CHAPTER 7
Up before dawn seemed to be Carigan’s new habit and it was a real bitch. Work had kept her busy and away from her brothers, but between the two, she was also missing time with BJ. She vented the night before to her partner on the ambulance, Dawson, but he was no help. He had a good laugh and tried to convince her they just care. He may as well be one of her overprotective brothers too. If she was a gambling girl, she’d wager that all of the guys would say the same and side with her brothers. Assholes.
Standing in the kitchen, watching her coffee brew as fast as a slug could run, her attention was drawn to a sound she had actually been waiting for. The open kitchen and attached living room afforded a straight shot view through the large picture window on the front of the house. Just as she expected, number two was fourth to arrive.
Carigan briskly made her way to the door where two cooking pans were sitting on a side table. Her brothers underestimated her, she was prepared for this, they forgot she had the best teachers of all...them. With the door wide open she picked up the pans and banged them together as loudly as she could, yelling toward the hallway that led to all of the bedrooms.
She hollered, “Get up boys! Your brother is here, you lazy arses!”
Liam O’Reilly stood in front of her with a befuddled look of concern and maybe even fear. Mission accomplished.
Giving her watch a quick look, she was surprised. “You’re late, Liam! It’s nearly six thirty in the morning!”
“You…knew I was…coming? I didn’t know I was on a schedule.” Liam replied. Not sure what to think of Carigan’s disposition, he kept looking over her shoulder, hoping the reinforcements would wander down the hallway.
“Ehh, the other boys got here much earlier than you.” She looked around him, disappointed to see he was alone. “Where’s the sprite? She didn’t come with you?”
The sprite
was Liam’s ten-year-old daughter, Reagan. She was the spitting image of Carigan, interestingly enough, but with a fire about her that earned her the nickname, Ragin’ Reagan. Liam was Luke’s twin, and just as beautiful to look at as the other brothers, but he was the brain of the bunch.
Liam handled the IT side of their high-end security firm and could hack anything and everything. The only reason he wasn’t in a federal prison was because he worked for them often, and that afforded him some legal courtesies. While the other boys grew up in sports and going girl crazy, Liam was involved in every academic club there was and dated the same girl all through high school. He married that girl, she was his everything, but his world collapsed when she died, leaving Liam a young widower with a daughter to raise alone.
“She’s not here, she’s with…Cassidy’s family for Thanksgiving this year,” he said, pain crossing his face at the mention of his wife’s name.
“Oh, I’m sorry...I didn’t know.” Carigan felt like an ass now, giving the one brother a rough time who deserved it the least.
“It’s…okay. Oh, and I was dropped off.”
“Dropped off? By who?” She looked outside again, the car she knew she heard was nowhere to be seen.
“A friend.” He made his way in the door, passing her with a wink and a cunning grin.
“How are you going to get home, and more important…how are you getting the boys home?”
“Huh…I hadn’t really thought about that. Thought I’d stay a while. You don’t mind, do you?”
A deep sigh later, she realized she was getting nowhere fast, and switched gears. “Where’s Declan? Thought he may be with you?”
“Dec? He’s on a project, he couldn’t come. You’re welcome.” Liam gave her a wink, knowing Dec was the one she feared most. Everyone feared Declan most.
“Oh, well with Beck McCain
as your client and the big business
meeting you guys have, I thought maybe he would come too.”
Liam gave her a cross look then noticed his disheveled brothers entering the room, still half asleep, nodding their heads. “Oh…uh…yeah. I’m here for that too.”
“Sure you are.”
His sullen mood was gone at the sight of his mischievous brothers, and it was time to get in the game. “So where’s Bart.”
Hands on her half-cocked hips, Carigan was ready to spit fire, “Holy hell, are we doing this again?”
“Again? Hey…” He raised his hands in an innocent plea, but the ornery grin gave him away. “I just got here! Catch me up!”
“He goes by Blow Job
Baker now.” Wylie deadpanned.
“BJ! His name…is BJ!” she ranted.
Wylie shrugged his smug shoulders and scanned the room for support. “That’s what I just said!”
“You’ve gotta see this kid!” Dace added, “Boy got big…and probably stopped taking showers. Very earthy.
He’s like a giant hippy with granola and sticks stuck in his beard and everything.”
“Yes! And he wears like this purse! A mountain man with a purse…and a twirly knot thing in his hair. What’s it called?”
Wylie batted his eyelashes and sipped his coffee with pinkies out in a weak attempt to look and sound proper. “It’s a bun
, dear. Blow Job doesn’t have a purse,
it’s probably a giant weed bag.”
Awareness fell over her at the exaggerated, yet somewhat accurate descriptions of BJ. “Wait, you saw him? When?”
Muffled snickers and sly smiles filled the room and suddenly they were each thirsty, taking sips from their mugs. No one was going to talk, until one got brave…Wylie.
“Sure,” he chortled, “many times.”
“So, you’re following me! You’re basically stalking your sister…and Blow Job! I mean BJ! And it’s a SATCHEL!
”
And there it was, a win for her brothers and pure fury for Carigan. It was time to play hardball. These guys may have been oozing alpha macho crap, unafraid of anything…but one person. Colleen O’Reilly.
“I’ll call ma.” Not a threat, or tease…just an I dare you to do it again
promise.
Challenge accepted, Wylie fired back with his best bargaining chip, “Go ahead, we’ll tell her you’re sneaking out.”
