Lorcan

Chapter Twelve

Teeghan’s busted lip made my anger mount. How could anyone think that I’d allow someone to do this to one of our family and get away with it?

Saverio hadn’t lasted long after we’d left him in the basement. Declan had checked on him but he said the wound had been nasty enough that he must have died overnight. We had a clean up crew down there now.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said to me with a smirk.

“Tell me what happened,” I commanded. She took a seat in my office and relaxed into the back. She thought she was showing me she was okay, but I saw the wince. Her back was pretty messed up from what I’d heard from Jye.

“So…we were telling them that we would be leaving to come home,” she started. “Shit had gone down with Bridget, and Percy let the brothers know. They seemed nervous, but I assumed it was because of the shitfuck that was happening now with the Moriarty’s.”

“So it was the brothers then?”

“Oddly enough, no,” she said. “At first I assumed it was them but Mateo had been trying to hurry us along when we were packing. It was annoying but when I started getting flashbacks, it had been him and Bastian who were trying to get us out the door.”

I leaned forward. “You’re telling me Mateo and Bastian were helping you?”

She nodded. “In what way they could. Obviously they didn’t do it in front of others, but when it came down to it, when it came down to getting us home, it was Mateo.”

My anger shifted a little and I sat back in my chair, trying to make sense of all of this.

“Bridget mentioned that Saverio had said something interesting when they were alone in the library.”

Teeghan’s eyes lifted at that revelation but she didn’t respond.

“She said he seemed to be hung up on a photo of Clem.”

“He liked her?”

I shrugged. “I never knew it, but it does appear he blames me for her choosing me.”

“That’s a long game of playing close friend to try and end you like this. He sounds like a fucking bastard.”

“Just like Ronan.”

She stiffened at the name and it made me angry that he had done this to her. Again.

“Look,” she sat forward. “When I got home, I was holed up in that room while Conor drank his anger away with the MC, so I had a lot of time to myself. I picked up that book we stole from the church about the family trees and I did a little digging.”

“Okay…”

“So you know Jeremiah and Ronan are not truly O’Brien’s. They are, however, Kennedy’s. Sons from my father’s indiscretions with another woman. I had no idea and had always assumed it was from my mum, she wasn’t exactly a kept woman, if you understand me.”

“Your da slept with someone else?”

I nodded. “Yeah, turns out it was someone close to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your father had siblings who never rose to take the throne of the empire, right? He did it himself, claiming to be the true heir of the O’Farrell dynasty…but he wasn’t the eldest.”

I thought back to our uncles and tried to understand but shook my head. “Yeah, he was.”

“No,” she said. “Finneas was the eldest son, sure, but he had an older sister. Now, I get it, no one really thinks of women as leaders in family empires, whatever, but the truth of it is, you had an Aunt and her name was Roisin.”

“I’ve never heard of her,” I said. “And I know our family tree, Tee, there’s no way we have an Aunt.”

“She died just before your dad did,” Teeghan continued. “And from what I could gather from Ronan’s fucking rants about this place being his, it seems she wasn’t too happy with Finneas when he took over.”

Hearing about a family member you had no idea about was really hard, especially because I knew my father was a bastard. It was completely in the realm of normal for him to cut off a family member, he did it all the time.

Fucking asshole.

“What else did you learn?”

“So Roisin and my dad were bonking and had Ronan, then Jeremiah. I think it’s after my birth that he stopped with her and she hated him. Somehow, she got involved with the O’Brien’s and they hatched a plan to teach their boys to hate on the O’Farrell’s. This whole thing is like forces coming from every direction that want your seat.”

“What do you want me to do about that?” I asked, feeling as if a weight was permanently nestled on my shoulders.

“Show them you mean business and that they can’t have Ireland.”

“Haven’t I been doing that, Tee?”

“No,” she said, simply. “You’ve been reacting, what you need to do is make a statement and be proactive. Show them what you do to traitors.”

“How would you do that?” I asked. Tee was a mastermind, she knew how to do things and make them stick. It was how we became so close. She pestered me until I opened up and once I did, she had become someone I always relied on.

She was my sister, even if my idiot brother hadn’t made it official yet.

“You still have Saverio’s body, right?”

I didn’t like where this was going but I had to trust the woman. She’d helped me out of a lot of sticky situations so far.

“Yes.”

“String his body up and make sure they hear about it. I have heard mumblings that a few of your enemies are in town, all around Galway. I mean…what better statement?”

“You’re sick, you know that?” I said.

“So are they,” she replied. “And they wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to you.”

She got out of the chair and walked out of the office, leaving me with a huge decision to make. Saverio may have been a traitor to me, but he was also a brother. I couldn’t simply allow his brothers to find him that way. I picked up my phone and dialed Mateo.

“What’s the news, brother?” Conor asked me as he found me in the back garden, sitting on the bench our mother had forced our father to put in so she could watch the bees do their thing on the flowers. She’d always loved bees. Even when we had gotten a bee sting, it was never the bee’s fault. As a child, it hurt that our mother didn’t care that we”d been stung. Rather, she would tell us the bee would now die because that was a death sentence to it. I understand now. The bee made a sacrifice because it was getting rid of a threat, to keep his Queen safe.

