Chapter 54 Ronan
RONAN
“You took her to see him?” I asked Kane, trying my best not to let the anger take over.
“I’m not in charge of shit anymore,” he shrugged, walking past me. I clenched my fists, but before I could take a step, Cecilia was already pushing me away from Kane.
“Put your hands on him one more time and you’ll never touch me again. On either of them for that matter,” she proclaimed, nearly knocking the goddamn wind out of me with her words.
“How could you do that to him?” She asked, obviously having seen the damage to Santos.
“If Taylor hadn’t called us down, you would have probably been hog tied and delivered to your uncle on a silver platter because of him,” I pointed towards the elevator as if it was Santos.
“I don’t know who the fuck Taylor is, but isn’t that the whole point of why you put that chip in me?” She asked, crossing her arms.
“After the shit he pulled, he’s lucky I didn't string him up and hang him from the rooftop for all our men to see,” I seethed, my nostrils flaring as I thought about heading back downstairs just to lay him out again.
“Ronan Stop!” Cecilia yelled, “You’ve found your rats, killed one of them, there is no one else to blame anymore. I kept my secrets and Santos did the same. You can’t hold it against him and not do the same to me.”
“Oh Flower, I am holding it against you, and as soon as I have the chance I will punish you for it,” I said, pulling her in as I hooked my arm around her low back, but before I could close in and seal my lips around hers, I noticed what she was wearing.
“Why the fuck are you wearing his bloody shirt?”
“Uhh,” she stammered out, and Kane smirked, looking away. “Would you have preferred it if I walked past your men naked?” She asked with a funny look on her face.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“No more secrets, right?” She looked at me, and I nodded, scrunching my eyebrows in the middle.
“Well, I’ve slept with all of you. Am sleeping with all of you?
Well I guess not sleeping,” she laughed out, the thoughts coming out of her mouth like word vomit before she could seem to catch them.
“Do what you want with that.” She shrugged and began walking towards the bedroom, which she’d claimed as her own.
She pulled the t-shirt off her head and threw it on the ground before she made her way through her door. Kane followed me as if he had every right to be staring at her naked body.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked her, unsure if I’d actually heard what I heard.
“Is that a problem?” She turned around too quickly, forcing me to bump into her tiny frame and hold her up, so she didn’t fall on her ass.
“Yeah, that’s a fucking problem. What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I grabbed her by the arms, and she frowned her eyebrows at me.
“I guess I must have missed the memo that we were exclusive when you had me locked up in that cell a few floors down.”
“I don’t recall us ending, I recall you running away.” I pointed out and she sneered at me.
“So what does that make of us, when you’re getting your cock sucked by a Bratva princess?” Her lip did a funny quivering thing when she mentioned the Russian sisters.
“Well it seems like it’s all free rein then?” I asked, and she looked even angrier at my response.
“That depends on whether or not you ever want me in your bed again, but sure, free rein,” she repeated without breaking her composure.
“That’s a dangerous game you’re playing Cecilia. You think we’re all going to stick around while you make fools out of us?” I gritted out, furious and trying to concentrate, but she was completely naked, and still marked up red in places where one of my brothers recently had their way with her.
Or did they fuck her together?
Did they give her what I refused?
It felt like I was being consumed by the heat her body was exuding, and like the center of my universe, she was pulling me closer to her orbit. It was impossible not to stand close enough to touch, feel her breath on me, and reach out and caress.
But here she was, covered in another man’s marks as she toyed with my feelings.
“Are you punishing me?” I asked lower, hoping my brother couldn’t hear me.
“Ha!” She exclaimed loudly, making me flinch, “Though a great punishment that would have been. No, my darling, this is not your retribution. This is just the way the fates dealt our cards.”
I didn’t respond, I couldn’t invoke a single thought in the whirlwind that was bashing through my brain.
“You talk a lot of shit about how ‘you’ll always have me’ and that I’d never deny you or being yours.
Well, that may be true Ronan, you will always own a piece of my heart.
But I haven’t been whole, ever. Not even when you thought you knew me.
I’ve always just been the remnants of the girl that my papá split me into.
The other pieces of my heart belong to them, I’ve already given them away.
” She gestured out the door as if they were both there, but it was just Kane.
