CHAPTER 9
SERA
One thing about the O’Shea men—they don’t fuck around; when they say they’re going to do something, they do it.
You’re my queen, bam…. I’m his queen.
Your girls need somewhere to stay for a little while, bam…. sorted.
We’re making you a partner, bam…. paperwork is now done, ready, and waiting for my lawyers to look over and my signature.
I think I’d got so used to the bureaucracy and red tape in the Army that the fast movement on this had my head spinning.
I’d called JoJo in to go over the contract with me because I hadn’t believed my eyes when I read it the first time. It was generous. In fact, it was more than generous.
I’d balked, thinking that they were bringing me on solely because Liam and I had something happening. I’d argued about what would happen if Liam and I broke up. Adam and Johnny had both smirked at me and assured me it would never happen, but if for some reason it did, we’d deal with it like adults.
I’d shaken my head in disbelief, but JoJo had smiled, seemingly in agreement with the two of them.
“When you know, you know,” she reassures me, patting my hand. “Now you’ll want to get this signed as soon as possible because, babe, this is more than a fair offer. I know it’s Saturday, but I’ll give Roddy a call to have a quick look for everyone’s peace of mind.”
Picking up her phone to make the call, Roddy had been at school with Bryson, and I’m not sure who was taking his passing harder—JoJo or him. He was also their lawyer. In silence, we listen to the one-sided conversation; after the usual pleasantries, JoJo puts the phone on speaker, and we get down to the nitty-gritty of the call. Roddy is happy for us to send him a copy of the contract, but after JoJo gives him the basics of it, he agrees it’s more than fair.
“I’ll courier it over to you today,” Adam assures him.
“I want to add something to the contract, Roddy,” I interject before he can end the call.
“I’ve got pen and paper, so go ahead, Sera.”
Taking a deep breath, I look Adam and Johnny in the eye, “I want you to add that I’ll put in a hundred thousand pounds, and should Liam and I ever break up and this contract be dissolved, I will leave with a hundred thousand pounds—nothing more, nothing less. No matter how successful the company is.”
“And if it’s not successful?” Roddy questions.
“Then I leave with nothing.”
“Got it, Sera, I’ll add this. I’m glad you girls found something to invest in. I was sorry to hear about your dad and what your brother did.”
“Thank you, Roddy, and thank you for doing this for me. I appreciate it. We won’t keep you any longer. Give our love to Gina,” I tell him.
“No worries, babe; you know I’d do anything for JoJo and you girls. If I receive these today, I’ll have them back by Monday.”
“Tuesday is fine, Roddy; enjoy your weekend with the family,” I assure him.
With that, we say goodbye, and I smile happily, loving the changes that have happened in the last few days.
“Good Lord, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile so much. Well, not since school anyway,” JoJo mutters, and even though her words may sound harsh, her lips have an uplifted tilt to them.
Sighing, I sit back in the chair, legs crossed, hands relaxed over my belly. “I know,” I answer a little dreamily, “who’d have thought that anything good could come from Dad dying and Simon being a dickhead wanker would have us end up here? I’m feeling pretty good about things right now.”
JoJo smiles softly at me, “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you so happy, Se; it’s good to have you back. And I’m glad we’re all together again.”
Reaching over, I grip her hand tight, “Miss you too, babe.”
JoJo blinks rapidly before clearing her throat, “I know; I’m not ready yet.”
“That’s okay, JoJo; you take your time. In the meantime, are you happy to run the office for me? I know I kind of lumbered you with it, but if you don’t want to, just say.”
“I want to,” she assures me. “Now I have to meet Kate and go and have a look at the property.”
“I can drive you,” Johnny offers. Both of us start slightly; we’d been so engrossed in our own conversation that I’d almost forgotten they were in the office with us. They were pretty quiet when they needed to be.
JoJo smiles warmly at Johnny, “I’d appreciate that, thank you. I want to have a better look around the area, which I’ll be able to do if I’m not concentrating on driving. Do you have room for Evie?”
