Revenge (Love in London #3)

Seven

Kai

The next day, I left Nico in charge at the house, having outlined my plans for Ava and her mother that day. At my request, he engaged the services of a mobile spa specialist. The company I used regularly serviced women within the organisation; they were professional, loyal, and most importantly trustworthy.

My reasoning had nothing to do with being a nice guy, I had an ulterior motive. I wanted Ava and her mother to bond again. It would make her less flighty and take her mind off being housebound. There was always a method to my madness, it was never about generosity.

I had also asked Nico to download the first season of Sex and the City, a shite American TV show that Ava used to watch incessantly. It was set up in the cinema room of the house and hopefully, Ava and her mother would enjoy watching it together and would be distracted. My plan wasn’t entirely self-serving, there was an olive branch somewhere in that offer.

Nico hadn’t appreciated being left at the house to babysit , as he had called it. He was my friend and my second but fuck me the guy loved to bitch and moan. So, what, he had to stay at the house for one day; cry me a fucking river.

I had taken Cillian with me as I needed a man with less of a conscience. Nico appeared to have taken a liking to our prisoner. I now had Anton Quinn in the basement of my casino for questioning.

Club Pacino was named after one of the best actors of all time. And the fact that he’d played various hefty mafia roles during his career amused me. Almost like a fuck you to the authorities. They turned up occasionally but my place had never been raided, I ran a tight ship and never gave them any excuse to ransack it.

Pacino’s was located on the outskirts of Hammersmith and overlooked the Thames. The building was a purpose-built three-story unit and was sleek and understated. There were no huge garish signs like the Vegas Strip. My place was low-key for a reason and strictly members only.

A wrap-around car park was available for customers and the parking arrangements were valet. It made it easier to impound a customer's Porche if they attempted to take off without straightening their shit with the house.

The front entrance of the building led into a brightly lit lobby with burgundy carpeted floors, chandeliers, and wood panelling on the walls. The décor was traditional and what you would expect in a luxury establishment. A section with slot machines was on one side of the centralised bar and on the other, were double doors that led into the gaming room. That was the place for serious gamblers, where table service was available. Customers leaving a game to visit the bar meant less money was lost, so the attractive serving staff ensured no interruptions.

Poker rooms were also available for private, smaller games. I frequented those regularly as Poker was my game of choice.

At the back of the casino was a small nightclub; where guests could drown their sorrows after a frustrating losing streak. A private bar was available as was a range of fine cuisine food. I ate there regularly, Alexandro, my Head Chef had run several Michelin-star restaurants in the heart of London before joining my staff the previous year. The food there was excellent, anyone who disagreed with that was usually escorted from the building, head first.

The dancefloor was surrounded by circular tables and booths for those who preferred more privacy and behind the bar was the red room. Only guests with platinum membership were allowed back there to enjoy the dancers. I used the term dancers as the word strippers was degrading towards women. The ladies I employed were excellent at what they did and knew how to work a pole to entice whilst remaining strictly professional. I paid well, and never sexually exploited the women, it just wasn’t in my DNA.

The most important part of the building, hence the reason I had commissioned a purpose-built design was beneath the nightclub.

The basement.

That is where I kept an office and two interrogation rooms; one nice, one not so nice. The noise and music from the club above provided the perfect cover to muffle screams. Those pleading types of cries that men made when they were sorry for fucking up. Guilty men who had it coming. If you were innocent, you had nothing to fear from me. You crossed me, you fucking paid for it.

You could access the basement through the club or a secret entrance at the back of the building. Having rear access was essential when transporting bodies in and out and having the Thames so close by was a plus for obvious reasons.

Dead bodies were pulled from that river every year, with police statistics suggesting that most cases were due to suicide. I knew my family were more than guilty of adding to those numbers.

Pushing back against the seat, I pulled my gaze away from the passing countryside. I was going to see my father before I visited the club.

