IRISH: a Bad Boy Fighter Romance (17 page)

“No,” I replied, “not yet. I like the way it feels between my legs.”

“Ah, miss, yer a horny little vixen,” he laughed and grabbed me, pulled me close and kissed me in the middle of the crowded city square.

People passed us on all sides and I didn’t care, we existed in our own world of love and passion.

After a few more groups held us back for photos of Knox, we decided to spend the rest of the day inside and make our own dinner tonight.

We stopped at a market on the way home and picked up some steaks, veggies for salad, and a few different types of cheese and a couple bottles of wine.

It felt domestic and normal and utterly perfect. I was in heaven being next to Knox with nothing dramatic or terrifying happening.

This is how our life would be once we were married. And it was worth fighting for.

After a delicious dinner, Knox had the idea that we should sneak out to a nearby pub and enjoy some live music. I thought it sounded awesome and would be another way to see a little bit of the city. Hopefully nobody would recognize him and we could have some time to ourselves.

The pub was huge with a stage on one end and a bank of tables on the other. We chose a booth near the back in the shadows; it was better for hiding out.

Knox ordered his usual whiskey and I ordered a glass of wine. We listened to the band and I found myself tapping my foot to the lively Irish music. I finally had to dance; I grabbed his hand and said, “Take me out there!”

“I don’t dance, kitten,” he replied with a laugh.

“I’ve seen you in the ring, you dance every fight you’re in,” I told him.

I grabbed his hand and pushed him out of the booth, dragged him into the middle of the crowded dance floor and got him moving.

He must have lied; he was excellent on his feet. I was laughing as he spun me around when I suddenly hit a wall of muscle. I squeaked, looked up and saw a massive man standing there shooting Knox a look that would kill him if it could.

“Knox Fekking O’Connor,” the man growled. “What the fek are ye doing back here?”

“Brendan McCloud,” Knox growled back, standing close to me and looking down at the man. He had a couple inches on Brendan and was using it to his advantage.

“We don’t want any trouble, we were just leaving,” I said frantically and pushed against Knox. “Let’s go home,” I pleaded with him.

“Shite, a coward ready to run, just like the old days,” Brendan said with a sneer.

“I ain’t never run from nothin,” Knox replied with a low, dangerous tone.

“Ye run from us years ago. Ye couldn’t handle the shite we got into because ye was a spineless pussy,” Brendan said with a curl to his lip.

“I didn’t want in on yer mad plan to blow up a fekking school,” Knox said loudly. “I wasn’t in it to fekking kill kids, shite for brains.”

The crowd had spread out around us, leaving us in a circle of people half dancing and half watching the scene in front of them, waiting for a fight to break out.

“Knox, come on,” I said and pushed against him again. He was tense, his fists were clenched tightly, but he looked down at me and smiled.

“I ain’t gonna fight ye, Brendan, not in front of me bride,” Knox said and visibly relaxed.

“Just like ye, always ordered about by a girl,” a woman said as she pushed out of the crowd and took Brendan’s hand. She stared at Knox with a defiant look on her beautiful, cold face.

I saw Knox tense again, his fists clenched but his eyes were wide with surprise. He opened his mouth but seemed unable to speak.

“Who is that?” I asked, glancing back at her and finding something familiar about her features.

“Katie,” Knox exhaled. “She’s me wee sister.”

Chapter Forty One

Lennon

“You never told me you had a sister,” I exhaled slowly and looked at the woman in front of me. She did bear more than a passing resemblance to the man I loved.

It was her bright green eyes, her defiant jawline and definitely the thick, wavy hair. It was the exact same color as Knox’s.

“Ah, ye not speaking of me, dear brother?” she sneered. “Hopin te forget about me after ye abandoned me in fekking Eastern Europe? Sold me off like an animal?”

“What is she talking about?” I blurted and stared back at Knox. “You sold your sister?” A sick feeling crept into my stomach and I remembered all the times he’d mentioned being a bad man who had done bad things. Selling your own little sister was probably the baddest of all.

“No, I never!” he exclaimed. “Sabrina said ye were killed!”

“She also said you’d say that if I ever saw ye again,” Katie said with her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “She told me the plan was yers, ye needed money and I was the most valuable thing ye owned.”

