Page 29 of Captive Audience

“Wait.” Aidan scratched his jaw. “Isn’t that your mystery woman?”

I shot a glance over my shoulder. “My what?”

“The lass you’ve been following around the city while telling us all you’re”—he made air quotations with his fingers—“attending meetings.”

I frowned. “You know about that?”

He looked at me as though I was a dumb shite. “I have eyes everywhere, cuz. And you might not realize, but you’re a six-foot-three Irishman who looks like he uses the sharpened bones of his enemies as toothpicks. You don’t always blend in.” Aidan’s eyes flicked to Asha before returning to me. “So why do you do it? Stalk her, I mean.”

I exhaled deeply, unsure if any justification I gave Aidan would accurately describe my reasons. How did I explain that I was sure Niall had sent Asha to me? That watching her had become an obsession and the reason I got up every morning?

I cleared my throat. “I don’t know. I found her, she intrigued me, and now I can’t fucking stop.”

When I’d started following Asha, I’d quickly realized there was something about her that reminded me of…me. Like she was putting on a brave face while suffering on the inside. Like she carried an unbearable burden that darkened her soul.

Maybe I’d been projecting. Maybe Asha was fine and didn’t want anyone looking out for her.

It didn’t stop me from doing background checks on her neighbors and friends and installing security cameras at her apartment. And I had no good reason for hacking her phone and computer, knowing her coffee order, ortopping up the podcast’s Ko-fi account when she started eating ramen for meals.

I’d convinced myself that Asha needed me as much as I needed her.

After everything that’d happened with Niall, Asha was the one bright light in my pitch-black world. The only person who made me smile and made me wonder if my cold heart wasn’t completely frozen.

I wouldn’t let her go. Not even if Torin told me to.

Aidan gestured toward Asha. “And now you’re…what? Forcing her to marry you?”

“Seriously? Are you of all people going to lecture me about being a respectable citizen?”

When I needed help delivering a painful message or burying a body, Aidan was my guy. And when he had a problem that needed to disappear and didn’t want to get involved, he called me. Both of us had blood on our hands. Bucketloads of it.

Aidan’s nose twitched. “It reeks of sex in here.”

“There’s a good reason for that.”

My cousin’s lips thinned with his disapproval.

“Don’t give me that look. I didn’t do anything she didn’t beg for.”

Aside from the sedative, but that was an unfortunate necessity. I couldn’t have Asha screaming bloody murder during our wedding.

“So you’re saying she wants to marry you?”

I scoffed. “Of course not. What woman in her right mind would bind herself to me?”

“Why do you want to wed her, then?”

“Call me a pussy, but I need to motivate the lass to do as she’s told and don’t feel like threatening to break her kneecaps. The last thing she’ll want is to be stuck with a gangster, so once she finds the Soul Collector, I’ll set her free. Annulment granted.”

“That’s some fucked-up logic.”

“Aye, but it’ll be effective. And I have a few other surprises to keep her focused on the job.”

Asha could try to fight me on this, but it wouldn’t do her any good.

“Fuck me.” Aidan braced his hands on his hips. “Does Torin know about this?”

“Figured it was better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.” The boss would get over it when Asha came through with finding the son of a bitch whose head we all wanted on a spike.