Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
I wake in the dead of the night to the sound of someone breaking in.
The window creaks open and a body climbs lithely in, the thud of feet hitting the wood flooring almost too soft to hear but I catch it.
It’s too skilled to be a student, this is the efficient work of someone who breaks into places a lot, and they’re moving quietly enough that even Harley doesn’t wake.
I reach over and grip my knife as I hear the clinking noise of chains rattling on a pair of boots.
Great. I know who those belong to; I’ve heard that noise too many times in the past before.
I slide a hand over Harley’s mouth carefully and he wakes up instantly, but his uncle speaks before I can give him any warning.
“You might want to get some bars on those windows, girlie.”
Harley curses loud and vicious as he gets out of the bed, pulling on boxers before he hits the lights. He grabs one of Blaise’s shirts that’s hanging on my bedpost to pull over my head, using his body as a shield so his uncle doesn’t get an eyeful. Diarmuid watches us both with a cackling laugh.
“I thought you didn’t mind sharing her, buachaill beag?”
One minute Harley is helping me lift the blankets and get out of the bed discreetly, and the next he’s landing a severe right hook into Diarmuid’s cheek, knocking him to the ground.
I scramble forward to grab Harley, but he doesn’t lay into him.
He just stands over him with fire in his eyes and says, “Talk like she’s some slut up for grabs again I’ll fucking kill you. ”
Ah, there’s the Bay in him and don’t I fucking love it.
Diarmuid rubs his jaw and stands, frowning. “Makes no fuckin’ sense to me. I hear a rumor the girl you’re in love with is out with both your best friends and I expect you to be dealing with it like a man would. Instead, you’re fuckin’ sharing her?”
Harley shrugs. “I don’t care if you get it. Is that all? See yourself out.”
Then he turns his back and leans down to kiss my forehead gently, cupping my cheek sweetly until I’m a puddle on the floor.
“Right. Your little Wolfie’s off limits, got it. Good thing I’m not here to talk about your love life anyway.”
With a scathing look, I scoff at him. “Then what are you here for, O’Cronin? Spit it out.”
He visibly shakes himself off, then shoots me one of his signature roguish grins. “I’m here to join the little crew you’re putting together. I heard you were taking people on finally; I’m all in, if you’ll have me.”
Freezing on the spot, I cut a look at him.
I do not trust Diarmuid. I don’t trust him one fucking bit. Harley glares at him and then flicks his eyes over to me, his eyebrows doing a complicated dance I don’t quite understand.
Fuck it. “Why?”
Diarmuid pulls out one of the chairs at the dining table without invitation and slouches down into it, too casual for my liking. This is still my fucking room and I’m the Wolf of Mounts Bay, for fuck’s sake.
His tone is it’s usual snarky sound, but there’s just a little too much derision to say it’s not heated in my direction.
“The Jackal wasn’t very happy with me choosing your side in the car.
He’s making my life pretty fucking difficult so I need to swear allegiance somewhere.
The Crow is a cock, no chance of me signing up under some suit pretending to be rough.
I’m not a fucking biker, so the Boar’s out. ”
I roll my eyes at him and cut him off. “Well, I don’t take people in out of fucking pity, so no. Try the Viper or the Fox.”
Diarmuid grins at me with too many teeth and shrugs. “They’ve both sided with the Jackal. Besides, you took the Butcher in. He’d be dead without you. If my little nephew isn’t sharing you with the sick fuck then what’s he giving you? I’ll pay double.”
I use Harley’s body as a shield to pull yoga pants on without flashing my ass at his uncle, then I stalk forward to stand in front of the Irish bastard.
“He gave me his loyalty, without question, like he always fucking has. You don’t have a loyal bone in your body, O’Cronin. Fuck knows how éibhear had it because the rest of you lot certainly don’t,” I snap, and hope that isn’t crossing some line with Harley.
Diarmuid’s eyes flick between us and the way his face sets I know that not only is Harley backing me, as expected, but his uncle knows what he’s capable of, and the strength of his loyalty. It makes me wish I knew more about the O’Cronins, but Harley fucking hates talking about them.