The continuous reminder of Santos’ betrayal, still far too evident.
“And if I say no, if I don’t agree?” I asked, needing to know what my options were.
“Then I’ll leave, and it'll hurt, and I probably won’t ever be okay again.
It won’t be what I want to do. But I’ll have to because I won't tear the three of you apart. I won’t be the thing that comes between you and fucks up the love you all have for each other.
Either you’re all on board, or I’ll leave, which based on the countdown Guillermo’s given Santos, doesn't sound like the worst idea,” she stood her ground firmly even if her ultimatum was fucked up beyond belief.
She had the nerve to say this was about not coming between us when that was quite literally exactly what she’d fucking done.
“You’ve been nothing but a pain in my fucking ass since the minute you walked back into my life,” I gritted out, knowing damn well that was exactly why I loved her.
The truth was it wasn’t her fault.
I put her in this situation.
I hand delivered her to both of my brothers like she was a goddamn gift as I pulled back and pushed her away from me.
“Would you have me any other way?” She smiled sincerely, but there was pain behind it, like losing me, maybe all of us, would be something she couldn’t come back from.
“All or nothing huh?” I asked again, and she nodded her head.
I turned back to look at the idiot standing by the doorway, and he quickly looked away, like he was trying to pretend he hadn’t been a part of this whole thing.
“And you’re both just fucking dandy with this?” I asked him.
“I don’t know about álvarez, but I’m in for whatever this is.”
“It doesn’t mean I love you any less. No one is forcing anyone’s hand here, but I think I’ve made my terms pretty clear. Take it or leave it, that goes for all of you,” she said, looking back before walking out of her room.
“Where the fuck are you going? This isn’t over,” I shouted back at her.
“No, I figure it’s not, but it seems like the rest is between the three of you. My room doesn’t have a shower, so that’s where I’m going, alone,” she said, the last part directed at Mateo, and I once again fought back my jealousy from taking over my fists.
“Hey! I’ve been playing nice!” He said, pouting his lip shamelessly while he drank her in as she stood before him.
“Yes, you have been a very good boy,” she tapped his cheek with her hand, then stood on the tips of her toes to press a kiss to his lips.
“Now figure your shit out. If you have to know, I choose the option where I walk out of this with the three of you. I’ve been completely alone for half my life now, I don’t wish that on anyone, and I certainly would prefer to never do it again,” she laid down her truth too brutally before walking away, and it was something I’d never stopped to consider.
She’d essentially been on the run since the minute she left me.
Jumping from city to city, never making friends out of fear she’d be responsible for their death.
My heart hurt at the thought of her out there all alone, searching for a family to call her own.
There was a time all I wanted was to be able to give her that, and here she was showing me what her idea of family meant now.
They were my brothers. I didn’t know a life without them now, and I’d considered them family by every meaning of the word. Even though their betrayal stung something deep when it came to Cecilia, I knew I could still count on them to want the best for me and to have my back.
And now they had hers too.
Was I being unreasonable?
Was I being selfish?
“You look like you’re about to have a stroke. Sit down,” Mateo instructed me, lifting his chin to point to the bed in the room. I dropped down on the edge with a heavy sigh, not ready to look him in the eye yet.
“I don’t know how to get through this,” I said, dropping my head to my hands in defeat.
“You’ve always trusted him with her, to keep her safe, to keep her happy, has that changed?
” Kane asked, like it mattered to him that I didn’t hold this against Santos.
My lip peeled up, and he immediately regretted his words.
“Okay, maybe safe wasn’t the right choice but definitely the rest.” He shrugged.
“I trusted him to keep his dick out of her too.” I snarled, and he flinched back, raising his hands in defense.
“That’s a tall order, I mean, have you looked at her?” Kane laughed, and I looked up at him so he could see how much I wasn’t finding the humor in this.
“Listen, all I’m saying is, fifteen years of wanting someone and not going for her because he loved you too much. That’s fucking respectable, I didn’t even make it three months.” He shrugged.
“Cecilia, Celia, whatever her fucking name is, she’s special. She’s worth it. And she’s way too much fucking woman for any of us alone anyway, so there’s no point in wasting your time trying.” Kane said as he kneeled in front of me and placed his hand on the side of my arm.