Chapter 23
Always This Way
Ciara
“Look at ye. Ye’ve grown up so much and yer so pretty. I remember when ye were this high,” Dylan’s mother says as she holds her hand up to demonstrate.
“It’s so good to see you again.”
“Come, come. I want to know all about ye. I’ve been baking and cooking since Dylan called to say he’d be bringing ye by. I can’t believe it’s ye,” she gushes.
She looks so happy as she looks between the two of us. Her eyes are twinkling, and she has a huge smile on her face. She has hugged me at least a dozen times since we walked through the door.
“Ma, you’re going to scare her away,” Dylan groans teasingly.
The smile on his face says he isn’t bothered at all. It’s crazy, but the scent of her home brings back so many memories of her. I can remember her and my mom talking in the kitchen while Dylan and I played together.
The scent of freshly baked cookies makes my mouth water. Ciarán would love her cookies. She makes these apple butter cookies with white chocolate that I remember loving.
“I have apple butter white chocolate chip cookies for ye,” she says as if reading my mind. “I wish Dougie were here to see ye.”
We enter the kitchen, and Dylan takes a seat at the nook, then pulls me into his lap. The last week has been amazing. Dylan’s life is insanely busy, but he always makes time for me.
He has spent every night at my place and drops Ciarán off at school for me every morning. I’ve hesitantly started to work with Taegan, allowing her to train me as Dylan’s second assistant.
All has gone well as Cadlha has been away on vacation or something. I’m not really worried about her. Taegan and Dylan have said she’ll be dismissed from the team when she returns.
Amara, the other female fighter on the team, is sweet as can be. I’ve worked out with her a few times. I will officially take Cadlha’s spot in two weeks when Halley comes on board as my trainer. I’m sort of excited about that.
“So, love. Tell me about yerself. How have ye been?”
“There really isn’t much to tell. It’s me and my brother. I spend most of my time taking care of him.”
“Oh yes, Iesha was pregnant before ye all left. I remember her being so excited for baby number two. She and Donald planned to tell everyone once …” She cuts off and her cheeks turn pink.
Dylan clears his throat and changes the subject. My heart swells as he tries to protect both our feelings at the same time without making it painfully obvious.
I have a great time as we spend the morning with his mom. The cookies are as delicious as they were when we were little. We play cards and have easy banter before Athena or Kara—as she insists I call her, since I’m family—serves us lunch.
I’m a little sad when we have to leave. Kara seems to be too. I promise to come by again and bring Ciarán along next time. I leave feeling like I’ve learned another side of Dylan.
A side I’m falling for. He’s such a loving son. It’s clear to see how much he adores his mom and how much she loves him.
“I loved seeing you with your mom.”
“She was on her best behavior,” Dylan says.
I laugh. “She’s sweet. She didn’t have to send Ciarán cookies and the rest of lunch.”
“You’re family. She will always take care of the both of you. Watch out.”
He grabs my arm and pulls me into him right before I step into dog poop as we walk to the car from his family’s home. I look at the pile and frown. There’s another dried spot a few steps away.
“Ugh, does anyone around here scoop up after their dogs?”
“Nope, not at all,” he chuckles.
Lacing our fingers together, he then maneuvers me toward the car. I laugh to myself as he opens the door for me, and I realize he doesn’t drive the car he promised to Ciarán anymore.
“What’s that look about?” he asks as I climb into the car.
“If I said I liked this car, would you give it to me?” I tease.
He shrugs. “Do you want it?”
“No.”
He winks at me and closes the door to round the car and climb in behind the wheel. I watch him closely as I take in his every move. Dylan is so comfortable in his skin. He moves like a well-trained fighter in and out of the ring.
I love how his T-shirt clings to his skin. I lower my gaze to his thighs and my mind goes to his naked body and the tattoo on his right outer thigh.
It’s two pairs of boxing gloves. A smaller pair on top of larger ones. It seems like they’re hanging from strings. The artwork is mind blowing. They’re 3D and so realistic.
“I can feel your eyes on me,” he murmurs as he pulls to a stop at a stop sign.
He turns to glance at me. That smile does it to me every time. I reach to brush my finger over his lips. He pulls my thumb into his mouth and sucks on it, then twirls his tongue around it.
“You’re hard not to stare at,” I say breathlessly.
“You’re hard not to taste. Ciarán has strength training today. Booker picked him up and took him to the gym. You want to do a little shopping or go see a movie or something?”