With a shrug, Diarmuid finally shrugs. “Right. You want loyalty, little girl? Name your price and I’ll pay it. What’s it going to take to prove my loyalty?”
Harley scoffs at him. “Loyalty? What the fuck would you know about that when you can’t even show her some fucking respect?”
Diarmuid’s jaw clenches. “My apologies. Wolf, what can I do?”
It’s about as sincere as a kick in the teeth, but he just stares me down.
I roll my shoulders back and stare back at him while I think.
I don’t want to induct him, I don’t want a fucking empire, but if the Jackal is amping up, I’d be naive to think we’re not going to need help while we’re being hunted. Fuck it.
“The Jackal has put out a hit. I need every single man, woman, and child in the Bay to know that touching anyone under my protection is signing their own death warrant. The Butcher is aiming for subtlety at the moment so we don’t rock the boat with the other members.”
Diarmuid snorts. “The Jackal has flipped the fuckin’ boat. The boat has sunk, litt— Wolf.” He catches himself and shoots a look at Harley.
Nodding slowly, I speak like he’s testing every inch of my patience with his stupid games because he really is.
“Right. So I need you to be obvious about it. If you want to prove you’re going to be loyal and one of mine, I want the entire fucking state to know that they could catch a bullet between the eyes at any second from the best sniper in the country if they cross me. ”
Diarmuid’s eyes narrow at me, and I stare him down.
Harley steps up until he’s at my side and close enough that if his uncle tries something stupid, like pulling one of his guns on me, he can take him out before he can pull the trigger.
I’m not worried. Diarmuid will never be a trusted member of our family, even if he does prove his ‘loyalty’.
He’s only ever looked out for himself. He might be pissed about his father killing his brother, but he didn’t come looking for that revenge until Harley was old enough, and big enough, to do the dangerous work himself.
I don’t trust this man.
“Fine. I’ll start shooting every Tom, Dick, and fuckin’ Harry that so much as whispers your name wrong. At what point does this get me in?” he asks, standing and straightening his jacket before running his fingers through his mussed, shoulder-length hair.
I shrug at him, nonchalant. “Impress me.”
He snorts, then gives me a ridiculous and very obviously mocking bow, then leaves through the door. Harley watches his every step and doesn’t relax until the door clicks shut behind him.
“He’s not being inducted,” he says, and I shake my head.
“No. He’s not. But he can lighten Illi’s workload for a while until we know if there’s another reason he’s come to us.”
I wait until we’re all eating dinner together before telling everyone about our midnight visitor.
Avery immediately gets on her phone and orders bars for the windows in both our rooms, and I kick myself for not thinking about it sooner. Blaise gets on Harley’s case about his fucked-up family, and Ash ends up snapping at them both to cut their shit out.
“The real problem here is what the hell is going on in the Bay?” he says, and I nod.
“It’s war. The Coyote warned us, and now more of the Twelve are choosing sides. We have the Crow, because he will never side with the Jackal, so as long as we toe the line we have him. The Coyote and the Boar have both refused the Jackal. I need to find out where the others fall.”
Ash snorts. “We’re not toeing the line though, are we? Sending the O’Cronin dickhead after the Jackal’s minions is a move against another member.”
I smirk and shrug. “What the Crow doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Or us.”
Avery sighs and stabs at her curry with extra force.
“If we’re turning this into a business meeting then I think you should all know that Annabelle is amping up her campaign and I’m having to clean up after the disgusting gold-digging whore.
She’s gone to every member of the school board about your relationship and said that she doesn’t want Lips slandering the good name of Hannaford by… participating in orgies.”
Blaise chuckles under his breath. “Are you three having orgies without me? I thought we discussed this, all for one and one for all.”
I slap a hand over my face to try and hide my blush while Avery screeches like she’s been stabbed.
“It’s not fucking funny,” Harley snaps, and Blaise flicks a pea from his curry at him.
“It’s called lightening the mood, asshole. What can we do about Annabelle that Avery isn’t already doing?”
Avery cuts through them both before they can start fighting again. “Kill her. I vote we just get rid of her.”
I blanch and gape at her. I mean, I knew she was a bloodthirsty dictator but I kind of thought I’d have to convince her to let me kill Annabelle. Well, I assume I’m the one killing her. I doubt anyone else will put their hand up for the task.
