76. CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
Shouting erupted from Da’s office in Divona. There were two entrances to that office. An ornate door from the narrow hallway off the kitchen and a single French door that led to the rear courtyard.
It was rumored that people who met with Da knew where they stood depending on which door they came through. If they entered from the courtyard, Da’s respect and trust wasn’t absolute. But if they entered from the hallway, that signified Da’s faith in them. Because being let into our house where my mother, my sister, and much younger brothers roamed was equivalent to an invitation from the fucking White House.
Only better, because my da was the Irish King of Astoria, and kings ruled in perpetuity.
I’d spent my spring break from Columbia University in Astoria that year while other guys my age went to Florida or Vegas. My father was rich as sin, and shelled out tons of cash for all our expensive educations, but didn’t want us mingling with outsiders.
Moments earlier, that last Sunday of my vacation, with Ma’s mountain of a pot roast steaming from the dinner table, one of Da’s guards had whispered to him. Seconds later, he, Kieran, and Lachlan followed Da into his office.
Riordan didn’t show up for Sunday dinner. As usual. Years back, he always hung out a few blocks away with Craig Nolan. I’d often wondered if he was secretly banging Craig’s daughter, Priscilla. But Riordan had a genius IQ and Craig Nolan was also one of Da’s best hitmen.
Do the math.
Then Priscilla disappeared and Craig died. Riordan kept to himself and hardly ever smiled, took his assignments from Da, but he’d been closed off and bitter. He was destined to be Kieran’s underboss when Da retired. Before that happened, Riordan was just the quintessential spare to Da’s precious heir, Kieran.
When I heard the shouting, I tossed my napkin and went after them, pissed from being left out of a clearly important meeting. I always knew after college, I’d work for my father, and preferred a high-level spot with Lachlan on his death squad.
Though not invited, I opened the office door and saw Da’s second-in-command down on the floor, beating a man under him senseless. I wasn’t jarred or sickened. I’d seen blood, broken bones, knife wounds, and guts spilling out from a bullet to the stomach. It stopped bothering me long ago.
Kieran’s green-eyed gaze from the shadowed corner hammered into mine. He took several strides toward me and pushed me out the office door. “This doesn’t concern you. Go back to school.”
“What’s going on?” I asked Kieran, but the door slammed in my face.
I saw a lot of crazy beatings and torture at our black site, but Da rarely spilled blood in the house. Something serious happened.
Ma took the twins, Darragh and Cormac, to her Sunday evening bible study group. With just one of the many housekeepers lingering to do dishes and clean up the dining room, I hiked through the kitchen and headed for the front door.
Da’s second stalked out to the courtyard and dumped the man he beat to a wheezing pulp into the back seat of his car and drove off.
A minute later, Lachlan strut out the same door and got into his car. With no sign of my da or Kieran leaving his office, I dove in front of Lachlan’s vintage Viper. He screeched to a halt, nearly hitting me.
“What the fuck?” he yelled out the driver’s side window, warm breath steaming off his lips against the cold.
The bitter chill crawled all over me, and I’d left the house without my jacket. I rushed to the passenger side and cursed at the locked door. “Open up, Lachlan.”
He rolled down the window. “I have to get to Boston.”
“Boston?” I asked, like that was the craziest thing I’d ever heard. Then a knot formed in my chest. “Balor?”
“Aye,” Lachlan said, cinching his eyebrows.
“What happened?” I asked about my brother, a freshman at MIT.
“He got his arse kicked.”
“By who?” Fury heated my blood. “Who was that man Da’s second—”
“Just fucking get in.” Lachlan unlocked the door.
“Bollocks, does this thing have heat?” I rubbed my hands against the vents barely spewing warm air.
“It’ll kick in.” He peeled away.
On the drive, Lachlan explained Balor’s guard had been tackled by two frat boys while two others beat the crap out of Balor. The guy who Da’s second pummeled was the capo who hired Balor’s guard.
Punishment is like an STD, it spreads pretty fast and doesn’t end pretty.
“Is Balor all right?” I asked. “Where is he? The hospital?”
