by Kit Rocha
Table of Contents
Dedication
O'Kane for Life
Blurb
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Laurel
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
About the Author
Copyright Information
Dedication
for everyone who has ever built a family
be it big or small
through blood or affection
(but always love)
O'Kane for Life
You're holding a novella set after the end of Kit Rocha's bestselling Beyond series. If you have not read the series yet, please be warned: this novella contains massive spoilers. It is intended for readers already familiar with the series and characters, and if you pick it up without context you may find it confusing and unsatisfying! Please proceed with caution!
THE BEYOND SERIES
#1: Beyond Shame, #2: Beyond Control, #3: Beyond Pain, #3.5: Beyond Temptation, #4: Beyond Jealousy, #4.5: Beyond Solitude, #5: Beyond Addiction, #5.5: Beyond Possession, #6: Beyond Innocence, #7: Beyond Ruin, #8: Beyond Ecstasy, #9: Beyond Surrender
Blurb
O’Kane for Life…
Winning a war might be enough for most people, but Bren and Six aren’t interested in kicking back to enjoy peace. Not when they finally have the power and resources to help the people in the sector they now rule.
Especially the orphaned street kids.
Six remembers how hard it is to trust. Bren remembers how hard it is to be patient. Together, they have the skills and the power to make a better world than the one they grew up in—not just for Sector Three, but for themselves.
Chapter One
Hawk had built Jeni a house with his bare hands, and it was still only the second-most squishily domesticated thing about Six’s current surroundings.
Not that the house wasn’t nice. Perched on a bit of land on the freshly revitalized edge of Sector Four, it was close enough to the O’Kane compound that they could be back at the Broken Circle in no time flat. And it was close enough to the little farm Hawk’s sisters had built that they could walk over to visit.
It was a snug little love nest, with a big kitchen and bigger living room, along with lots of huge windows letting in sunlight to bathe couches and chairs currently filled with O’Kanes. Six covertly poked at one window under the guise of admiring the curtains, relieved to discover they were actually secure, blast-proof plexiglass.
The war might be over, but getting lazy about security was just stupid.
Even with the safety precautions, the house was almost cloyingly adorable. Downright motherfucking picturesque. But the real kicker was in the corner near the unlit hearth--a crib so big there had been plenty of room to put both of Rachel’s twins down in it when they’d drifted off.
It could have just been a thoughtful gesture. Between Amira’s daughter, Rachel’s babies, and the son Noelle was carrying, Christ knew the thing would get plenty of use. But Six had caught the way Hawk’s eyes kept drifting to it, all soft and dreamy, like Nessa anticipating the perfect cask of whiskey or the way Laurel had looked when Six and Bren had gotten her one of the next-gen sniper rifles.
If Jeni wasn’t pregnant yet, it wasn’t for lack of trying.
She walked in from the kitchen, carrying a heavy tray. “Lemonade. Clear pitcher’s spiked, but the green isn’t.”
“Here, I got it.” Six took the tray from Jeni and placed it on the low wooden table in front of the couch. The set of pristine crystal glasses that had been Noelle and Jasper’s housewarming gift were still there, so Six poured some of the unspiked lemonade into one and offered it to Noelle.
“Thanks,” she said, before taking a sip. Her eyes rolled back as she gave an appreciative moan. “Oh God, that tastes so good. You need to teach me how to make this, Jeni. I’ve been craving lemons so badly.”
“Yeah,” Nessa teased, nudging Noelle with an elbow. “If we don’t keep an eye on her, she sneaks into the kitchen at the bar and just eats them whole.”
Jeni curled up in a chair beside the window with a smile. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked Mad. He grew up on things like this.”
“I’ll talk to him about it,” Jyoti offered as she rose to help Six pour drinks. There was a symbolism there Six could appreciate--both she and Jyoti were sector leaders in their own right. She couldn’t imagine either of their predecessors fucking up their image by serving drinks like the hired help.
They might be leaders, but when the O’Kanes gathered together, they were something better. Family.
Lex lingered by the crib as she sipped her drink. Then she turned toward Jeni, one eyebrow raised. “Do you have something to tell us?” she asked dryly.
“No.” Jeni’s eyes sparkled, reflecting a light and contentment that made her look like she was smiling, even though she wasn’t. “But I will.”
Ace laughed from his perch near the crib. When Rachel had joined some of the men to go look at Hawk’s newest salvaged car, he’d taken up a protective watch over his six-week-old twins--as if anything could get through the wall of O’Kanes outside. “We’re gonna need a nursery, Lex. Or a day care.”
She snorted. “We’ll put you in charge of it. That way, you can keep a close eye on yours.”
It should have been laughable--casually violent, gleefully kinky, impossibly irreverent Ace serving as the adult authority in a room full of babies. But Ace had taken to fatherhood like a man who’d found his calling, and the sight of him cradling babies and making toddlers squeal with laughter seemed to melt everyone’s brains.
It mostly made Six a little claustrophobic.
