Lorcan

Chapter Thirteen

Istood at the end of the bed with a tray full of food and an orange juice for him, and the bed was empty.

For fuck’s sake. It had been three weeks since he’d been shot and almost died, if not for Jye’s quick work with getting him to the hospital. He was probably down in the war room, like he was most nights.

Fuck this man was going to be the end of me.

I put the tray of food down and walked back downstairs, heading for the war room. There were men walking everywhere throughout the house, some bloodied from fighting with people in the streets. Galway was a fucking mess right now.

As I opened the door, I stood with my hands on my hips and looked over at that man I loved. Yes, I loved that motherfucker.

“What are you doing? The doctor hasn’t cleared you yet.”

“That guy doesn’t know my body like I do.”

“Lorcan, get your sorry ass back to bed before I have your brothers carry you up there like a little bitch.”

I heard a snicker from the side of the room and looked over to see Jye standing there with a few papers in his hands.

“Or, better yet. Jye, why don’t you go and carry him up fireman style?”

Jye’s smile dropped and he looked over at Lorcan, in what I could only think to call fear.

“Don’t even fucking think about it,” Lorcan said to him. Jye nodded and left the room.

“That man saved your life,” I said. “You could show him a little more gratitude.”

“Bri, that man knows I love him like a brother.”

“Speaking of your brothers…I haven’t seen them skulking around for a few days.”

Lorcan shrugged. “They’re looking for Ronan. We had some intel that he was in Dublin.”

“They left you here?”

“I’m not alone, babe. I have way too many people traipsing through my house as it is.”

I rolled my eyes and sat down in the corner of the room, my arms crossed over my chest and my legs crossed over each other.

“What are you doing?” he asked me.

“I’m waiting for you to get tired or ask for help,” I replied, knowing he was going to get tired soon. His energy levels had been severely depleted since he almost lost his life to that psycho bitch Keeva.

Lorcan grunted in frustration but I didn’t care, I kind of liked it when he turned caveman on me. I was missing that cock of his desperately, but I needed him to be at full capacity because damn I wanted him to claim me again, to mark me, to make me his.

“Whatever you’re thinking about,” he said. “Stop it, I can see you squirming from the corner of my eye.”

Damn.

“Fuck,” I heard him say and I looked up to see him looking at his computer screen. He stood, his hand flying to his side where his wound was, and he looked out the large window.

“What is it?”

“Babe, I know you’re going to fight this but I need you to go upstairs and lock yourself away, okay?”

“Lor, what’s happening?”

“Please, Bridget, please just do as I ask. I’ll explain later.”

I felt the fear run through me. He was begging me to leave him, and something in the way he said my name told me I needed to listen. I nodded, feeling as if I were in a dream sequence. Everything moved slower as I left the room and ran up the stairs as I saw everyone jumping to attention, their guns raised at the door.

Oh fuck.

I ran down the hall and got to our bedroom before I slammed the door shut and locked it. Heading into the bathroom, I curled up into a ball right as I heard the first gunshot.

Tears streamed down my face as I prayed it wasn’t Lorcan.

The second I’d seen Tomas Reyes walking up the gravel of our front driveway, I knew he was here for blood. His brothers weren’t with him but that didn’t mean much. The Reyes were not a family to be reckoned with. They ruled with an iron fist just like my father had.

Killian ran to my side as I grabbed my gun and hobbled over to the door.

“Dude, get upstairs,” he said. “I’ve got this.”

“Conor?”

“On his way back, Ronan ain’t in Dublin.”

Of fucking course he wasn’t. Every fucking piece of intel had been wrong. Everything. How the fuck were we going to get this shit over and done with if we had so many wrong leads?

Teeghan was in the corner of the room, loading her gun and I almost flew off the handle. “No fucking way, get her upstairs with the others.”

“You fucking tell her, Lor,” Killian said. “Do you think she fucking listens to me?”

I rolled my eyes and hobbled over to her, knowing time was definitely not on my side here. “Teeghan, get upstairs.”

“I can help, Conor’s been teaching me.”

“I’m not asking, I’m telling.”

“Lorcan, you’re severely wounded, Conor isn’t here. You have people who are only just waking up. You need people with guns in their hands.”

“The second he sees you, Tee, he’s going to aim at you. Conor will lose his fucking shit if you get hurt. I don’t have the energy to fight with you, because we’re about to fucking lose people here. We can’t be focused on protecting you, and don’t give me bullshit about not needing to be protected. He knows who you are. He will come for you to hurt Conor. Do you think Conor will forgive himself if you got killed when he wasn’t here?”