“Of course, as long as she doesn’t mind squeezing between the car seats.”
“She won’t,” JoJo assures him. Turning back to me, she asks, “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to have Liam take us to the clubs so we can have a quick look to see where the best place is to put the hidden cameras. From what Liam’s said, it should be empty now as the cleaner will be done. I’ll have the girls bring a selection with, and maybe we can fit them this morning.” Turning to Adam, I ask, “Do you want to come with?”
“Yeah,” he replies, standing up and grabbing his keys. “Let’s go; I’ll have the courier come and get these from Atomic. I want to get home by mid-afternoon for the girls.”
We meet up in the reception with my squad but no Liam. Johnny, JoJo, and Evie leave quickly to make the appointment with Kate. I wait for them to close the door before turning to the others, holding out my hand for the sheaf of papers that Billie’s holding.
“How are we doing for stock?” I want to know as I start scanning down the pages.
“Pretty good,” Billie replies. “They have most of what we’ll need; there are a couple of changes I’d make to upgrade, but considering they don’t know much about the systems, Adam did a good job on ordering.”
“I need to take some stock with us to the clubs; if we can outfit at least one today and the other on Monday when it’s closed, it would be great.”
“Already ahead of you,” Ange says, pointing down the passage as Liam pushes a trolley filled to the brim with cameras, wiring, monitors and such. I’d wondered where he was. “Liam figured you’d want to get some done today, and Evie helped put it all together once Liam gave her the schematics for the clubs.”
“Fantastic, let’s go. Between the five of us, we should get this done pretty sharpish.” Going to the door, I open it for Liam, who pushes the trolley towards the ramp to the side of the stairs. As he’s about to walk past, I lift my face to his for a kiss, which he has no problem delivering.
I tilt my head as he walks away, not hiding that I’m ogling the man’s arse in his tight-fitted jeans. From the corner of my eye, I see Ange and Billie doing the same thing, and that feeling of total possessiveness comes over me again.
“If you girls want to keep your eyes, then take them off my man’s arse,” I all but growl.
Adam chuckles in the background, especially when Billie turns to me and says, “Can’t help it, Sera, that man’s arse is FINE! If you don’t want us looking, go and buy him some old man jeans that are baggy and a little saggy.”
“I can’t wait until you girls find a man so we can ogle them all together,” I grumble.
“Jesus, you girls are hilarious. Come on, let’s go,” Adam gently pushes us out the door.
By the time we’ve got to the car park, Liam’s loaded his work truck, and immediately I see a change that needs to be made. A normal truck is not going to do it. We need a van with shelving and lockable cabinets for ease of finding items. I don’t hesitate to mention this.
“That’s doable,” Adam assures me. “We’ll go and look for a van this week and then find someone to fit it out for you.”
“Oh, I can do that,” Billie assures him. “No need to pay someone else. I’ll make a list of what I’ll need, but I will need tools. If you know of a friendly mechanic who won’t mind me using their tools in this town, if you don’t, I can do it at the Crow garage; Gunny won’t mind.”
“That would be fantastic, Billie, and yeah, I’ll speak to one of my crew; his family owns a garage in town. I’m sure they’ll be happy to let you use their tools,” Adam assures her. “Right, let’s get going. Ange, Billie, if you want to come with me. Liam and Sera, we’ll meet you at Atomic.”
It doesn’t take us long before we’re pulling up in the parking lot of Liam’s club. I’m looking forward to seeing the inside because, from the outside, it’s huge. It’s slightly on the outskirts of town, and when we drove around the front, I saw it had its own private car park, which surprised me, as it wasn’t usual for a club to have one.
“You have your own car park?”
Liam nods, “Yeah, unusual, I know, but because this club is so far out from the centre of town, I wanted people to be able to drive if they wanted to. When this lot came up for sale while we were renovating, I bought it and made it into a car park after some haggling with the council.