“No. Da said no hospital. Wants to keep this quiet. Between us. He sent a doctor to his apartment. Balor’s got a busted lip, a broken arm, and several bruised ribs from being kicked according to the doc,” Lachlan said with little emotion.
He’d just reached six-six and could kill a man with his bare hands, so he had to control his temper, or he’d end up in prison for the rest of his life.
“Why are you going to MIT? Why not Da and Kieran?”
Lachlan’s cold eyes strayed to me for an eerie second and then he looked away. “To deal with the guard.”
My throat tightened. “The guard?”
“No matter what, guards are responsible.” His voice gave me chills. “It’s what Da wants. We don’t question him or tell him no. You understand that, right?”
He learned that the hard way spending a year in a torture camp the one and only time he didn’t listen to Da.
“Aye, but what about the guys who beat up Balor?”
“They’re not guys. They’re overgrown kids spawned from rich fucks with Harvard lawyers on speed-dial. Plus, we’ve all dealt with assholes. Balor needs to learn how to defend himself.”
I’d been wrapped up in my classes at Columbia, a stupid History program that would go to waste because I’d be working for my father anyway. After that night, I’d planned to tell him I was quitting school. He needed me. Now. I’d protect Balor, show Da I had what it took to be on the protection team.
If we hadn’t been on I-95 North passing Bridgeport, Connecticut, I’d have asked Lachlan to stop and let me out to go home. But I had no jacket, and no way to get back to Astoria other than the train.
Fuck…
We arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts four hours later. I’d not been there before since Balor had started MIT in the fall. Lachlan parked his car and strode to a large building like he owned the place. I’d guessed he’d gone there when Da dropped off Balor.
Balor lived in an apartment a few blocks from the main campus. Freshmen usually had to live in dorms, but Da wanted him protected because he chose a school so far from Astoria. Plus, he was only eighteen and had four older brothers protecting him from neighborhood bullies until he went away to college.
Lachlan’s phone rang and he answered, “Alo? I’m here now. When will they be here? Aye.”
Watching him put his phone away, I shivered against the cold. “Who was that?”
“Kieran. Two new guards will be here in a few minutes.” Lachlan rang the buzzer for Balor’s apartment.
The main entry door opened, and a warm lobby greeted me. My muscles finally unclenched from the cold. Balor’s apartment was on the fifth floor, but Lachlan took the stairs, his crazy long legs tackling three, even four steps at a time. I had to book it to keep up with him.
He hammered his fist on Balor’s apartment door.
His guard, who lived with him, opened it. The guy turned white seeing Lachlan but played it cool.
“The doctor just left,” the guard said, his Irish accent sounding a little hoarse. His face was bruised with a deep gash on his cheek. “He’s coming back to set Balor’s arm in a cast.”
“I’m fine,” Balor hollered from the living room sofa, watching television on a seventy-two-inch flatscreen above a roaring fireplace.
I rented an apartment in Manhattan, a two-bedroom prewar flat on the Upper West Side, a few blocks from Columbia. It was small, but it had character.
Balor’s place was modern and huge. Fuck me…
Knowing Lachlan had to deal with the guard, I rounded the sofa to take a look at my younger brother. My da treated us with cool indifference, our sister excluded. She got hugs. She got kisses. We got stiff upper lips and vacant stares. Ma wanted to hug us more, but I’d heard Da yelling at her, saying it would make us soft.
We wanted for nothing. And never would for the rest of our lives. But fuck, a little affection would have been nice once in a while. Probably why my brothers and I got laid so much. Women were devices just to get some human touch.
I sat next to my brother and studied his face. “Balor! Did you fight back at all?”
“There were two of them,” he said bitterly.
“Why would two—”
“Four. Two kicked the piss out of Hayden until he was practically unconscious,” he referred to guard.
“Four. What did you do to four guys?”
“It’s just stupid hazing. They rule this place.” He shrugged, wincing.
I took out my phone. “What’re their names?”
He glanced at me, his head tilted. “Why?”
I lower an eyebrow at him. “Why do you think?”
“Kieran told me Da said to let it go.”
