Bronagh

by L. A. Casey

  "Can we go home?" I asked.

  "Were leaving now bumble be-"

  "Alec."

  I jumped at the loud female screech.

  "Yes?" Alec asked the blonde-haired girl.

  "Who is that bitch? Tonight's shag?" She snapped.

  Alec looked down to Aideen who was half asleep on his shoulder and laughed. It looked like he was about to say something but he was cut off when the girl suddenly attacked Aideen.

  "What the fuck?" I screamed.

  Kane jumped over the table pulled the girl off Aideen who was holding onto her cheek.

  "Get the fuck out of here!" Kane snarled to the bitch he was holding and shoved her away from our table.

  She left but cursed everyone of us along the way.

  "Aideen?" I called.

  She whimpered.

  "Fuck!" Kane snapped.

  I frowned.

  What the fuck was with all the fighting tonight?

  "I want to go home." Aideen sniffled.

  "I'll bring you-"

  "No, I want Keela. Ring Keela!"

  Kane and Alec shared a look.

  Alec sighed. "Give me your phone and I'll ring her."

  Aideen gave Alec her phone then went with Kane as he helped her leave. I frowned as they walked away.

  Poor Aideen.

  I winced then when my cheek throbbed.

  Poor me.

  "Ryder and Branna are waiting for us, Bronagh- wait, where is Aideen and Kane?"

  I shrugged. "Some girl attacked Aideen."

  “What? Why?”

  I opened my mouth to answer Dominic but I didn’t know the girl attacked Aideen.

  "Alec, why did that girl address you before she jumped on Aideen?"

  Alec scratched his head. "I think I fucked her and her boyfriend last week."

  I deadpanned.

  He was such a slut.

  Dominic shook his head and helped me up. "Are you ready to go home, baby?"

  I nodded my head. "We're out hours, I need to check on Tyson."

  "We feed him and let him go the bathroom before we left, he is fine."

  "He is a puppy."

  Dominic groaned. "Okay fine, let's go check on your baby."

  I smiled and kissed his cheek. "I love you."

  "And I love you."

  "Do you love me?"

  I looked to Alec and grinned. "Oh yeah."

  Dominic chuckled. "Are you leaving with us?"

  Alec shook his head and stood up. "I've to go help Kane with Branna's friend. I've to ring..."

  "Keela," I provided.

  Alec nodded. "Yeah, I've to ring Keela."

  "Be nice to her, is the early hours and you will be wakin' her up."

  Alec laughed. "I'm ringing a girl to come pick up her friend, I've got this."

  He turned and walked off.

  Dominic frowned. "Maybe I should go and call Keela instead of him."

  I shook my head and squeezed Dominic's hand.

  "Nah, let him do it. You never know, it could be the start of somethin' beautiful."

  Sneak Peek

  Alec

  Slater Brothers, Book Two

  Releasing August 17th, 2014.

  "Miss Daley? Open up! I know you're in there, your car is outside in the tenant car park!"

  I groaned at the sound of the loud voice, and flicked my eyes open then quickly re-closed them. It took a few moments for me to be able to keep them open, and when I could, I couldn't see very well. I squinted through the darkness waiting for my eyes to adjust to the minimal lighting. When I could finally see, I quickly narrowed my eyes at the fat snoring male beside me. I shoved him hoping to knock him off the bed, but instead of falling off like I'd hoped he only farted and rolled over in my direction then placed a big sloppy kiss on my mouth.

  "Storm!" I shouted and wiped at my mouth and tried not to heave, but the smell of Storm's breath made that very hard.

  Storm lazily got to his feet, stretched and made some weird noises then proceeded to belly flop on top of me until I gasped for air. Storm, my two year old German Shepherd, needed to be put on a diet or one of these days the fat baby was going to smother me in my sleep.

  "Off!" I gasped and shoved at his large body with both of my hands.

  Storm did as ordered and got off me. But he didn't get off the bed, instead he just rolled back over to his side - yes, my dog had a side of the bed - which was just typical. The only time he willingly moved was if it was breakfast time, lunch time, dinner time or pretty much any time he knew there would be food in it for him.