My phone vibrated and I slid it from my pocket to see I had a message from Nico, replying to my earlier text asking how it was going at the house.

Well, one thing led to another and now my skin feels divine.

What the fuck does that mean? I thumbed in. Nico could be such a cryptic motherfucker at times.

The girls forced me to get a facial. I smiled down at the screen. Nobody could force Nico into doing anything he didn’t want to do. He was a stubborn sod. He’d probably enjoyed it, Nico loved to preen himself and always had product in his hair. I didn’t blame that on his sexual orientation; Nico was a proud, gay man and was the least camp person I knew. He just liked to look nice , he’d told me.

Nic would still hate watching over two women but he would do a good job. Ava and Nico used to get along well, but not in a ‘Beard’ way. As I said, Nico was proud of who he was and never hid his sexuality. He was the one she’d slag me off to and had been there for her during those times I’d been a dick to her. He’d always told me what she said, Nico knew where his loyalties were.

Nice. And you say I always give you the shit jobs. I replied.

Fuck you.

Chuckling, I pushed my phone away, thoughts of my looming visit with Gerard suddenly plaguing me. I hadn’t visited my old man for a while. There had been too much heat on me after we got him out of prison.

During the shitstorm that followed his arrest, I had also unearthed several business deals of my Da’s that I wasn’t comfortable with; shadier than the usual shady.

In the months that led up to his arrest, Gerard had stuck his fingers in pies that were beyond morally grey. One of them included the disappearance of the wife of a diplomate. Diplomates were protected people and so we usually stayed away, the risk was too great. The man’s wife had disappeared from her hotel room, one she had been sharing with her husband and their two kids. Kids FFS! The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth.

I also found out that Gerard had financed one of the smaller gangs in London, one which was known for trafficking girls. When I had challenged him about it, he’d explained that the funding had nothing to do with that side of their business. I had believed him at the time but now I wasn’t so sure.

My father had always been so firm about the rules where women were concerned. Had it all been a lie or had something happened to make him change his mind?

Now it was time to test the water and establish if what Ava had alluded to in the past was true.

A sick feeling twisted my guts, if my father was guilty of touching Ava, I would never forgive him. Everything about my Da and what I believed him to be would become a lie; and the way he had raised me, a motherfucking mockery.

Women are the weaker sex my boy, and should always be treated with respect. I hadn’t digested those words that thoroughly in those days. It had been after my mother had died. I remember she’d only been cold a couple of weeks before my father started seeing another woman. Maybe I should have read between the lines back then.

As time when by, I started to hear gossip that Gerard didn’t treat his mistresses right; one woman had tried to commit suicide, but I’d waved it off as the usual bollocks used to discredit him.

Growing up my father had been like a God to me but as an adult, I was now only too aware of his flaws.

From what I had learned Gerard’s attack on said diplomate had been unprovoked. Either that or the information leading up to it had been erased. That shit still didn’t sit right with me.

A Kinlan would never strike out first. But if you fucked us over, you paid the price.

I was raised not to throw the first punch, but if someone comes at you, you defend yourself and then some. And above all else, you never prey on women, ever. And certainly not one with a fucking family.

If what Ava had said the night of her sixteenth birthday was true, then my father had done exactly that. Yes, she had been a beauty as a teenager but that was no excuse for a man older than her father to fuck with that.

Sliding my phone out again, I scanned through my emails, only too aware that Cillian was still beside me asleep. He’d dozen off within minutes of the car leaving the house.

I knew he’d been with Suki last night when he didn’t have to be. He could have put an end to their liaison. He had the intel I had needed, but no. That only screamed out one thing; he had or was falling for the woman.

I wondered whether to nudge him awake and raise the subject, but decided to leave that for another time. Cillian was a man of few words, so I doubted he was the type to kiss and tell even if under pressure. I just hoped that getting involved with Suki wasn’t causing him to lose his touch.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I asked Sean who was driving how much longer until we got to the compound.

