Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,132

making her mine in another way.

A heavy knock sounded at the door and I cursed as I quickly shoved Tatum away from the windows, pushing her into the shadows in the area beneath Saint's bedroom and pressing a finger to my lips.

I hurried over to the safe hidden beneath a flagstone by the door to the crypt and tugged it open, entering the code and taking Tatum's gun from it.

I tossed the weapon to her and she caught it, quickly checking it was loaded like she'd done it a thousand times before and then holding it ready as I moved to the door.

I had my hunting knife at my belt and if I had to use it on my uncle, I would. But this whole thing would go a lot fucking smoother if I didn't have to. For a start, Liam would be less than pleased if I killed an O'Brien while working to fuck him over with this marriage and that could be a big enough betrayal to sign my death warrant on its own. It wasn't worth the risk. So if I had to stab him, I’d be aiming for something not too vital then hog tying him somewhere out of sight until after the wedding.

But I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. Niall was actually the one member of my family who I might just stand a chance of turning to my side on this and I was going to have to hope I could convince him.

I tugged the door open, not even batting an eye at my uncle's wide grin as he stood there with his arms wide like he expected a hug or something. His frame was as broad as mine though he was fair where I was dark and the tattoos that marked his flesh had more colour than mine in them too. He had a scar over his right eyebrow which I’d never gotten an actual story for and the darkness swirling in his eyes always made me feel like an innocent little choir boy by comparison. Even so, I was going to stand against this hell dog for my girl and make him see my side of this or I’d take my chances against the darkness in him for her if that was what it took.

“Kyan, lad!” he greeted enthusiastically.

"I know why you're here Niall," I said to him, seriously hoping my girl wasn’t going to have to splatter his brains on the walls as his smile widened. "And I have a counter offer."

***

It had taken me less than ten minutes to convince my uncle to agree to my plan to marry my girl instead of selling her to a bunch of filthy old men like a piece of meat. For a deranged psychopath, Niall actually had some seriously strong feelings about rapists and he'd cut off more than a few sets of balls over the years to prove it so as I’d been hoping it hadn’t been that hard to sell him on the idea.

I knew it had something to do what had happened to his wife years ago, but I also knew better than to ask for the details of that story. All it really came down to was that there used to be a family called the Nelsons who went up against the O'Briens at every turn. They'd taken Niall's wife as part of a strike against us and in the resulting backlash, he'd wiped out every last one of them. But she'd already been dead by the time he got to her. I could only imagine that there was enough evidence there to let him know that they'd been raping her before the end and that was where his hatred stemmed.

I couldn’t remember him that well from before it had happened but everyone in our family said that was what had unhinged him. And the man I knew was definitely unhinged alright, like the kind of chaotic and unpredictable that often ended with someone getting stabbed with an unexpected object and left to bleed out with no warning.

So despite the fact that I knew that he was absolutely the most likely of my uncles to kill me one day, he was also my favourite. The only one amongst my entire family who gave me any reason at all to believe he had something more to him than just hate and violence.

It also helped that he loved fucking with plans and changing course from the obvious narrative so