She was angry, but not at me, at the situation. I knew she wanted to help but right now, we needed her to be safe. Everyone was coming for our women and it wasn’t fucking on.

My father would be rolling in his grave if he knew what was happening right now.

The door slammed open and we all turned to see Tomas with an army of men behind him, all holding guns.

I went to turn, my wound opening itself again. I could feel the pain rip through my body as I pulled my gun up to shoot. Shots went out everywhere as I tried to get Teeghan behind me. She hid in an alcove with her gun as I moved into the fray, to square up with Tomas.

The asshole.

His cocky grin had me wanting to land blow after blow until he had no teeth left. I lifted my gun, the pain in my side limiting how far I could lift it. He noticed immediately, and looked down at the blood pooling on my shirt. His smile widened and he looked back up at me.

“I see someone has beaten me to it,” he laughed. Before I could move, I felt his fist slam into my wound. A blinding pain swept over me as I fell back, my gun sliding away from me. He advanced until I saw Killian tackle him to the ground, landing blow after blow into him. Men were dropping to the ground, dead, mostly his until I could see it was only Tomas and one other. He had shoved Killian into the wall, and knocked him clean out.

Shit.

Looking around for my piece, I tried to crawl to it but my body didn’t want to listen. I pushed off the wall with my foot and slid closer to it, until someone fell in my path and blocked me.

Fuck.

The foyer of my house, my family’s house for centuries, was being shot to shit and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. The shooting was slowing down, bodies were slowly piling up, and I saw a couple of men on our side were down.

Tomas righted himself from the guy he’d just shot, one of the Yakuza, and he looked down at me, a cut to his lip and his eyebrow as he saw me on the ground. His gun moved up to aim at me. I was helpless, I couldn’t move.

“Long live the O’Farrell’s,” he said with a smirk. I saw movement to my left and looked to see Teeghan running out from the alcove she had been cowering in. I was trying to stop her as she pulled her gun up to stop him. He turned the gun to her and a bang erupted from the barrel.

I watched, as if it were in slow motion, Jye shoving Teeghan out of the way as he took the shot meant for her.

“No,” she screamed out in horror as Jye landed at her feet, dead on impact. My chest burned. He had been one of us, with us for as long as we had been kids. He was my brother just as much as Conor and Killian were.

And he and Teeghan had a special bond, like brother and sister too. He had been the one pushing Conor into her path, because he knew she was meant for him.

As I watched her cradle Jye’s bloodied head in her lap, tears rolling from her eyes, I saw her pick up Jye’s gun and aim it steadily at Tomas. Before he could run, she let out a shot that hit him between the eyes before she dropped the gun and went back to weeping over Jye’s body.

No one moved in the foyer, the smell of smoke and gunfire was thick in the air as I tried to pick myself up from the ground.

I knew some of us wouldn’t make it. But I never expected Jye to be the one to go.

He had so much more to live for.

He had a baby girl to look after.

Oh god, his little girl. She was upstairs, probably frightened half to death and now she was a fucking orphan.

I pulled myself up, and kicked Killian awake. I reached down with my good hand and picked him up.

“What the fuck?”

“You got knocked out and we lost someone,” I grunted, my chest feeling tight. He looked behind me where Teeghan was still crying over Jye’s body.

“Oh fuck,” Killian said, quietly but it was loud enough for me to hear. “Conor’s going to lose his shit.”

I knew that. There was a rage in Conor that he barely showed anyone but when it came to Jye, who he deemed as a brother, or Teeghan, he would absolutely lose his shit. I was scared for him.

We couldn’t lose him.

“Find Ronan.”

Killian moved off as some of my men started to filter through the door, shoving men out of the way with their feet. Ace was one of them.

“You good?” he asked me, coming to help me.

“Help Teeghan.”

Hawk and Bear were already at her side, helping her to her feet and lifting Jye up to carry him away from the foyer.

“Fuck, he caught us so off guard,” I said. “We need to really bring this to its head. I’m sick of recovering. I need this to be over.”

Ace nodded. “Right now, you need to rest. Ronan isn’t doing anything just yet. Line these men up outside as a warning. It should give you a couple of weeks.”

I nodded and slowly made my way over to the staircase to go upstairs. My home was in shambles and my city was on the precipice of war.

But all I could think of doing was curling up with Bridget and blocking all the shit out. I approached our bedroom and noticed it was locked.

The last time I’d had to burst open the door, and needed a new lock. I didn’t want to do that again, especially not now.