“Ten more minutes boss,” he replied, glancing up at me through the rearview mirror. I nodded. Lester was riding shotgun and was strangely quiet.

They were both with me that night at the vault when the truth about Ava’s attack on my father came out. Although originally employed by my Da they had sworn allegiance to me and had said nothing about that night. We all knew that if Gerard found out both she and her mother would be dead and both men had doted on Ava.

My father was living in a safe house well outside of the city. Only a select few members of our organisation knew he was still alive.

For an Irishman, luck wasn’t on his side. After being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, we’d arranged for his death to be faked and then accepted help from our contacts on the inside to assist in breaking him out of prison. Their involvement had been on compassionate grounds, well, that and a shit load of cash. The threat to a family member had also greased those wheels. But that is all it had been, a threat. As I said, I didn’t hurt innocent people.

Part of me wondered if his poor health was God’s plan to punish him for past wrongdoings. My father had made mistakes but that was part of the industry, when you didn’t know who to trust, you occasionally got it wrong. Having found it difficult to process his decision to kidnap the wife and mother of the diplomate, I had chalked that as another one of those mistakes.

If he had however fucked with Ava, that would be more than a mistake, that would be up there with a death sentence. That unwanted gnawing in my gut continued.

“Fuck,” I huffed, lowering my phone. The sound woke up sleeping beauty.

“Boss?” Cillian questioned with a side glance. No sign of embarrassment for falling asleep on the fucking job on his face. I decided to leave it.

“Do you ever regret the path you chose?” I said to Cillian before I could stop myself.

He shrugged his shoulders. Like me, he too wore a dark suit. I always dressed formally when I went to see my father. It was a sign of respect. How ironic, considering my feelings over the last thirty minutes.

Cillian took a moment to answer, “It depends on which path you’re referring to. If you mean my choice of career, no.”

Clearing my throat, I stared out of the window at the bleak countryside, it was windy and wet, which was odd considering it was July.

I pondered his reply, watching the water spew from the sky. Did that mean there was something in his life that he did regret?

Opening my mouth to question him, I was distracted when the car lurched forward as Sean took a turn too quickly and there on the hill, was the high stone wall and gates into the compound; the safe house where I had squirrelled away my father.

That moment of truth hovered over me like a storm cloud.

It was time to get to the bottom of shit.

*****

Gerard liked to sit close to the fire, not so much for warmth. Da explained that he found the flames relaxing.

As I sat across from my father on one of the worn Chesterfields, I was shocked at how quickly he was deteriorating. It was hard to believe that the man before me was, at one time, an internationally feared gangster with a body count which would rival some of the top dogs in the industry.

Gerard Kinlan was now a shell of his former self and age wasn’t the main contributing factor. It was cancer; the prostate variety and it was already at stage four when he was diagnosed. The disease which had no cure, spread through his organs like an invisible monster. Fucking cancer; a taker of lives. And now, it had come for my Da.

There was no poetic justice about dying that way. I knew that Gerard would prefer a bullet in the back from one of his enemies rather than slowly being eaten away. But that wasn’t on the cards, not with him being safely stored away. I had ensured that my father’s last days would be peaceful, and mostly pain-free due to the amount of illegal morphine his nurse was dosing him with.

Having spent a few years in the narcotics trade, I knew my drugs. I also knew their side effects and that morphine was an opioid painkiller. It could cause memory loss and confusion. This of course had to factor in when I was considering asking him about Ava. There was a chance he wouldn’t remember anyway. Part of me would have preferred that.

The last time I visited, he hadn’t even mentioned Suki, which at first, had been all he talked about. Since we broke him out of prison, his health and memory had been in a downward spiral, like blood, swirling around a drain before eventually being swallowed up.

