Chapter Three
Rory
“Hey, bro. Are you okay?”
My eyes flutter open, the lights overhead bright and making my eyes hurt. Fuck. That stupid bastard hit me hard. I wonder how long I was out.
“You good?” the dude kneeling beside me asks again.
“José?” It’s the guy I was supposed to meet. My head throbs, but I manage to ignore it.
“Yeah. I thought you stood me up. I came outside just as the guy took off. I saw him throw your keys.”
I nod, wincing as I try to push myself to sit up and lean against the wall. My head is killing me. I’ve hit a lot of people upside the head with a gun but never had it done to me. Can’t say I’m a fan.
“Get my keys,” I tell him.
He frowns, but probably sensing my anger, doesn’t respond. The second he walks away, I call Tiernan.
“This better be important,” he says, voice husky with sleep.
“Got hit. Fucking robbed, if you can believe that shit. Knocked me in the head. Not sure if I can drive and definitely want to figure out who in the fuck did this.”
“We’ll be right there.” Tiernan is a man of few words, but the ones he does say always count.
A moment later, José comes back with my keys. Blood runs down the side of my head, but I don’t do anything to stop it.
“I’ll call the police.”
“No. Don’t.”
“Dude, someone hit you and took off.”
“You should go. That’s not a request.”
“I’m just trying to help,” he counters.
“Which is why I’m being nice. Seriously, go. Maybe I’ll message you again sometime.” Because clearly, I won’t be hooking up tonight. Goddamn amateur fucking criminal cockblock.
But then, a part of me is excited by this.
Danger stimulates me. What can I say? As different as my life is in some ways, it also feels painfully the same—school, sex, drugs, video games, parties.
We take care of shit we need to do for the organization, kill or hurt people, and sometimes we do it for ourselves, like when we took care of the guys who hurt Ollie and the one who tried to hurt Ash.
Being on this side of it is unexpected, and though a lot of shit is changing around me, and I’m trying to figure out what to make of that, this feels new in a different way.
“Yeah…yeah, okay,” José says. “If you’re sure.”
I nod, and he gives me my keys. He walks away, stops, looks at me, then keeps going, getting into his car and pulling away.
It doesn’t take Tiernan long to get here. The second he parks, Cillian is the first one out of the car.
“What the fuck happened?” He rushes over and kneels beside me. “Jesus, you’re shivering.”
“It’s cold as fuck,” I reply, but hadn’t realized I was trembling until he mentioned it.
He tugs off his coat and wraps it around me. It’s clear my head is fucked up because I let him. I wouldn’t with anyone else—well, my bunny, maybe—and I wouldn’t if I didn’t feel like my brain was two seconds away from exploding.
“What happened?” Tiernan asks, Dean beside him, arms crossed as they both look down at me.
“Came here to fuck. Was walking toward the room, heard someone behind me, turned around, and he had a gun in my face. The guy was a little taller than me, skinnier, white, blue eyes. He had a mask and gloves, so that’s all I saw. He took my gun, and I gave him my money.”
Cillian pushes something against my head to stop the bleeding, and I realize he took off the hoodie he had on under his coat and is using it on me.
“Organized?” Cillian asks. “Did he know who you are?”
“Nah. Probably a desperate motherfucker who needed cash. It was kinda fun to play with him. He didn’t expect someone who wasn’t afraid of him and who threatened to kill him. Took him off his game. I probably could have fought back, but…” I shrug. “Like I said, it was fun. Now I get to go hunting.”
“Christ, Ror.” Tiernan runs his hand through his hair.
“There’s a camera.” Dean points to the far side of the building. “Not sure if it got anything at this angle. Is there one on the other side?” He turns to look, then curses, telling me all I need to know.
“Come on,” Tiernan says. “Let’s pay Axel a visit.
” Axel owns The Dove. The only reason he’s allowed to keep this place up and running is because we let him.
If he wants to let people use his establishment to sell sex or as a place to hide out, then he has to pay us a monthly… permission fee, let’s call it.
Cil helps pull me to my feet.
I toss his hoodie back, not caring about the dried blood on my head.
I’m slightly dizzy, but I do a good job of hiding it as we make our way down what looks like a long-ass strip mall but is really room after room.
The hotel office is at the end. Dean pulls the door open, and the four of us saunter inside.
The woman at the front desk looks about forty, and she’s got dark hair. She’s popping gum, her eyes going wide when she sees us.
“Where’s Axel?” Tiernan asks. “And don’t tell us he’s not here or he’s busy. We talk to him, or this place goes boom.”
She visibly swallows, then picks up her cell and makes a call. “Tiernan is here. He says it’s urgent.” She ends the call, then points toward the back. “He’s there.”
We head behind the counter and down the hallway, Cillian right at my side. Tiernan goes first, opening the office door without knocking.
Axel is about fifty, covered in tattoos, with long hair and permanent cigarette smell. He takes one look at me and says, “I can’t control what happens here.”
“Then you don’t belong in charge.” Tiernan pulls his gun out smoothly, aiming it at Axel. “I kill you, take over, clean this place up, and pull in more profit. That sound like a good deal to you?”
Axel’s arms immediately go into the air. “That’s not what I’m sayin’! I’m sorry that happened, but I didn’t know. I’ll fix it, though. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it.”
“That’s what I thought.” Tiernan lowers his weapon but doesn’t put it away.
“We need to see security footage,” Cil tells him.
Axel winces. “Only one of ’em’s workin’. I can show you that, though. I’ve been meaning to fix the other, but—”
“Shut up,” Tiernan cuts him off. “We didn’t ask you to speak. Pull up the footage.”