This made no sense to me. “Names. Now.”
A hint of bloodlust flared in his eyes. He glanced over my shoulder at Lachlan speaking to Hayden, still covered in blood. Lachlan was so calm and inquisitive, I wondered if he’d actually kill the guard.
Balor stood, and struggling to hide a limp, he led me into another bedroom where he did schoolwork. At a desk with three monitors, he used his good hand and typed into his keyboard, the other in a sling resting on the desk. One by one, four school IDs came up.
“Did the two who hurt Hayden lay a hand on you?” I asked Balor.
“No. When these two assholes thought I had enough, the other two let Hayden go. Then the four of them took off laughing, saying they’d be back next week for another round.”
Not likely…
“Where do they live?”
“Conveniently the two who beat me up live together.” Balor scribbled something on a note pad sheet. “Here.”
With the address in my hand, I didn’t immediately know what I’d do with it. “Are you sure you don’t need the hospital? I’ll drive you there myself. Fuck Da.”
“Considering Lachlan got stabbed in the face when he was my age, I’m lucky I just have a busted arm.”
“I heard they kicked you.”
“I protected my ribs as best I could.” He winces again trying to move.
“Lach said Da expects you to learn how to defend yourself.” I tugged the back of his neck.
Balor wore thick dark glasses from a bad astigmatism but was no frail kid. He’d always been almost as tall as me, but with a slender frame and not the intense bulk as the rest of us brats.
“Looks like I’ll have two bodyguards up my arse now, so I won’t get the chance,” he said sounding frustrated.
In Astoria, we settled problems with guns and knives. Cambridge wasn’t Astoria, but I couldn’t let this go.
A knock sounded on the apartment door, and I closed my eyes, figuring it was the new guards for Balor, which he would surely hate. But that meant Lach would kill Hayden soon.
It felt surreal. The life ahead of me was right there. That night. I was ready.
“Eoghan, we’re leaving,” Lachlan shouted from the foyer.
I fisted that address and stuck it inside my pocket. “Did the doctor leave you any pain pills?”
“Aye,” Balor said.
“Do you want me to stay with you?” I asked, even though I had classes the next day.
“I’m fine. Get out of here. I appreciate you coming all this way.” He fist-bump/hugged me.
I left him alone, preparing myself for what I was about to witness if Lachlan let me watch. I hoped he did, because I wanted to run the enforcer team with him, be his second-in-command.
What the hell else was I supposed to do for my da? Kieran would be King, Riordan his underboss, Lach his enforcer, Balor his cyber and weapons expert.
I needed to prove right there, right then, I had what it took to protect my family, too.
Nodding to the two new guards, dressed all in black, I pointed to what was Hayden’s bedroom. “In there, guys.”
Balor would do his own introductions. He’d tell them how he wanted to be treated. But Da had flown these guys in from Ireland. They had their marching orders.
Lachlan and Hayden were smiling, laughing as they walked down the hallway. What on earth did Lachlan tell this guy? Why was he willingly going with us?
“I can really use a few days in Florida to recover, Lachlan,” Hayden said when we got outside. “Tell your da thank you for the plane ticket and the accommodations. It gets cold as fuck up here.”
No kidding, I thought as I braced against the icy wind coming off the Charles River.
“Where are you parked?” Lachlan asked Hayden.
“Just over there in that empty lot.” He took out his fob and pressed it. “I don’t like anyone having a lock on where I park.”
“Smart,” Lachlan said.
A four-door, baby blue Crown Victoria’s lights flashed with two chirps. The guy ogled it proudly. But when he took a step toward it, Lachlan buried a slug into the back of his head.
The guy fell forward, and I jumped out of the way.
“Fucking fuck, Lachlan.” I whipped my head around, searching for witnesses. “You kill the dosser here? What are we doing with the body?”
“Nothing. This gun is untraceable. Someone will find him.” He reached down and snatched the guy’s wallet. “There are plenty of murders in this town. This will just look like another one.”
“What about cameras?”
“Da is taking care of that.” He tugged my arm. “Let’s go.”
