Reid ran his finger around the warm edge of his beer glass; he looked back down to his watch to show it has been at least an hour since Colm left him alone at Clancy's. With still no word from Alex, he decided to head out and see what he could find out about what happened to her.
He stepped outside and felt a wave of chilled air brush over his face. He tightened his coat and started for his car.
"Hey Nixer!" A voice called out from across the street.
Reid turned to see Jannon rushing toward him.
"Where have you been?" Jannon asked. "Did you fall off the face of the earth?"
"I went to visit with Mrs. Kavanagh."
Jannon nodded solemnly in return. "How is she? I usually stop by and see her at Easter."
"She told me that you did and she appreciates it," Reid started. "She's doing well... considering."
"You spent all day with her?" Jannon questioned with a worrisome tone.
"No, just a couple hours. Then I drove down the Ring to the spot on the coast," Reid explained while avoiding eye contact.
"Oh," Jannon paused, "are you okay?" He asked, concerned.
"Yeah, to tell you the truth, that's been part of my reasoning for not returning to Killarney before now. But it needed to be done," Reid confessed.
In the wee hours of the morning, Reid returned to his flat with no more information on Alex's whereabouts than when he left Clancy's just an hour earlier. He climbed the narrow staircase and down the dark hallway to his door.
He slid his key into the lock and slowly turned. As the sound of the tumblers clicked, on the inside of the apartment, the closet door slowly shut.
Reid entered the small dwelling and threw his keys on the table as eyes watched him through the slats on the French doors. He paced a bit, debating on going back out looking for Alex but knew that he shouldn't bring more attention to him.
He moved toward his bed and plopped himself down and stared up at the cracks in the ceiling then closed his eyes in his attempt to stop his mind from overthinking. As he lay in the darkness and silence, he heard a creak coming from his closet. He lay motionless, knowing someone was in the room with him.
They mysterious eyes continued to focus on him while he laid in bed and slowly pushed open the door to make their exit. At that moment Reid shot up and pointed his gun at the intruder.
"Don't shoot!" The trespasser shouted with hands up.
"Alex?" Reid lowered his gun as he looked at her with puzzlement and relief. He jumped off his bed to her side. "Where the hell have you been?"
She stepped out of the shadow to reveal a black eye and scratches on her body. "Well, I got a little side-tracked."
Reid put his hands on her shoulders and led her to sit on his bed. "What happened? Are you okay? Who did this? Dougal?"
Alex placed her hands on his chest. "Calm down. I'm fine, and no, it wasn't Dougal."
"I was told you left with him," Reid seated himself next to her on the bed.
"I did, but as soon as we left the bar, he had a phone call and said he had to leave."
Reid touched her swollen cheek with the back of his finger. "So, how did this happen?"
"The short story is that I got jumped," she spouted.
"Jumped?" Reid questioned, suspiciously.
"After Dougal took off, I was accosted down the street from the bar by a three guys who were trying to rob me. As I fought them off, I noticed at least two more came to join the party," Alex explained.
"Do you think Dougal set you up? Like Colm did to me?" Reid asked.
"It's possible, but I didn't see either one after the fight was over. Actually, I waited a moment before taking off just in case one of them was watching. I contacted Easter and reported it to him should he get wind of it in the morning," she added.
"I'm glad you're okay," he stared into her eyes and let out a deep breath then jumped off the bed. "So, why the hell did you find it necessary to hide in my closet?"
"I honestly didn't know if you were actually the one coming into your room or not. If those men were part of a set up, I didn't know what I should expect, that's why I hid. Then once I noticed it was you, and you laid down on your bed, I thought I would surprise you," she smirked.
"Surprise me? I could have killed you! What the hell is wrong with you to come in here and try and pull off a stunt like that? Sometimes I don't know what goes through that head of yours, Alex!" Reid blasted as he paced in front of her.
Alex stood up to him. "Who the hell do you think you are to yell at me like that? Besides, I know what you're trying to do and it won't work," she placed her hands on her hips.
Reid shook his head. "What I'm trying to do? So, you're pushing this back on me when you were the one who did something potentially dangerous," he stopped and stared back at her. "Wait, what do you think I am trying to do?" He asked, honestly looking for her opinion.
Alex grinned and moved the long strand of hair that fell in front of his face away from his eye. "Well, first, you have been lashing out at me because you don't want to think about everything you've had to digest today. You left the Kavanagh place and I know you drove down to the coast. You climbed up on those rocks and sat there looking out on the ocean for most of the evening. I know that in each minute that ticked by you thought about what took place in front of those rocks. And before you knew it those minutes turned into hours and instead of trying to feel better, or feel something other than negativity, you realized that you couldn't be there anymore and had to come back to reality."
Reid shook his head in disbelief. "It's as if you were there."
"It is perfectly fine to remember the things that have happened in the past, but you can't dwell on it. What happened, happened, and you can't change that, as much as you may want to. You are going to have to accept the incidents that take place in your life, including the bad ones," Alex tried to talk some sense into her husband.
"Dammit, Alex. We aren't talking about cleaning up spilt milk, we are talking about something far more serious and life changing. It isn't as simple as you are trying to make it out to be, so stop trying to sweep it under the rug!"
"I'm not trying to sweep anything under the rug. I am simply trying to point out to you that what happened wasn't your fault," Alex pleaded.
"Wasn't my fault?" Reid huffed. "Of course it was my fault, I killed Jacob Kavanagh!"