Lorcan

Chapter Five

Teeghan and Sloane sat in the leather seats a few chairs ahead of me, while I sat in my single chair, fuming. I’d tried to explain to Lorcan that I could take care of myself but he wouldn’t budge.

I kind of liked it, to be honest, but I’d never breathe that out loud. I liked that he was looking out for me. I’d never had that before.

But if he only knew the truth, if he only knew the real reason I had run, and not just because my family were power hungry bastards, then he’d want me as far away as possible.

Once I got to Italy, I could get lost and truly become someone else for a little while. Having no ties was great, it was freeing, but you did forget who you were for a little while. It also sucked making friends and having to disappear, losing those friends.

One day.

One day I knew I’d be able to be Bridget again, and I could be free to live in Ireland, amongst the pure beauty that was the Emerald Isle. Until then, I would continue being under the radar and living on the run.

The jets of the plane hummed to life, and I felt my anxiety rise. I hated planes, and being on a small private jet wasn’t helping me any. I gripped onto the sides of the seat and tried to convince myself that I was going to be okay, that people flew every day and nothing happened to them.

“Are you okay?” Sloane asked me. I opened my eyes and looked up at her, and that kind smile. She was nothing like Teeghan, even though I knew they were best friends. She was kinder, and more civil than Teeghan. Maybe she could help me.

“I just hate flying.”

She smiled, as she slipped into the seat opposite me. “Same, but luckily, it’s a short flight.”

“How short?”

“3 hours,” she replied. “But on this thing, it’s so smooth. You’ll not even know you’re in the air, and most of these things have great food on them.”

“You’ve been on a lot of these?”

“Killian has taken me to a few places, yeah,” she said. “Honestly, you’re safe. I had my reservations too, and I even married someone else before getting back with Killian, but I’ve never felt so safe ever.”

“Even though you are now travelling to a foreign country to get away from their shit?” I shoot back.

She sighed. “You’ve come into Lorcan’s life at a bad time, sure, but for the most part, we all live happily in Ireland. You’ll see.”

I didn’t want to admit to her what I planned on doing once we landed. She was nice. I could see she wasn’t built for this life, but she loved Killian. I got it, but I also knew what could happen to someone as sweet as her.

When you held power, you were also a target and if you weren’t, you were a dark motherfucker.

Sloane stayed with me while we took off, and my panic rose inside.

Once we were in the air, I noticed Sloane had been right, I could barely feel that we weren’t on the ground. Sloane moved off, leaving me be and joined Teeghan again. I could feel Teeghan’s eyes on me, but I paid her no attention. I looked out the window at the clouds below me, and suddenly a sense of freedom erupted around me.

I was out of Ireland, somehow without a passport, and on my way to Italy, a country I’d always wanted to visit.

Maybe I could wait this thing out, see what Lorcan wanted from me. I mean…if he could handle the problem with my family coming after me, then maybe I could stop running and maybe, just maybe, I could stay put anyway.

The thought was tantalising even if I knew it was a dream, it was still nice to daydream.

Saverio was waiting in the wings for me to make my call. Killian and Conor, both annoyed at having to send their women away, stood to the other side with their arms crossed. It was for the best, I knew it was, because we’d all be fucking distracted with them around.

“Look,” I said to everyone gathered, all our allies who had come from near and far to help us. “I know this was a massive favour to ask of all of you, but we appreciate it. Our home is your home, take a room, rest up, we’ll have a dinner tonight and tomorrow…we go to war.”

Everyone dispersed, and I looked over at everyone who had come to our aid, taking note of who wasn’t here.

Those were who I needed to watch out for.

Ace and his men were looking around, unsure if they should stay on the estate, and given they were close by, I didn’t mind if they left but I needed them on point. They knew more than they were saying, and I knew it.

“Lorcan,” I heard the thick russian accent that could only be from Vlad Antonov. He was a surprising ally. Of all of the members of Onyx, I expected him to be one who wanted to lay claim to Ireland. I smiled as I took his proffered hand. “I must say this is terrible business. Never did I think Onyx would be torn apart over a piece of land.”

