Chapter 6
Rory
As the sun sets, I carry the last of mine and my mother’s belongings into the back of the cube van I borrowed from Declan.
“Hurry the fuck up ma!” I yell at her, hoping she hurries the hell up. Normally I wouldn’t yell at my mother, but since we visited Tomas, Declan has a fire under my ass to get our belongings moved into the house asap.
“What is your hurry?!” She asks, as she’s dragged from the house by Killer, her dog, who is making a beeline for me.
Whoever thought it would be a wise choice to mix a bullmastiff and a giant schnauzer needed to give their head a shake. He lived up to his namesake, at least when it came to me. I jump into the back of the cube van and point to her car. “If you don’t put him in your car now, you’re leaving him here! ”
“I will do no such thing!” she says, opening the back door of her car.
She baby talks to the damn beast and fusses over him like he’s a toddler. Closing the door, she turns and looks at me. “Why do we have to come too?”
I sigh and grab the strap on the rolling door then jump down. As I do, it closes with a bang, and I lock it before I look at her. “We’ve been over this a hundred times. If I’m to become Captain, I must live in the house and so does my family.”
She went around the hood of her car to the driver’s side. “You don’t want to be Captain, you told me that yourself Rory. Just let Declan’s sister take over.”
Killer is barking at me through the glass and every time he does, spit splashes upon its surface.
“Hell will freeze over before I allow that to happen. You know, you really should put a muzzle on that dog.”
She looks at me and repeats back what I just said to her, “Hell will freeze over before I allow that to happen.”
I roll my eyes as I pull the keys for the van from my pocket. “I think you love that dog more than you do me.”
She smirked as she opened her car door and got in. “He doesn’t swear at me. I’ll follow you.”
She slams her door shut, and I stalk off to get into the van. Starting it, I pull out onto the street and head towards the estate. Halfway there my phone rings. It’s Declan. Groaning, I answer it. “Hello!”
“Where the fuck are you?”
“Just coming up on the last intersection heading out of town. Why what’s up?”
I know what’s up. Ever since we left the hospital, he’s been stewing over the fact that Tomas didn’t remember him, the son he has seen every day, but remembered a daughter he barely knew. I get it, I would be pissed too.
“We are changing the dinner date. It’s tonight in less than an hour.”
The light turns yellow, and I slam on the brakes. “What? Why? Declan I’m not going to have time to unload this truck.”
“Because remember when my dad kicked me out of his room today?”
The gears started turning in my brain. “… yeah.”
“Somehow, he miraculously remembered that I was stepping down and told Kat that she can take over as Captain. ”
My blood drained from my face. “Oh fuck.”
“Yeah, oh fuck is right. Now she knows, and she also knows that she can challenge for the position. He told her she can take over, Rory!”
The light turned green, and I tromped on the gas pedal. “There’s no fucking way I’m going to allow that to happen.”
I could hear his breath hiss out between his teeth. “We need to come up with a plan. She can’t take over without learning the business for at least 90 days.”
A set of train tracks lay ahead of me, and I didn’t even slow down. The cube van bounced so hard as I sailed over them my head hit the headliner. But that didn’t stop me. I was on a mission. “It’s easy, send her with someone doing the dirty jobs. She will run back to Alaska with her tail tucked between her legs.”
“Nevada. She’s from Nevada,” Declan muttered.
“I don’t care if she’s from butt fuck nowhere. You send her on those jobs, I guarantee she won’t want it. Send her with Pete or Dylan, they always have the shittiest jobs.”
Declan sighed, “I think you’re right. Anyway, hurry up and get here. Don’t worry about unloading the truck, I’ll get Ian and Charlie to off load it into your wing of the house. ”
I nod, as if he can see me and say, “Alright. We will be there in twenty minutes.”
Kat
“Derek, I don’t know what to do. I think I should come home.”
I’m pacing back and forth in my room as I talk to him and suddenly stop. “Because Tomas may remember me now, but he might not tomorrow, and Declan likely hates me. I mean, would you want to stay where you’re not wanted?” I shake my head and grab my bag. “Nope. I’m just gonna pack and head home.”
“Kat you haven’t even found out what the family business is. They could be the owners of a literal gold mine, and you want to walk away from that?”
“Pfft! Hardly,”—I start stuffing my clothes into my bag— “Gold mine owners don’t have Captains. They’re the Irish mob, clearly, and I don’t want any part of that! I have a bad enough time fighting off the bikers that come into the bar.”
“Who cares if they are the mob? That means they have connections. ”
I stopped packing for a second. I could hear the grin that I knew he was sporting come over the air waves.
“You’re joking with me, right? They… they are probably into prostitution and… and extortion and shit. I don’t want any part of that!”
A knock on the door had me spinning around to look at it.
“Just hear them out Kat, that’s all I’m saying. And if you don’t like what they say, you leave, it’s as simple as that.”
“Yeah, that’s if they let me leave!” I say in a hushed tone. “I gotta go, someone is at my door.”
I stared at it as I stuffed my phone into my back pocket and jumped as it visibly shook with a bang. Great, now they’re going to kill me, and no one will ever know.
“Sonofabitch!”
My door flung open, and Rory raced inside with the largest dog I’ve ever seen snapping at his heels. He jumped on the bed and grabbed me by the shoulders. Shoving me towards the dog he yelled, “Eat her instead!”
The second the beast and I met eyes he calmed right down and sat at my feet.
“Well, aren’t you a handsome boy?” I crooned kneeling before him. I slowly held my hand out for him to sniff and was rewarded with a lick of his tongue.
“What the fuck did you just do to that dog?” Rory asked.
I looked over my shoulder to where he still stood on my bed. “What are you talking about? You just saw what happened!”
The dog laid down on his side and let me give him scritches to his belly. “Oh, you’re such a good boy! Whose dog is this?”
“That is my mother’s dog. Evidently, he likes you… I don’t know why.”
I gave him the once over from his head to his sock feet. “Well dogs do have a sense of good people. Maybe you’re just not a good person.”
“Yeah, whatever. Hold him while I get the fuck out of here.”
A frazzled looking woman appeared at the doorway just then, out of breath, clutching a dog leash to her chest, “How many times do I have to tell you to not run!”
I assumed she was talking to the mutt, but she wasn’t. She was looking straight at Rory standing atop my bed.
“Ma! Your dog wants my blood! Do you honestly think I’m just going to stand around waiting for him to gnaw on my leg?”
She tsk’d as she came into the room. Stooping next to me, she clasped the leash to the dog’s collar and straightened with a look at me and a smile on her face. “He seems to like you!”
“He’s a sweetheart,” I said, returning the smile.
“Never mind Rory, he was always a little dramatic. Killer is just a baby. Aren’t you boy?” she crooned as the dog’s tail thumped against the carpet. She started walking towards the door, dog in tow, then stopped. Turning she said, “Oh, as I was coming up the stairs, Declan said for both of you to get to the dining room. Dinner is about to be served.”
Rory glared at me as he stepped down off the bed and shoved his way past towards the door.
I just stood there in complete awe at his audacity as I watched his retreating back and wondered what the hell just happened.