20. Nineteen
Nineteen
Kayleigh
I take Emilia’s advice and push the thoughts of Erik out of my head and get myself all dolled up for my date with Lennon. Emilia came through and sent my family on a wild goose chase. They think they are chasing a lead on Andrew, but it is, in fact, giving me an hour to escape the house.
I blocked Erik again this morning. I will not let him ruin today. He made his choice when he pushed me aside for Eva. He can have his toxic happily ever after with her, and I’m going to find mine with a heart surgeon.
I walk out to my car and nod to the guard at the fence as I drive through. Lennon offered to pick me up but there was no way that would have gone undetected by my family. That is one thing I want to avoid.
Erik
“Little brat,” I growl when my good morning text to Kayleigh doesn’t go through. I immediately text Grant.
Unblock me.
Done.
No doubt the asshole is laughing at me; he has to unblock me multiple times a day. Her ass and hair are going to be matching after I spank the defiance out of her. Okay, I don’t want all the defiance out of her, just enough where she listens to me. It’s already bad enough she is in another fucking country where I can’t protect her; granted, I have a team watching over her though. I get alerts when she leaves, which she only does to go to school or shopping with Grace.
Good morning, seamrag bheag. Hope you have a wonderful day with your family. Make sure you eat and rest. Don’t spend too many hours studying and take breaks. I will talk to you tonight. Be a good girl today.
We will talk about how you keep blocking, meseamrag bheag.
You are mine, and with every beat of my heart, you are sìth mo chridhe.
I get busy working through the day doing paperwork and then go check on the weapons we will be sending out next week. We keep the guns underneath our whiskey distillery.
I arrive to find Darius glancing down at a table with a range of guns and other weapons on it.
“What is this shit?” Darius growls as he picks up a flintlock. I walk next to him and see why he is pissed off; the military pistol’s serial numbers are half-ass shaved off.
“Who is responsible for shaving the numbers off our weapons?” I snarl. I watch as three men’s faces pale. I don’t even bother asking other questions; I just shoot them each in the forehead.
Darius looks over at me in irritation. “You didn’t confirm before you shot them.”
“It’s my Mafia, if I want to shoot and kill them, I will.”
He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Can you please hurry up and bring Kayleigh home? You are being a reckless idiot.”
“Don’t worry, I have a plan.”
“Thank fuck. Otherwise, I was going to go kidnap her myself.”
“You lay one fucking finger on her, brother or not, I will cut off your fingers.”
“Violent much?”
“And if someone touched Freya you wouldn’t do the same thing?”
I watch as his nose flares and he clenches his hands at his sides, probably remembering how he found Freya after she ran away when she found out about the Mafia. Chained up by the Chicago Mafia in an abandoned building, covered in cuts and bruises.
“Thought so,” I tell him.
“Fucking fine. But take…” I ignore him going on when I hear my phone ping. I have become like a teenager and pull my phone out every time it rings.
Grant: She is going on a date tonight.
Erik: With who and where?
Grant: Lennon Walsh. He is the older brother of a classmate of hers.
Erik: Send me the details.
Grant: Already done.
My phone buzzes and I see that she will be going on this date in two hours.
“Fucking brat,” I mutter under my breath as I dial my pilot. “Get fueled up, we leave in thirty minutes,” I tell him before hanging up the phone. “You are in charge,” I tell Darius before storming out of the warehouse. I don’t go home and grab any of my stuff, I head straight to the airport. The sooner that I am on the plane, the sooner I can have my seamrag bheag where she belongs.
Since the moment Kayleigh walked into the restaurant twenty minutes ago, I have been watching her on the live footage Grant sent me. So far, he has kept his hands to himself, so he may actually walk out of this “date” alive.
“Sir, we are preparing to land,” the air hostess tells me.
“Thank you,” I tell her.
The moment the plane has come to a complete stop, I’m on my feet and headed out the door. Darius set up everything I’ll need here in Ireland. Including a hotel under an alias. Just in case I need to hide from the O’Sullivans, but that won’t be happening. I plan on telling Peter that I will be marrying Kayleigh regardless of whether he likes it or not.
I’m sure that will earn me a few bruised ribs, but it will be worth it.
“Mr. Duncan.” The driver opens the back door for me, and I tuck myself inside the SUV before he closes the door behind me. I give him the address and he says, “It should take about ten minutes.”
“Perfect,” I tell him. That is enough time for my little brat to warn the fucker.
Lose the date.
I’m warning you, seamrag bheag, lose the date.
Quit stalking me. I blocked you, but obviously your old brain can’t understand that, so I will repeat it again. We are not together. I’m not yours. So leave me the fuck alone to live my life.
You are so fucking wrong. You are mine and this is your last warning, lose the date before I do it for you.
Kind of hard to do that when you are hours away from me in the arms of your ex-wife.
See you soon, my bratty runaway princess.
I put my phone away and ignore its vibration in my pocket as we continue to make our way to the restaurant. I chuckle knowing she is texting and threatening me.
My amusement turns into anger when I walk into the restaurant and see the motherfucker has his hand on her cheek. I grab his hand and shove him back as I stand at Kayleigh’s side.
“It’s time for you to leave,” I demand.
“Erik…”
“Not now, seamrag bheag. We will be talking in a moment,” I tell her softly while still glaring at Lennon. What a stupid fucking name.
“No, I will not leave until we are done with our date.”
I lean down so our faces are only a few inches apart. “You have two choices: you can either walk out on your own two feet or you can be dragged out by your broken legs.”
“I’m not buying into this macho-man act you have going on,” he says, waving his hand at me.
“Lennon, don’t—” Kayleigh starts, but she cuts off when I grab his steak knife and stab the table less than an inch from his right hand.
“That is your final warning.” Lennon doesn’t wait around and hightails it out of there but throws over his shoulder that no bitch is worth all this. I will be dealing with him later. I sit in his seat and face my very pissed off seamrag bheag.
“You have some fucking nerve showing up here.”
“Oh, I do, but did you think I would let you go on a date with another man while you damn well know you are mine?”
“You can think I’m yours, but I refuse to be your mistress.”
“And who said you would be a mistress?”
“As long as Eva is in the picture, that’s all I’ll ever be, and I want no part of whatever toxic happily ever after you two have going on.”
I chuckle. “There is no Eva and me. There is only you and me.”
She stands up, and kicks me in the nuts. “I’m not doing this with you,” she says before storming out of the restaurant.