“I fear it goes further than that.”

“So you know of the Reyes plans?”

“No, but please do share.”

“We shall drink over it,” he said. “For now, my brother Luka and I will rest.”

“Jetlag is a bitch,” Killian came up behind them. He and Luka had always been close since I introduced them years ago. He led them up the staircase as the foyer emptied.

“Yakuza, Bratva, Barone Crime Family,” Ace said. “Is there anyone who isn’t on your side?”

“Plenty,” I replied. “I’ve yet to see anyone from Wales, or America, even Australia haven’t come by.”

“Who do you know in Australia?” he asked.

“Presley,” I told him. “You know of her?”

“The bitch who took out her own family to rule?” Hawk asked with a smirk. “I could sure use one of her in my bed.”

“Don’t let her catch you saying that,” I said. “She’s taken out stronger men for less.”

The smile was wiped off his face, and a silence befell the foyer as we looked at each other, neither of us backing down. Ace let out a barrel of a laugh, breaking the tension.

“Careful, Hawk, you’re not as skilled with the trap between a woman’s legs as we are,” he said. “You’ll be taken half alive, and probably end up in chains, just like the last man who tried to take on a mafia queen.”

I knew he was talking about Nell, one of the hardest drug runners in Columbia. She had been raised in the Bronx, and she was as tough as nails. When she married a Columbian and took on his lifestyle, she accepted her fate until one night he took things too far and she ended him and his entire crew, before running his empire up the ladder and becoming a formidable enemy to anyone who dared to try and take her.

I loved her spirit.

But she wasn’t someone you fucked with.

And I respected the hell out of her for that.

“The French aren’t here.”

I heard the annoyance in Saverio’s tone as he joined me, looking over the dispersed members.

“Did you expect them to be on our side?”

“Not after the drama with his sister.”

“Not much drama, she wanted a pounding, I gave her one. It’s not as if Celine was a keeper. Half of France had been there before I got there.”

I snorted, knowing just how true that was. It didn’t stop Alec and Charles from declaring war on Italy and us it seems.

“Get some rest, Sav. I’ll see you at dinner.”

He didn’t respond, but I knew he would do what he needed to. I’d not had a moment to myself since the girls left. Bridget had been annoyed, and I knew she’d probably do something stupid like leave when she got there but Teeghan knew what to expect.

I was lucky I had her, she was a force to be reckoned with.

So was Bridget as it turned out.

I had no idea why I was so pulled to her, why I felt like I had to lock her away to protect her, or why I couldn’t just simply let her walk away but I knew better than to go against my gut.

The last time had been tragic, I wouldn’t allow that again.

I got to my office and sat down in my chair, leaning back into it as I closed my eyes. Images of a naked Bridget underneath me as I drilled into her assaulted my vision and I immediately opened my eyes to stop it.

Fuck.

I picked up my phone and called Keeva.

“Hello?”

“I need to know about her. About the girl you left here.”

“There’s not much to know,” she said. “Did she do something? I can get her a place close by.”

“Where are you?” I countered. How could she not have known what is happening here?

“I’m in Cork,” she replied. Instantly, my hackles rose.

“Why? We don’t run Cork anymore.”

“I’m just visiting an old friend,” she said, but I could hear the hesitancy in her voice. Suddenly, I was thinking that my oldest friend in town was now a liability.

“Who?”

“You don’t know him. He moved here when he married someone from here, but she’s gone missing so I’m helping him find her.”

Her tone told me she was telling the truth, but there was something she was hiding.

“What’s your friend’s name?”

“Ethan Darcy,” she said quickly. “Have you heard of him?”

“No, should I have?”

“I don’t know,” she chuckled, but it was nervous laughter.

Keeva couldn’t be trusted.

“Come home when you can,” I said. “We have shit going down.”

“You got it.”