  "You pathetic excuse for a guard dog," I muttered as the banging on my apartment door started up again.

  Storm replied with another fart that had me opening the windows before I left my bedroom to proceed down the hallway to open my door. I stubbed my toe on one of Storm's doggy toys as I walked and cursed the person on the other side of the door for making me get out of bed - it was the middle of the night for God's sake!

  "I'm comin', keep your knickers on!" I shouted when I reached my door and began unlocking all the locks. There were five of them in total because in the area where I lived, one lock was not enough. I switched on my hall light and jumped when the bulb blew, coating the hall in darkness once again. I sighed as I turned to my front door, even though I was pretty sure I knew who was on the other side, I still looked through the peephole just to be safe.

  When I confirmed the noisy menace at my door was in fact my neighbour, I unlocked the final lock and pulled it open then harshly glared at the man who was stood before me. Mr. Pervert - his real name was Mr. Doyle - was a middle-aged man who was the CEO at Perverts 'R Us. The man was a major creep, and I hated that I answered the door to him dressed in nothing but my nightdress because it gave him free rein to ogle me with his ever-roaming eyes.

  "Can I help you, Mr. Per-Doyle?" I asked, biting my tongue so I didn't laugh at almost calling him Mr. Pervert out loud.

  He snapped his eyes up from gawking at my legs to my face and cleared his throat as he lifted his hand - a hand that contained one single envelope. I simply stared at the envelope for a moment then flicked my eyes up to Mr. Pervert and found his eyes weren't on my face anymore. I knocked on the outside of my door with my free hand which made him jump with fright and me inwardly snort. When his eyes were once again on mine, I nodded to the envelope in his hand and then raised my brows in a silent question.

  He cleared his throat again before he said, "I've been away the last few weeks and found this in my mailbox when I got home a few moments ago. It is addressed to you, but has my apartment number on it instead of yours."

  I wanted to throat punch him. I used the light from the hallway outside of my apartment to look back inside and lock my eyes on the clock hanging on the wall behind me, it was twenty past three in the morning.

  Couldn't he have just waited till morning before he delivered it to me?

  I sighed as I turned back to Mr. Pervert, who was back to looking at my body. I reached out and gripped the envelope and gave it a little tug until Mr. Pervert released it.

  "Thanks, I appreciate you goin' out of your way to make sure I get me post." I faked a smile and then pulled the hand that now held the envelope away until it was tucked safely behind my door - along with the rest of my body - so Mr. Pervert couldn't see me anymore.

  He blinked a few times and looked at my face, because it was now all that he could see.

  "It was no problem at all, sweetheart."

  Sweetheart?

  Bleh!

  I smiled and nodded my head as I inched my door closed. "Good night."

  "Good-" I closed the door before he could finish his sentence.

  I shook off my shivers then I relocked all of the locks on and closed the bolt at the top of the door. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Mr. Pervert's footsteps trot back across the hall and into his own apartment where he closed the door behind him. I looked at the envelope in my hand and decided to open it because I w
as curious as to what was inside it. I couldn't see very well because the hallway was still dark but I knew it wasn't a bill, it didn't feel like the envelope bills came in, it was thicker. From what I had seen it looked nicer than a bill envelope. Fancier.

  I headed into my kitchen that also doubled as my sitting room and flicked on the light. I tossed the envelope on the kitchen table and went to the counter drawers to look for my envelope cutter. I found it after only a second of looking, but had to put it down when I heard my phone ring from my bedroom. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

  Who the hell would be calling me at twenty past three in the morning?

  "Aideen," I said out loud and headed in the direction of my bedroom.

  Aideen Collins was my best friend. She was the closest thing I had to a sister and I loved her dearly, but she had her moments when she royally pissed me off. Ringing me at twenty past three in the morning was one of those moments.

  When I got to the phone in my bedroom and pressed answer, I said, "You'd better have a good reason for ringin' me at this hour Aideen Collins or I am goin' kick seven shades of shite outta you!"

  I heard a deep, rumbling chuckle.

