Because she was lying to him. He knew it. What he didn’t know was why.
Or just what, exactly, she was lying to him about.
*
Kieran wasn’t sure if Bobby O’Leary was still faking it at that point or if he was really out of it again.
Whichever, he didn’t speak anymore that night.
Molly brought sheets, a pillow and a blanket, and Kieran did her best to settle in and sleep for the night.
Time seemed to tick by very slowly as she found herself unable to sleep. She lay there and thought about everything that had happened. She wondered what Craig knew that he wasn’t telling her.
She worried about Daniel.
He would never kill anyone.
But was he involved, even unwittingly?
When she wasn’t worrying, she was remembering the events of two nights ago.
Thinking about Craig.
Every time she should have backed away, she’d been incapable of doing so. She genuinely cared about him.
Or was it pure physical attraction?
Something in the underlying scent of his skin that sent her mind reeling and made everything else in her ache with longing?
Angry with herself, she groaned, then tossed and turned and finally caught a few minutes’ sleep every so often, waking up every time a member of the medical staff came in.
At seven, when she woke up for good, she was surprised to see someone peeking in the door, and it wasn’t one of her brothers or even Mary Kathleen. Julie had come.
“Hey,” Julie whispered softly, tiptoeing in. “How are you doing? How’s Bobby doing?”
“Well, I think,” Kieran whispered, trying to get her “bed” back into chair mode as quietly as possible. She almost managed it, but the sheets got tangled in the mechanism and she had to start over. “Sorry, Julie, just give me a minute here. There’s a chair on the other side of the bed, if you want to sit down.”
She finally righted her chair, bundling the sheets to the side. When she turned, Julie was holding Bobby’s hand, Bobby was awake and they were both grinning at her.
“Bobby!” Kieran said. “You’re good?”
“Ah, why does everyone misuse that word? If I said I was, it would mean I was without sin, or maybe out there in the world doing something good for someone. Now, am I well? Yes, feeling much better, lass, especially knowing you were there beside me, watching over me during the night. Thank you.” He turned to Julie. “And you, too, of course.”
“I just got here,” Julie said with a grin. “You have to give me some time to do some good.”
Bobby’s smile faded slightly, but he forced it back into place. “Where are those wretched doctors? When are they going to let me out of here?”
“Bobby! You’re in critical care, so you’re not going anywhere right now,” Kieran told him firmly.
“They have any decent food around here?” he asked.
“I’m not sure if you’re allowed to have food yet,” Kieran said.
“No food? Now how will I be healing without something substantial in me belly, eh?”
“There’s good stuff running through that IV line,” Kieran said.
“I’ll go out and ask about breakfast,” Julie said.
“Now that, my lass, would be doing a body some good!” he said.
When Julie left the room, he turned to Kieran, and spoke swiftly and fiercely. “I’ll tell those coppers what happened when I walked down the street, but don’t you repeat anything else I said. I’ll call you a liar, do you understand me? You’re not to repeat anything I said.”
“Bobby, if you know something—if someone at the pub has been threatening you or anyone else in any way—we have to tell the cops, and the FBI, too,” Kieran said.
“If I actually knew something, don’t you think I’d say so and have the bastards locked up?” Bobby asked, staring at her very seriously. “Lass, I’m an old man, alone in some ways but not in others. Wife gone, never blessed with wee ones, and I can’t even be having me a pint o’ stout now and then, but I like living. I love my life. I think someone out there thinks I’ve heard things I shouldn’t. Thing is, I don’t know what I’ve heard. Don’t know why they didn’t shoot me, except that wouldn’t look much like a mugging now, would it? Stupid bastards forgot to steal my wallet, though.” He pointed a finger at her. “I’ll be talking to Declan. Meanwhile, don’t you be in that pub alone. Don’t any of you be in there alone.”
He had her curious, but also frightened, really frightened.
She couldn’t ask him anything more, though, because at that moment, Julie walked back in.
“Liquids,” she said.
“What?” Kieran asked blankly.
“Bobby, they’re starting you on liquids. Clear liquids,” Julie said.
“Liquids, eh?” Bobby said. “That’s something, I guess.”
“The nurses are changing shifts right now, but there’s a lovely aide who’s going to come in soon with apple juice. You hold that down and you get broth, and if that goes well...Jell-O. And then maybe you get to eat.”