She hung up quickly and I felt a wave of nausea hit me. Keeva had been there for me when Clementine died. She had patched me back up when I needed her to. She had run my businesses.

She had the fucking key to my empire.

Had it all been a game?

I picked up my phone and pulled up my brother’s number.

LORCANI need you to get someone to Cork and keep an eye on Keeva.

KILLIANCon told me Jye is close to Cork at the moment, getting his family ready to leave. I’ll have him route that way on his way back.

LORCANGet his family safe first.

KILLIANOn it.

Killian knew how to keep things quiet. Jye was one of the only of our men that we trusted with everything. He’d been the most loyal, especially to Conor. Out of all of us, Conor needed someone to pull him into line when Teeghan wasn’t around and that was Jye.

I dialled another number I rarely had business to use and waited for the call to be answered.

“Yeah?”

“That’s no way to answer a goddamn phone, Bastian.”

Saverio’s youngest brother had always been a smart ass just like Conor. The two of them in a room would send me into an asylum.

“You sound like Sav.”

“Good,” I said, angrily. “Did they arrive yet?”

“Yeah, they got here a little while ago. All the girls are eating.”

“Including the blonde?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s here. She’s a little bitchy.”

“Watch your mouth,” I said. “She’s not to be touched, you understand?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, absently. “We have hotter girls here in Roma.”

I rolled my eyes. “Just make sure they are cared for and keep everything off the radar. No one is to know where they are.”

He agreed in Italian, and hung up the phone. My agitation grew, which only made me feel sorry for Saverio with the attitude he had to deal with. Conor, at least, had a little respect for me.

My mind went back to Keeva, and her betrayal. Nothing had been confirmed yet, of course, but I had my suspicions. My gut had never let me down.

Ever.

She was hiding something and I knew it couldn’t be good.

Did this have anything to do with Bridget and her Corkish accent? She claimed not to know anything about Bridget but was that true?

I picked up my laptop from the bottom desk drawer and entered my password to our files. We’d had a number of files from one of the safe houses the O’Brien’s had and many of them were files that could tell us who the players were in this game Ronan was running.

I searched through all the names for Ethan Darcy.

My alert pinged to tell me it had found his name in one of the Moriarty files. The files on them were minor which was why we hadn’t burst their little bubble down there yet, but the name pinging in their file and Bridget’s real identity was too coincidental.

This all led back to them and they were the ones housing Ronan and Amity, I was sure of it.

Fuck.

This was deeper than I could have ever imagined.

We were in serious trouble. I picked up my phone and texted Ace.

LORCANAre you close by? I need you to come and talk to me about Cork.

ACEYeah, I’ll be there in a few.

LORCANMy office.

ACEBetter in the library, less eyes.

My heart began to race. Did Ace know someone in my hen house who was behind the shit going down? Had someone come to spread our strategy to our enemies?

I got up and headed down the hall to my library, hidden behind a large tapestry, I opened the door and headed inside. I took a seat and waited, my nerves on edge.

What else was I going to find out today?

Ace strode in confidently and took a seat. His cut was gone and he looked a little like an average joe as he sat on the opposite leather chair in his jeans and black tee.

“What do you know?”

“Cork has been run by the Moriarty’s since you gave it up a few years ago,” he said. “They’ve gained a lot of power, built relationships with the Portuguese, Chileans and the Spanish. They’re a major player in this war against your family.”

“Why?” I asked. “We gave them their own part of Ireland to run.”

“That was the start,” he said. “You see, your father ruled his empire with fear and intimidation. He didn’t care about Cork, but he never let them run their own shit. He ran a tight ship. When you easily gave it over, and I know you did it to appease them and go on to run the rest of Ireland, but when you did that, they got ideas.”

“So…what kind of army could they possibly have?”

“It’s global,” Ace said. “We’ve seen it building for years, but it’s always been kept from boiling over. I couldn’t understand why until your uncle came to see me.”

“What does this have to do with Bridget?”

“You little blonde?” Ace frowned. “I thought her name was Ava.”

