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I feel Connor and Finn step toward us, but my eyes never leave his face. I know the internal battle that he’s facing. I know he wants his shot with Liam. Hell, he deserves a go more than we do. But I know that he’s right. His pain runs deeper than ours. Sure, we’ve all lost Da, Aoife and Rory, but it’s different for Ronan. Rory was a part of him, Liv may be the other half of his soul, but he’ll never recover from the piece that he lost.
I give him a nod. His time will come, I’ll make sure he’ll get his turn. He’ll let the darkness control him to get the revenge that he needs, and I know how to bring him back from the darkness when that time does come.
Ronan leans back against the wall as my other brothers, and I stand in front of Liam. I look at Connor, “cut him loose.”
“What? You can’t be serious?” Connor looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. I haven’t, I want him to stand and face us. Connor waits for me to answer but Finn cuts the ties that have Liam secured to the chair. He places his hands under his arms and lifts him from the chair, kicking it to one side. He lets go of him and he falls to the floor. Finn rolls his eyes disappointed; he lays a kick into Liam’s side before taking a step back.
“Get up.” I step in front of him, and he moves his head, it was a small movement, but I saw it. Then I see his fingers flex a little on his left hand. I smirk knowing he’s pulling as much strength as he can. He’s going to give me what I want without even realising it.
“You think you’re better than us. You think that you’re stronger than us. You’re not. You’re a coward who hid behind anyone you could. A pathetic waste of space who thought that he and his father would rule one day. But where is your Da now huh? Where are all your men? Who do you have left?”
“Kill…” Whatever Connor was about to say is cut short when Liam pushes himself up and launches himself at me. Using what little strength, he has to try and knock me on my arse. I laugh, leaning down I wrap my arm around his torso and then kick his legs out from under him. He lands with a thud on his back. I kick out at his side. “Come on cousin. Show us what you’re made of.” To his credit, he rolls onto his stomach placing his hands on the floor and pushing to his knees. He heaves in a few breaths in the hopes that he can build up enough strength to keep fighting.
He stands and on unsteady feet turns to face me and Connor. He throws a worried look Ronan’s way but seems relieved when he realises that Ro isn’t going to move from his position off the wall.
“I fucking hate you all. My Da should have been in charge, he should have been your Da’s second in command but that prick Darragh was always there in his fucking ear. He never trusted my Da and because he didn’t, your Da didn’t.” He drops his head doing his best to stay on his feet, I see him tilt his head toward Finn and for a minute I think he’s planning on taking my baby brother on first, but he suddenly lets out a strangled laugh. Turning all the way round to face Finn.
“You know your Da thought your Ma cheated, he thought that you weren’t his. And all because Da put that doubt in his mind. My Da thought that if he had yours distracted enough that he could convince the men he wasn’t fit to lead. But that fucking prick Darragh never trusted him, he watched him like a hawk and figured out what he was up to.”
I move around to stand near Finn. I know he’s all in, I know he knows that we never saw him any differently, but I don’t want him falling back into that place. I want him to know that we’ve got him. But when I look at him, I see a smirk. I stop two feet from him, tilting my head to the side slightly, knowing that he doesn’t need me to fight his battles for him.
“You think spouting that shit will get under my skin. Do you think any of us are that easily manipulated? We’re stronger than you think. I’m stronger than you give me credit for. You’ve tried breaking us, tried tearing us apart. I didn’t work. It will never work, we know everything…”
“No, you don’t.” He stands taller an amused look in his eyes. He knows something and he knows we don’t know it. A sick feeling settles in the pit of my stomach.
“Da got his revenge. Darragh, he wasn’t killed by rivals. My Da killed him. Slit his throat after torturing him for days…”
The four of us look at Liam, then at each other. I’m the first to start laughing, followed by Finn then Connor. Liam starts to shake, his body reacting to his fear the moment Ronan starts to laugh.
I step forward, “you really are fucking stupid cousin. We already knew it was your Da. We know everything. You see, before you killed Rory, he made sure that we had everything. Journals, surveillance, bank accounts, cash, names. Every. Little. Thing. We know it all.
“Who you were working with, where your Da was when he was supposed to be dead. Who your Da had watching Aunt Bernie. He’s dead by the way. We know who out of the Clans had turned on us. We know everything you had planned. You see you thought you were smarter than us, you thought you could turn everyone against us. You thought you could turn our own men against us. We weeded out those who turned on us. You did us a favour, it gave us the opportunity to clean house.”
His face pales with the realisation he has nothing, that he’s lost. I step closer to him and smile as I slam my fist into his face. He doesn’t see it coming and his head whips to the side, forcing him to lose his balance as he falls to the floor. I bend down grabbing his hair and lifting his head and slamming my fist into his face again. I throw his head back down and take a step back as he splutters and spits out blood.
He stumbles trying to get to his feet as Connor, Finn and I move toward him. Ronan watches from the side, ready to step in when it gets too much, or we go way too far.
Chapter 42
The guys were gone for nearly twenty-four hours. Since being home they’ve all been fairly quiet. Alex and I have both asked what happened, but they refuse to say. Finn hasn’t left Cara’s side since getting back and Ronan has been colouring in with Maddie for the last two hours.
I look over at Alex sitting with her legs over Connor’s lap. He and Killian left the room together, but Connor came back an hour ago saying that Killian had some work to do. I love that I’m surrounded by my family, but I just want to be with Killian.
“Where are you going, sweetheart?” I turn to face Finn.
I think for a minute about pretending that everything is ok and I’m just heading for a glass of water, but I realise that these people care about me. It’s ok, to be honest with them.
“I just need to be with Killian right now.” I drop my eyes to the floor feeling vulnerable.
“He was in the office when I left him, he’s probably still there.” Connor gives me a small smile as I look up. Then just as quickly as the chatter stopped it starts again and I’m no longer their focus.
I lightly knock on the office door, but I don’t hear him. Gently pushing it open I step into the room, the lights are dim but I can just make him out sitting in the large desk chair. He’s leaning back, his hand curled around a glass of whiskey. I close the door and make my way over to him. He doesn’t move, doesn’t even look in my direction.
Coming around the desk I stop in front of him as he raises the glass to his lips, his eyes find mine. I reach forward taking the glass from him and taking a sip. I place it back on the desk then take another step forward and drop to my knees. I place my hands on his knees and run them up his thighs to the waistband of his jeans.
My fingers reach for the button on his jeans, but he grabs my hands stopping me. “Mo Chroí, you don’t hav…”
“I know. But I need this. And I think you do too.” It comes out barely a whisper.
