Dangerous Abduction (O'Connor Brothers Book 2) (21 page)

“It’s yucky, Daddy. You’re gonna get girl germs,” Mason said.

“Yeah, Daddy, girl germs are gross.” Aaron crouched behind Danny and Mason as he wrinkled his nose. “Girls are yucky.”

“Says the man that’s kissed most of the single girls in Hopedale and probably some of the married ones.” Mike sauntered in behind Aaron and put the box he was carrying on the floor next to the table. He ruffled the boy’s hair as they ran out of the kitchen.

“Hey, I draw the line on married women.” Aaron pointed his finger at Mike. “Only one was married and I didn’t know until ... well afterward.”

James shook his head. That was the youngest of the O’Connor brothers, the biggest Casanova in the province or at least one of the biggest because from what James knew Nick and Mike were not far behind him.

“You’re one to talk.” James grabbed a case of beer out of the fridge and put it on the table motioning for his brothers to help themselves. They didn’t need to be asked twice.

“I’m not nearly as bad as A.J. or Nick.” Mike chuckled and plopped down on one of the kitchen chairs.

“Why am I being compared to A.J.?” Nick entered the kitchen followed by John, Ian and Keith all carrying the last of the boxes from the back of James’ truck. Without needing to be asked each one grabbed a beer.

“Being a whoremaster.” Mike chuckled and ducked when John swiped at the back of his head.

“Watch your mouth. There are kids in the house.” John warned, ever the big brother, even though he and James were the oldest and twins, John had taken on the oldest brother role.

“You guys are all terrible.” Marina laughed as she tucked herself under James’ arm and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“I’m wounded that you would think that about me.” Aaron pressed his hand against his chest in mock hurt. “I think you’re just jealous you missed out on all this.” James narrowed his eyes at Aaron.

“Are we discussing A.J.’s over-inflated ego again?” Stephanie glided into the kitchen and as usual walked right up next to John.

“See, that’s another jealous woman because she lost out.” Aaron chuckled. “I think I should drop by Sandy’s house on the way home and give her a chance to ...” Before he could finish the statement, Ian put Aaron in a head lock and growled.

“You stay the fuck away from Sandy.” Ian’s voice could only be described as a deep, menacing growl.

“Why it’s not like you’re giving her what she needs?” Aaron choked and James was starting to worry Ian may really hurt the youngest of the brothers.

“Just leave her alone, asshole.” Ian shoved him and stomped out of the kitchen.

“What the fuck is his issue?” Nick shook his head.

“Nanny’s gonna put pepper on your tongue for sayin’ bad words, Unca Nick.” Mason stood in the kitchen doorway with his hands on his hips. James chuckled and Marina covered her mouth to hide her giggle.

“Sorry, buddy, I won’t say it again.” Nick did his best not to laugh.

“Okay, I won’t tell her. This time.” Mason pointed his finger at Nick. “Daddy can me and Danny watch a movie?”

“Sure.” James started to follow, but Marina stopped him.

“I’ll do it.” She kissed his cheek before following Mason out of the kitchen.

“You know your kid is a rat, right?” Nick laughed.

“Shut up or I’ll tell him to spill the beans to Nan.” James grabbed a bottle of beer out of the box as he left the kitchen. Chances were Ian was on the front step trying to cool down. He opened the front door and sure enough, Ian was sitting on the step his head in his hands.

“So you want to get it off your chest, or do you want to keep being a dick to everyone?” James sat next to him and handed him the beer. Ian lifted his head and stared down the driveway. He didn’t look at James and for a moment it didn’t seem as if he was going to speak.

“I fucked up, big time, bro.” Ian sighed.

“What did you do?” the distress on his brother’s face was obvious. “Is it something with work?” Ian shook his head.

“No it’s nothing with work. It’s ... fuck it... I screwed things up with Sandy because when it comes to my past I don’t know how to let it go.” Ian lifted the bottle to his lips and James watched him swallow half of its contents.

“What are you talking about?” He didn’t know of anything in Ian’s past that would screw things up with the one woman who turned his brother into a clumsy idiot. The only other girl James could remember Ian being interested in was Colleen Morgan.

