over to the tools on the wall. “I just came here to grab a few new friends.” He piled a couple of saws in his arms along with a hammer and a pair of pliers. “I have places to be, skulls to batter, eyeballs to pluck out. I’ll be wanting that chat though, Kyan. And I’ll keep my mouth shut too – Pa won’t like you letting yer friends touch your girl no matter what way you wanna paint it to him. See ya around.” He headed out of the door whistling casually and my shoulders dropped.
Blake and Saint moved up close behind me and we all pressed together in an embrace, though it wasn’t quite enough. I missed Nash’s presence like a lost limb.
“Your uncle is a lunatic,” Blake muttered.
“He was looking out for family though,” Saint reasoned and I knew he had a point, but I was still pissed at him.
“Violence is Niall’s answer to everything,” Kyan said.
I sighed. “Let’s just never piss off the Grim Reaper again.”
T uning a piano was not something I had ever really wished to spend my time doing, but in the years I'd spent playing on the grand piano back at Everlake, I'd found that I was much better off doing it myself. Once, the school had hired a man to come and tune it and I could only assume he'd had some sort of brain haemorrhage while working on my instrument because after he was done the poor thing sounded like a cat being drawn backwards through an alleyway by a pitbull with the shits.
Suffice to say, I had the man fired, his business destroyed, reputation torn apart and I was almost certain he'd been evicted from his home too. It probably wasn't enough of a punishment for the torture he'd inflicted upon my piano, but at the time I'd had exams to focus on, so I hadn't been able to exact sufficient revenge. The knowledge that he got off so lightly still haunted me whenever I heard the dulcet sound of a badly tuned instrument, so he was on my mind as I worked on the piano in Liam O'Brien's drawing room. Would it be worth me checking up on that buffoon? Seeing if he had anything else I could take from him in payment for his failure?
I sighed as I decided to have mercy on him. It wasn't that I felt he'd been sufficiently punished, but I could admit I had bigger fish to fry at the current moment and the diversion of my attention was unnecessary.
Liam’s grand piano was much neglected, tucked away here in the rear corner of the room. But I'd found myself in need of the instrument to alleviate some of my tension so had decided to take on the task of giving it life again.
As I finally finished up, I packed away the tuning tools that one of the household staff had acquired for me and closed the cover with a soft exhale.
My blood was tingling tonight, my fingers itching for the keys and as I glanced out of the window at the dark grounds beyond, I took my seat before the instrument and laid my fingers down lightly.
The song I started with was slow, heady, full of dark promises and sweet truths. As my fingers danced across the keys, I could feel the tension slipping from my body as my heart rate slowed and I closed my eyes as I sank into the simplicity of the piece, letting it wrap around me and take me to a better place.
Music poured from the poor, neglected piano and I smiled a little as I felt it coming to life after fuck knew how many years of sitting here forgotten. Instruments needed life to be breathed into them by the masters of their creation. They had a soul that ached to create beauty and wonder, and it was damn near criminal to let such a beautiful piano lay dormant and ignored.
The door opened behind me as I transitioned into my fourth piece, the music growing more complicated as I went, my fingers moving faster, the sound burrowing deeper into my core.
Tatum dropped onto the stool beside me, the sweet honey blossom and vanilla scent of her rising up to me and making me sigh as I continued to play, the song quickening in pace, building and building until it came crashing down.
I turned to look at her as the last note hung in the air, slowing