Tiernan A Dark Irish Mafia Romance - Jane Henry Page 0,3
woke to the sounds of giggles.
Motherfucker.
I don’t like being woken from a nap, and I don’t like being taunted by Fiona’s bratty friend.
“Give that back!” I yell.
“Or what?” she taunts. She looks to Fiona, and covers her hand with her mouth to hide a giggle. “He looks like the giant from Jack’s beanstalk, doesn’t he? All growly and angry and furious. Pounding his chest, because he wants the golden goose.”
“I’ll give you a fucking golden goose,” I grate out, which only makes them giggle louder. She holds my shirt over the edge of the cliff.
“Come and get it then.”
“What are you, twelve?” I ask, rolling my eyes.
That gets her attention.
“Fourteen, you twat,” she says, her eyes flashing at me. She balls up my t-shirt, and Fiona gasps.
“Ais, don’t!”
Too late. She’s whipped the t-shirt far out into the Irish sea. We watch as if in slow motion as it flutters to the water like a flag, quickly saturates, then sinks below the blue-green waves.
She looks to me, wide-eyed, the anger quickly gone. “I’m… sorry?” she says, before she turns and they both take off at a run.
I give them chase. I want to throttle the little brat for losing my t-shirt. Nolan got me that on his last trip to Spain. No one ever gets anything for me. It actually meant something to me. I’m bigger and faster than they are. They squeal, and finally Aisling trips and goes sprawling. Fiona screams, as I catch them.
I grab Aisling right up off the ground. Her palms are scraped and bleeding, and my desire to shake the living daylights out of her quickly vanishes. Her eyes are damp with tears.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t really mean to. Sometimes I do things when people make me angry that I regret after.”
She’s soft and supple in my grasp, and she smells like a field of daisies. I shouldn’t touch her. I shouldn’t be this close to her. I didn’t know she was this pretty.
I let her go, and grunt. “Sometimes I do things I regret when I’m angry, too.” This isn’t like me. I don’t forgive so easily. But I need to get away from her. She’s just a girl and I’m on the cusp of adulthood. “Head back to the mansion and Fiona will take you to get those scrapes looked after.”
I practically shove her at Fiona. Aisling looks at me in wide-eyed wonder. “I’m sorry, Tiernan.”
I wave her away.
“Go.”
I watch her and wonder what just happened.
I blink, coming back to the present.
Keenan runs harder, his breathing heavier. “Found out something interesting about her last night.”
“Did you?” Now that’s piqued my curiosity.
I continue lifting, but my focus is on him.
He nods. “Seems she’s… fallen into some trouble.”
A prickle of awareness travels down my spine. She might’ve been a brat, but she was my sister’s best mate.
“What kind of trouble?”
He shakes his head. “Mother’s gone off to America, left her with nearly nothing. She left school, couldn’t afford it. Does she still talk with Fiona?”
I shake my head. “No. They had a falling out soon after Fiona and Lachlan tied the knot.”
Keenan scowls but doesn’t respond at first. Finally, he sighs.
“Expected as much,” he says.
Is he hiding something?
“Seems she’s gone off her fucking nut, Tiernan. I took an interest in hearing her story. She was around here a lot when Fiona was younger, you know?”
I nod. Though we lived offsite back then, we spent a lot of time here.
“So her mum and dad divorced, and her mum married a man in America. Dad shot himself last year, and she’s been scraping to make ends meet. She’s, eh… gotten loose.”
Bloody hell.
The weights I’m carrying clatter to the concrete floor. Keenan raises a brow but doesn’t speak.
“She’s what?”
The woman was like a sister to me, annoying, but still someone I didn’t want to see get hurt.
He nods. “True story. Boner found out night before last, came to tell Lachlan since she was friends with Fiona. Said she’s gotten… loose,” he snorts. “Pretty sure Boner was just confirming before he fucked the girl. Lachlan was with me at the time, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind since.”
White hot rage ignites in me.
If Boner put his fucking fingers on her, I’ll beat him fucking senseless. I will tear his dick from his fucking gangly body, and—
“Easy, lad. He didn’t touch her.”
I blow out a breath, noting the way Keenan’s brow rises.
“You think Lachlan told Fiona?” I ask, trying to school my features.