Was I upset that my father was dying? Yes, but I had accepted that it was time. We had grown distant, especially after I uncovered the dirt, he had kept quiet. I was dropped in at the deep end, and forced to sort shit out fast. The dossier Ava had supplied had been damning and there had been no plausible alibi from what had been revealed in those documents. But further charges could be avoided, and it had been my job to ensure that was the case.

I too had been investigated as a member of the Kinlan crime family, but everything I involved myself in could be evidenced as being above the law. As I said, I ran a tight ship. Any illegal products I stored had been destroyed and fast. Much faster than the authorities had put their paperwork in place to allow them to search my warehouses.

“How’s things Da?” I asked as Gerard thanked Nurse Rogers for his cup of whatever the hell that was. It was not the type of coffee I enjoyed. I took mine like rocket fuel. I thanked her as she handed me a shot of neat whisky. I noticed her hands were shaking as she headed for the door. It was like she couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. Was she scared of me or was it something else?

“As good as they can be. Sally looks after me though, so I have almost everything I need,” I didn’t miss how he watched her walk across the room. It was the look of a predator.

For fucks sake.

Nodding my head, I watched Sally’s glassy eyes meet mine before she slowly closed the door.

“Almost?” I questioned, pulling my face away.

“Yes, lad. I could do with getting my cock sucked more regularly,” Gerard huffed. Not an image I wanted in my head, but my father had always been outspoken when it came to his sex life. What did he mean more regularly ?

Shit.

My gaze drifted to the closed door where Gerard’s nurse had just exited and my mind went into overdrive.

“You do realise that I employed that woman as a nurse?” I pointed out as dread pumped through me.

“I’m a man, I have needs. I’m not going to say no, am I boy?”

“Since when was it OK to start feeling up the staff?” I said in a gruff voice.

That sick feeling continued to crash around my stomach. My father was fucking his nurse?

And then came the next question; with or without her permission? My father took the words from my mouth as he said, “I’m only playing. Sally knows that.”

Hmm, did she? I wasn’t so sure. If truth be told, I wasn’t sure about anything where he was concerned anymore.

I inhaled, I wasn’t there to save a fucking nurse I was paying a small fortune to, I needed to pick my battles carefully.

“You should save your strength,” I pointed out flatly as I glanced around the space.

We were in the living area. The room was decorated like a typical farmhouse with a huge fireplace, wooden floors, and floral wallpaper. The large windows looked out across the moors, I would have said it was beautiful, had I been in the right frame of mind to study the fucking scenery.

I hadn’t chosen the location for its looks. The compound was remote, as that’s what my father had needed. Somewhere far away and flat so you could see the enemy coming. Not as though he had any of those anymore. Nope, my father’s enemies soon became mine when I took over. It was now common knowledge in that small circle in the know that Gerard Kinlan was a dead man anyway, so he wasn’t worth their time. A nemesis who could not fight back was not a nemesis.

“So, Ava’s home,” I exclaimed, pausing to see how he reacted. I was good at reading people. It was one of my many talents.

And then my father surprised me.

He didn’t bat a fucking eyelid, “Yes, Hamish said she’s back. Where the fuck was she?” Gerard grunted, his watery eyes searching my face. I frowned. Why the fuck was Hamish telling my father shit without my authorisation?

I decided it was not the right time to reveal how much that pissed me off. If my father was using Hamish to spy on me; the cat was now well and truly out of the bag.

Hamish was slyer than I thought.

I twirled the whisky in the glass I held, my eyes glued to my father’s face.

“In Italy.” My revelation forced Gerard to huff and sit back in his seat.

“What the hell did she go there for?”

I exhaled noisily, wondering what I should say, “Maybe she was looking for her father?” It was a random thing to bring up but I hadn’t prepared myself for Gerard being so open about Ava. To me that suggested he wasn’t guilty of anything.

Gerard shook his head, “Well she won’t get very far, he’s dead.”

“You knew Ava’s father?” I bit back, astounded that he’d never said anything before.

