Chapter Seven
Icoughed as my eyes shot open. Blinding pain forced them closed again as I tried to swallow. My mouth was drier than the Sahara. I heard something squeak and the brightness faded. I opened my eyes again and saw a familiar face.
A familiar betrayer of a face. A new wave of anger blasted through me as I tried to sit up. I heard the telltale sound of chains before I realised I was tied to a bed. My legs tied together at the end, and both arms reached up to either side of the headboard.
“Keeva,” I said, my voice croaky.
“You’re thirsty,” she said, grabbing a bottle of water from her pocket. She opened the top and held it over my mouth. I drank, washing the dryness from my mouth and throat. She pulled the bottle away and put it on a table by the bed. Sitting down beside me, she sighed heavily, as if she had the world on her shoulders.
“It was never meant to go this way, Lor,” she said. “You have to understand…I never wanted you to get hurt.”
“Why?” I managed to get out through the million curse words filtering through my mind.
“That’s a hard question, Lor,” she said, smiling through her nervousness. “It’s been so hard looking after you, after Clem died, and through all the bullshit. Watching you with so many of those women who you just use and abuse. I wished so many times you would use me. Use my body. Slam that glorious cock into me and make me scream your name. Then you go and sleep with her…with Ava. I was mad. Can’t you see what’s in front of you? I’ve been the one mopping up the mess of your life and you always choose other skanks. I could be your everything.”
Every word out of her mouth was poison to my ears. I had never felt that way for her…ever. She was like a sister…or she had been. I had thought she looked after me because she was a friend but now…she’d seen me naked, when I was at my worst, and she’d been there, dressing me, making me see how important I was.
I felt dirty knowing she’d probably gotten off on that…when I was weak.
“You’ll never be anything to me.”
My voice was dripping with poison as I aimed it at her, disgust in every word. Her smile disappeared and she looked at me like I’d slapped her across the face. Keeva looked down at my chest, her hand travelling under my shirt. I tried to wriggle away from her but it was no use, these binds were tight.
I was at her mother fucking mercy.
Her fingers gripped my nipple and tweaked it. I winced at the sharp shoot of pain and grunted. She smirked at that, her fingers tracing over my chest, softly, making my nipples stay erect as she moved softly over the top of me, her leg extending so she could straddle me. I felt the weight of her on my crotch, thanking whatever god there was that I was still clothed. She bent down, her fingers gripping my chin and forcing me to keep my face front on. Her lips crushed against mine, her tongue poking its way into my mouth. I felt sick as she tried to make me succumb to her, but I felt nothing but revulsion as she tried to kiss me. She moaned into my mouth, her tongue tangling in my mouth as she ground her pussy over my pants. She was getting off on this and all I wanted to do was throw up.
“Enough,” I heard someone say from the side of the room. Thankful for the interruption, I turned my head to see Adrian Moriarty standing there with Ronan.
They both looked disturbed.
Good.
Keeva got off me and sulked as she stood next to Ronan. Adrian moved into the room and looked down at me.
“Ah how the mighty have fallen,” he said. “I never thought I’d best Lorcan O’Farrell, the spiting image of his fearless father.”
“Don’t underestimate me,” I said. “I have a way of rising up when you least expect it.”
“Consider the warning heeded,” he said. “I am glad you’re here. I’ve been told you’ve been having fun with my little girl.”
Bridget.
“Wherever you’ve hidden her, O’Farrell, we will find her. She’s not yours, you see. She belongs to her husband, Ethan, and he’s very eager to get her home.”
The rage building inside of me was almost enough to break these chains, I was sure of it. They wouldn’t fucking touch her, even if I died in the process, she would be safe.
That was for damn sure.
“We’ll find out, either way, we have people everywhere,” he said, moving back to the door. “Relax, Keeva, dear, he’ll be all yours once we’re done with him.”
The look of excitement on her face was enough to make me shudder. I could only imagine what she wanted to do with me.
My greater fear was my brothers and Bridget. They’d never get me to crack.
Nothing would make me crack.
I was Lorcan fucking O’Farrell. If it was war they wanted, consider it war.
The sun was unbelievable as I lounged in the garden by the estate. Saverio’s brothers had been the perfect hosts, along with their maid Antonella, who had made sure we were all happy and kept us entertained with stories of the brothers when they were younger. I’d felt more at ease being here than ever before and I was loathe to leave the sun and the incredible Italian cuisine.
“There’s been news,” Sloane said, her voice tense. I immediately sat up and grabbed my sunglasses to shield from the bright rays. “Something’s wrong. Come on.”
I followed her inside, my heart hammering in my chest as we headed inside and toward the great room where they usually housed us at night, as we watched Italian soap operas.
Everyone was sitting around the table, Mateo, Bastian and their men. Teeghan was looking down at a computer, her eyes wet with tears.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s happened?”
There was always a chance something could happen. They were going to war. It was why they’d sent us away so we would be safe.
“Lorcan’s been taken,” Teeghan admitted. “Killian and their men were able to be released, but Lorcan’s been taken by the Moriarty’s.”
My family name brought unto it a certain amount of fear. They couldn’t take him. They couldn’t hurt him. I wouldn’t allow it. I may have wanted to escape from him but only to protect him from my life. I liked Lorcan. Not only because he was a stone-cold fox, but he was sweet, he was charming and I loved how I felt in his arms.
Safe.
My father and brothers were brutes. They’d killed my younger brother because he wouldn’t fall in line. They’d tried to sell me into the sex trade, to a man who no government could touch. I would have been lost forever if I hadn’t escaped.
I couldn’t let them hurt Lorcan.
He was mine.
The sudden possessiveness that came over me was like nothing else I’d ever experienced.
“Take me back,” I commanded.
Mateo stood. The strong silent brother who never interacted with us if he could help it. “No. He wouldn’t want us to do this.”
His strong Italian accent would probably do wonders for the women in Italy, but for me, I wanted my Irishman. I wanted my Lorcan to be safe and if that meant I had to return, I would.
“Whether you take me or not, I will find my way back.”
“We all would,” Sloane said. “You take us back today, or we’ll do it ourselves and probably put ourselves at more risk than if you helped us.”
Mateo looked to his brother Bastian before he submitted. “Fine. We’ll take you, but back to Galway. Conor can deal with this from then on.”
“No,” I said. “Sloane, Teeghan, you should stay here. Safe. I am Bridget Moriarty. My family took Lorcan, and they did it because they want me back. I am the only one who can save him.”
Everyone looked at me like I was a leper.
The very reason I hid who I was in the first place.
“I will take you,” Mateo said. “Everyone else stays put.”
Sloane and Teeghan tried to complain but I held my hand up. “No,” I told them. “This needs to be me. If they aren’t worried about you, and your safety. We may survive this.”
Teeghan stood up and came over to me, hugging me tight.
“You need me, you call me or get a message to me, and I will be there. Alone or not, I will fucking be there. You hear me?”
I nodded, thankful that she understood me, and I followed Mateo out of the room. My heart was aflutter, I knew returning home was a death sentence. But I would save the man who had made me feel alive again.
If it was the last thing I did.
I would save Lorcan from my family.
Tears fell down my cheeks as Mateo stood at my door while I got my things. On the way down to the car, I felt him soften a little as he helped me into the car and took my things to put them in the back. He sat next to me and for the first time since I met him, I felt him protecting me.
He knew I was doing this for the greater good, and he respected that.
He was a good man, with a lot on his shoulders, and I could respect that. I’d been there too.
But now, I had to face my fears in order to save the man I knew I already loved.
Lorcan, I’m comin’ baby.