We turned a corner and Lachlan leaned back to chuck the guy’s keys, but I stopped him. “Wait.”
“Eoghan, you’re starting to—”
“I have the names and address of the guys who attacked Balor,” I said, pulling us into a shadowed alley.
Lachlan’s scar-ravaged cheek twitched. The guy loved the smell of blood. “Da said—”
“Da’s not here, is he?” I got up in his face, pushing on my tippy toes, the fucker was so tall. “Let me level set who I am. What I can do for the family. I won’t let anyone fuck with us.” I grabbed the keys to the Crown Vic.
“Where are you going?”
“To kill those motherfuckers who hurt our brother.” I stomped toward Hayden’s precious Ford.
An hour later, Lachlan had the two douchebags tied up on their living room floor. We’d beaten them unconscious.
“Now what do we do with them?” Lachlan asked, wiping blood from his hands, his primal side calming down.
He lived for that shit. Oddly, I didn’t care for the hand-to-hand combat. My hands ached and throbbed in pain that I hid from Lachlan.
“I’m so glad you asked.” I had something more hands-off in mind. But dark and deadly.
The house had a long driveway, and we parked Hayden’s Crown Vic in the back near the garage. Out the kitchen door, we carried the bodies and tossed them into the trunk.
I took over driving.
“Where are we going? You don’t know Boston,” Lachlan said. “Let me just shoot them so we can get out of here. I’m fucking hungry.”
“I want them to suffer,” I said, with a growl.
We drove around, me taking every turn where the night grew darker and darker. It was close to three a.m. at that point, and in a few hours, it would be light.
Down a few dirt roads, we found an abandoned railway shed. A chained fence blocked us, but Lachlan got out with a bolt cutter he grabbed from his car and took care of the fence.
I cut the lights and the engine. Only the moon illuminated my way from rows of skylights above, some with the cracked glass or broken pieces missing.
Perfect…
After pushing out of the car, the heavy-as-fuck door swinging back at me, nearly slicing my leg off, I got to the trunk and popped it open.
Yeah, they were awake and pissed. But still tied up.
Lachlan lifted both of them out of the trunk practically with one hand. I would never be that strong.
He dumped them on the ground, and it felt great to watch them squirm.
“What the fuck?” one yelled.
“You’re dead, asshole. Do you know who my father is?” the other mumbled around missing teeth.
“I couldn’t care less,” I said with a swift kick to the guy’s nuts.
“What do you want with us?” douche one asked.
“You go to MIT, are you that stupid?” I said. “You lay a hand on Balor O’Rourke from Astoria and now you’re tied up, beat to shit.”
“Oh fuck,” missing teeth guy grumbled.
“Looks like someone’s brain came back online.” Lachlan leaned against the car. “So, what are we doing here? Running them over one by one until they’re dust?”
A smelly yellow stream trickled from douche one’s pants. Dude pissed himself.
“No. That’s too good for these animals.”
Adrenaline pumping through my veins made me stronger than I had the right to be. I swung one guy around until his feet were facing the back of the car. I loosened the rope enough to hook it to the bumper.
“What the fuck!” the guy yelled, trying to get a foothold to stand up.
“I see what we’re doing.” Lachlan stepped toward me to help. “Hee hee, cool.”
“No. This is my show. My kill,” I said with gritted teeth. “I want Da to know I did this.”
Concern flared in Lachlan’s eyes, but he stepped back.
I managed to get both those pricks attached to the back bumper. Good ole Hayden had been former NYPD and his Crown Vic with a metal bumper had come through.
It was like that night was meant to be.
Seething, I got into the front seat and revved the engine. That shed looked at least three football fields long. Enough room to tear these motherfuckers to pieces.
Before throwing the car into drive, I caught sight of myself in the rearview.
Tonight, I become a murderer.
Tonight, I earn the name O’Rourke.
Smiling, I jammed my foot on the gas and…
The rest is history.
It’s a story my brothers tell about me in hushed whispers to people who think I’m not dangerous because I’m a lawyer.
The kill is only part one of the story, though.
The ending is what no one else knows. Even I’ve never told a soul.
Until now…