Axel rolls his chair over to the computers on the far wall and pulls up the feed, but I can tell from the live on the screen now that the angle is wrong and they won’t be able to see whoever jumped me. My mugger might not be an expert, but he was smart about this.
Still, we watch as Axel speeds through the last hour, but there’s nothing. Cars do drive by, but nothing that looks out of the ordinary and none of them driving too fast or anything. It would be hard to decipher any makes and models even if we could see better. The road is dark as hell.
“Fuck,” Dean curses. I’m not as pissed as I thought I would be. I don’t need Axel’s help to find this guy. I can do it on my own, and when I do…I kinda want to play with him, mess with him, experience more of that unexpected high I got when he had a gun to my head.
“I want all the money you have. In the safe too.” Tiernan uses his gun to point to the photo on the wall.
“I can’t do that. How in the hell am I going to keep things going if I give you everything I have?” Axel argues.
“Not my problem. I’d assume you’d be happy because you’re alive. We can make other arrangements if you’d rather. This feels easier to me. If I kill you, then this becomes our responsibility, blah, blah, blah. Less work this way.”
“You’re a real asshole, you know that?” But like everyone, Axel does as Tiernan says. He unlocks the safe and hands over the money.
“Nice doing business with you,” T says. “Keep an ear to the ground. You hear anything, I don’t care how small it is, about someone jumping Rory, you call and tell me.”
“Yeah, whatever. I will. You’re fucking me right now, and this isn’t my fault.”
“I don’t care,” Tiernan says, turning around and going for the office door.
Before I realize what’s happening, Cillian jumps over the desk, grabbing Axel, throwing him against the wall, then slamming his fist into his face.
The man falls to the ground, the rest of us watching while Cillian kicks him in the gut.
“He gets hurt here, I hurt you. Don’t let that shit happen again.
” Without another word, Cillian storms out of the room.
Tiernan curses. “You’re smart enough not to try and retaliate for any of this, right?”
“I’m not fucking stupid.” Axel spits blood. “The last thing I need is the O’Sheas on my ass.”
“Exactly.”
The three of us follow Cillian out.
Dean and Tiernan take T’s ride, Cillian driving mine back to the house.
“Call Ollie. He’s worried,” is the first thing he says to me. “He wanted to come, but I didn’t know if it was dangerous.”
“I’m fine,” I insist. “It was kinda hot, actually.”
“Shut up, Ror.”
“I’m serious. It got me boned up. It was weird. That’s never happened before.”
“I don’t care if it was hot. You let that fucker get the drop on you. I know it. You did it for a fucking rush, and that shit is dangerous. We do enough stuff that can get us killed. You don’t need to take chances when you don’t have to.”
“He wasn’t going to shoot me.”
“How do you know that?”
I shrug. “I just do. He was inexperienced.”
“That makes him more dangerous.”
“He’s a nobody who needed some money. I got a rush out of it. Don’t get it twisted. I plan to kill the motherfucker, but it’s not that big of a deal.”
I appreciate that he cares, that his boyfriend does too, and that Cil wants it that way—that the connection between me and his boy is just as important to him as it is to me—but I’m in pain and not in the mood to deal with this shit.
Before he can say anything else, I make the call. Ollie answers right away. “I’m fine, Bunny. It was just a little misunderstanding.”
“I knew you shouldn’t have gone! I had a bad feeling. I told Cillian that after you left. Did that asshole—”
“It wasn’t him. I didn’t even get any dick. I’m bummed about that. It was some rando, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I’m good. We’ll be home soon, and you can baby me.”
Both Ollie and Cillian snort.
“You’re lucky I love you,” Cil says, and I know I am. No one else would be able to talk to Ollie the way I do, or touch him the way I can when Cillian allows it. And I know Ollie wouldn’t ever want anyone to touch him other than Cillian, and sometimes me.
“You’re taking this entirely too lightly,” Ollie replies.
“I’m fine, Bunny. This is what we do.” He sighs and doesn’t reply.
He’s still getting used to it. He didn’t grow up in this lifestyle like we did.
Ollie is better than the rest of us—good and caring, will take care of people, protect them.
I still don’t know why he puts up with us, but I guess love makes you do some crazy shit, and there is no doubt in my mind how much he’s in love with my best friend and how good he is for Cil.
As much as Cil and his father have had their issues, they’re more alike than Cil sees.
Rian was always good to Moira. He loved her. That’s more than I can say about my dad and more than Tiernan could say about his own. I sometimes wonder if that’s why my mom took her own life. We live in a fucked-up world, but my father never gave her any solace.
Cil does with Ollie.
Tiernan does with Dean.
I’d probably be more like my dad. It’s one of the reasons I don’t plan to get into a relationship to ever find out.
“I’ll see you soon,” I tell Ollie, then end the call. “Sorry,” I say to Cillian because I know it’s just that he cares.
“I don’t want you to take unnecessary risks. You played a dangerous game tonight, and you’re lucky you got nothing more than a bump on the head out of it.”
“And a lecture,” I tease.
He chuckles. “I want to kill him with you.”
“Obviously. I’d be offended if you didn’t.”
The tension between us lessens as we drive the rest of the way home. When we get there, Ollie pulls me into his and Cillian’s room, and I jump up on the bathroom counter, pretending to purr and rub on him like a cat while he frets and cleans me up.
It is kinda nice.
“Thanks, Bunny.”
“I’m still mad at you.”
“Hey! This wasn’t my fault!” I jump down from the counter and kiss his temple. “Good night.”
“’Night, Rory.”
I bump fists with Cillian, then slip from their room into my own, strip, and climb into bed. I want to jerk off, but I don’t have the energy.
My mind wanders to the masked man with the blue eyes. I can’t wait to meet him again.