He shrugged his withered shoulders, “Not really. He was an Italian fuck. That’s about as much as I knew.”

“How do you know he’s dead?” A pained feeling ran through me at the thought of Ava having never known her dad before I pushed it aside. I couldn’t be dealing with any more pity or I’d fucking explode.

“Suki told me.”

“Did she say anything else?” I asked.

“No. She never spoke about him. Suki would never disrespect me by bringing up another man again.” I found it interesting that he said, again.

“Of course not,” I replied with a twist to my lips. I was getting nowhere fast.

There was a moment of silence until it was filled by the slurping noise of my father’s lips as he drank some coffee.

“So, the little bitch is back,” he said partly to himself, placing the cup down. The fact that he called her a bitch was like a cheese grater across my skin.

“It would appear so,” I answered in the blandest voice I could muster.

Lifting his hand, Gerard ran the handkerchief he held across his nose.

“Have you told her I’m sick? Is that why she came back? To gloat?”

“She doesn’t know you’re sick. She believes you’re dead,” I pointed out.

“Why would you let her think that?”

This was the strangest conversation ever. Gerard had believed that Ava ran away when he went to prison, fearing that now the head of the family was inside, she would no longer have protection. I had, of course, allowed him to think that.

Gerard was too arrogant to suspect a teenager could have been responsible for his downfall.

“Why not? You weren’t exactly close.”

Reaching for his coffee, a strange expression crossed his face and that niggling feeling I had shot to the surface.

“Not for the lack of trying,” Gerard said. What the fuck did that mean? “I remember how she used to walk around the house half-naked. The little tart.”

What the actual fuck? My hand tightened around the whisky tumbler, so hard that I could have cracked the glass.

“What?” I shot out, harsher than I intended.

“Ava. The little slut. She did it to get between me and Suki.” He stared into space with a twisted expression. Almost perverse, as if he was reliving a moment.

“Did what?”

“I just said boy, by strutting around and flashing her tits and arse off.” I knew at that point that my father had twisted what had happened to make it OK in his warped mind.

The fucker was guilty. Ava was telling the truth.

Hold it together Kai, don’t fuck it up now.

“And what happened?” I questioned calmly.

“Nothing. The girl was a prick tease. All bark and no fucking bite. I remember the way she ground against me when she’d sit on my lap. The bint wanted a piece of daddy.”

Gerard then stalled, suddenly looking uncomfortable and I knew that if I didn’t leave, I would grab him by the throat and choke the whole story from him.

I glanced at Cillian, standing by the door. Cill’s expression was hard and I knew he was listening to every word. It was a rare sight to see, my hitman was trained to never show emotion and yet his mask had slipped.

“And that’s the way you remember it? Ava, a child at the time, coming onto you?”

The atmosphere in the room became suffocating.

Gerard went to grab his coffee but missed and the cup rattled on the nest of tables by his chair. My father also glanced towards Cillian, before his eyes shifted to Henry Smith, my father’s bodyguard. One I had fucking assigned him.

“Yes. Why, what lies is the little cow spouting?” The tension continued and I carefully watched Henry in my periphery, or should I say, his hands. “Hamish told me she’s a firecracker.” I found it interesting that Hamish didn’t appear to have told my father I had kidnapped Ava. He only seemed to have half the story, which meant I may let the fucker live.

I responded, flicking a piece of lint off my trouser leg. “It appears Hamish has been running his mouth off. Why is he reporting to you when you assigned him to me?”

“He’s just being loyal, telling me what’s going on. I get bored and lonely out here. Even Sally has started to bore me.”

“Hamish shouldn’t be gossiping. If he gossips, I can’t trust him.”

“I just wanted to be kept in the loop. Surely you can understand that.”

“And I am the one to do that, not one of my men,” I pointed out. Pushing to my feet.

Gerard leaned back into his seat, his frail hands resting in his lap. I wanted to feel sorry for him, I really did, but at that point, hatred for what he truly was pumped through my veins.

