Twenty-Four
Jerick
As much as I want to take her right now, I don’t. She’s been through a lot the last few days, and I know she’s probably freaked out still. Her body temperature is finally back to normal after I laid with her fer hours, skin on skin.
When I first stripped down to me boxer briefs, I didn’t expect her to be that damn cold. The blankets were the only thing keeping me warm as I pressed me body to hers. Once she started to warm up, I did too. Now that she’s awake, I can finally get some of the shit I need to get done, done.
I didn’t want to leave her alone in this room all by herself, but I also wanted to make sure she was okay. She was pretty shaken up last night when we got her back here.
Running my fingers along her face, I tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear before leaning forward to press me lips against hers again. I keep holding meself back from stripping away the last of me clothes and sliding inside of her. She needs time whether she knows it or not.
Me phone starts to ring again. Grabbing it, I check the screen and see me Da’s name again before I silence it and set it back on the bed.
“Are you going to ignore your father all day?” Her voice is tense, and I know that she doesn’t care much fer him, not that I blame her. If she was listening to me conversation with Conaill, then she knows that I suspect him fer the shit that happened.
“Aye,” I reply, not giving her a better answer than that. I don’t think she wants me to talk to her about what I might be doing to that fecking bastard if he was involved at all.
I roll over onto me back and pull her with me. She straddles me lap and rests her head on me chest, not moving from this new position. I grab me phone and dial Conaill’s number. When he answers after a few rings, I tell him that I want to get back to work.
He doesn’t question me, and I feel Stana tense, but I need to find out some more information before I start coming up with a plan of attack and who me new target is. After I hang up, I set me phone on me chest and grab the back of her neck. She still doesn’t move, and I have to give her credit. She’s tougher than I ever thought possible.
“Are you going to hurt someone?” Her voice is almost a whisper, but I hear it all the same. It hurts her to even have to ask, but I already told her I was a dangerous man. That I wouldn’t take shit lying down and I protect what’s mine, and she is mine. Nothing can change that fact now. Not even the little Max bastard that wants her too can take what’s mine. I’ll destroy him first.
“Aye, love. Ye don’t need to know more than that. I’ll take care of what is mine, and those bastards came after ye. I won’t let that go unanswered.” Her breathing quickens, and I’m afraid of her having another attack. She doesn’t handle this all that well, and I fear that the next time I won’t be around to calm her down, and we’ll have to tranq her again. When we did it last night, she was out like a light, and I was lucky I had her in me arms when Connie did it, or her arse would have probably been on the ground.
“Are you leaving?” Her question guts me. I don’t like leaving her alone, but I know that this place is the safest fer her to be while I deal with Ciaran.
“Aye, I need to deal with the problem we have.” She pulls back and looks up at me. I can see the uncertainty in her eyes, and I hate it. She has to know that I would do anything to protect her.
“Be careful.” She finally whispers after a few minutes of silence. I didn’t expect her to say that, but I’m glad that she did. It lets me know that she trusts me to take care of her.
“I’ll be back before ye know it.” I kiss her nose, and she wrinkles it in return. “Once we get moved into the new gaff, we can spend some time just the two of us. No distractions.” Her lips turn up into a grin at that, and I feel meslef start to relax a bit. “Rory and Cara will be helping us move everything along with a few of me lads.” A full on grin spreads over her face, and she leans forward to kiss me.
“I’ve missed Cara.” I can’t help but grin at that. I’m glad that her and Cara got along when they first met. If they didn’t, I would have had to deal with both of their bitching, and that’s just something I can’t stand. Women stand behind their man and deal with the hand they are given in me world and don’t bitch about it. Stana is not from this world, yet she is taking everything as well as you could hope.
“I need to go, love,” I whisper against her lips. She nods slightly and rolls over onto the other side of the bed. Before I get off the bed, I face her and cup her cheek. “When I get back, me and ye are going to be burning the midnight oil.” She rolls her eyes at me before laughing.
Her laugh takes all of me frustration away, and I just want to stay in bed with her longer.
Making me way to the garage that Conaill left Ciaran in, I open the door and see that he’s already hanging from a hook from the ceiling in the garage. This place is protected better than any other place we have so we won’t be having any visitors. I can take care of this before anyone even knows he’s missing.
“Ye done playing house with the bitch?” he grins.
Instead of responding right away, I walk over to the drawers of tools and start opening a few of them. I find something that I can use, and I make me way back over to him. His eyes narrow on me when he sees what I have in me hand.