“Most groups that come to this club have designated drivers now. They pay a minimal charge for the car park. I have a guy on the gate to keep an eye on the vehicles. They purchase a ticket from him when they enter, then hand it back on the way out. They leave it on their dash while they’re inside, so it’s not lost. It makes us a reasonable amount of money a year.”
“Smart move, honey,” I tell him with a smile.
The smile he returns is slightly embarrassed, and I have to wonder how often he’s had ideas but not voiced them because his older brother was in charge of the family. From what I’d seen of the family, they’d have supported him in anything he’d have brought up, or if they didn’t agree, they would have told him so. There were many layers to my man, and I was looking forward to learning each and every one of them.
“Come on,” I say, opening my door, “let’s get this show on the road so that we can get the girls to the Crows. I can’t wait to see what you’re dressing up as.”
Liam groans but gets out. We meet at the back of his car. His cheeks are tinged a light pink with embarrassment.
“Oh, babe, what have they got you to dress up as?” I ask, thinking it must be awful for him to be so embarrassed.
Liam mutters something.
“What’s that?” I ask, amused, because if what he’d muttered was what I’d heard, I could totally see him as one, and now I couldn’t wait.
“A Viking,” he mutters a little louder.
“Ooo, who’s a Viking?” Ange asks, walking up behind us.
Grinning, I point at Liam, “Ally and Jeanie are dressing him up as a Viking.”
“Yep, I can see that,” Billie agrees. “I hope that Sera can keep her hands off you long enough to get around all the field with the girls. She’s always had a thing for Vikings.”
Now it was my turn to blush. She wasn’t wrong; they’d always fascinated me, and now it seemed my fantasies may come true.
Liam cocks a brow at me when he notices my red cheeks. “Really,” he says with intrigue, then smiles when I nod.
“Yep, all true,” Ange says as she starts to load the cart with the stock we brought. “So, let’s hurry up, and then you can get to the raiding and pillaging,” she snorts a little as she laughs. I slap at her shoulder, my cheeks feeling like they are on fire, and I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit to myself that my panties were a little damp at the thought of Liam dressed as a Viking.
“I wonder how hard it would be for us to find shieldmaiden costumes this late a date,” Billie muses. “Can you imagine if Liam arrives with all of us dressed as shieldmaidens?”
“Shouldn’t be too hard,” I suggest. “I’m sure if we let JoJo know, she’ll be able to find some material. We all have leggings and long boots; we can get big sheets of cardboard and paint to make shields. If you really want to, we can do it.”
“Yes,” Billie pumps her fist. “I’ll message JoJo now.”
“We’ve lost her,” Ange chuckles as Billie takes off for the club, phone to her ear.
We’re finally finished filling up the cart and are pushing it towards the back door of the club.
“Wait until you see inside, Se, it’s gorgeous,” Ange tells me as we walk through the passage from the back door and towards the main part of the club. I’d been expecting dark and dingy—no clue why, but I had. Instead, the passage was painted a bright white and had paintings hanging up. An autumnal one caught my eye; stopping, I had to get a closer look because the detail on the leaves was phenomenal. Stepping closer, I studied it, and my eyebrows rose when I caught the signature.
L. O’Shea
Like I’d thought, my man was a man of many layers. I made sure to look at all the paintings a little closer and wasn’t surprised to see that they all had the same signature.
I came to a stop just as I was about to enter the main part of the club, my mouth gaping open in awe as I looked around. It was gorgeous—not like anything I’d ever seen before.
There was a bar in the centre of the room with high-top tables interspersed around it. The walls were a dark purple with flecks of shimmering silver. And when I tilted my head back to look at the ceiling, I noticed that it had hundreds of lights set into it. I bet they looked like stars when they were all switched on. Over on the far side of the room, there was a slightly raised seating area with comfortable-looking couches. Wondering where the dance floor was, I walked around the bar, and there it was—also slightly raised, with the words ATOMIC in purple lights lighting up the back wall with the DJ booth in front of it but behind a large glass panel.
