Chapter One
Declan
Thirty years old
The way the wind whips around me sends a fresh trail of goosebumps down my spine.
It’s late spring, but the wind still has a slight chill at this time of night.
Walking away from the high rise apartment that houses the now sleeping Natasha, I keep my head down as I make my way to my brand new Chevrolet Silverado.
I can feel someone following me, but I don’t quicken my pace.
I’m not a pussy, and I know exactly who it is.
I can feel his ice blue eyes burning into the back of my head.
I’m maybe twenty feet from my truck when I’m grabbed from behind and dragged into a dark alley.
One minute I’m recoiling and tensing on instinct, and the next moment I’ve relaxed my body just as my former best friend pins me to the brick wall by his forearm to my throat.
The invisible hands that have been pulling at me since she texted me, demanding I come over, begin to fade with the familiarity of what was a fourteen year friendship.
The silver of the blade in his hand that glimmers in the dim light floating in from the street causes me to tense again just slightly.
Jakob stands with maybe a foot between our faces.
He looks dark and menacing, like the fucker may actually try to slit my throat.
I know I’m pushing my luck, but I can’t help it when one corner of my lips lifts in what I know is an infuriating smirk.
I haven’t seen him in months. He looks good.
His inch long brown hair looks freshly cut, his ever present stubble covers his sharp jawline, and his eyes are just as piercing as always.
I’m about the same height as him and a lot broader, but that doesn’t make the threat of the blade at my throat any less real.
“Fancy seeing you here, Fischer. What brings you out this way so late at night?”
I can practically see the smoke coming out of his ears. “I’ll kill you right here, Byrne. You’d be grossly underestimating me to think otherwise.” He brings the knife to the side of my throat and pushes just enough to make me bleed.
Holy shit, the crazy fucker just may do it.
My hands twitch to grab the blade from him, but I stop myself. He’s not going to actually hurt me. I mean, I hope he’s not going to actually hurt me. If he flexes his hand again, I’ll be forced to pry that stupid thing out of his hand.
“You won’t kill me, Jake. Stop this shit.” I growl out, losing my playful demeanor.
“Why the fuck wouldn’t I? After what you did to me? You think what happened all those years ago means anything to me?” His words hit their mark, and I physically recoil from the stabbing pain in my chest from them, which causes my head to rap against the brick wall behind me.
“What I did to you? You mean what she did to us? Dude, she played us both. Then she pulls up right before my surgery after we had started to move past our shit, mind you, I didn’t even call her that day, and you set us back to day one.
You say it meant nothing, but I don’t believe that.
You’ve spent the past five years running, and you won’t even stop long enough to realize no one’s chasing you.
You’re playing games, and I don’t even have a controller. ”
“I’m not talking about her. I know damn well who she is and what she’ll always be.
You don’t have to believe me. I know I’m being honest. You’re going to have to get over that lapse in judgment one of these days.
I’m talking about the nail you put in the coffin with us that night.
I’m not going to kill you tonight, but make no mistake, as soon as my sister and your brother are married, I’m sliding this blade across your throat. ”
He’s wrong, though. He slowly kills me a little more every time he says this shit to me.
He also is full of shit. If what happened didn’t matter to him, he wouldn’t hunt me down like this every couple of months and act like an asshole.
It’s like he needs to prove to himself that I’m nothing anymore.
Only that fucks with my head even more than he already does.
His eyes drag from mine down my face slowly to the blade in his hand and then back up.
His ice blue eyes lock on mine for a beat too long before he shoves off of me and walks away.
If he was any other motherfucker on this planet, he would be bleeding out in this filthy alleyway.
Alas, he’s my soon to be sister-in-law’s brother and was my best friend for years, so I’ll let this slide this time, just like I do every other time.
‘You think what happened all those years ago means anything to me?’
I shake my head to clear the faraway memories of two drunk guys.
Making my way back to the estate that I live in with some of my brothers, I try to push this entire evening out of my mind.
Having to deal with Natasha and the mindfuck that comes with it was enough on its own.
But add in Jake’s surprise visit, and I’m crawling out of my skin.
