Lachlan: A Dark Irish Mafia Romance (Dangerous Doms)

by Jane Henry

  “Only students and parents or guardians admitted,” she says sheepishly to Lachlan. She flushes pink when she looks at his hand in mine, and even redder when Tiernan comes out of the coffee shop bearing a tray of cups.

  “Everything alright, Aisling?” he asks. “Have you seen anything out of place at all?”

  She shakes her head. “Well, no,” she says, flushing. “But I… well, I didn’t spend the night in my room.”

  Tiernan’s eyes narrow. “That why I couldn’t find you?”

  I stifle a groan. What the hell did she do?

  “Didn’t know you were looking,” she says, her cheeks heating.

  “Where were you?” he asks. “And I want the name of the people you both were with last night.”

  “Well I…” her voice trails off. She looks abashed. “Spent the night with a date,” she finally says. “I can give you his name and number.”

  “Call him,” Lachlan says.

  “What?” Aisling looks at Lachlan like he just sprouted another head.

  He keeps his gazed levelly fixed on hers. “Call him.”

  Tiernan hands me my coffee cup, and Aisling fumbles with her phone. “Fine, then,” she mutters. With trembling fingers, she flips her hand over and looks at the number she’s got scrawled on the palm of her hand. I stifle a groan. She dials the number.

  “Hello, there, I’m looking for Joe.” There’s a pause, and her brows draw together. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She hangs up the phone and looks to me, the first real look of concern shadowing her features. “It was a wrong number. I’m sure it was a mistake.”

  Now my own heart begins to thump in my chest. Last night was just a harmless meeting of a few guys.

  Wasn’t it?

  Did we fly here from Ireland straight into a damn trap?

  “Give Tiernan the address,” Lachlan says. “Tiernan, you go there while I keep guard when they go to orientation.”

  “Aye,” Tiernan says. “And for Christ’s sake, Aisling, stay in your own damn dorm tonight.”

  She opens her mouth to protest, but he’s already gone, stalking off the campus.

  I look to Lachlan, but he only shakes his head and sighs. “Wish to God I could put you on a plane and take you home, but here we are. So off you go.”

  Aisling walks beside me. “I don’t understand, Fiona.”

  I shake my head. I don’t either.

  “Parents or guardians only past this point,” a cheery-faced greeter at the door says.

  “I’m her guardian,” Lachlan says, and for some reason, my belly clenches at that. I think his definition and the school’s definition of guardian are two very different things, but it’s no matter. We’re allowed into the auditorium.

  Of course he looks all around the place, and brings us to where he thinks it’s safest, at the very back, where he can watch every entrance.

  I do my best to act like I’m a normal college student, just a freshman here at orientation, and I’m not sitting next to a man who’s in the Irish mob, but it seems as if I’m almost play-acting. I don’t feel like I’m just a freshman. When the dean welcomes us, and the auditorium breaks into cheers and catcalls, I join in, but it’s half-hearted. When she gives us a stern lecture about not smoking or vaping in the dorms, and reminds us of all the time and money our parents put into our education and how we can’t disappoint them, it feels as if she’s talking down to me. Such childish things aren’t even on my radar.

  Once again, I feel as if I don’t belong. I didn’t belong as a child under Sheena and Nolan’s roof. But I’m not an innocent, naïve freshman either. I’m sitting beside a man who told me he owns me not an hour before I set foot on this campus.

  What does that even mean? Or more to the point… what does he mean by it?

  I don’t know. God, I don’t know.

  The orientation passes in a blur. I watch Aisling. She’s looking all about the place with the wide-eyed wonder that most of my peers are. Meanwhile, I’m wondering where I’ll sleep tonight. In the little twin bed in my dorm room with Aisling? Or… beside this full-grown man beside me who took me over his knee and made me come?

  My cheeks flush at the memory.

  “Earth to Fionaaaaa.” Aisling’s got her hands cupped over her mouth. “Did you hear a word I said?”

  I shake my head. “Sorry. What was that?”

  “I said, come with me to the party tonight? Welcome freshmen party.” She grins.