That’s how he saw it.

I had men inside, even allies from near and far, that were going to lay their life on the line to protect Ireland. Ireland was the Queen, and us, her loyal servants, the bees. We wouldn’t all make it. We could potentially perish in the coming days, and all I wanted to do was hole up in a room with Bridget and ride out the wave.

But I couldn’t.

I had to do what was right by our people.

“Nothing new, Con.”

“So why was that piece of shit journalist Tyrone here just now? We don’t invite snakes into our home.”

“He’s doing us a solid,” I told him. “I’ve had to make a call, and he’s going to make sure the news gets out.”

“Oh?”

“We’re going to string up Saverio’s corpse as a warning, just like they did to pirates in the golden age.”

Conor’s eyebrows went up in surprise, but he didn’t say anything. He sat down next to me, and breathed out a heavy sigh.

“Shit. We’re going to bring down fire from Italy.”

“No, we won’t. They’re out.”

“What do you mean…they’re out?”

“I called Mateo and explained. He apologised for what transpired and told me Ronan is on his way back to us, maybe already here. When I told him what we were going to do, he was silent for a moment and then he told me that Saverio made his choice, and now his soul is gone, we’re free to do as we wish.”

“Cold.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I think Saverio burned his bridges with his brothers a long time ago.”

“He’s still their brother.”

“Yes,” I replied. “And I believe that was the reason for the moment of pause before they agreed. Once the news article is out, we’ll return his body to them for a burial.”

Conor nodded. “Okay.”

He wasn”t on board with it, and for the first time in a long time, I was looking at my baby brother and seeing the man he’s grown into. Yes, he was reckless and did whatever the fuck he wanted, but he was a fierce and loyal man, and he knew right from wrong. Fuck I was proud of him.

“When this is all over, Con, I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything.”

“I need you to marry that woman inside,” I told him with as much authority as I possibly could muster. He smirked at me and looked down at the ground. “She is an O’Farrell, and you know it.”

“Actually,” he said, pulling something from his pocket. “I’ve had this ring for a few months now but just never had the right time.”

I stood up and looked down at the velvet box, my heart swelling at what I knew sat inside.

“Today is not the time,” I said as he flicked the box open and I saw the beautiful ring inside. “You did well, brother. That is perfect.”

He looked up at me, proud as punch, and put it away before he stood up as well. “I know. But she’s so damn nosey, I don’t know where to put it.”

I chuckled at his admission. “Put it in my office, the safe behind the picture of the water.”

He nodded. Fuck, when did he become such a man? He was always little Conor, always in trouble and ridiculously childish. When did he become someone that could best me in strategy and jumping to action?

I pulled him into a tight bear hug before letting him go. He looked up at me, and I could see the surprise but also the thankfulness.

He needed that as much as I did.

No words needed to be said as he nodded and headed inside, leaving me to sit among the roses alone with my thoughts again.

The clouds were passing over, casting a shadow on the day, making me feel as if the weather was playing tricks on me. I stood up, resigned to having to go inside before the rain started, when I heard something snap from behind me. I turned just as I saw a heavily burned Keeva stride closer, a noticeable limp.

“Keeva?”

“Damn right, Keeva,” she said, angrily. Her voice croaky as if she’d been smoking a pack a day for years. “We could have had something. I know this place. I know your family. You are just too blind to see.”

“Keeva, you should be in a hospital,” I said, holding my hands up as she raised a gun from beside her. “Let me call someone for you.”

“Don’t fucking move,” she yelled. “You did this to me. All I wanted was to love you.”

“Keeva, put the gun down,” I urged her. “There are cameras all over, you’ll be shot on sight if you continue. Please.”

“I loved you,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. The pang in my side wasn’t what I would have expected from a gunshot, but the loud bang that accompanied it told it that’s what it was. I fell to my knees from the impact as I heard a shot ring out from behind me and Keeva went down instantly, her head rolled to the side to show me a shot in the forehead. I looked down at my hand that had gone to the wound and saw blood.

A lot of blood.

Everything was clouding my mind as I felt the first splatter of rain falling on me. I looked up at the sky as the rain began to fall, and my body grew weak. I heard a flurry of people running around, and then a high-pitched scream. Bridget’s face moved into view, blocking the rain, tears running down her face as she cradled me in her arms.

God, she was beautiful. How had I not seen just how beautiful she was before?

“No, no, no,” she said over and over again. “Stay here, you stay with me.”

She screamed out to the others to get help before she put her hand on my wound and pushed. “You were right, babe,” I said, feeling the cold creep over me. “The clouds are so relaxing.”

I looked over as the dark clouds began to form around us, but I could see them moving and the beautiful dance they performed while my life seemed to peter away was mesmerising.

“No, you stay with me,” she screamed, but her voice seemed so far away as the clouds started to turn to darkness.