“We talked about this. She’s a gold-digging bitch. We can’t just run around killing people who piss us off, Hannaford would be empty by the end of the week,” Harley says and takes a swig of his beer. I narrow my eyes at him, and he grins sheepishly.
Ash looks between us both but I can tell he’s uncomfortable. “I’m with Harley. If we kill her, we’re as bad as Joey and Senior.”
Shrugging, I look at Avery, but she’s too busy rolling her eyes to notice. “And of course Blaise will side with you and majority rules. I’ll just keep running around after her when we have a permanent solution at hand that we ignore.”
I bump her shoulder with mine. “I’ll gut her for you the second she looks sideways at you. Or tries to touch one of the guys.”
Avery huffs. “And what about you? I want her in the ground so she stops spreading bullshit about you.”
I grin at her. “Aw. That’s why you’re my favorite.”
It’s all fun and games to joke around, but I can’t deny that the rumors worm their way into my mind, no matter how much I try to ignore them, so I’m determined to bury myself in homework again until I forget anyone outside of my family exists at this school.
By the end of the week, I have all of the readings for our literature class read and annotated in entirety, the workbooks for math for rest of the year complete, and I blitz past Harley in our history class.
I even offer to do his half of the assignments so he has less on his plate and can spend more time with me.
The look he gives me would kill a lesser person.
I shrug at his pissy attitude and focus on Blaise’s tutoring instead.
I don’t want to sound like a smug-ass bitch, but my smolderingly hot rock god is in the top half of all of our classes thanks to our study sessions.
I stand firm on my rules, no fooling around until everything is done, and that motivates him like nothing else.
The nights we run out of time before Avery arrives home, I go to bed cranky and frustrated. The only thing that helps is knowing Harley will climb in later with his wandering hands.
I wake on Friday to find him still fast asleep next to me. He always wakes before me; he has swim practice and never shirks any of his responsibilities. I frown and deliberate over waking him but the dark circles under his eyes worry me enough to leave him.
Avery makes us both coffees, moving as quietly as she can, and I shoot her an appreciative look. She shrugs and joins me in the bathroom as we get ready for classes.
“He needs to drop the study sessions. The cougar skank is working him too hard,” she murmurs, and I try not to let the fury in my blood take over.
Working him hard.
I’ll fucking stab the bitch.
Avery cackles at me, running her fingers through her hair even though it’s already perfect. I scowl at her, but with the toothbrush in my mouth I just look stupid.
The bathroom door opens and Harley blinks at us both, his eyes bloodshot and bleary.
“You could fucking knock, you Neanderthal,” Avery snaps, but he just shrugs.
He kisses her cheek as he passes by her, then cups my cheeks as he kisses me. When he moves to the toilet, I shove Avery out of the bathroom so he can get ready in peace. He’s so fucking tired I might stab someone on his behalf today.
I hope Annabelle pisses me off and it’s her blood on my knife.
Avery heads out for our classes, but I wait for Harley to finish up. He takes twice as long in the shower and I make the decision that he’s taking the day off. He can sleep in my bed all day.
He stumbles out of the bathroom in his uniform, and I point at the bed with a stern look.
“In. Now. Don’t argue with me, Arbour.”
He smirks lecherously, but the yawn that takes over his face destroys any chances of flirting his way out of this. He pulls his tie off, smirking again, then I watch and drool while he strips down to his boxers.
Fuck, temptation has a name and it’s Harley fucking Arbour.
“I need to get to class but you’re sleeping today. I’m not asking,” I say, but the raspiness of my voice ruins the stern words. He walks over to me, his eyes burning my skin with the intensity of his gaze, and I gulp.
“I’m fine, babe. I wouldn’t mind spending the day in bed with you though.”
I gulp again and shove him into the bed, my hands lingering a little on him by accident. Totally an accident.
I tuck him in, ignoring the looks he gives me even as my cheeks flame, and I kiss him softly. “We need to sort Ms. Vivienne out next. I’m finishing the bitch and getting you back.”
He smirks. “Whatever you do, make sure I’m there to see it.”