I used my knuckles to rap on the door. “Bridget, it’s me.”

I heard her moving about in the room before the lock clicked and she opened the door, her cheeks stained with tears.

“Is everyone okay?”

Her eyes travelled to my wound and they widened. “Lorcan.”

“I’m okay, I just need a couple more stitches.”

Something caught the corner of my eye and I shifted to see Jye’s daughter, Ashling, pop her head up from behind the pillows on the bed.

“I grabbed her when I heard the shots,” Bridget said. “We’ve been building pillow forts.”

Thank god for Bridget.

She’d taken a scared little girl and taken her mind off what was happening below by building forts on the bed. I kissed her on the temple and moved inside to look at the little angel, with her big innocent eyes and the cute little face that only proved she was Jye’s kid. She was a definite chip off the old block.

“Heya Ash, you okay?”

She nodded. “I’ve been hiding.”

“That’s real good,” I said, offering her a smile, but I knew it would be brief. Soon, I’d have to tell her the worst news she’ll ever hear and break her little heart. “You stay with Bridget, yeah?”

She nodded. “She’s nice, I like her.”

“Me too, kid.”

Bridget smiled over at her, and I saw the sweetness I had fallen in love with all over again. It was a cruel sick joke that I would meet her just as my entire world was crumbling around me.

“Please be careful,” Bridget begged me. I grabbed both sides of her face with my hands, and pulled her to me. Her lips were soft and warm, just the kind of contact I needed, before I pulled away from her just as I heard Ashling giggle.

“That’s gross.”

Bridget chuckled. I turned around to see Ashling scrunching her face up, making me laugh as I headed out the door and back down to the mess in the foyer. My leg was feeling better but my wound was killing me. I peeled my shirt out of the opened wound and looked down at the different shades of blood, gooey and dried alike.

Shit. It was worse than I thought it was. I headed down the stairs toward the office where I left my phone. Already bodies were being cleared from the foyer, but blood, shit, piss, sweat and gunfire was heavy in the air. It was amazing what the human body did when you were scared and on your deathbed. I stepped over everything I could see and headed into the office. Killian was there, looking through files, as if he were searching for something.

“What are you looking for?”

“One of the guys with Tomas looked familiar. I’d seen him with Ronan. If I can track where he’s been while in Ireland, I might have found a way to find Ronan before he surprise attacks us too.”

“Do it,” I said. “Conor is due back any minute. Where’s Tee?”

Killian sighed. “Declan took her back to her apartment to grab a bag. Ace is going to house her and Sloane at the clubhouse for a few days.”

“That’s good. How is she?”

Killian shrugged. “She doesn’t talk to me. Sloane told me she is putting up a front, typical Tee shit. She’ll open up to you.”

I knew she would, but I didn’t think I could cope with her falling apart on me, not now. I needed to remain tough, I needed to be powerful, I needed people to look up to me.

I needed to be old school Lorcan O’Farrell.

The Lorcan I was when Clem died and I closed off my heart to everyone. The guy who even Killian shuddered to deal with.

I needed to be Finneas’ son. The son he always wanted me to be.

I needed to be a monster.

I grabbed my phone and my gun and I headed to the cars. Grabbing a key to my car, I jumped in and tore out of the estate grounds and toward the hospital. I needed to get patched up, enough that I could do some real shit.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Hazel asked me, a look of annoyance on her face. I liked her, she had balls and I needed someone who was going to call me on my bullshit.

“Yeah, I’ve gotta do this. Patch me up, make it so I can walk. Give me drugs, whatever the fuck it takes so I can take care of business.”

She sighed, took another look at my open wound and shoved me back on the bed. I groaned as she cleaned the wound, sending sharp pangs of pain all through my stomach.

“You know you’re lucky this wound wasn’t an inch to the left or you’d be six feet under right now.”

“So I’ve been told.”

I grunted as she started to sew the wound up, as hard as she could. Fucking witch, but I knew she was doing it because I wasn’t going to budge on needing to go to war. She wanted me to stay in bed like a fucking wanker and wait until it all blows over.

It’s not in my DNA.

“If you’re really going to do this, and not rest like you’ve been urged, then I’ll give you a shot. It should help with the pain and give you enough energy to take on whoever the fuck is doing this to you and your family.”

“I knew you’d warm up to me eventually, nurse ratched,” I smirked. Her annoyance was evident as she slapped the bandage on my wound, sending the air shooting from my lungs suddenly.

Ohhhh, she was the perfect woman to work for us as a nurse. She’d keep the boys in line.