Smug grins and puffed out chests deflated the moment their little sister used a big girl word, in a calm promising tone, “Good. Tell her I’m having sex too. Lots and lots of wild sex!”
With that, she took her coffee and left the kitchen, headed to her room to get ready for the day. She was so pleased with herself and the wide eyed blank expressions she left her brothers with she would have high-fived herself, but she wasn’t one to gloat.
She could hear their voices begin to echo down the hallway, “Wait, what do you mean? You’re not… No way is she… Someone call Dec…” just as she closed her door.
Working the late shift and having house guests
had put a damper on Carigan’s late night – and all day – shenanigans with BJ. Granted, they had only had a few days apart, after only days back together, but she missed him. She believed in insta-attraction, but insta-love? No way. But, the longer she went without him in her bed, or even just by her side, the more she realized maybe this was more there than just a good time.
Maybe the rules were different when you had a history with someone. Maybe having somewhere to start that was beyond the awkward early weeks, but just before the serious commitment that included cake and white dresses, meant something. Girls who fall head over heels and start naming their future children and puppies after the first few dates drove her crazy. Oddly, she was becoming one of those girls.
Her brothers had pegged him as a dirty hippie, but they would find something wrong with a guy with a fat bank account and fancy suits just the same, if he were dating her. Truth was, BJ’s shoulder length, brown locks gave her something to run her hands through and his beard left a tantalizing sting that couldn’t be matched.
He was health conscious, sure, but he was a chef and it was more about the chemistry of food than anything else. His satchel was their gym bag, tit for tat. He was a business man, a very successful one, and his work went everywhere with him while he was in between San Francisco and McKenzie Ridge. He needed that satchel.
Sitting alone in her room, defending him was just another reminder that she had it bad for the guy. They hadn’t discussed long term plans, but she hoped they included her. She didn’t think she could lose him again, not this time. She would be lost without him…and the hot sex. He ruined her.
A loud knocking distracted her from her deep thoughts on loving BJ Baker. Her brothers had left a while ago, she heard them leave, and she wasn’t expecting anyone. BJ came to mind again, and her excitement grew. Maybe he knew they were gone…smart man.
Racing down the hall, she stopped to do a quick once over in a hallway mirror before answering the door with her best smile, which fell flat the minute she saw who was on the other side.
“Dec.”
“Well, it’s nice to see you too, Squirt. Where’s the boys?” he asked, pushing his way past her.
“C’mon in.” She waved her hand sarcastically, as if she had a say in him staying. “I don’t know, they left a while ago. Wait, you know they’re here? Great! You’re their ride, right?”
Declan gave her a bewildered glance, “Ride? No. I’m here on business.”
“Right, Beck…your client.”
“You feeling okay, Squirt? I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.” He wasn’t leading her on, he was being straight with her.
“So there is no business with McCain! They’re all here because of BJ!”
“I know nothing. I’ll just leave it at that.” He smiled, something he didn’t do often.
“You aren’t here to get them? I swear, Declan O’Reilly, if you call Ronan and all the cousins in Deception Pass to show up next, I’m running away where you’ll never find me.”
“I haven’t called Ronan. And Ma sent me. Thought you could use some backup.”
“I love that woman.” A sigh of relief escaped her, and her shoulders relaxed for the first time in days. She was no longer outnumbered because Declan O’Reilly alone was a hard match for the rest of their brothers combined.
Dec was the oldest of the clan, not quite biggest, but big enough to be scary. His work took him undercover a lot so he was the one who tended to be on the outside, keeping his distance to keep his family safe from whatever he was trying to bust. The brothers were each only a year apart – with twins Luke and Liam being the exception – but they all worshiped Declan like he was their ten plus year senior. If Dec told them to knock it off and jump off a cliff, they’d do both yesterday.
“So, where is
Bart?”
“BJ. And I don’t know. I think he’s afraid to come around with you guys here.”
“Pussy.”
“No, smart. I don’t blame him.”
“Why? We’re a fun bunch!”
“Sure you are, with all of that macho, alpha, special forces, gun for hire, we know how to get rid of a body charisma…beats me!”
“Wow, you make us sound pretty damn intimidating, Squirt. Full disclosure, Da sent me too. He sent me to keep Bart in line.”
“You are intimidating, not to mention giant pains in my ass! Make it stop, Dec. I like this guy…a lot.”
“You always have, kid.” His arm wrapped around her shoulders and he pulled her in for a hug right before he rubbed his hand through her coppery hair and messed it up, earning him a solid punch to the gut.
“Does Lydia know you’re here?” she asked quietly, tip-toeing around the soft subject.
“No, why would she?”
Dec seemed to have his own bad luck in love. Lydia Prescott, Megan Sparks’ sister, was one of his cases a few years back, before he left whatever secret government agency he worked for to work full time with their brothers at their security firm. She was his last
case. They spent a year or so on the run, trying to stay alive so she could testify against her husband, who was a murdering cartel member. It all ended in McKenzie Ridge when they set a trap that almost went bad.
Her husband was dead now, thanks to Dec and Blake Cooper. Dec left McKenzie Ridge immediately afterward, and never looked back, though she knew it pained him to do so. He was still protecting Lydia, by staying away. Carigan found that to be one of the most heartbreaking romantic stories she ever heard.
“No reason, big brother.” she hugged him, and he let her.
Her phone buzzed and she ignored it. Then it buzzed again, and again. She went to the kitchen counter where she had left it and found the same text from each of their friends. Everly had collapsed. She was not just a visitor at the hospital, she was a patient.