The screwdriver isn’t a significant tool, but it can bring most men to their knees when you use it to torture them, something I’m counting on right about now.
“Ye’d throw away everything ye’ve worked fer just for that bitch?” he asks, making eye contact with me.
“I’d fecking kill fer her,” I bite out. I run me finger along the tip of the screwdriver before I look back up at him. He’s got a smug grin on his face, and I promise it won’t be there fer long. He’s going to regret ever coming stateside when I’m done with him.
“Yer more pathetic than I thought.”
I don’t say anything, but I grip the handle of the screwdriver and clock the bastard. His head whips to the side and the grin is gone. He thinks he can talk about me lass, he has another thing coming. His life isn’t going to matter anymore by the end of the night. I won’t have to keep wondering when he’ll show up again.
“I’d shut me fecking gob about her if I were ye. Ye know how I get when I’m angry.” His eyes narrow on me, and I take it as a challenge. Before I can move closer to him, I hear the door open followed by footsteps.
“Aye, looks like the party is just getting started.” I can hear the cynical side of Rory coming out. He’s typically the calm one who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, but I’m sure he’ll make an exception fer what that bloke has done over the years.
“Yer just in time,” I answer, not looking over at them. I hear them grabbing things behind me, but me eyes never move from Ciaran. “Ciaran was just about to tell me why he’s here.”
He spits at me in answer so I hit him again as hard as I can. His head falls to the side, and when he looks back up at me, I see the blood trickling down from his mouth.
“Feck ye!” His voice is low, and I know that last hit hurt. “Ye know ye won’t get shit from me. I suggest ye find someone who gives a feck.” Taking the screwdriver, I jab it into his thigh. His screams filled the room, and I can’t help but grin. I see a monitor flash on and all eyes hit the screen.
Black ski-masked men are walking stealthily towards the border of the house, but one of them gets hit with a few thousand volts of electricity and falls to the ground. The others look towards their fallen lad before continuing their journey towards the house.
All three of us watch as the next one goes down as well and I can’t help but smirk. These feckers thought they knew what they were getting into when they tried to take Stana, but they have no fecking clue what we do to protect the houses. Me apartment was the only place that didn’t have the electrical currents running through the ground around the building. With the high tech security, we didn’t think something was necessary, feck were we wrong.
“Ye think that one is stupid enough to try too?” Rory asks as he continues to watch the screen with a deadly look on his face.
“Aye. It’s not the first time.” Connie says with a sigh. “The kicker is that we have to deal with the bodies now. Can’t just leave them out there all day.”
I chuckle at that. “Well, we can wait until we snuff this bastard too. Make one big trip.”
They both nod in agreement before I turn me attention back to Ciaran. “Just tell me who sent ye fer me lass and I won’t torture ye.”
He spits blood at me this time, and I shrug. “I guess he wants to do this the hard way.” I take the screwdriver and stab him again, but this time in the stomach. He doesn’t scream out like the first time, and I have to give him credit fer that. When he still doesn’t say a word, I stab him again and again until blood is dripping on the ground below him.
The plastic that Connie put down before catches it and I do me best not to step in it. “Who the feck is sending ye arseholes after her?” I ask again, getting right into his face.
I take the screwdriver and press it to his neck. The harder I push the closer he gets to telling me what I want to know. “Liam,” is the last thing I hear come out of his mouth before I shove the screwdriver into his throat deeply before, pulling it out slowly.
“I hope ye burn in fecking hell,” I mutter as I pull away from him. Watching as the blood pours from the wound in his neck, I can’t help but feel a little better about this shit. He was just a sacrifice fer whatever is going to go down.
If Liam is really behind it, I need to play me cards close to the vest. Me Da wouldn’t believe me if I try to tell him, so it’s going to be up to the guys and me. I need to fecking call Colton.
Ciaran’s eyes go wide as he starts to choke on his own blood, but I don’t care. I have a plan that I need to get ready and a lass to protect.
“Ye think yer brother is stupid enough to come after Stana and ye?” Conaill asks.
I roll my shoulders as I think of the answer. “Me Da has been bringing him in more into the family business. I guess he could be trying to cut me out, so I don’t have anyone on me side.”
Me shoulders are tense as I think about the shit that could go wrong with this. If he gets the majority of me people on his side, it won’t be hard fer him to take me down.
“I just have to be smarter than the stupid fecker,” I say as the life drains from Ciaran’s eyes. Connie walks over to him and checks his pulse before he pulls him down and gets him wrapped in the plastic sheets.