Hazel pulled out a large syringe and stuck me in the side with it. The pain was intense.

By the time she’d gotten rid of the syringe in the sharps box, the pain had dissipated and I could move my abs without pain.

“You could make a killing with that shit,” I told her, pulling my shirt back on.

“I’m not going to lie,” she said. “It’ll probably only last a few hours, and you’ll be in agony later, but you should be okay for now.”

“Thanks.”

She nodded and left the room, back to her rounds like the good employee she was. I headed down the hall, and out into the parking lot to retrieve my car.

My phone rang before I got to it. I looked down at it to see Killian’s number. I had the strong urge to ignore it but if he had found Ronan, I needed to know.

“Yeah?”

“Stop what you’re doing,” he said. “Look around. Do you see Ronan?”

Confused, and annoyed, I barked into the phone. “What the fuck are you on about?”

“We have you on CCTV, we tracked Ronan to the parking lot and he put a device under your car. Get out of the area.”

I looked around to see if I could find him, but there were too many places he could hide.

“Get out of the parking lot and clear the area!”

I dropped my phone and looked around at a couple of people looking at me like I was crazy.

“Move! Get away from here!”

I pulled my gun out of my waistband and shot it up into the air. Screams followed as they ran away from me.

That’s when my eyes caught sight of someone not running, someone leaning against a brick wall off a fair way away.

Ronan fucking O’Brien.

Fury had me running after him, through the park, heading toward him. He wasn’t moving, not until I was halfway across the park when I saw him pull out a phone. He was starting to run, me hot on his heels when I heard a large bang behind me.

I slowed and turned around to see a fireball where my car once was. That fucker tried to blow me up.

Anger fueled me as I started to run after him again, through an alley which led into a building. I could see him up ahead as he ran, his laughter gone as he realised I wasn’t as injured as he had assumed I was.

He knew I was coming for blood.

Nothing was going to stop me from ripping his life from his body right fucking now. I was done with this shit.

He ran into an empty warehouse and immediately I slowed down. I knew where we were and there was nowhere for him to go. It had been boarded up a year ago, the warehouse Peter Kennedy used for his business. The same man he had killed.

His own damn father.

Realising he was stuck, Ronan pulled his gun out just as I lifted mine and shot at his hand. He screamed out in pain as his gun dropped to the ground. He scrambled backward, holding his hand to his chest.

A sick and demented laugh erupted from him as he fell on his ass before me. I came to a stop in front of him, looking down at the man who had taunted us, forced our hand for so long and he was laughing at his own demise.

“All of this…because your mama was a whore?”

His laugh stopped. I knelt down, surprised my wound didn’t hurt me as I did it.

“Does it help to know that even now the O’Farrell’s bested you yet again?” I asked him.

His laughter was coming in short bursts, the pain of his injury forcing him to try and focus as hard as he could on me.

“You could have come to us…explained. We would have welcomed you into the fold.”

“Fuck you,” he wheezed.

“Ah,” I laughed. “Could it be that you”re as useless as your whore mother that no one is going to remember who you are?”

“You don’t have the balls to kill me.”

“Think again, fuck nuts,” I shot back. “But a bullet is too sudden, it’ll be over in seconds. I want this to fucking hurt. I want you to scream, scream out for mercy that’ll never be given.”

His eyes flicked around the warehouse, hoping that it was empty enough that I couldn’t do what I was about to do. What he didn’t know was I had stashed shit in empty warehouses like this over the last couple of months in case we needed them.

What beauty it was that he happened to stumble into this one. I moved over to the pile of chairs and tables and retrieved the red can of gasoline.

He was trying to crawl his way out but I kicked him back to his spot and began to pour the contents over him and around him.

“You can’t do this,” he spluttered as the fumes started to take effect.

“Yeah, buddy, I fucking can.”

I grabbed the lighter I always kept in my pocket, a gift from my father that I never had occasion to use and I tossed it onto the ground. Flames surrounded him and attached to him instantly, as I stepped back so I didn’t get caught in the crossfire. His screams echoed throughout the warehouse as he burned. He begged me to stop, he begged me to shoot him but I wouldn’t. Instead, I allowed the monster inside to watch him burn until he couldn’t scream or thrash anymore. His body slumped into the flames as they took over the warehouse.

The fire house would be onto this soon. I slipped out the back door and ran back to the city centre to head home, minus one car that I really fucking loved.

Ronan down, Saverio down, Tomas down, Amity down.

Now I needed to send a message to anyone else who wanted to fuck with us.