  "She does have a good reason, so you don't need to kick any shade of shit out of her," a male voice replied, it made me jump with fright because I wasn't expecting it.

  "Who are you? Where is Aideen? Why do you have her phone?" I asked then gasped and shouted, "If you have hurt me friend in any way I'm goin' to fuck you up!"

  The stranger laughed this time and said, "Is that a promise, kitten?"

  Ex-fucking-cuse me?

  "Where is Aideen? You better tell me right now or I'm gonna-"

  "Fuck me up? Yeah, I got that part," he chuckled again then before he could say anything else I heard a different male voice speak, "I asked you to ring the girl's friend, Alec. What the hell is taking so long?"

  I mentally made a note of the name Alec in case I had to call the Garda.

  "I'm talking to her friend, but I haven't been able to tell her the point of my call. She is too busy threatening to 'fuck me up' if I have hurt the girl," the lad who called me laughed.

  I was mad and also scared as to where Aideen was and who these foreign guys were. I knew they weren't Irish or even English - their accents sounded too different - but I couldn't pinpoint where they were from because there was a lot of background noise. It sounded like music.

  "Just tell her what I told you to say so she can get here already," the second lad said to the one who called me.

  The lad who called me sighed and said, "Keela, I'm calling to let you know your friend Aiden was in a fight and we need you to come pick her up. She told me to call you."

  "Her name is Aideen not Aiden, it's pronounced Ay-deen," I said then widened my eyes when I comprehended the rest of what he had just told me. I screamed, "Is she okay? What happened? Who hurt her?"

  "Calm down, hellcat. She is fine, we just need you to come and collect her. I'll explain everything once you get here."

  "Where is 'here'?" I snapped as I moved around my room pulling on my shoes. I grabbed my car keys from my bedside table as I held my phone to my ear with my shoulder.

  "Playhouse, it's a nightclub right beside -"

  "I know where it is, I'll be there in five minutes," I said and hung up on him.

  I gripped my phone and car keys in my hand as I closed my bedroom window. I told Storm to stay put, but it fell on deaf ears because he didn't move an inch or even wake up. I ran down my hallway and unlocked the locks and the bolt on my door then flung it open and sprung into the corridor. I closed my front door, locked it, and then ran like a bat out of Hell down the hallway, down four flights of stairs and out into my apartment complex's car park. I sprinted towards my car and only realised I was in my nightdress when a cool breeze hit me and made me shiver.

  "Fuck!" I snapped as I unlocked my car, got into it and started the engine.

  I didn't think of changing my clothes, I just thought about getting my shoes on and then getting out to my car. I wasn't going back inside to change. I had to get to Aideen and make sure she was okay before changing clothes even became an option. It was okay though, I didn't show off any valuables. The nightdress was just a little short, it was black so I didn't have to worry that it was see through, at least I got lucky with that. The weather was good tonight as well, it was cool but not windy or raining. I would just have to hold the hem of my nightdress down when I got out of my car to keep it from rising up just in case I had to run anywhere.

  I pulled out of the car park and straight onto the main road and headed towards the nightclub. I was wide awake now, but the stinging in my eyes didn't go amiss. I had only been asleep for four hours before Mr. Pervert woke me up. Before that I hadn't slept in twenty-seven hours. I worked in my local supermarket, Super Value. I was broke and I needed all the hours I could get, so yesterday I worked an eleven hour shift and instead of going straight to bed when I got home, I dove straight into writing and pulled an all-nighter.

  I have always had a passion for bringing the stories in my head to life on paper - or on a laptop screen. I only ever dabbled in silly little things here and there, never a full-length novel. Luckily for me Aideen - literally - gave me the kick up the arse I needed and said I should just 'go for it' because I wouldn't know if my writing would be a success if I never put it out there. After my wake up call, which was three weeks ago, I knuckled down and started writing my very first book. Yesterday, even though I was shattered, I was completely in the zone and I just had to write. I had so much inside me for my story that if I didn't get it out of my head soon I was going to explode. So I wrote, wrote, and wrote some more. The lack of sleep and the stinging in my eyes from staring at my laptop was kicking my arse now though because I felt like death and I was pretty sure I looked the part too.