  I look to Lachlan, whose lips are thinned. He gives me one barely noticeable shake of his head. That’ll be a no.

  “Not tonight,” I tell her. “I don’t know how long Lachlan’s here, and we’re going to spend the night together.” I immediately flush at my words and stammer to correct them. “I mean… I mean, what I meant to say was, I’ll be with him tonight.”

  Jesus, that’s no better. I close my eyes as Aisling squeals with laughter, then open again when I swear I hear Lachlan chuckle, too.

  “Why don’t you try that again, lass,” he says.

  I narrow my eyes at him and stick out my tongue. When Aisling’s got her back turned, he leans in and whispers in my ear, “Keep that tongue in your mouth, lass, or I’ll give you a better use for it, aye?”

  “Likely story,” I say and I roll my eyes. As if.

  “Challenging me, then, Fiona?” he whispers in my ear.

  Of course I am. How could I not? “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, tossing my head as we leave the main hall to get our schedules before we take a lunch break. Our schedule says after lunch we’ll meet our guides for our trip around campus.

  “You know damn well what I’m talking about,” he says. “And we can talk about this when we get back to the hotel.”

  I don’t want to squander what I have here. I’ve worked hard for this scholarship, and my best friend’s here. But a part of me wants to turn to him, bury myself in his arms, and beg him to take me home. I don’t belong here. I don’t belong there, either, though. Where do I belong?

  I go through the motions, but it seems odd. Something’s off, and I don’t know what.

  We meet Tiernan at lunch. He looks grim, and as soon as he can, he beckons for Lachlan to come to him. Aisling and I look over the maps we got at orientation as the two of them speak.

  “God but he’s a sober sort, isn’t he?” she says, her eyes on Lachlan.

  I shrug. “Not really, unless he’s concerned, which he is now.” I quietly tell her about my guard.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” she whispers. “God, Fiona. Are you serious?”

  And for the first time, her face registers real concern.

  “Aye,” I say with a sigh. But how do I tell her this is nothing out of the ordinary? It’s par for the course with mob life. And yes, I’m in danger, but that’s why Lachlan and Tiernan are here. Though they’re in danger, too, in my mind, they’re sort of invincible.

  Lachlan comes over to me a minute later and takes my hand again, but his eyes are on Aisling’s.

  “Where did you meet those two men, Aisling?”

  She blinks and looks at me. “Just in town. Why? Is there a problem?”

  “Bloody well is,” Tiernan says in a low voice. “We’ll get lunch and talk it out.”

  The four of us take the boxed lunches stacked for incoming freshmen by the main entrance. We have an hour before we’re to meet with the guides for our tours. We sit on the grass of the front lawn. Wordlessly, Lachlan reaches for me, and arranges me between his legs. I lean against him, grateful for his warmth and protection. My heart does a little somersault in my chest. I could get used to this.

  “Few things you two ought to know,” Tiernan says. “First thing, Aisling. I went to the address you gave me. It’s a rented room. No one on the premises has ever heard of the lad you mentioned. Says it’s been vacant for two damn months.”

  She blinks, her sandwich halfway to her lips. “What? But it was furnished,” she said. “Like a home.”

  “Course it was,
” Lachlan says. “He played the cards well, didn’t he?”

  She looks at me in astonishment. “Fiona, what the hell?”

  I shake my head. I have no idea. “They seemed like normal blokes, didn’t they?” Fiona says.

  “Aye.” I sigh.

  “Did either of them ask you anything about where you lived? Or anything about your family, or who you were.”

  My sandwich turns to a rock in my belly.

  “Aye,” I tell him. I’m suddenly ashamed at how freely I spoke, and I wonder if I’ve put us in danger. I sit up and turn to Lachlan. I speak in a low voice so neither Tiernan nor Aisling hears me.

  “I didn’t really tell him much of anything, Lach. Did I do something wrong?” He tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear and shakes his head.

  “No, Fiona,” he whispers. “I was the one who was wrong for letting you go. But I’ll make up for it. I promise I will.”

