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“I don’t care if his fecking arms are hanging off. He can see the doctor when we get home.”
I swallowed my argument, remembering the scene inside the room.
“Is your mum okay?”
“No.” Sean ran a scratched-up hand down his face. “She’s resting now.” He turned back to James. “Lock the fecking storeroom. Let me know how she is later.”
He took my arm and steered me back to the lift. Ian fell into step behind us. The silence as we descended was tense.
“You don’t have to tell me, but will she be okay?” I asked as we exited Clearviews.
Sean’s steps slowed as he looked down at me. He nodded to Ian, who headed for the car. Sean gestured toward the lake, and we walked toward the body of water. A set of swans floated just offshore.
“Only Ian, Craig, and Loch know about this place,” he said.
I nodded, not sure what to say.
“My father was a brutal man, but he loved my mother in his own way. Perhaps a little too much.” He shook his head, coming to stand on the bank. “The O’Sullivan males always go off the deep end with their chosen woman.” He cast a glance up and down me, sending a shiver through my body.
“He drank and fought a lot; maybe he hit his head one too many times, but the old man got paranoid. Began accusing Ma of cheating.” He shook his head. “As if she would. She worshipped the ground that shite stain walked on.”
I laid a hand on his arm, and he immediately pulled me into his body. He rested his chin on my head as we faced the water.
“He began knocking her around, and she hid it from me. One day, he flew into a rage. He told her he knew she’d cheated on him and he’d killed the man. He’d beaten her half to death before I found them.” His voice cracked.
I stifled a sob imagining the scene. One that was far too close to what happened to Mamá.
“What happened?” I whispered.
“I beat him to death instead.” He brought his hands together across my front and rubbed over his scarred knuckles. “The irony of him teaching me to be a fighter.”
The pain in Sean’s voice, mingled with the horror coursing through me, had tears spilling from my eyes and soaking into his jacket.
“It was a long time ago. But she never recovered. Traumatic brain injury, they said. Sometimes, she recognises me. Sometimes, she thinks I’m him.” He shook his head. “I’m a lot of things, but not him,” he muttered.
I probably ought to be horrified by the fact he beat his father to death, but my mind raced forward and imagined my mamá. The desire to kill those responsible for her death still burned inside me. The regret that I couldn’t do what Sean did for his mother made me squeeze him to comfort us both.
Sean didn’t explain further, and his bold declaration hung in the air as we watched the swans paddle away. We stood quietly for a long time.
His phone vibrated at my back, and he pulled it from his pocket.
“Yes?” he barked. “I’ll deal with it.”
He cut the call and stuffed the phone back into his pocket.
“I’m sorry, a chuisle. I need to take you home while I sort something out.”
“Okay,” I said, turning and hugging him.
He tipped my head up and took a slow kiss from my lips.
It had hardly been a dream date, but it had shifted my view of him. I still did not know what we were to each other, but I’d softened towards the brutal man. We shared more pain than I’d realised. The drive back was silent, and I wondered whether to throw my rules out of the window and see where this went.
15
Someone was going to get shot in the face.
This morning, I woke up with a crick in my neck in an empty bed, and except for my tasty breakfast, the day had gone to shite. We should have been on a date, but instead, Amy witnessed Ma slashing up Ian’s face, and I’d dropped her back at the shite hole she lives in because Cian had let one of our poker games get robbed. A late shipment of weapons had already threatened to overturn my week before it started, and now this.