Fuck, I needed to leave before I did something bad, something which would stir up shit I had no way of containing.

Everything in my gut scrunched like a fist had punched its way through my stomach and was attempting to pull my insides out.

Your father touched your stepsister under your very nose and you did fuck all.

You failed her, and her mother!

My hands curled into fists and I felt the need to hit something. If my Da had been stronger, it would have been him.

Fuck and double fuck!

And I snapped , I needed him to say it. Hear those ugly fucking words. Pushing to my feet, I slowly walked to where he sat. Cillian took a step forward, as did Henry, but I raised my hands; ordering them both to stand down.

Gerard looked up at me, his liver-marked hands clinging tightly to his knees. He looked panic-stricken and so he fucking should.

“What really happened with Ava?” I said in a low voice, it sounded calmer than I felt. My hands were strategically formed into fists as I couldn’t trust myself not to lash out.

“What, when?” he suddenly looked confused and had paled by my nearness.

As I stared at him, I realised that I had spent the last few years not knowing this man, what he had become.

Placing my hands on either side of his chair, I caged him in, “Did you touch Ava when she lived with us?” Frustration and anger gnawed through my insides.

Gerard’s frown intensified for a moment before he had the sense to look distressed, “Who are you to question me, boy?” He attempted to puff out his chest but he was no threat now.

I growled, “I’m the man you raised to protect the weaker sex, not prey on them like a fucking dirty old letch,” I snarled, pushing back to my feet.

Gerard recoiled and started to shake his head, spit running from his mouth to his chin, “For fucks’ sake, it’s not like I fucked the little tart. It was a bit of fun and she loved it. Henry, get Sally, I need my pills,” he gasped.

A wave of fury encompassed me as I thought about the little fucker whom I had employed trying it on, “Henry, you move. You die.” I saw Cillian, like lightning, unholster his gun and point it at my father’s bodyguard.

Henry had the sense to remain where he was with his hands raised.

Through the haze of madness, I managed to keep my cool. Straightening, I glared down my nose, “I’ll ask you again, one more time. Did you fucking touch her?”

Watching him cower gave me my answer, but I needed to hear him say it.

“She was a reckless flirt. I was only playing with her. She wanted to be so grown up all the time. You saw it yourself, how she’d behave. I just wanted to show her there are consequences of being a prick tease. She even threw herself at that fag friend of yours even though that wasn’t going to get her anywhere,” he blustered, drawing back, and looking up at me with a misplaced, angry expression.

The man was delusional and living in the dark ages, calling Nico a fag. My blood was at boiling point.

“So, you did it to teach her a lesson. That’s bullshit . She was a kid, a child. You were fucking her mother for Christ’s sake. Who does that?”

And then he started to panic.

“The girl has always been a trouble-causer and is probably making it out to be something it’s not.”

“You broke her trust. And mine.”

“It doesn’t matter now, it’s in the past,” he blustered.

“Not to Ava,” I snarled. “And not to me.” I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood.

Taking a deep breath, my eyes met Cillian’s. As I said, he was a man that rarely showed his thoughts but I could see from his body language that he was also upset.

“You disgust me,” I growled down, it was a deep rumble that I felt at the back of my throat. Anger raged inside me like a fucking inferno and I knew I needed to leave. I no longer needed the gory details. Any more information was bound to push me over the fucking edge.

“I suppose my bitch of an ex-wife has been blabbing too,” Gerard stuttered, pushing up from his seat.

I took a step back. Did that mean Suki knew that her husband had touched her daughter? No, no fucking way. Suki had doted on Ava. Yes, the woman could be a ditz but what mother would allow that?

“About what? You and Ava?” I questioned.

My father then started choking and I had no alternative but to call the nurse in.

