“I might’ve been wrong.” He looked towards the council. “It was dark that night. Maybe I made a mistake, thought wrong…I take it back,” he pleaded. “I take it all back.”
“Ye can’t take it back, boyo. Ye swore an oath,” Niall advised him.
“But…but…I don’t want this. She promised me a piece of the …”
“Shut your fucking mouth, idiot!” Bella screamed.
A snitch and a pussy.
Splendid.
“She was the one!” He pointed towards Bella.” She did everything. It was all her idea to come here. The fish, the hit at the diner, O’Brien’s…”
He never got the chance to finish his statement.
I hit him with a right cross, left hook, then an uppercut to the chin. He stumbled forward swinging at nothing but air. His slow movements made him look like Boris Karloff when he played the Mummy. I pivoted around behind his shoulders, placed my hands on his head, enveloping his ears, twisted my weight at the hips, and snapped his fucking neck like a twig. I walked away before his bloated ass hit the ground with a loud thud.
I heard Otelia’s gasp as she watched the savagery unfold before her eyes. I walked over and released her from her bindings. My breaths were ragged with the need to feel her in my arms. The last thing I wanted was to cause her more pain. Her wrists were raw from the material biting into her skin, so I took my time and gentled my movements. Once she was freed, I bent down and scooped her up on her feet, cradling her tear-streaked cheek against my chest. I felt her shudder with relief as I held her close while she struggled to steady her shaking limbs.
“I can’t believe you fought for me, Mac.” She sobbed. “That you could’ve died in front of everyone in order to save me.”
“Not die, baby.” I moved back, needing to see her face. “Kill.” I used my thumb to softly stroke her blackened cheek. “I’d kill to protect the woman I love.”
Her smile nearly blinded me, it was that perfect.
“You are my promised love, Darragh MacCabe, and my last great adventure.”
Too much and not enough.
Our lips collided in a blistering kiss filled with promises, want, and desperation. We forced ourselves to break away, remembering the circumstance which bought us here to this time and place. Otelia straightened her shoulders, proud and strong.
“I want to go home, Mac,” she whispered.
“I know, sweetheart. It won’t be long now.”
“NOBODY FUCKING MOVE!”
CHAPTER 42
Otelia
WE WERE STARTLED by the sound of shouting coming from the direction of the stage. Quicker than shit, I went from floating on a cloud in the Peppermint Forest to feeling as if I’d been punched in the sternum. Bella had Connor restrained by a fistful of his dark graying hair while she pressed a wiry hat pin against the underside of his neck. A trickle of blood dampened his white collared shirt as she thrust the tip into his flesh just deep enough to break the skin. Mac advanced, one step, then two. The muscles in his naked back rippled with strain as he pulled up short, cautious. Bella’s warning was unmistakable. She’d puncture Connor’s jugular vein if he moved the slightest bit. I spoke softly, urging him to play it cool for the time being. I was well aware that this woman was capable of anything. I pushed away the apprehension and remained strong.
All around us, guns were drawn and pointed in her direction, several with those red laser beam dots aimed directly at center mass. She ignored the threat, eyes wide and manic. She was looking for a way out when there didn’t seem to be one. Like a caged rat caught in a maze, she was trapped. For their protection, the other bosses were hustled behind a slew of bodyguards. The seconds in command stood ready to defend alongside them if needed. Bella’s lieutenant was being held around the throat in a chokehold while he struggled to find purchase against the massive arm of the guy who restrained him.
One asshole down.
Now, on to queen bitch.
I gave her kudos for ingenuity while questioning her logic, then again, her brainless crony had exposed her as a conniving hag to the whole of the Irish mob. Given that revelation, she really didn’t have much of a choice but to go balls to the wall.
“The fuck you doing, Bella?” Mac snarled. “Put the fucking blade down.”
“You should’ve stayed in Remington, Darragh. Your whore would’ve been dead by now if you hadn’t interfered. Now everything’s ruined!” she alleged.
