positive, Cashel Kelly, that Scott Stone’s heart is attached to this woman’s?”
“Without a doubt,” I said. We became quiet for a moment. Something about his voice piqued my interest. I expected him to become serious, to become my moral compass, but out of all my years, I’d never heard a grin in his voice. “You think I’m doing the right thing.”
“No,” he said, after another long moment. He was smiling. I could hear it in his tone. “You are absolutely doing the wrong thing. You’re stealin’ a bride. Stealin’, no matter how we turn it, is a sin. You know this, and if you don’t, then maybe I should take a deeper look at my life. You and Killian were sent here to test me, of this I am sure. However, there are times in life when we get what we deserve.”
“Are you telling me that karma is going to come after me?”
“Somethin’ like that.”
“That’s cryptic.”
“Not really.” He sighed. “I would have an ear full for ya if ya told me you were plannin’ on stealin’ money or weapons. But a heart, Cashel? We’ll see. We’ll just see about that.”
“Still cryptic.”
He sighed, but this time it was impatient. “Tell me how you plan on stealin’ this girl’s heart.”
“Maybe you don’t know much about matters of the heart, when it comes to the opposite sex, but the day I met her, I knew it right away. She was mine. She hated me too much, and that only means one thing. Deep down, she likes me. She’s infatuated with me. The bad boy she thinks she can change.” I almost laughed at that. A bad boy was someone who did stupid shit. I was a dangerous man who made smart moves.
“Through all my hardness, she wants to find a crack in my bones, so she can go straight through my veins and steal my heart. She has no idea, though. I have no heart. And my soul? We both know it’s dark enough for light to get lost in. Good souls go on to live another life. But when my soul goes—that’s it. One life to live is literal for me.”
“What if Stone doesn’t truly love her, Cashel?”
“He does.”
“You’d bet your life on it.”
“The only one I have.”
“And you mean to accomplish what by this?”
“I’ll steal his heart and his soul will be mine. Everything. I want his everything. I’ll have it.”
“She’s his everything.”
“His job is his life. He lives for it. But the fierce archer? She makes him feel the light in the world when he’s surrounded by all darkness. Men like me, we touch him and make his life like ours, but in a different way. He fights against it, while we welcome it. And he doesn’t want his heart to get tarnished by the darkness. He doesn’t want his hope to get stolen by marauders like me.
“He and I both know that I’m the best at what I do. I can go beyond the physical and feel what means the most. He already gave her his heart to keep safe. To keep clean. Even though she has a tongue like a whip, she’s good, no matter how much she doesn’t want to be. She acts tougher than she is.”
“Have you ever loved a woman, Cashel?”
I tried to keep it down, but my laughter still boomed around me. “That’s the only thing we have in common, Father. Never. I’m committed to this life. You’re committed to yours. Funny enough, neither life leaves enough room for the love of a woman.”
He took a deep breath in and then released it slowly. “I’ve known you since you were a wee babe. As much wrong as you’ve done, you’ve never done this particular thing before.”
“Like I said, I know who and when. Scott Stone. Now. He’s vulnerable. I know his crack, and I’ll slip in like a thief in the night and steal what he stole from me. His entire life.”
A noise echoed inside of the booth. It sounded like Father Flanagan had set his hand against the divider. “All you feel is hatred for Scott Stone. All you see is a way in to steal what he claimed as his. But you’re forgetting one thing, my son. You’re forgetting the innocent woman. What about her?”
“I remember her. Vividly. She’s already mine—in hatred and in love. You and I both know how close they are. You’re not capable of feeling one without having the ability to feel the other. Indifference is the cold