“Wow,” I mumble, turning slowly around on my heels to take it all in.
“This isn’t all,” Ange says, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards some steps, each lit with a line of purple lights. We walk up them and into what I can only assume was the VIP area. It had its own bar; this one was up against the far wall and was slightly more traditional, with barstools surrounding it. From here to there, there was comfortable seating spread around. It was as I looked around that I noticed the glass cages suspended from the ceilings.
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask, pointing towards them.
“Yes, it is,” Ange nods. “Can you believe it? I’ve never seen anything like it in a club in the UK. No wonder this club is so fucking popular, even with the cover charge. They don’t strip, but he does have professional dancers, both male and female in them, and that one,” she points at a large glass cube, “that one is big enough for a couple. I can’t wait to come here with the girls.”
I laugh at her enthusiasm, but I have to agree I’d love to come with the girls one night. “Do you know what the other one’s like?” I ask.
“Adam says it’s smaller and they have a cheaper cover charge; it’s in town and draws a younger crowd, so they keep it reasonable. This one gets some pretty high-flyers. Liam’s also pretty crafty in that they can buy VIP yearly passes, so even if they don’t use the club regularly, the O’Sheas are still making money.” She lowers her voice, motioning for me to lean towards her, which I do, “Did you notice the signature on the paintings?”
“Yeah, I did,” I reply.
“Your man has many layers, my friend, and I have a feeling under all that broody gruffness is the soul of a poet who was forced to do stuff that isn’t in his nature. It makes me want to hug him for all the hurts he’s suffered. I think you’re just the right person for him because, with you, he couldn’t be safer, and with us around, we’ll make sure he can go back to doing what he’s good at.”
Wrapping my arms around my childhood friend, I squeeze, “Love you, Ange. And yes, we will protect him and get him back to doing what he’s good at. It may take time, but we’ll make sure of it.” Letting her go, I tell her, “Come on, let’s get this stuff installed so we can go and have some fun.”
We find Liam and Adam in his office, conveniently built at the back of the VIP bar, with a door that is locked with a code. I was glad to see he took his security seriously. Walking into his office, I was surprised at all the wood panelling on the lower walls, but in a way, it suited him; above the wood, the walls were again painted a bright white. The paintings hanging in here were a little darker than the ones in the passageway but still beautiful in their way.
Liam looked up as soon as we walked in, and sauntering over to him, I pushed him slightly back from his desk before sitting down on his lap, much in the same way as I’d seen the Crow women do. I understood why they did it now; it was a sure-fire way to stake your claim as well as a comfort, especially when Liam immediately wrapped his arm around my waist to settle me more comfortably.
On his desk, spread open, were drawings of the floor plan for the club. I had a quick look, and before long, we had a plan on where the cameras would fit best. Billie was back from her call with JoJo and assured me they were all in for Halloween.
After finding out what Liam and Adam knew, which was surprisingly more than I’d expected, I broke us up into teams. It took us four hours, but by three that afternoon, the club was wired and connected to screens in Liam’s office. For now, we’d take turns watching them to see what we could find. We’d go to the club in town on Monday. As Johnny hadn’t had any problems at his club, The Lounge, we’d do that at a later date.
With work done, it was time for some fun. We arrived home to Johnny and Maya’s kitchen looking like an entire craft shop had thrown up in it. There was a lot of noise, but as most of it was laughter, I figured it was all good.
JoJo was in her element; Colm was smiling from his place at the top of the table, one of his never-ending cups of tea at his elbow. He was wrapping what looked like leather around the handle of a wooden sword. Along one wall, resting on newspaper, there were several shields painted and drying. They looked phenomenal. I noticed Liam looking at them, a contemplative look on his face.