She was Ian’s best friend from the time she moved across the street from his parents. Ian was about seven and Colleen was the same age. The two were always joined at the hip. When they were in high school, they dated. Everybody assumed they’d eventually get married until Ian came home one night with a huge chip on his shoulder. Nick joked about there being trouble in paradise and Ian slugged him. It took John, Keith and James to separate them. Ian finally admitted Colleen ended things and was moving to Manitoba with her brother. To this day, that was all the family knew. Ian never talked about her after that, and nobody ever asked anything else.

James never knew what happened to her after that, but he did hear one of her brothers had killed himself after their mother passed away. That had been a couple of years ago but as far as he knew, Colleen had never come home.

“Do you remember the night I called and said I wouldn’t be coming back to your house?” Ian still wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“The night Marina’s house was trashed.” James remember that night vividly.

“I spent the night in town with Colleen.” Ian finished the bottle of beer and rolled it between his hands.

“She’s back?”

“She was, but we spent the night together at a hotel downtown and when I got up she was gone. She left a note saying she’d made a mistake and she was sorry,” Ian said.

“She just left with no other explanation.” It pissed James off to know that Colleen had done this to Ian once before, but to come back and do it again when he was finally starting to move on was just cruel.

“Apparently she ran into Jess at the flower shop and asked her to get me to call her because she had something important to tell me.”  Ian shook his head. “The only thing she told me was I looked hot and the next thing I knew we were naked in a hotel room.”

“I guess Sandy found out?” James asked.

“No, she doesn’t know, but I haven’t talked to her.” Ian turned and stared at James. “I know we aren’t really dating, but I care about her and things were heading that way. We were supposed to go out on our first date the day I met with Colleen. I ended up standing her up, but I didn’t mean to.” Ian stood up and pressed his fists into his eyes. “I’m a fucking idiot.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You and Colleen have history, but you really need to talk to Sandy.” James cupped his brother’s shoulder and it was filled with tension. “The first thing you have to do is apologize to her.”

“She’s still out of town, and Keith won’t tell me how to get in touch with her,” Ian grumbled.

“She’ll be back. Just make sure you make things right.” James was about to turn and go into the house, when he caught something move out of the corner of his eye. Ian must have noticed it, too, because he took off in a sprint into the woods across the street. James ran after him but he didn’t know exactly what they’d seen.

James scanned up and down the road while he waited for Ian to come out of the woods. He started to walk into the woods where Ian had disappeared. He was about two feet into the trees when he heard Ian yelling.

“Get back here, you little fucker.” He listened to see the direction Ian’s voice was coming from but with the trees it was hard to tell.

“Ian?” James shouted but there was no answer. “Ian?” He cupped his hands over his mouth and called out again. As he pulled his phone out to try to call Ian’s cell, his brother came through the path a little out of breath.

“I lost whoever it was.” Ian bent over to catch his breath.

“I know I saw something, but I’m not sure. Maybe it was a moose.” James scanned the tree line.

“That was no fucking moose but the bastard can run.” Ian stood up straight and took a deep breath

A chill ran down his spine. “Listen, don’t say anything to Marina. I don’t want to scare her because she’ll think it’s Marc.” They walked out of the pathway and James glanced at the house.

“I won’t, but if you want, I can crash on your couch tonight just in case,” Ian suggested.

“No, I need to talk to Keith. You just don’t want to go home in case Sandy comes back and she wants to beat you with a bat.” James nudged him.

“She’s gonna fucking hate me.” Ian walked next to him back up the driveway.

“She’ll be pissed yeah, but you should talk to her,” James advised. Ian nodded as they walked into the front door.

“I should apologize to A.J., too.” Ian groaned.

“Nah... he deserves a good choke hold every now and then.” James chuckled.

“I heard that,” Aaron yelled from the living room.

Marina was upstairs getting the boys in bed and setting up the movie. James pulled Keith and John aside to tell them what had happened. Keith immediately called one of his guys to keep an eye on the house for the night. James couldn’t be sure it was Marc, but he wasn’t taking any chances with Marina or Danny’s safety. For all he knew, Mason could be in danger as well.