Mac used a stiff arm to shield me behind his back. Now that my hands were free, I didn’t need his help to protect myself. The minute she stepped off that stage, I’d serve that bitch a two piece with an extra side a gravy. After the shit she put me through on top of fucking up my romantic moment with Mac, I had no problem with punching her lights out. She deserved that and more, but from the looks of things, I had to stand in the slap-a-hoe line and take a number.
“Use your head, woman. You’re surrounded. This is OVER!” Mac yelled.
“Back the fuck off, Darragh, unless you want me to shank the shit out of your father here.” She pressed the tip in deeper. What was previously a trickle was now a geyser of flowing blood.
Mac raised both of his hands as a sign of surrender. “What happened to you, Bella? You used to be someone worth possessing, worth cherishing. Now, I don’t know what you are.”
“Oh, I’m still all of that, Darragh. Soon as I get out of here, I’d be happy to show you.”
My fingers clenched, itching to pounce on her.
She’d have to pry him from my cold, dead hands.
“Why don’t you put the knife down now, Bella. I’m sure whatever this is, we can work it out amongst the council. You have my word,” Connor cajoled.
“FUCK THAT!” she screeched. “Do you think I’m stupid? This blade is the only thing keeping me alive, Connor, and I plan on staying that way.”
Bella’s hand shook, causing another nick to the side of his neck. Connor hadn’t moved a muscle. If he was afraid, he certainly wasn’t showing it.
“Think about your husband, Bella. Kellan wouldn’t want any harm to come to his widow.” Connor tried again to make her see reason.
“If Kellan cared so much about me, then he should’ve taken the lion’s share of the organization instead of settling for scraps. He could’ve been a major player with enough power to take you all out instead of a simpering do-nothing with glass balls.”
“Proud he was, lass. I won’t have ye speaking ill of him,” the portly man spoke from behind his guards.
“I’m in control here, Niall, not you,” Bella snapped.
He wasn’t happy about being told what to do, but he remained quiet enough for her to continue.
“I maneuvered my spineless husband towards the underground fight circuit knowing in advance that Darragh controlled the East. I needed an in, a way to get closer. Oh, he rejected me at first, the night of the party in your home, Connor. All he needed was a little push, so I went to him with pussy in hand, and guess what? He took it. He fucked me on his desk, long and hard. We were so good together, …” She cut her eyes over to Mac, whose face had reddened with wrath. “We couldn’t get enough of each other, isn’t that right, Darragh? You were supposed to come for me afterwards, but you never did.” Bella removed the knife from Connors neck and pointed it at me for a split second before jabbing it back in. “She got in my fucking way.”
I held on to Mac’s broad shoulders for support. His naked chest glistened with sweat, and I could feel his taut muscles flexing beneath my fingertips. The rapid thump, thump of his heartbeat was a tell-tale sign that he was pissed at the threat to his father’s life.
“Wrong,” he growled, folding his arms over his chest. “Call it what it was, Bella. A fuck, nothing more, and trust me when I say, I intend to be a lot more selective about who gets to ride my cock in the future.”
“No, Darragh, it was love. Admit it,” she cried.
“It was nostalgia, Bella. Stupid, selfish nostalgia and the biggest mistake of my entire life. I
t was a dick move that I regretted the second it was over. I’ve had better pussy prior to and afterward, if we’re talking truth here.”
Mac was provoking her, and I couldn’t understand why. It was one thing to air your dirty laundry in front of a bunch of dangerous men, quite another to do it with such callousness. Bella already looked on the verge of hysteria, and this was so not helping. That’s not to say it didn’t hurt like hell listening to Mac confirm their intimate affair. I felt compelled to speak for the one person who wasn’t there to speak for himself. My partner in broken promises and lost love had a voice, and it needed to be heard. I could give him that.
“Cut the shit, Bella. You don’t know the meaning of the word love.” I peeked around Mac’s shoulder. “Love is what you had with Kellan, but you were too stupid to realize it. He moved to Remington for you, started the fighting ring for you, took on Mac for you, and it still wasn’t enough! Power is the only thing you care about. The love Kellan had for you, you sullied it the second you spread your legs for another man. How could you not see that he was devoted to you in every way, that you were the love of his life?”