Turning to Henry, I barked out my warning, “I employ you to keep my father safe, but not from me. You ever stand against me again and I’ll have your family killed. Once the nurse finishes giving my father his medication, I wanted her escorted safely back to London. Gerard is letting her go and is to pay her the two hundred grand left on her contract. Understood?”

“Yes sir,” Henry said. I couldn’t bring myself to look at the nurse as she tended to my father. I then knew exactly what she’d been forced to endure.

When she had settled him and added a shot of morphine into the cannula attached to the back of his hand, I walked away, turning back when I reached the doorway with Cill by my side.

“I will allow you to live here until the illness takes you. Luckily, you are already dying.”

I felt a moment of guilt as I watched my father shatter, his expression changing from shock to defeat.

As I left the house, Cillian flanked me as we approached the car. Sean and Lester were sharing a smoke with two other men I had assigned as security detail for my Da.

“What are you going to do?” Cillian said, taking in my hard expression.

“I don’t know. I fucked up. And I don’t know how to put it right.”

Sean flicked the butt of his cigarette on the floor as Lester opened the back door of the SUV for me.

“You’ll figure it out Kai, you always do.” My eyes flickered between all three men, at that point, I wasn’t so sure.

As we drove away, I had the biggest storm cloud in my head. I was angry and annoyed at myself. Not the best headspace to visit the basement and question, Quinn. But what could I do?

You let Ava down all those years ago and now you’re going to hurt her friend, someone she cares about.

I was screwed. If I showed leniency to a man outside of the family who’d fucked one of us over; it suggested I was weak. And I didn’t mean, Sean, Lester, and Cillian; my whole fucking operation.

I had the truth now and it was as unpalatable as shit.

Leaning back against the seat, I realised it was the first time I had heard Cillian call me Kai.

What the hell was happening?

A shift was coming and I just hoped I managed to figure out what the fuck to do before it did.

*****

When the car pulled around the back of Club Pacino’s, my mood hadn’t improved. Thoughts of how I had wronged Ava churned into me like a dirty fucking saw.

If she did hate me, I couldn’t blame her. I had failed her in so many ways.

And now you're going to have her friend beaten within an inch of his life.

What the fuck had I become?

You must be the one to do it. Then you can pull your punches.

And that is what I did.

It didn’t take Quinn long to admit that he was responsible for compiling the shit on my father. He admitted sole responsibility and it made me respect him. He was trying to protect Ava from me.

This resulted in me going even easier on him. And because he meant so much to Ava. The woman I had failed in every possible way.

“You handled damage control well, considering the mood you were in,” Cillian said as we exited the car in the driveway of my house.

“It wasn’t my first rodeo,” I replied with a smirk of humour. Something I wasn’t feeling at that moment. My knuckles were skimmed to fuck.

“Are you going to allow her to see him?”

As the men moved the cars, we went into the house.

“No. Not straight away,” I replied, thinking of Quinn’s eyes, one of which was swollen shut. Fuck me, she should be thanking me in the long run. I handled it. I could have given the job to Cillian or worse. And he was still breathing.

“You need anything else?” Cillian said in the hallway. He wanted to be elsewhere and I knew exactly where that was.

“Has Suki ever said anything about how Gerard acted around Ava?” I asked.

He frowned and pursed his lips, “Not really. Her ex-husband is not a topic of discussion when we’re in bed together.”

Fuck me, from his tone, I’d hit a raw nerve.

“Are we done?” Cillian said, shoving his hands into his pockets and rocking back on his feet.

I nodded, “Yes, but before you retire, find Nico, and send him to me.” I made my tone firmer than before. Cillian needed a reminder of who was in charge it appeared.

My body was tense as I lowered myself into the chair behind my desk. Fuck me I needed a workout; something to release that pent-up energy and anger.

My next steps had to be on point. I couldn’t allow any more fuck ups. My biggest one was trusting my father and turning my back on one of his victims.

That victim; a girl who was now very much a woman and one that meant more to me than I had realised.