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“Anything I need to know?” His chair tilts back as he examines me from a distance. He doesn’t rise or come forward like I expected.
“No.” I cram my hands into my pockets. “I thought I might have left a light on.”
“Just me.” He lifts his glass, draining it, then pours another drink from the bottle. Beside him sits a shredder and as he talks, he drives a second stack of papers into it.
“How was your trip?”
“Not what I hoped it would be.”
“Do you have an idea what went on? Any leads you need me to track down?”
Lorcan’s gaze trails over me. He takes another sip of his whiskey. “You’re fired.”
“What?”
“I’m firing you. Pack up and be out of here by the afternoon. Go work for Carys or… I don’t know… Try out that second career you were talking about. You’re not welcome here anymore.”
“Lorcan.” My heart drops, but there’s also an unexpected queasiness in my stomach. “We don’t understand what happened to your dad yet. Why would you fire me?”
He sighs and downs another shot. “I have my reasons. I don’t need to share them with you.” Without looking, he pushes a third stack of papers through the shredder.
Leaning across the desk, I snatch his bottle of Jameson before he can pour himself another drink. “Why are you firing me?”
“Taking my alcohol isn’t going to help. It’s going to piss me off.”
I meet his look and take a big swig from the bottle.
“Drinking my alcohol is definitely going to piss me off.”
“Tell me why you’re firing me.”
When he doesn’t say anything, I knock back more of the bottle.
He comes around the desk and crowds my personal space. With a yank, he removes the bottle from my grasp and sets it on the desk. “I don’t want you here anymore.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
His jaw hardens like granite. “I’m done checking into my father’s murder. Your job here is finished.”
“Job’s done. We’re done?”
“It was always just for now.Nowcame sooner than you thought.”
“You don’t mean this.” I ease my thumb across his cheek. “Lorcan, you don’t mean this.”
His hand grabs mine and brings it between us. He doesn’t look at me; he’s focused on our linked hands. “Don’t be one of those women who doesn’t know when to let go.”
My heart squeezes in my chest. Yanking my hand out of his grasp, I step away. I shake my head, at a loss, before turning on my heel and walking out of his office.One of those women.
As soon as I’m in my room, I get out my suitcase and start packing. Half of me is tuned to the door the whole time, expecting Lorcan to show up, to explain or to apologize.
But he never does.
Ian sits outside Finn’s room when I arrive at the hospital. Even though Lorcan’s fired me, I promised Finn I’d come to see him today with a nonexistent progress report. I understand what Lorcan believes and can say nothing to Finn or Lorcan himself. Even as I packed, I wondered what I was going to do now. Give up? I’m so close to finding out what happened to Chad, to my father, even to Lorcan’s father. I’m on the cusp of so much.
“Any improvement in his memory?” I ask Ian.
“No, nothing. It’s still a blank hole.”