I recalled the conversation we’d had at his fights the night Mac and I attended. Either Kellan didn’t know or didn’t realize the depths of his wife’s depravity as it pertained to her need for power. He told me he would’ve done anything for her. Surely, he meant it. The look in his eyes had said what his mouth wouldn’t. She was his one great adventure.
The strangest thing happened next.
She started to laugh.
And by laugh, I mean cackle like a Halloween witch, on a full moon, riding through the sky on a fucking broom. I heard Mac utter, “What the fuck” before he shook his head in disbelief. I cosigned with him on that one. She’d finally flipped her fucking lid.
“I can’t even do it.” She sobered, wiping the fake tears from her eyes. “You should see your faces, all sentimental and shit, falling for that lovey-dovey tenderhearted performance. I must say I’m really surprised. And here I thought I was surrounded by supreme badasses. Instead, you’re nothing but a bunch of pussies.”
“Watch ye mouth, lass,” Niall growled.
She regarded him coldly before laughing a second time. “Kellan had too much respect for the likes of you washed-up old bastards. What a fucking joke.”
“He showed loyalty to a way of life, bitch. Something you know nothing about,” Mac hissed. “Maybe if you weren’t such a deceitful cunt, you might’ve taken your husband’s back instead of kneeing him in it. All these years, and you never learned the one thing a man desires from his woman first and foremost. Allegiance.”
Bella huffed in frustration. “The day of our wedding, I stood in front of the minister and promised till death do us part, Darragh. I kept those vows to my husband the moment I reached for my gun and put three bullets in him. He even begged for his life, asked me to give him a chance to make things right between us. So, I did. My final act of so-called loyalty to Kellan O’Brien.”
Holy fuck.
Connor had a strange look on his face after Bella’s confession. A mix between recognition and resoluteness creased his brow as he raised his hand and uttered a single word:
“AYE.”
The other three bosses mimicked his response with their own.
“AYE.”
The sound of the bullet hitting her square in the forehead never came; at least I never heard it. Point blank, dead center. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, properly wiping the smirk off her stupid-looking face before she knew what hit her. Her body propelled backwards off the stage, taking the offending knife right along with her. Blood splattered on the side of Connor’s face, yet he stood from his chair and straightened out his suit jacket as if readying himself for a day at the country club. He removed a handkerchief from his breast pocket and casually used it to wipe away the wetness. I heard an echo, a murmur. It was my name, I think…
“Otelia.”
“Otelia.”
Something heavy was placed over my shoulders. It was warm and smelt like Mac. I started to shake uncontrollably, chilled to the bone. My legs no longer had the strength to keep me standing upright. I went down, but the ground never broke my fall. Strong arms lifted me up and held me close.
I knew those arms.
I knew the man.
“Darragh.” I spoke his name like a prayer before he carried me away.
_______________
“She’s a strong woman, son, just like your mother.”
“Don’t you mean stubborn as all fuck?”
“That too…”
Leave it up to me to fall asleep during a monumental crisis. I thought I was dreaming for a second before everything came back to me in a rush of broken necks and bloodied faces. My eyes fluttered open in time to see Mac and his father sitting at a nearby table sipping from glasses filled with amber liquid. They both smiled brightly once they realized I was awake and made their way over to where I was laid out, wrapped securely in a pile of soft blankets. My head was pounding to beat the band, and my body ached all over; even my earlobes hurt like hell. I was stretched out on a leather couch in another conference room, but this time, there were no hoods or menacing-looking men ready to beat my face in. I tried to sit up but found the slightest of movement impossible.
“Relax, Otelia, you’ve had a bit of a shock to your system, I’m afraid,” Connor advised.
“Where am I?” I asked, throat raw as sandpaper.
“My private office. Safe as a bug in a rug,” he joked.