“It’s Bridget Moriarty.”

Ace’s eyebrows rose for a brief moment, signalling he was surprised.

“What?” I asked, my patience growing thin.

“I know Adrian Moriarty had a daughter, but he treated her like a fucking slave and he married her off to some loser who ran around and did his errands. If she’s here, she’s hiding, right?”

I nodded.

“The Moriarty’s are into some serious shit on the black market,” Ace confirmed. “I mean…I wouldn’t want to see my woman in that world, let alone allow my daughter to be married to a loser.”

“Fucking tell me what you know, Cooper.”

He leaned forward. “Do you know Percy?”

“How do you know Percy?” I asked, suddenly curious. I only knew him and his brother Halen through Onyx. If Ace knew who he was, something was pulling them into our world and that wasn’t good.

“I know a lot of people, Lorcan. It’s time you understood what that means.”

“Fine, what about Percy?”

“He lives on a boat in the ocean, do you know why?”

“He has warrants for his arrest in multiple countries. He can’t live anywhere without being extradited.”

Ace nodded. “Yes, but he’s also deep in the black market.”

“He’s not into that shit.”

“No, he does it to help girls escape and to have an ear to the ground. He’s no angel, and he’s done shit to stay undercover but he’s saved hundreds of girls from slavery, and death.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I’ve heard grumblings from people I know down there that they are auctioning girls to the black market, specifically, the sex trade.”

I felt the bile rise in my throat. Was this what Bridget was running from? She was so sweet, so full of sunshine, except when she was angry at me for forcing her onto the plane, that is. Could she be running from this?

“How do we fucking stop them?”

“There’s one way,” Ace said. “I don’t know if you want to call Killian in for this, but there’s definitely a way to disrupt them.”

Killian was an expert at the bad shit, the shit I didn’t want to do. He did it with a calm demeanor and if he weren’t my brother, I would have had him locked away a long time ago. He had his woman, the place he felt safe, and the place he could block the darkness out with. It was his only saving grace, but she wasn’t here now. She had to go and hide to stay safe.

Maybe we needed the dark Killian back.

I picked up my phone and messaged him to meet us. Ace and I were silent while he waited for him to get here. I moved out of my chair and toward the bar.

I grabbed three glasses and my bottle of whiskey from behind the bar and took a seat again. I poured a drink for Ace and for myself and in silence, we drank.

Killian finally made his way in and over to us. He dragged one of my other chairs over and waited.

Ace relayed what was going on in Cork to him. I could see the anger in his expression, but only because I knew him.

He was the calm assassin to everyone else, but I saw his micro expressions of rage which led to his dark side surfacing. He was the rage that our father had, I was the strategic side of our father and Conor was the reckless side. Together, we were our father, as much as we didn’t want to be.

“What do you need?” Killian asked, knowing why he was called in. He knew as much as I did that he needed to pull the dark side of his psyche out. I only hoped Sloane could pull him back from the brink when the time came.

“Bring your toys,” Ace said. “We’re going to blow a hole through their operations and blow up their safe houses. Distract them while we find a way to protect your empire.”

I poured Killian a drink and then topped ours up. We stood, and we drank until our glasses were empty. A pact to protect Ireland.

By the end of this, I knew we’d lose people, we may even lose someone close to us, but I’ll be damned if I lose everything we’ve built.

“Pack your shit,” Killian said. “We leave at midnight.”

I nodded, and he left us in the library, the only solace my father and I have ever known in this estate.

“I’ll grab Hawk and we’ll come with.”

I nodded and watched as he left the library, leaving me alone. I felt the anger subside and overwhelming pressure mounted. Everyone was looking to me to lead, to be the person to look for and I had no fucking clue how to fix this. I’d had my eyes closed for too long, and look at the state of things now. We were in a global fucking war and Ireland was at risk of being run by someone who had no ties to being Irish.

Like hell I would let that happen.

None of us would.

I’d die before I saw Ireland in my enemies hands.