“I didn’t own ye, Katie,” he replied, “ye have to believe me. I’ve gone this entire time thinkin ye dead.”

I wish I could have weighed in for him, helped defend him, but he hadn’t even mentioned a sister to me in the time we’d been together. I’d always assumed he’d been an orphan with no siblings.

“I don’t believe ye,” Katie said, her face scrunched up with emotion. “It’s been so long, why did ye never look into it? Why did ye never come for me?”

Knox stepped around me and crossed to her. The dancers on the floor were starting to lose interest once they realized there was no fight, but they remained in a circle around the four of us. Knox grabbed her hands and when she tried to break free, he held her harder. “I have spent many years mourning your death, Katie. I can’t have ye thinking I sold ye or knew anything about it. How can I prove it to ye?”

“For what it’s worth, your brother is a good man,” I said. “He’s shown me nothing but kindness and love.”

“Yeah, for yer cunt, I’m sure,” Brendan sneered and grabbed Katie by the upper arm with one of his big, meaty hands. “Reunion’s over, ye gotta get te work.”

“I’d love te stay and chat,” Katie said with a smirk, “but you heard ‘im. I gotta get te work.”

“Call me,” Knox said and scribbled his number on a piece of paper before pressing it into her hand. “We got te talk, Katie. I can’t have ye revived from the dead only to lose you again.”

“Yer cutting into valuable time,” Brendan said with a curled lip. “She don’t earn her keep, she’s got no use livin.”

“Are you a…” I couldn’t even voice the horrible realization that had finally hit my mind. Brendan seemed to be her pimp…and Katie was a prostitute.

“Aye,” she said with a grim smile. “We ain’t all lucky enough to land a rich bachelor with our magical pussy.”

Brendan gave her one more hard tug and she followed him through the crowded dance floor towards the edge of the bar.

“Are you okay?” I asked Knox, the music seemed too loud and the dancers were closing in on us. I took his hand and gently pulled him back towards our little booth in the shadows. “Let’s finish our drinks and head home. Maybe Katie will give you a call.”

He didn’t reply, he seemed slightly dazed, as if he’d seen a ghost.

And I supposed that if he’d thought she was dead then he really did just see a ghost.

The ghost of his little sister.

He sipped his drink and didn’t seem to be able to take his eyes off his sister. I could see her and Brendan arguing by the bar. She seemed upset about something, but Brendan just kept grabbing her arm and forcing her towards a small group of much older men who were leering at her.

“I can’t do this,” Knox growled unexpectedly. “I gotta take care of me wee sis, kitten.”

“I say go for it,” I told him. “It’s insane to sit here and do nothing. She needs our help, Knox, so let’s help her.”

He drew one more long drink of his whiskey and stood abruptly. I jumped up and followed his long, determined strides across the floor to where Katie was in the midst of the group of leering men doing her best to look flirtatious.

I felt a surge of protective instinct wash over me and suddenly I wanted to save her like she was my sister.

And in a way she already was. Knox and I weren’t married yet, but our hearts were already joined as one.

I touched her shoulder as Knox stood in front of her, legs spread defiantly and a cruel curl to his lips.

She turned and looked up at him and for a moment I saw the love she had for her big brother, the man who had come to rescue her.

It was gone in a flash though, and her mask came down to keep him away. She might not have remembered how stubborn her brother was, because it was going to take more than that to get rid of him now.

Chapter Forty Two

Knox

She was dead. Up until a few moments again, me sister was dead. As far as I’d known at least.

Back at the time Sabrina had told me the story, how Katie had jumped out of the way at a truck stop when they were exchanging drugs and weapons, but how a stray bullet had caught her in the neck and she’d bled out in Sabrina’s arms.

I’d even fekking comforted that viper.

She’d cried on me shoulder, snot running down her face, body shuddering as she’d sobbed over my wee sister’s death.

I clenched my fists just thinking about Sabrina taking advantage of me, making me a fool, using me for marriage after she’d sold my only family.

I wished I could let it all out in a torrent and tell Lennon everything I was feeling.

