Free Blood And Water by Siobhain Bunni Page A

and everyone’s going berserk!” She stopped to take a breath, looking at Enya’s face for the first time. “You okay?” she asked, noting her red eyes and the scarlet hue on her cheeks.
    “I’m grand,” Enya replied, pointing to the wall of pictures by way of distracting her sister. “I was just taking a walk down memory lane. You’ve got quite a collection.”
    It worked a treat: like a magpie lured by shiny pretty things Ciara was off on a tangent, delighted Enya had noticed the effort she’d put into collating them. Out of all the family Ciara made most effort to keep everyone together.
    “So,” Enya asked, needing a definitive distraction, “have you heard from Cormac yet?”
    “Actually,” Ciara replied thoughtfully, “no. No, I haven’t, the little fecker.” Her curiosity was once again triggered by his as yet unexplained disappearance from Seb’s house at the weekend. “Give him a bell there while I empty these bags and let’s see what happened.” It was only as she was leaving the room to hang up her coat that she noticed the silver frame out of place. The image of her beautiful goddaughter on her third birthday leapt up at her. She threw a look back at Enya busy dialling their brother’s number and realised she had disturbed a long-awaited and much-needed moment between mother and daughter.

Chapter 8
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Cormac couldn’t ignore her. He’d already dodged her two earlier calls and knew her well enough to know she’d keep calling till he answered, so he might as well get it over with. Sitting upright, he picked up his phone and took a deep breath to armour himself. Swallowing hard to moisten his parched throat and disguise the tell-tale still-in-bed rasp in his voice, he answered her call, checking his watch to establish the time.
    “Hey, Sis, how’s it going?”
    “Where have you been? Didn’t you get my calls? Ciara and I, we were worried about you. What happened to you last night?”
    Knowing this grilling was bound to happen and despite his inebriation the evening before, he’d had the foresight to prepare an elaborate and relatively credible tale. But panic and the smell of his own fear ripped the story right out of his head and he had no idea what to say.
    “Something just came up,” he blurted, saying the first thing that came into his mind, instantly cringing, knowing full well she was unlikely to swallow such a feeble excuse of an excuse. “You know me, always somewhere to be,” he tried cheekily and when she didn’t respond he felt silently pressured down a more likely route. “To be honest, Dad was driving me nuts. I don’t know why you let him talk to you like that.”
    “But why did you have to leave?” she argued. “He was driving everyone mad, but we stayed.”
    “I know, I know, I just couldn’t hack it. He’s so bloody self-righteous.”
    “If I can put up with it, so can you. Seriously though, are you alright, really?”
    “I’m grand,” he assured her. “Really, I’m fine.” And for a split second he thought about telling her. For a split second he imagined the relief that sharing with her might bring. For a split second he wondered what exactly she might be able to do to help. What would she say? What could she say? ‘ You absolute idiot!’ he imagined her shout. ‘ How could you have been so stupid?’ And she would be right. How could he have been so stupid? But he didn’t have the answer and didn’t even know where he should start to look for it. Neither did he have the courage nor the humility to say the words out loud: ‘ Enya, I’m in real trouble here. I need your help.’
    “Are you even listening?” Enya huffed sharply down the phone.
    “Sorry, I was miles away.”
    “I said I’m already back a few days but we haven’t had a chance yet to catch up. What’s the matter? Are you avoiding me or something?” When he didn’t answer she pushed him, irritated and more than a little cross. “Are you even still