Page 25 of Guarding Salvation

Seeing her expression Bram chuckled and gripped her hand pulling her from the room. He told himself it was an innocent touch or friendship to comfort her nerves, but the truth was he didn’t want to let go of her now, maybe not ever, but he knew he had no choice. “Don’t panic, Irish. Snow likes you so you’re safe.”

“Yay.” Aoife gave a half-hearted wave of her free hand, making him laugh harder.

Bram let go of her hand before entering the room. In here he was Bein, not Bram, and saw Bás, Snow, Titan, Lotus, and Hurricane waiting for them. He could feel the tension radiating from Aoife as she took a seat between him and Snow as she waited for the answer. What he was willing to do for her was so much more than he should’ve promised but he didn’t regret it. Bás would fight him on it but he’d lose. Bram was determined to do this with or without the team behind him.

Chapter 11

“Well?”

“We’re going to help you, Aoife, and at the same time put an end to the trouble being caused by Doyle’s reign of power.”

Relief was so sharp her legs almost gave way and she sagged against Bram’s side, letting him hold her tight as the news sunk in.

“Thank you, I can’t tell you how much this means to me. I don’t have any money at the moment but as soon as I can access my accounts I have a trust fund from my mother that I can use to pay you.”

Bás cocked his head. “We don’t want your money, Aoife. We just want to know that men like him aren’t spreading their filth into the world.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” He clapped his hands and turned as a stunning woman with long dark brown hair walked into the room followed by two dogs. A German shepherd who was almost entirely black with just a slight tan colour on his chest and another dog who was black and white and looked similar to a sheepdog.

Aoife watched Bás smile, his eyes tracking over the beautiful woman. Before looking back to her, his expression cleared. “This is Valentina. She’s our resident dog handler and search and rescue specialist.”

Aoife smiled as Valentina leaned in offering her hand, surprising Aoife. “Pleased to meet you.”

Aoife was surprised by how normal she seemed, compared with the others. “It’s nice to meet you too.” Aoife turned her attention to the dogs stepping forward and then stopping as the black and white one growled low. “Who are these two?”

“Beruhigen,” Valentina commanded, and the dog instantly stopped growling and seemed to relax. “He thought you were a threat and Monty here is very protective.” Valentina looked over at the German shepherd who was watching his master and not her. “Scout here is more chill. You can pet them now.”

Aoife, who was a little warier now, approached slowly and let both dogs sniff her hand and before long both were licking her and allowing her to make a fuss of them.

“They’re gorgeous.”

“They are but Monty is going through his teenage years. He’s only two and trying to test the boundaries. Scout is four and knows who the boss is around here and accepts it isn’t him.”

“You’ll see Val in and out of here a lot, she also has rooms here.” Bás drew attention back to him.

“You all live here?”

Bram touched her back, making her shiver from the light touch of his hand on her body, and she turned to look at him. “We do, we all have suites that are like apartments.”

Bás glanced at Lotus who smirked. “You might as well go over the rest of the rules while you’re at it.”

Bram ignored them. “You’ll have access to the room you were in before, the common rooms, and the gym. All the other rooms are locked and can only be accessed by one of us. If you wish to leave the facility, you’ll be escorted out but will be blindfolded to ensure the secrecy of the location. If an alarm goes off, then you’ll be locked in whatever room you’re in until either one of us comes to get you or the perceived threat is averted.”

“Jesus, who are you people?” She’d asked before as a joke. Now she really was wondering just who she’d accepted help from and whether she’d made a deal with the devil, no matter how handsome he may be.

“The people who are going to haul your ass out of the fire.” Lotus fired back.

Aoife nodded, holding her tongue. Going up against Lotus was a mistake and she wasn’t a fan of confrontation at all. Plus, she was right, Aoife had no right to question them when all they’d done was help her. The woman was waspy with her words though and very defensive, but it was easy to see it was out of loyalty to her friends. “Good enough for me.”

“Great, now let’s get some more details from you so we can come up with a plan on how we’re going to set you free.”

Aoife liked Bás. Despite his rough demeanour, she got a good vibe off him, in fact off all of these people, and after living with true evil, she knew her radar was good. It felt like hours as she poured out everything she knew. Telling them everything about how she’d lived, her escape, Peyton, how she’d got there, and her father’s business dealings, which were a lot less detailed. As a girl, she hadn’t been privy to anything deemed sensitive. Her father believed women were good for two things, making a home and fucking.

It was a sad reality she’d come to terms with very quickly once she’d reached puberty and he’d gone from treating her as his little princess to seeing her as a commodity he could use for his own gain.

“What do we all think?” Bás glanced around the room waiting.