  Hope surges in me, and I close my eyes to the sudden rush of emotion his words bring out in me. I want to kiss him. I want to wrap myself up in his arms and go back to the hotel room and give all of me to him. I feel as if the clouds have broken through on a dark, dreary day, and I can see the path in front of me.

  “It isn’t your fault,” I tell him, but he shakes his head.

  “No more talk of this now,” he says. Then his brows draw together and his voice sharpens. “Did he touch you?”

  I shake my head. “No, of course not.” I frown at him. One minute I want to kiss him, the next I could slap him. I drop my voice even lower and nearly growl at him, “As if I’d ever let another man touch me.”

  Heat flares in his eyes, but he doesn’t speak. I hear them calling for us to come back to the next leg of orientation.

  “We have to go,” he says, getting to his feet. “Tiernan, you’ll call Keenan and fill him in, will you?”

  “Aye,” Tiernan says, rising as well. It’s then that I notice we haven’t gone under the radar of my fellow classmates. Small groups of girls are whispering and pointing to Tiernan and Lachlan. Is it our accents? Or the way the two of them, with their muscles and ink, look completely out of place?

  We go back, and Lachlan steps to the side to have a brief word with Tiernan. Their voices are heated, and Lachlan’s eyes are flashing. Tiernan’s shaking his head, and I want to know what the hell they’re talking about, when someone to my right taps me on the shoulder.

  A tall, lanky youth with dirty blond hair and glasses points to the papers I’ve got.

  “Excuse me, those are mine,” he says.

  I look down at the map and schedule they gave me. “They’re not,” I tell him. “They had my name on them.”

  He has the nerve to actually try to take them out of my hands. He knocks my backpack right off my shoulder.

  “Give them here,” he says. “You took the wrong schedule.”

  I pull away from him, astounded at his boldness, when a deep voice comes over my shoulder and I see Lachlan’s firm grip on the boy’s arm.

  “Leave. Off,” he says, giving the guy a murderous look.

  The boy runs and nearly trips.

  “What a douche,” I mutter under my breath.

  “Jesus,” Lachlan says under his breath. “Goddamn lucky we’re on a feckin’ college campus. Are we almost done here?”

  I turn to him, and I don’t care who sees me or what they think. I lean in and kiss his scruff cheek.

  “Aye. You know what? I am done. I’ve no interest in the rest of this. Let’s go.” With every minute that passes I feel less and less like I belong here and more like I need to be back home. I dismiss the feelings as homesickness. I need to be brave. I need to go out on my own. I can’t let my fears hold me back.

  “Good girl,” he says approvingly. His Adam’s apple bobs when he swallows hard, and it takes me a second to realize I’m the one that affected him like that. Me. Fiona Hurston, barely over the cusp of womanhood, has the power to affect Lachlan.

  Tiernan stays with Aisling for a while when the two of us head back to the hotel room.

  “Lachlan, I have a dorm room here on campus, though.”

  “Not anymore you don’t.”

  I open my mouth to protest, then slam it shut. Is he saying what I think he is?

  “Don’t ask, Fiona,” he says. “I have no fucking idea what we’re doing, but I do know a few things. First, I’m not allowed in your dorm. Second, if you think I’m sharing space with Aisling…” he shudders.

  “Isn’t Keenan expecting you back, though?”

  “The only way I go back to Ireland is if you’re with me. And since you’re here… my answer’s clear. Keenan’s put me as primary guard over you.”

  Though I’m pleased to hear he won’t be leaving me, I can’t help but wonder. What does this mean for us? For him? Men of the Clan don’t casually date. I don’t know everything about their rules and bylaws and code, but I do know when they claim a woman, it’s for life.

  “We have a lot to talk about, Lachlan.” I can’t stay in this place of uncertainty. I can’t keep wondering what will happen next or if I mean anything to him. Is it just a schoolgirl crush that has me hoping for more? Or is he really as devoted to me as I’ve dreamed he would be?

  Chapter 10

  Lachlan

  I felt every eye of every man on campus when we were there. She has no idea how radiant she is, how beautiful. Everything about her radiates goodness and beauty, but she doesn’t see it. “Just a girl,” she says. And I know in my heart that she struggles with more than that. She isn’t just a girl. She’s not “just a girl from Stone City.”

