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Oye, Brennan’s a boy.Kieran doesn’t hear me as he growls about killing BrennanfeckingMacKenzie. I take it he won’t be bringing Brennan back, not like Kiera.
38
Kieran
Ava’s on the heel of my boots, warning howguttedI was for all these hours searching for my sister. With her following, I stride up the steps to Gowan’s meager home. He’s got a place about forty minutes away from those hellish tenements. Nothing much, but the lad went straight—stopped working for the clan—afterthe death of his wife.
“Open up!” I bang so hard the wood is bound to cave in soon.
A prematurely gray-haired Gowan opens the door. What once was a burly man looks ready to dissolve in a faded blue pair of long johns. With palms up, he says, “Kieran, before you go off—”
“Appreciate the call, mate,” I growl. “I promise you’ll still have a place to lay your head after I kill them. Now move!”
White noisefecksover my hearing. He’s telling me to sit for a spell, calm, while Ava reclines on her heels now, tugging on the back of my jacket as if she can stop me. I hustle past the tiny kitchen, weaving around the wooden table and down a short hallway, where there are three doors. The one to the bathroom is open. The other is to an empty bed, which I assume belongs to Gowan. The last door is closed.
Ava clasps the hem of my jacket. I yank away. “You can’t stop me from teaching my sister a lesson.”
She pleads, “Okay, but the Brennan kid . . .”
“He’s not afeckingkid! He’s a man. Gowan, your son’s a man now!”
Behind her, Gowan says, “Just seventeen. Kieran, son, listen—”
“Seventeen,” I roar. “I’m gonna gut him!”
I reach for the doorknob. I’ll yank themotherfeckeroff the hinges if I have to, but something has captured my attention. The door is open, and a groggy-eyed Kiera stares at me. I stalk past her into the bedroom and look beneath a tiny bed. “Where’s he hiding?”
“Who?” she yawns.
“Don’t make me smack—”
“He’s not here!” Gowan interjects. “I’ve said it ahunnertimes. You’ve come into my house, Kieran, insulted my son, threatened his life.”
Puffing my chest, I roar, “Where is he? Because I’m about totakehis whole life!”
“Kieran!” Ava and Kiera screech in unison.
“He’s all I have, ya know?” Gowan huffs. “I thought you’d have some notion how that feels, Kier.”
I glance at the ground. Fire and brimstone slowly stop singeing the veins beneath my flesh.
“WhereisBrennan?” Kiera asks.
“Dunno. But he's being sent to California with Big Brody and Nan the second I find him.”
I nod slowly. “That’s a good place for him since his mam . . . Kiera, how long have you been seeinghim?”
She settles into the bed, pulling a pillow in front of her. I yank the pillow and lift her.
Eyebrows pinched, Kiera asks, “Why’d you do that for?”
“You’re stillmysister. I can’t stand the sight of watching you sitting in another man’s bed. I’ll. . . I’ll . . . How long?”
“We’ve never done anything, Kieran,” she whispers.
“Keep reassuring me.”
“I was fourteen; he was—”