“You have a five-thirty meeting. We should head into the gym, but I’ll take you up on the movie some other time.”
“Cool, I’ll have Book drop another car off for me tonight. This one is yours.”
I gasp. “Dylan, it was a joke. I don’t want your car.”
He shrugs. “It’s already yours.”
Dylan
A smile comes to my face as Ciarán comes running into the kitchen at my place. We just got in and I’m washing my hands to start dinner. Ciara is sitting at the island as she texts on her phone.
I think she’s talking to Taegan. The two are becoming close and work well together. My life has never run more smoothly.
“Cee, holy freaking cow. You have to see my room. It’s not like it was last time.
“I have a new computer with a sick setup. There’s a brand-new laptop. Transformer bedding, a drone, and the closet is full of clothes.
“It’s like I live here or something. It’s so me, like it was taken out of my brain. You have to come look.”
I turn to look at Ciara and she’s looking at me as if she has a ton to say. I wink at her. The only reason I spent the entire week at their place is because Taegan was working on remodeling the room and Ciarán had school.
We’ll have to wake up early to get him to school on time tomorrow, but his room was ready, and I wanted to surprise him with it.
“Have you booted up the computer? I had my cousins customize it for you. They know their shit. You have things that haven’t hit the market yet,” I say.
“Yo, bro, thank you so much. This is … oh my God, you’re so cool. Come on, Cee.”
Ciara shakes her head and gets up to follow him as he takes off. I go to follow, but my phone rings. Instead, I fall back and pull the device to answer.
It’s Aidan. I groan. I’m not in the mood for this tonight. I wanted to stay in and have a quiet night with my girl and her brother.
I was going to make dinner and suggest a game night before Ciarán needs to get to bed. I know nothing good is on the other end of this call. I’ll be out the door in the next ten minutes.
“What’s up?” I say as I pick up the call.
“Need you down at The Clover. Some douchebags came in and tore up one of the VIP rooms,” Aidan says.
“Okay, why is this something I need to come handle? You know what to do.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing until one of them dropped a calling card from the Scorpions. This is above my pay grade.”
“The fuck. I’ll be there. Don’t let them out of your sight.”
I frown and hang up. The Scorpions run under the cartel. They’re one step below the big guys. I have no fucking clue why they would step foot in one of my family’s establishments to trash the place, let alone drop a calling card.
That’s not something any of us would take lightly. The disrespect is understood and received. Now I’m going to set an example of why we’re not to be fucked with.
***
“You don’t want to do this, man. You do this, you’re starting a war,” one of the four guys who trashed the VIP at the club says as I douse him and his three buddies with gasoline.
“Shut his gub,” I sneer.
Booker moves to rip the sleeve from one of the other’s shirt and stuffs it into this guy’s mouth. They had their turn to speak and I didn’t like shit they had to say.
I kick him in the chest, causing him to fall back into the building puddle of gasoline. He tries to wiggle around to sit up as his hands are bound behind his back. I snort.
I said I don’t want to do this shit all the time, not that I don’t enjoy it when I get to blow off some steam. They’re lucky I was in a good mood today. I’m actually showing some mercy.
“Yer first mistake was thinking ya could walk into a business my sister runs and threaten her or my family. Ya weren’t expecting to come face to face with me, were ya?” I sneer.
He’s trying to scream something through his gagged mouth. I couldn’t care less what. Logan’s absence and Brooklyn’s diverted attention have given some people balls.
As if Jamie and I aren’t here to hold shit down. To be honest, if Kate and Connie were here instead of me, this probably would have ended worse for the sorry bastards. Trying to extort the O’Briens, they must have bumped their fucking heads.
“When ya get to hell, tell them yer plus-one is on the way. Yer boss will be coming to join ya. I didn’t start this war.
“Ya did when ya walked into our club, but I promise ya, I’m the one who will finish it. That’s enough, boys, let’s go,” I say to Booker and Aidan.
I let the rest of the gasoline from my canister spill out as I go. As we get to the exit, I pull out the lighter I took off the leader of this little crew and set fire to the calling card that called for my attention.
“The audacity,” I grunt then toss the burning card over my shoulder.
I grin at the hiss the flames make as they come to life. I don’t even bother to look back. There will probably be consequences for this. So be it.
“What do you think this all means?” Aidan asks as we stand across the street watching the Scorpion’s headquarters burn.