Not that she had a problem with babies. She’d been put in charge of helping with her father’s youngest children when she was barely more than a toddler herself, so she was a goddamn expert on babies compared to most of the O’Kanes. Babies were fine. They were cute and fun to cuddle...and even more fun to hand to someone else when their diapers started stinking.
The idea of not being able to hand them back made the inside of her skin itch.
Lex was watching her like she could read her thoughts far too easily, so Six changed the subject. “How’re the plans for the soft opening coming, Lex?”
“Not bad. Dallas isn’t happy with how new everything looks, but I told him a few bar brawls will bust all that shit up in no time.”
Six laughed and poured herself some of the spiked lemonade. “Want me to bring the girls over some night? They love a good bar fight. We can rough up the edges for you.”
“We could use some extra security for the opening.”
Six paused to run down her mental list of the women currently training with her and Bren. While their little makeshift school had started as a wartime necessity, the ranks had been slowly swelling. The girls she’d accepted from the training houses in the aftermath of Sector Two’s destruction had been joined by women from every other sector--women with the skill and the grit to fight, who had just been waiting for someone to encourage their interest and hone their talents.
“I have a few,” she said slowly, still sorting through the list in her head. “Some who can come over for opening night, and a few who might be ready for full-time jobs, if you’re looking for bouncers. Bren and I can give them more specific crowd control training, too.”
Jeni sighed and glanced at Ace over the rim of her glass. “They’re talking business again.”
“Nah,” Ace replied with a wink. “Crowd control training isn’t business to Six. It’s practically foreplay.”
“Oh, shut up.” Six tried to scowl at him, but he just kept beaming her with that impossibly Ace smile, the one that was somehow annoying and endearing at the same time, so she ga
ve up. “Fine. Someone talk about something not business related.”
One of the babies chose that moment to let out a plaintive wail. Ace swept Isaac out of the crib and into his arms, but it was too late. Rosalía started crying, too, and it took a frantic couple minutes of baby shuffling before everyone was settled again, the babies nestled in Ace and Jeni’s arms, eating contentedly.
Nessa jumped into silence with the story of her recent road trip to see the ocean. She’d filled a tablet full of photographs, and Six flipped through the pictures as Nessa showed off her housewarming gift--a bottle of sand filled with bright, colorful seashells.
The pictures were beautiful. They showcased the vivid blue ocean and pristine white sand, the snow-capped mountains and towering trees so large it would take half a dozen O’Kanes to encircle the trunks with their arms. It was more of the world than Six had ever seen, but she couldn’t feel even a fraction of the excited awe in Nessa’s voice.
It was pretty, but it wasn’t her world. Her world was Sector Four and the family she’d found there. And Sector Three, where people were depending on her to rebuild their lives.
So as the conversation flowed around her, Six finalized the list of women who were ready to take their first steps in a new life. Bouncing at the Broken Circle might not seem like everyone’s dream job...
But it had worked out pretty well for Six.
»»» § «««
Seven hours later, seated at her desk, Six reviewed the carefully written list of names. Her handwriting was still a mess, but it wasn’t a joke anymore. Noelle’s patient tutelage had gotten Six to the point where she could keep basic files on her girls and decipher the teachers’ notes, even if she still hadn’t gotten comfortable enough with reading and writing to enjoy it the way Noelle did.
She had five women ready to leave the nest and strike out on their own. One older trainee from Sector Two, who would no doubt fit in great once she got over her awe of Lex. Three women in their twenties from Sector Four who’d been hovering around the edges of the cage fighting scene for years, just waiting for Dallas to loosen the rules and give them a shot. And one girl from the farms in Sector Seven--a girl who’d run the same way Six had, then spent a decade living rough on the streets in Sector Five.
A good range of age and experience. A team that would work well with the O’Kanes and with each other.
Five women who had a chance to be something more than they’d grown up believing possible, because Dallas and Lex were changing the rules about which dreams were out of reach.
Laurel was sitting on a file cabinet, kicking her legs so that the backs of her heeled boots thumped against the metal with a dull clang. “So how was the party?”
“It was fun.” Six folded the list in half and set it aside. “Nessa brought pictures of their big trip to the ocean. You should have come with us.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Nah, that whole O’Kane deal is more of a you thing.”
Six imagined Dallas’s horror at hearing lemonade and vacation pictures referred to as that whole O’Kane deal, and her lips twitched. “Well, it wasn’t exactly the most O’Kane party ever. If you want to see that, you need to come to the soft opening they’re doing when the new bar’s finished.”
“Maybe once the crowds die down a little.” She paused, then grinned. “If they do. It’s not every day you get to do your drinking with a bunch of certified goddamn war heroes.”
“Which includes you, you know,” Six reminded her. “How’s it feel to be a war hero?”
Her smile faded. “Honestly? It makes me feel like an old-timer.”
Old-timer wasn’t something that could apply to either of them. Laurel was only a few years older than Six, not even thirty yet. Perched on the file cabinet in jeans, a tank top, and leather boots, her brunette hair streaked with bright pink, she looked even younger.
Except for her eyes. Six had seen that look in the mirror before--ancient, tired. They’d both grown up hard and not-always-pretty. Under the previous sector leader, Three hadn’t been a friendly place for teenage girls.
