Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“Not from me.” Dean shrugs.
I don’t know how true that is, but obviously he’s talented. There’s no denying how useful that could be to me. We do all right, but for most things, we have to go through Torin, which means my father’s going to know.
Cillian chuckles. “You’re nearly as cocky as T.” He glances my way, and I ignore it, knowing he believes I’m different with Dean. I have no room to be anything other than a fuck buddy to him.
“Finish.”
We listen as Dean tells us what he found out, about the girl in Ohio. With every word, my grip on the chair gets tighter, my heart pounds harder against my chest.
There are a lot of things I’ll forgive and a lot of things I’ll do. There’s no doubt I’m a bad man, but one thing I will never accept, never condone, and never fucking do is take advantage of someone sexually.
I push to my feet. “He’s fucking dead.” He was dead anyway. We’ve already got most of it worked out, but there’s definitely no going back now.
“Tiernan,” Cillian says, head tilted slightly toward Dean. He’s right, of course. I need to watch what I say around him, but I fucking hate rapists.
“Good. He should be,” Dean says, and all three of us look at him. “What? He should be. He’s disgusting and doesn’t deserve to keep breathing.”
As fucked up as it is, it makes my dick twitch listening to him, hearing his vehemence, his anger when those words fall from his sexy mouth. “And what would you know about that, fighter? You ever killed someone?”
“Fuck off.” He stands.
“It’s just a question. I need to know what kind of man is spending time with my sister.”
“Shut up, T,” Aislin says.
“One who would do anything to protect her, which I assumed was you too, but maybe I was wrong.”
“Oh shit,” Cillian says, managing to wrap his arms around my waist just as I lunge at Dean. I still end up right in front of his face, so close, I feel Dean’s breath against my lips and know he must feel mine. “I swear you have a death wish, New Kid.” Cillian doesn’t let go of me.
“Look.” Dean eases back slightly. “I’m not trying to be a dick. Just… That shit is not okay with me. And it almost happened on my watch.”
“My sister isn’t your responsibility. She’s mine.”
“Um, fuck you both. I’m not either of your responsibilities. I can take care of myself.”
I don’t take my eyes off him, and I can see it…he cares about her. Maybe that should have been obvious, but when I look at him, see the sincerity in his angry stare, I know he would kill for her if he had to. He wouldn’t have stopped at the Bar if someone hadn’t stopped him.
I’m used to that in some ways. My world is violent. My family takes care of each other. But Dean isn’t family. He hardly knows her. And yet he cares about her.
“We don’t hurt people,” I lie to him. Cillian’s hold on me loosens, and then he steps back. “But I take care of my own.”
“How?” Dean asks.
“None of your fucking business. Also, you’re staying here tonight.”
He shakes his head. “The rest of them might listen to you, but I don’t.”
Aislin takes his hand. “Stay. I missed talking to you this week.”
And just like that, he relents. “Fine.”
I fight back a growl, jealousy licking up my spine again. He’s willing to stay for her but not me? Who gives a fuck? Why do I care about him?
“You can stay or go, little fighter. It’s up to you, but if you stay, I want you in my bed tonight.” I turn and walk away. “Cil. Come on.”
With a sigh, I hear my cousin, my oldest friend, follow me into the room I use as an office. I sit down, and he closes the door.
“What are you doing, T?”
“I gave him a choice, like I always do. If he doesn’t want to fuck me, he’ll go.”
“You know that’s not what I mean. You want him to stay in the house? And you mentioned wanting that fucking sicko dead in front of him. I thought it was funny at first, seeing you dance around him, but now I’m getting worried. We don’t know him. We have a lot of fucking secrets he can’t find out about. We have your dad breathing down our necks. We’re planning a fucking murder behind the boss’s back, and trying to push a ton of coke, Molly, and K through this campus so said dad-slash-boss doesn’t lose his shit and fuck all four of us over. Now isn’t the time for…whatever the fuck is happening.”
“Nothing is happening.”
He frowns, his brows pulling together. “You like him.”
“I want to fuck him, like I said from the start.”