“It may not have been him at all,” Ian said when Keith ended his call.

“I don’t care. We’re not taking chances here,” John snapped. “I let Stephanie take chances and it nearly got us both killed.” John was referring to when he and Stephanie first got together. A crazy woman got the notion that killing Stephanie would make her boyfriend propose to her. Probably because the guy was Stephanie’s ex.

“John’s right; we can’t take any chances with Marina or Danny.” He wasn’t going to lose them. “I just got the gut feeling something is off about this guy besides the obvious.”

“Why don’t I get Sandy to see what she can find out about him? She just got back in town,” Keith said. Sandy worked for him and was a computer genius. From what he knew, Sandy Churchill could find anything on the computer. Aaron had joked one time that she was the Penelope Garcia of Newfoundland and from what Kurt and Keith told him, she was.

“Why the hell do you have to get her involved in all this?” Ian snapped.

“For one she’s the best at finding stuff people don’t want found and two she needs something to do since you’ve been a stupid ass.” Keith snapped back.

“Fuck you!” Ian growled and stomped out of the kitchen.

“Give him a break, Keith. His head is all fucked up.” James warned but he wouldn’t say any more than that. If Ian wanted the rest of his brothers to know what happened, then he would have to tell them.

“He’s fucked up all right. Sandy’s really hurt. She’s head over heels for him,” Keith snapped.

“Just let him figure it out.” James’ tone said it was the end of the conversation. Keith nodded and pulled his phone out. James and John sat at the table listening as he gave Sandy all the information they knew on Marc O’Reilly. With any luck she’d find out where the hell he was and James wouldn’t be worried about him hurting Danny or Marina again.

M
arina stepped over the last couple of boxes laying in the hallway. It was the last of her things that had been brought from her house or Ian’s house, now. Things between her and James were great and she was glad she’d let him get his brothers to help the previous night. She never realized how much stuff she had left in the house, since so much of it had been destroyed. There were still a lot of things that were stored in the attic and the basement that Marc hadn’t touched. James was going to put it in his attic, but she said she wanted to go through it and figure out if any of it was worth keeping.

It was a hectic morning. Her first day back to work and James was also working the early shift. Thank god she didn’t have to worry about dropping the boys off because one of Keith’s guys would be driving them. It was a safety precaution and she was glad. This morning, Keith was doing it himself and the boys were extremely excited. They loved riding in Keith’s old Army jeep. Marina didn’t know how old it was, but it seemed ancient. Although, James told her it ran like a dream and it was a tank in the wintertime. She didn’t know what that meant but she assumed the boys would be safe.

She was still nervous about letting herself be too happy because she was still waiting for Marc to do something to destroy her happiness. It was what he seemed to thrive on.

Marina loved waking up every morning with James next to her and his arms wrapped tightly around her. If she was feeling anxious or upset, all she had to do was think about James and she smiled. Next to Danny, she couldn’t love anyone more. She also realized she hadn’t had any nightmares since the first night she stayed at James’ house—or their house now. It showed just how being near him made her feel safe.

“Good morning, my beautiful lady.” He walked into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her while she was flipping pancakes. The smile appeared again and she turned her head so she could kiss his lips just as Danny and Mason ran into the kitchen. As had become the norm, they started to make retching noises.

“Mommy, that’s so icky.” Danny wrinkled his nose.

“Oh you think so, do you?” James picked him up and tossed him into the air making him squeal.

“Kissing girls is gross.” Mason made a gagging sound. James grabbed him and tickled him until the squeals became hard on her ears. The scene made her heart so full that she thought it would burst, and she hadn’t even realized she was smiling.

“And just what are you smiling at.” He walked towards her, and she gazed up at the man who’d opened up her heart again.

“You.” She laid her hands against his chest, and he kissed her lips softly.

“Ewwwww.” The boys groaned as they climbed onto the chairs next to the table. Marina giggled when James shook his head. As long as the boys were in the room, they would have to keep the kissing to a minimum.  He kissed her forehead and grabbed a cup from the counter. She’d poured his coffee already. It had become a habit since they’d been living together over the last few weeks.