Which was putting it mildly.
“You are an old-timer, in a way,” Six said softly. “You didn’t just survive this big war everyone saw. You survived the one we were all fighting every damn day Wilson Trent was in charge of this sector.”
“Nah, that’s not it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ll sit here and blame shit on Trent all you want, but this is...” She slid off the cabinet, then circled it and leaned on it, drumming her fingers on the surface. “You know those old guys who would sit around the bar sometimes? Like, all they would do was drink? They were all stuck somewhere else--back when the factories all got blown to hell, or maybe even before the Flares. I think I finally understand how that happens to someone, that’s all.”
Six tried to understand, but she couldn’t. She felt alive, maybe more than she ever had before. She and Bren put another piece of Sector Three back together every day. The thrill of it was better than any booze--the power to see a wrong and know she could make it right, along with the knowledge that she never had to do it alone.
But saving Three had always been her dream. Didn’t mean it was Laurel’s. “I know I’ve been leaning on you pretty heavy. But if it’s so heavy you’re feeling stuck...”
She waved that away. “If I wanted to be someplace else, I’d be there. I’m not giving you the kiss-off.” She seemed to be struggling for words, a rare occurrence for Laurel. “But this is your story, not mine.”
There had been a time when Six thought Laurel would be her second-in-command. Like Jasper was for Dallas, a person she could trust to have her back and take care of day-to-day shit in the sector when bigger problems reared their heads. But Laurel’s tired eyes and deep musings weren’t new, just the latest version of the restlessness that had plagued the woman since the walls came down.
Being a leader meant paying attention. And it meant taking care of your people--even when that involved giving up your potential right hand. “So let’s find you a story. What do you wanna do?”
Laurel threw back her head with a laugh. “I don’t think that’s how stories work, Six. The best ones always just...seem to find you.”
In Six’s experience, the best stories were the ones you fought for. The ones you wrote for yourself because you’d finally figured out what happiness looked like. But she could remember not being ready to hear that, too, so she shook her head. “In the meantime, help me find someone to run the school. Just so you won’t feel tied down if something interesting pops up and you wanna run after it.”
Laurel scoffed. “That’s easy. Just look and see who’s already doing it without having to be asked.”
Six was about to retort that if it was that easy, she already would have done it. But she’d just spent an hour painstakingly reviewing files, and one teacher’s precise, elegant handwriting had dominated most of them. “Marian.”
“See? Simple, right?”
Maybe it could be. Marian was one of the older refugees from Two--a woman who’d completed training and settled in with a patron. For fifteen years, she’d run his household, managed his trading relationships, and served his needs in bed.
And when the bastard got warning of the bombs headed for Sector Two, what had he done? Packed up his valuables and disappeared into the night, leaving Marian sleeping obliviously.
The asshole was lucky he hadn’t fled to Eden. When Marian had finally confessed the truth to her, Six had put out a few feelers. Not that Councilman Markovic would have been too happy if Six started carving up rich guys in the city he was trying to piece back together--but the pain in Marian’s eyes had infuriated her.
She couldn’t fix the hurt in the woman’s past, but maybe she could give her something good to focus on for the future. “All right. I’ll talk to her, smartass.”
“Excellent.” The door to Six’s cluttered office cracked open, and Laurel hefted her bag from the floor beside the desk. “Now, if you’ll excuse me...�
�
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Six told her, her attention already drifting.
It always did when Bren stepped into a room.
He nodded to Laurel as she slipped past, and Six waited until the door closed before relaxing into a smile. “I was going to come to bed in a little bit. I promise.”
He leaned against the door frame and nodded. “You have things to do.”
“Not too many tonight.” She picked up the list of names and held it out. “What do you think? Lex said they can hire up to five bouncers full-time once the Broken Circle is open again.”
He studied the page, his gaze flicking over the list. “They would all be good at it, if that’s what they want to do. Kelly might need some help with de-escalation.”
“Yeah. Life in Sector Five doesn’t exactly prepare you for that.” Six shoved out of her chair and pushed the files back into a stack. “We can talk to them, see who’s interested. Maybe give them some specific training over the next couple weeks.”
“But not tonight.” He slipped the paper under the edge of the stack of file folders and held out his hand. “You’ve been at it too long today.”
They’d spent a long afternoon at Hawk and Jeni’s, which meant even more messes to clean up once they got back. Six finally understood the depth of Dallas’s patience and commitment--and how vital Lex was to his sanity.
She slipped her hand into Bren’s and leaned against his chest. It was broad and solid, an unshakable wall, and always there when she got tired of standing on her own. She liked how they fit together--he wasn’t so tall that she couldn’t kiss him when she wanted, but it was still easy to turn her head and rest her ear over his heart to hear the steady, reassuring thud.
His chest rumbled beneath her cheek. “I have a surprise for you.”
That piqued her interest. “Yeah?”
“Mmm, if you don’t mind stopping by the bar on our way up to bed.”
“I think I can make it if you can, old man.”