I remembered what happened the last time I’d flirted shamelessly with the silver fox, so I refrained from doing so, but boy did I want to. He’d changed out of his bloody clothing and was now dressed in what I would describe as chic leisure wear. Black slacks with a comfy sweater and a pair of classic leather loafers that probably cost a mint. The white bandage that peeked out from under the collar did nothing to ruin his style. He made that shit look good.
Mac sat on the edge of the chair looking a little worse for wear. He was also fully dressed now, which was a damn shame. Covering that sexy chest should be a crime. He reached for my hand, and I allowed him to take it, starving for physical contact with the man who’d saved my life.
“How are you feeling, kitty cat?”
“Like Rip Van Winkle took a shit in my mouth. Make yourself useful. I want to sit up.”
He snickered before using his arm to help me get vertical. I took in father and son with matching smirks on their handsome faces right before the door swung open with a loud bang. Three men walked in carrying different-sized shopping bags. I recognized Ferdi’s ginormous tail as one of them, but the other two? Not a damn clue.
One was the spitting image of Mac, maybe a little older, a little wilder, with the same dark features he’d inherited from his mother. The other was well...how should I put this? Scary as fuck with a Jack the Ripper vibe? Yeah, something like that. He was probably the most stunning man I’d ever laid eyes on, with the exception of Mac, yet his body language screamed serial killer. As big and tall as Ferdi, honeyed-brown hair with streaks of gold, he was what I pictured Connor would’ve looked like as a younger man. They each sported the same worried scowl as they piled the stuff on the table unconcerned with how it landed.
“Bought you some clothes and food, Odie. Glad to see you’re finally awake,” Ferdi remarked.
“Thanks, big dog,” I replied.
“Otelia.” Mac got my attention. “These are my brothers, Oran the eldest and Fionn the middle, but you can call him Spoon. Remind me to tell you later how he got the name.”
“Suck my dick, asshole,” Fionn, or Spoon, hissed at Mac while palming his junk.
“Nice to meet you both. Wish it were under better circumstances. Getting hit by that parked car makes for a terrible first impression,” I quipped.
“You still look damn good, girl. Don’t sweat it,” Spoon replied.
“Yeah, shit was fucked up.” Oran’s mouth curved into
a sneer. “It’s why I should’ve been there.”
“It was handled, Oran,” Connor scolded.
Mac gathered me in his arms, moving me closer until I was damn near on his lap. There was a dark cloud in the room, an air of intensity so strong you could almost taste it. I sat there contemplating my good fortune to be surrounded by all these virile men knowing there was a lot of unfinished business to attend to. Oran was the first to get right down to it.
“You tell her yet?” he grunted. “We need to get this sorted before Darragh returns to Remington. I won’t have this hanging over our heads, and if I need to take action, I will.”
“The fuck you say, cocksucker?” Mac snapped, attempting to stand before Connor raised a hand to settle him down.
“Enough,” he ordered, voice low, menacing. “I apologize for my son, Otelia. He forgets that I am still the head of this family and therefore make all decisions regarding its inner workings. Now, with that being said, you deserve an explanation as to what you witnessed here tonight.”
“Ignorance is bliss, Connor, and let’s not talk about how curiosity killed the cat. The way I see it, you don’t owe me shit, so let’s just bug out and call it even, shall we?”
“Like your girl, bro.” Spoon smirked. “She got a sister? I might even settle for a snaggle tooth cousin fresh out of rehab if her tits are real.”
“Don’t be a dick,” Mac growled.
This guy was something else.
I liked him immensely.
“Still.” Connor refocused. “There must be something. If you are anything like my wife, as I suspect you are, there has to be a small bit of truth you’ll need before you leave us.”
I thought about that.
He was right. There was one thing.
“How long had you known about Bella? If you don’t mind my saying so, you didn’t seem the least bit surprised at her little coup attempt. I know you’re a bad motherfucker, but come on, even Van Damme would’ve been shitting bricks with a knife to his throat.”
I bit the inside of my cheek praying I hadn’t overstepped.
“Since before it happened,” Connor replied calmly. “Well before.”
48 Mac (A Junkyard Boys Novel) Page 26