But I couldn’t get a fekking grip on what I was feeling. It was a hurricane twisting and rolling through me, rattling memories up from years past, shaking the foundations of the stories I’d been told.

I was so proud of me kitten when she’d joined me, diving right in to help rescue Katie. I grabbed Lennon’s hand when we crossed the crowded pub to the bar where me sis was chatting up a group of fat old blokes all picturing her naked and ready to fuck.

Rage rose up behind my eyes and bile nearly choked my throat closed. I wanted te tear them apart but I wanted to save Katie even more.

“How much?” I asked her as I walked up, Lennon still gripping my hand tightly.

“What the fek you on about?” Katie replied, her face reddening with a temper to match me own.

“How much fer the night?” I asked again.

“The night?” she repeated, not catching on.

“Hey there, back the fuck off, dude,” one of the fat old men said and stood up. He was about as tall as I was, but had maybe a hundred or one fifty on me. He was a giant, like an American football player gone to seed.

He sounded American too, and for some reason this pissed me off more than the simple fact that me sis was selling her body for Brendan’s benefit.

“Oy! Knox! Keep yer fekking face outta this!” Brendan bellowed and came roaring around the bar.

“This is too much crazy to deal with, you have her,” one of the American said and they all agreed as they picked up their drinks and walked away.

“How much for the night?” I repeated again like they were both fekking daft in the head.

“Yer gonna buy yer own sister?” Brendan exclaimed. “That’s low, even fer you Knox O’Connor.”

“I’m gonna buy her a night of freedom before I figure out what te fek to do te get her back safe with me forever,” I growled and stood over him.

“Three thousand,” he said, eyeing me up and down.

I pulled out my wallet and peeled off the bills, watched him count them and resisted the urge to smash his face in when he held out his hand and said, “She’s all yers tonight. Anal is extra, so is more than three blokes at a time. She’ll go bareback if ye like, but ye gotta get her drunk first.”

I couldn’t handle it. I watched him fold the stack of bills into his wallet, drew my fist back and punched him square in the jaw as he looked up at me with that fekking sneer on his lips.

“Foooock!” he blurted. “Ye fucking animal, ye haven’t changed a bit!”

“Let’s go,” I said, grabbing Lennon and Katie’s hand and dragging them both out of the pub.

Lennon of course was willing to follow, but Katie kept turning around and whining about Brendan punishing her for this the next day.

Little did she know, she was never going back. I was gonna buy her from Brendan or whoever was taking their cut off the back of my sister, and then I was dragging her back to the US with me and Lennon. She was family, and I couldn’t leave her here.

***

“There’s no fekking way this is all yers,” Katie said, wandering around the penthouse in loose fitting pajamas that Lennon had given her. Katie was tall but rail thin, she had a bad habit of twitching and scratching her forearms from time to time, which meant she was probably coming down off some nasty high.

“What have ye been takin,” I asked her, flipping an egg over in the frying pan. Lennon was seated at the kitchen island with her hands wrapped around a cup of hot cocoa. She was being incredible, really taking it all in stride and being my rock of sanity.

If it weren’t for her I swear I’d be tearing people apart in the streets of Belfast tonight.

“I ain’t been takin nothing,” Katie replied indignantly. I shook me head and sighed. She was lying.

“Have something te eat, I know eggs were always yer favorite,” I said and slid the food onto a plate with a piece of buttered toast. If she was coming down off an addiction, her stomach would be all over the place but she needed food.

“I’m not hungry,” Katie snapped back, but her eyes betrayed her as she stared at the plate I’d set in front of her.

“Stop fighting, just eat,” Lennon told her. “Sit, we won’t think any less of you if you have a meal.”

“I gotta get back te Brendan soon,” she said, sitting at the island next to Lennon. She started shoveling food into her mouth like there was no tomorrow. I smiled at Lennon and she smiled back, one full of reassurance and support. I loved her so fekking much right then.

“Yer not goin back,” I replied, waiting for the fight to start. “Yer staying here, and when we get the papers to go back to America, yer comin with us.”

Katie swallowed the last of her meal, sat back and sipped the cocoa I’d put in front of her. She gave me a little smug glance and said, “Fine. You win, big brother. I’ll do what ye want.”