  When I came to a red traffic light I pulled down my visor and looked in the little mirror and winced. Scratch that, saying I looked like death would have been kind. The sclera around my green eyes looked like a road map to Hell, that's how bloodshot they were. My fiery red hair was slightly greasy, and pulled up into a disastrous looking bun. I glanced down at my long bare white legs and shook my head.

  Why did I have to be so tall?

  If I were shorter, this nightdress would be longer and less exposing!

  I angrily pushed my visor up when the traffic light changed to green and sped to the location of the nightclub Aideen was at with these men. I got there in less than five minutes because the green lights were with me, and there was little to no traffic on the roads thanks to the early hour. I turned into the nightclub car park entrance and looped around until I saw two huge males looking down at a small woman sitting down on the path a few meters away from the nightclub's entrance. It was Aideen. I parked my car across from them, jumped out, and slammed my door before I took off running towards Aideen.

  When the sound of my feet hitting the pavement could be heard both men looked up at me, but didn't say anything as I reached them. Once I was next to them, I dropped down to my knees and pulled Aideen into a hug. I ignored the slight stinging in my knees from the concrete ground digging into my skin and held Aideen tightly.

  "Are you okay? What happened?" I asked then pulled back from the hug so I could look at her.

  Aideen looked back at me and I gasped at the sight that greeted me. She had a small cut over her eyebrow and her right jaw was swollen.

  "Some bitch jumped on me," she grumbled.

  "Who?" I snapped. "I'll fuckin' kill 'er!"

  I was surprised that I sounded like I could actually follow through with my threat.

  I was not a fighter.

  I mean could stand up for myself when needed, but I wasn't exactly Mike Tyson.

  I have been in one fight in my entire life, and that was only because my younger cousin Micah punched me in the face when we were kids to see if my blood was blue. She told everyone I was an alien from outer space with blue blood and the onl
y way to prove I was a human was to punch me and make my nose bleed. I agreed because I didn't think it would hurt that much - I was wrong, very wrong, because it hurt like hell.

  After Micah punched me and red blood streamed from my nose we confirmed I was in fact human. I jumped on her then because I was in so much pain and decided that she needed to be punished for hurting me. Instead of dishing out a hiding, I received a black eye and a chipped tooth. Micah kicked my arse and it was the first and only fight I have ever been in. Regardless of my inability to bring the pain, if anyone hurt Aideen or Storm, I would go Bruce Lee on those fuckers.

  That was a cold hard fact.

  Aideen smiled at me and pulled me in for another tight hug. "I know you would, but I just want to go home now. Can I stay with you?"

  Was that a serious question?

  I shook her. "Of course, you bloody eejit."

  Aideen laughed and so did the males who stood over us. I don't know how, but I forgot they were next to us. I quickly stood up and pulled Aideen with me. She wasn't exactly drunk, just a little tipsy. I didn't have to balance her or anything, but I still kept a tight hold on her just in case.

  "This is Alec," Aideen said and lazily pointed to the man on the right who was openly looking me up and down, "and Kane." I tightened my hold on Aideen when I looked at Kane, the man on the left. He was just as tall and as muscular as the arsehole that was looking at my body, but he was scary looking. He had a large scar that curved around the left side of his mouth and some claw like scars going from his right temple and down through his eyebrow leaving gaps in the hairs like they were styled that way.

  "Hi," I said lowly and avoided direct eye contact.

  "Kane came to my rescue when Alec's girlfriend hit me," Aideen said and smiled at Kane, who smiled right back at her.

  "She was my lay from a week ago, not my girlfriend... and I apologised for her actions," Alec said with a sigh.

  I ignored Alec, the eejit who just spoke and looked at Kane when he smiled and felt myself instantly become relaxed. He didn't look scary when he smiled like that. I frowned though when the rest of what Aideen said settled in my brain. Before I knew it I let go of Aideen and shoved Alec in the chest as hard as I could. He wasn't expecting it so when I shoved him he lost his balance and fell back onto his arse with a grunt.