It doesn’t take me long to get back to the estate from Manhattan, but when I walk inside the old white house that I grew up in, I notice it’s unusually quiet.
It’s late, so I didn’t expect to hear my niece or nephew running around or anything, but usually my oldest brother and his wife are still up.
My youngest brothers just graduated from college.
Sully starts with the Corey Heights Fire Department in just a few weeks, and Flynn doesn’t have to report to training for hockey for another month and a half.
They’re staying here for now, and it seems they also aren’t awake, or at least they aren’t downstairs right now.
Weird.
I’m too wired to go to bed, so instead I decide to go to our home gym and hit shit until I’m too exhausted to move.
Pushing open the doors of the gym, I quickly find out where all of my brothers are.
All five of them stop what they’re doing and look at me.
Mac and Kieran are in the boxing ring, Rowan’s on the speed bag, Flynn is doing some dry ice training that I don’t quite understand, and Sullivan is halfway up a damn rope that’s attached to the ceiling.
“So all of us are having shitty nights, or–?”
All five of them respond with a “yup” at the same time then turn back to what they’re doing.
Okay, so it’s not just me. Making my way to the heavy bag beside my oldest brother, Rowan, he eyes me curiously as I shed my shirt and begin to wrap my hands methodically. It’s one of the only few times in years that I haven’t had to lie about random bruises marring my skin.
Rowan’s older than I am by two years. He’s also the head of our organization.
All six of us look eerily alike, only varying a few inches in height and a few shades in eye and hair color.
Myself, Rowan, and Kieran are also more muscular than the younger three.
Not to say that my youngest brothers are toothpicks by any means, we’re just built more like fighters where they are built more like swimmers.
Which given how much time the three of them spend in our big ass pool in the backyard, it tracks.
“You good?” Rowan asks as his medium green eyes lock on my darker ones.
“Yeah, just a shitty night. Had a run in with Fischer.” I practically growl out.
Mac whistles low across the gym, “Damn, lovers quarrel?” He and Kieran laugh like teenage girls at his stupid joke.
They’re always making jabs about Jakob and I, but I never let them see how close to home they actually hit.
Even if it feels like getting stabbed in the chest every time they talk their shit.
“Shut the hell up you two.” Rowan barks out.
I ignore them and look back at Rowan. “It was nothing, just threw me off.”
Roe’s eyes turn murderous in the next second as he grabs my shoulder with one hand and pushes my head with the other. “Nothing? What the fuck is that cut on your neck then?”
For the second time tonight, my body recoils on instinct as I throw his hands off of me.
I hate being fucking touched spontaneously, and they all know that.
Hell, I hate being touched, full stop. The only exception is my niece and nephew.
I’ll hug them or hold their hand without pause, every single time.
It’s not at all lost on me that there’s someone else who touched me tonight that didn’t make my skin crawl.
All my brothers once again stop what they were doing and make their way over to me.
“It’s nothing.” I slap my hand over the shallow cut on the side of my neck.
“He fucking stabbed you?” Mac roars.
Mac has the temperament of our older brother when it comes to his family.
He’s also marrying Jakob’s sister, so the last thing I want or need is little Rowan Jr. to turn on the crazy.
They look almost as identical as the twins and will both blow the world up if they think someone they love has been wronged.
It’s why they can never know. The guilt would eat them alive.
His and his fiance’s story is truly beautiful.
It’s long and involves years of heartache and separation, but the short of it is, they met as kids and were best friends before the universe cruelly ripped them apart.
They then reconnected in their early twenties and went through some horrendous shit together.
Now, three years later, Mac’s over three years sober, Lee’s got a brand new –to her– kidney, I have one less kidney, and they are just around the corner from tying the knot after taking the past three years of their engagement traveling the world together.
“He didn’t fucking stab me. I saw Natasha before I saw him. I don’t dig into the sordid details of your sex lives, so don’t dig into mine.” The lie slips easily enough from my lips even as a dreadful shiver runs down my spine. Ignoring them, I go back to wrapping my hands.
“Are you dumb? Why would you still be sleeping with her? Are we just forgetting all the shit she’s done?” Kieran asks like I’m truly stupid and not the second in command of the Irish Mob.
