna die on me, lass," I bit out. "Ye got tha?"

"I'm not sure that either of us have any say in that, Declan," she smirked, her voice tired.

"She's got a point," Noah chimed in. "Lochlan also said to lay her down. The body puts in less effort when its relaxed."

"I've got a Brian Jones," Tearney remarked to no one in particular.

"This dead guy is Adrian Franks," Brody added.

"Who are they?" I asked as I scooped Keavy up off the floor. "What were they doing here?"

"They were here to rob the place," she answered before letting out a shuttered sigh. I knew that she was fading, and I could only pray that Lochlan got here in time.

"Try again," Noah said as he and the others followed us towards the couch. "The place looks abandoned from the outside."

Keavy shot Noah a withering look. "I'm not lying," she snapped. "When I confronted them, they said that Klive had told them to only take what they could sell." At the mention of Klive's name, we all stiffened. "What? What's wrong?"

I laid Keavy carefully on the couch before asking, "Are you sure that they said Klive?"

She nodded. "That's what they said."

"Do you think they could have a place out here?" Noah asked. "I mean, why else would they be way in the fuck out here?"

"There isn't a house for miles," Keavy said, still eyeing us warily. "If anyone is staying out here, then their camping at the sites or in the forest itself." My heart skipped a beat as she let out another tired sigh. "If they made their way here, I'd say it was by accident."

"No one ends up out here by accident," I remarked. "This place is too fucking hard to find, Keavy. It's nearly impossible to randomly stagger upon the place."

"Well, then…" She drew in another ragged breath. "Then I don't know what to tell you. They were here to rob the place, and I have no reason to believe otherwise."

Eyeing her, I asked, "Do you have any more first aid supplies?"

Keavy nodded. "There's a kit in the bathroom."

"Brody, go bring the kit," I ordered, needing to do something before I lost my rabid ass mind.

"You know, it's quite possible that they're camping way out here," Noah said. "It'd make sense as to why none of us have been able to find them in town."

Keavy glanced back and forth in between me and Noah. "What are you guys talking about?"

Deciding to wait to tell her more, I said, "Nothing that can't wait."

"I've got two dead bodies in my kitchen, Declan."

"Something that we'll take care of," I assured her, not doing myself any favors when her independent spirit was stronger than most people's.

"I don't need you to take care of them," she bit out between breaths, proving me right. "You're not responsible for me, Declan. Not to mention that your cousin's advice is to off me since I'm unpredictable." She looked back up at Noah before adding, "Which you're not wrong, by the way."

Noah's lips twitched. "I might have been overreacting, lass."

Just then, Brody brought back the first aid box, then Noah grabbed it, and not hesitating, he lowered himself to see to her wound. So, while I was running my hand up and down her thigh, and Tearney and Brody were still looking around the living room, their eyes taking in everything, Noah was removing Keavy's makeshift dressing, and she let out a hiss as Noah did what had to be done.

"If they wer'na already dead, I'd feckin' kill ‘em," I bit out.

"Should we look around outside?" Tearney asked. "See if anyone else is out there?"

Even though he'd been asking me that question, Keavy said, "The sun has already gone down. You're not going to find anything easily if you go anywhere beyond the trees."

"There's more where they came from," I informed her. "If they were really Klive's men, then there are more of them out there, Keavy."

"I'm not worried," she replied confidently, even though Noah's ministrations were making her break out in a sweat. "And if you guys leave now, you can save yourselves."

"Did she just call us pussies?" Tearney asked incredulously.

"Seems like it," Noah drawled out as he finished dressing her gunshot wound.

Ignoring them all, I said, "You can't stay here, baby."

Her emerald gaze slid my way, and I'd never met someone so fucking stubborn before. "Despite my current situation, I can take care of myself, Declan," she reminded me. "Besides, I'm safer out here than I am with you and your homicide-happy cousin."

Noah let out a low chuckle. "Do I owe ye an apology, then?"

Keavy closed her eyes as her body relaxed against the couch. "You can make it up to me by leaving and never bothering me again."

"That's not going to happen, baby," I said, making her eyes pop back open. "I thought I already made it pretty clear that you were mine."

"Not sure if this is any of our business, so we're going to go check outside to see if…to see anything else," Brody muttered.

After Noah was done re-dressing her wound, he stood up, then said, "I'll go with them."

"You do that," I drawled out.

"Keavy?" She looked up at Noah, the struggle to keep her eyes open a real one. "I've changed my mind, lass. I think you're perfect for my cousin." The bastard winked at her before going to join the others outside.

As soon as the front door sounded again, I cupped Keavy's face with my left hand as my right hand kept rubbing her thigh. "I don't know how else to say this, other than just saying it, but I'm keeping you, Keavy Collins." She let out a tired sigh, which wasn't a good sign. "You're mine, and we'll work the rest of it out together."

"Declan, you don't even know me," she replied.

"Oh, baby, I know enough," I assured her. "How else do you think we found you?"

Ignoring that, she asked, "What's going on with Cooper Donaldson?"

"His murder hit the news this morning," I told her truthfully. "It's only a matter of time before we're questioned by the police."

Her green eyes sharpened a bit, giving me hope. "And how the hell am I supposed to explain a gunshot to them?"

"You won't have to," I answered. "Lochlan is on his way to fix you up, lass."

"Who's Lochlan?"

I grinned, despite the situation. "Noah's brother, and the guy that drugged you the first time."