The Shield's Fate

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Alistair Callahan

Present Day

It's a seven-and-a-half-hour flight from Chicago to Dublin.

I have seven-and-a-half hours left with any sense of normalcy in my life. I push my head back against the headrest as the Donnellys' private plane begins to take off.

I shut my eyes tight and wonder if I open them if all the stress of what's coming will go away by some miracle.

When I open them, I only see the dimly lit cabin.

Sean Donnelly and my cousin Iris are talking in low voices across from where I'm sitting.

Parker Fallon and his guy, Brent, are sitting in front of them. Brent's already drinking and I envy him for that.

Mickey and Joe sit across from them. There's only a small group of us going. Eventually, they'll all head back to Chicago, and I most likely won't be heading back with them.

Family. Duty. Expectations.

I groan inwardly.

My eyes wander to where Viv sits alone. She's sitting diagonally from me, gripping the arm rests for dear life, her knuckles going white with nerves.

She hates flying. I can see the anxiety all over her face.

I nudge her sneaker with my foot. Her eyes go wide in fear.

"You scared me," she hisses.

"You need to relax," I grumble.

"I could say the same about you."

"I'm relaxed," I smirk, definitely lying.

Viv snorts a small laugh before gripping the arm rest again.

The plane takes flight, and she eases up a bit. I watch her chest visibly deflate.

"Never gets easier, huh?" I ask.

"I don't make a habit of plane travel, no," she tells me.

For some reason, her sassiness always makes me smile. She's so often composed and put together, but she lets her grumpy attitude come out from time to time. Each time it makes me fucking smile.

"Chris get off to school okay?" I ask, trying to distract her.

Viv's face falls slightly, her eyes going sad. "Yeah, I called him before take-off. He's all settled into his dorm."

I nod. Viv's younger brother is a genius. He got accepted into Stanford in their engineering program and was moving in a month early because he's also on the soccer team there. Or football, as it should properly be called. I may have lived most of my life in the States, but my heart will always be in the UK where football is properly called football.

I know Viv misses her brother. He's going to school on the opposite side of the country, practically. Maybe this trip will take her mind off of that.

She eyes me, "Did you have a chance to look at my itinerary yet?"

"I'll get to it," I mutter, holding my hand up the attendant to order my first drink of the trip.