  It will take a long time for her to believe that she’s worthy of something, to see how beautiful she is. But I will help her see the truth for what it is.

  I’m glad I followed my intuition and got my head out of my arse. I’m glad I came here. That I found her. That she’s safe, by my side.

  But bloody hell, I’m only one man against God knows how many.

  What next? What will they try?

  Keenan calls when we’re walking back to the hotel.

  “Find anything?” he asks.

  I fill him in. He curses, and I can see him in my mind, sitting at his desk, his head buried in his hand. He takes the safety and wellbeing of every single member of the McCarthy Clan as his personal duty.

  “So, the two boys they spent time with last night weren’t able to be traced? No one knows who they were or where they came from. And one asked Fiona about us?”

  “Aye,” I say with a sigh. Goddammit it, she’s so innocent.

  “Take her back to the hotel,” he says. “Keep her fucking safe.”

  The irony of his words strikes me. How can I keep her safe when she’s locked within the walls of a hotel, this far away from family, and I want to own every inch of her body?

  “Aye, of course. You have my word.”

  You have my word.

  The McCarthy family promise. When we tell someone they have our word, we bloody well mean it.

  “How’s everyone at home?” I wonder if anything that’s gone on here correlates to danger at home.

  “Alright,” he says. “Mam isn’t feeling that well, but I think it could be a minor case of something we ate is all. Maybe a sickness, I don’t know. Sebastian is looking after her, and I bet she’ll be fine soon.”

  “Fair enough. Fiona’s done well. Finished up with orientation, begins classes tomorrow.”

  “Well done. Let me know if you need anything, Lach, will you?”

  “Of course.”

  Besides a fucking bubble for me to lock Fiona in and ensure her safety? I’m good.

  “Tonight, I want you and Tiernan meeting up with Calum. Good people, leaders of the Boston contingent. Tiernan’s worked hard to ensure this alliance. Normally I wouldn’t ask you to bring Fiona, but I think given the circumstances you have no choice.”

  “Of course. Thanks, Keenan.”

  “Lachlan.”

  “Mmm?”
/>   “Has Tiernan told you what it is tonight?”

  Wariness grows in my belly. “No, he hasn’t. Something I should know?”

  “It isn’t a normal meeting, Lach. It’s an auction.”

  My body stiffens, and I can feel Fiona’s eyes sharpen on me. “What kind of a fucking auction?”

  He sighs. “You know what kind, Lach. Keep her safe. Mark her as yours.”

  I can guarantee Nolan was nowhere near Keenan’s office during this conversation.

  We’re not in Ballyhock anymore. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Why hasn’t Tiernan told me the work he’s done here? I can’t really blame him, though. We haven’t had time.

  We hang up just as we get to the hotel room, and the irony isn’t lost on me, Keenan’s parting words in my ears.

  Keep her safe.

  Mark her as yours.

  I’ve taken her from one potentially dangerous situation to another, only in this arena, I’m the bloody antagonist. Just when I’ve decided I won’t defile her, that I’ll keep her pure and innocent and not give into the temptation that threatens to break my resolve, my goddamn Chief tells me to mark her.

  “Something wrong, Lachlan?”

  “Like you said,” I tell her, leading her into the hotel. “We need to talk.”

  I sweep my gaze over every detail, noting anything that might indicate we were followed or we’re in danger, but everything seems kosher. “I’ve got some business to attend to later and you’ll have to join me. We’ll talk of it upstairs.”

  She nods, and we get on the elevator. She crooks a finger at me when the doors close. I bend down and put my ear to her mouth.

  “There’s a guard at the door who saw us come in,” she says. “And I know I may be imagining things, but I swear, Lachlan, the second he saw you he picked up his phone and sent a message or something.”

  Bloody hell. And I missed this?

  “When I was talking to Keenan?”

  She nods. The elevator door swings open and two men in suits enter. They nod courteously. I barely maintain civility. I sweep my gaze down the length of them. Neither are packing a weapon, and they seem almost fully disinterested in us.