My attention was diverted by Ally, who had me threading elastic through fake fur that I was told would go over our legs and sit at the top of our boots. We were just finishing up when I noticed Liam by the shields, a paintbrush in his hand as he painted designs on the shields. They all matched with Celtic shield knots added, as well as what I’d come to think of as the O’Shea symbol that was on their vehicles; I’d seen it on their clubs in a slightly smaller capacity. I’d thought it was similar to what the Crows wore on their bikes and cuts as an MC, even though the O’Sheas weren’t one.
The shields were beautiful, with the additional adornments Liam had added. Some already had our names done in beautiful calligraphy.
Colm was watching his son as he painted, and there was a sheen of tears in his eyes. He abruptly got up and left the table. I followed him shortly afterwards, finding him on the veranda looking out over the garden. Seeing that he’d walked out without his jacket, I went back into the house, swiped a blanket from the couch in the lounge, and walked back outside. Opening it up, I wrapped it around his shoulders, not saying anything, just waiting while he gathered his thoughts.
“He’s painting again,” he finally says. “He stopped after Rhett was sent down.”
Again, he was silent, and I had a feeling he wasn’t finished, though. “I don’t have a lot of regrets in my life,” he continues, “I had an amazing wife who stood beside me come hell or high water, and she gave me five sons. Admittedly, the youngest is a little shit, but my oldest four are some of the best men that I know.
“What I regret is not having the balls to get us out of gun running when I took over from my father. I thought I knew best, but I hurt my sons a lot, expecting them to fall in with family tradition. Rhett never had a problem with it; he thrived on the danger, it’s just how he was built.
“But Liam was softer, gentler. I should never have put him in the position I did. He reminds me so much of his mother. She was a painter too. The two of them could spend hours painting together. Adam was the same; that boy could happily spend hours by himself or in their company watching the two of them while he read book after book.
“Johnny, well, he took after me and he was good at what he did. He still is, but he didn’t get to see the darkness that Liam, Adam, and Rhett did.”
Colm sighs softly, his voice filled with grief and regret, “When Andy came along, I promised my wife I wouldn’t make him join the family business, but, in the end, I ended up fucking up there too because he’s nothing but a spoilt brat who thinks he’s owed the world. To see Liam painting again fills me with both happiness and despair. I hate that my choices hurt my boys so much. It makes me glad that Tommy decided not to follow in my footsteps.”
Leaning my head against Colm’s shoulder, I give him what comfort I can because we all have regrets in this life.
“Your boys love you,” I assure him. “Could you have made better choices? Maybe. But in the end, you brought up some pretty amazing men. I can’t speak for Andy because I don’t know him, but the three you have in that house are all good men.
“We all have regrets in this life, Colm; it’s how we learn not to do the same shit again and again. Plus, you have me, Tilly, and Maya to help you look after them now,” I tell him before continuing, “And my girls, well, they’ve already staked a claim as Liam’s sisters, and I assure you they may be full of fun and know how to have a good time, but they’re also deadly, even JoJo. We’ll look after him.”
Colm lets out a little chuckle, and I feel the brush of lips against my head. It makes my heart ache a little because it was very much a dad thing to do, and the loss of my own dad was still new.
“I’m glad you turned up, iníon, it makes me hopeful that the rest of the boys will find their one and settle down before the good Lord takes me.”
“I hope the same for my squad,” I tell him. Lifting my head from his shoulder, I ask, “What does iníon mean?”
Colm smiles warmly at me, patting my leg before he stands up, holding his hand out to me, pulling me up. Patting my scarred cheek gently, he tells me, “It means daughter.”
“Oh,” I say a little huskily, tears prickling at my eyes, “I like that. Maybe my parents and your wife are up there making sure we’re all looked after down here.”
“Could be, iníon . Could be,” he smiles warmly at me before walking back into the house, leaving me to follow him in. It’s when my gaze meets Liam’s and I realise that he’s looking at me with concern that I notice my cheeks are wet with tears, but I’m smiling too because it hit me on that veranda that while I missed my parents, I’d found a whole other family to fill those missing spots in my heart, and that made me happy.