Kieran’s the tallest of us all at six and a half feet.
His hair is the darkest at a true dark brown, and his eyes are a pale green.
He’s one of the middles along with Mac, which makes him the one willing to start the most shit.
Kie is unhinged on a different level than the rest of us.
The man prides himself on being able to skin someone alive while trying to get information from them.
He’s our enforcer, and he’s married to Rowan’s wife’s best friend.
Yeah, it’s a whole thing. Honestly, the lady Byrne’s are the strongest women I’ve ever had the privilege of being around.
They’re so fucking resilient, and I don’t just mean because they deal with all of us men.
I mean, they’ve individually been through Hell, and they practically laughed in the face of their demons before crawling their way out to the other side.
No one could ever convince me that those three women have ever done anything wrong in their entire lives.
They’re the sisters I always wanted, and I put them up on pedestals just like the Queens they are.
“She isn’t guilty of anything besides being too clingy and wanting to fuck both Jakob and I. Leave her alone, Kie. I mean that.” It’s not at all true, and it turns my stomach to even say it so innocently, but that’s not their business.
He huffs in exasperation, “Fine, but I’m serious, Dec, she’s trouble.”
He’s been saying the same thing for the past five years.
He isn’t wrong at all, but he is annoying.
Before I can remind him to kindly fuck off, the door to the gym swings open and in walks his wife.
Poor thing looks exhausted and like she’s already going to tip over from the five month pregnant belly that she’s sporting.
Her strawberry blonde hair is thrown up in a messy bun, and her watery gunmetal gray eyes search the gym until she locks onto her husband.
Kieran folds instantly as she walks over to him, and he wraps her up in his arms.
“What’s wrong, Mo Stóirín?” Little Darling. My lips subtly tip at the nickname he’s always used for her. We all wait with bated breath for why the incredibly strong Phoenix looks seconds from breaking.
“I’m so tired but I can’t sleep. I’m so sorry. I really did try to leave you alone, but everything hurts and I’m uncomfortable.”
He’s murmuring into the top of her head quietly as he holds her. I don’t know what he’s saying, nor do I think whatever it is is for my ears. A few moments later he scoops her into his arms before addressing us.
“I’m done. See you guys tomorrow.” He carries her out, and you can see her body melt in his arms.
“Dude, pregnancy has to suck. I can’t imagine how helpless he feels when she’s in pain like that.” Sully pipes up as soon as the gym door closes.
Sully is the baby of the family. I mean, by two minutes, but still.
He and Flynn are identical twins. Their hair and eyes are the lightest of all of ours, at an almost dirty blonde color and blue-green eyes.
Sully’s been in love with his best friend his entire life, but neither of them has made a move.
At this point I’m wondering if they ever will.
“Yeah, definitely a reason I don’t want kids.
I don’t want to put anyone through that shit.
” I say absentmindedly before kicking myself in the ass when Mac’s face crumbles for half a second before he storms from the room without a word.
He and Lee can’t have kids, and I’m the world’s worst brother for not thinking before I speak.
“Dude, seriously?” Flynn throws his hands up at Sully, and I.
“I know, fuck. I’ll apologize in the morning. Let him go to her and feel what he needs to tonight.”
Speaking of wives, Rowan’s walks through the door next with her hand outstretched towards where Roe is standing. He smirks as he walks to her without even looking our way.
“Pretty girl.”
“Babe. Let’s go to bed.” She sleepily smiles at him.
“Your wish is my command.” He lifts her by the back of her thighs so she can wrap her arms and legs around him and snuggle in. Her deep brown eyes close as her face presses into the crook of his neck, and Rowan carries her out without another word.
“Okay, I think that’s our cue. Let’s call it a night. It’s late.” Sully and Flynn say their goodbyes to me and leave to go to bed too.
Finally it’s just me in the gym with all this pent up energy, a heavy bag, and visions of Jakob fucking Fischer. I’m going to beat the shit out of this bag until I’m too tired to move, and his stupid blue eyes get out of my head.
But a couple of hours later I fall back on the mats, depleted of all energy. As I shut my eyes, visions of a strong jawline, an ever present five o’clock shadow, and ice fucking blue eyes haunt me.