IRISH: a Bad Boy Fighter Romance (19 page)

“Hey, I’m just giving the fans what they want,” he chuckled.

“I can’t believe they heard that,” I replied and kept my head down the entire way to the car. Knox’s pride was almost addictive though, the way he strutted along with me on his arm made me feel like he wanted the world to know how much he loved me, and that gave me a sense of security I’d never had before.

It was incredible, knowing that one of the most powerful fighters on the planet only had eyes for me.

We found the body guard and Katie waiting patiently for us in the limo, Katie was drinking from the mini bar and was visibly drunk.

“She’s been drinking non stop,” the body guard told Knox as we got in.

He glared at Katie who said, “Oh come on, what are you, my babysitter?”

“It seems like ye might need one,” Knox said with a dark look on his face. “Do ye want to be like dad? A drunk who kills himself and his wife one night because he’s so pie eyed drunk he can’t see where the fekking road turns off?”

“Stop being so dramatic,” Katie said but grew silent with a dark look of her own flitting across her features.

We got home close to midnight, I was exhausted and went to bed immediately. Knox crawled in beside me some time before dawn and curled around me, holding me in his arms until he fell asleep.

He’d stationed a couple guys outside the penthouse so Katie wouldn’t escape this time, but we still had a long ways to go with her.

I didn’t know how Knox and I were going to get her off drugs, but I knew we wouldn’t stop until she was clean and healthy. She was family, and as surely as his heart beat next to mine and became one, her blood was mine now. She was my sister whether she wanted it or not.

Family, love, all of it was more important than anything else in life. It had just taken me the love of a man like Knox to figure that out.

***

We woke to loud banging on the bedroom door and Katie yelling, “Are ye awake yet?”

“Fek,” Knox grumbled. “Shite, we are now!”

She opened the door and walked in, sat on the end of the bed and said, “I feel amazing!”

“You’re free,” I told her with a smile.

“I’m free,” she said.

“Yer coming back to America with us,” Knox said, rubbing his eyes and looking amazingly sexy with his sleepy face.

“I want to,” Katie replied, “and I know it will be good there. I did just get some news though and thought ye might like te hear.”

“What happened?” Knox asked, sitting up with concern.

She held up her phone. “Brendan texted me. Sabrina’s been picked up and arrested trying to leave America. She’s being held by the FBI for being a wanted terrorist, they’ll never let her go.”

Knox fell back down and pulled me into the curve of his arm. “Ah, I promised her safe passage back to Ireland, but after finding out about her dark side, I’m pleased to hear it.”

I wondered if that would be a good time to tell him that I’d been the one who’d reported her. Did he mean it when he said it was a good thing or would he be angry with me for going against his promise?

Then again, he’d told her he wouldn’t turn her in, he’d never mentioned me.

And wouldn’t it be bad to start our life together out on a lie? I should tell him, I thought, he would be fine with it, proud even.

But I couldn’t find my voice to do it, not then and not days later. The lie stuck in my throat and worried me until it I was able to bury it deep and forget about it. But was it a little stone or a seed? Would it die or grow?

And more importantly, would our love be big enough to handle my indecision?

Chapter Forty Six

Lennon

“Are you sure you have everything?” Katie asked me as she helped me haul my luggage down the stairs to the front door where our building concierge was waiting patiently.

“I’m sure,” I replied looking longingly around the penthouse that had served us well over the past ten days. Knox’s papers had finally come through and we’d managed to obtain a visitor’s visa for Katie. Our plan was to get her into rehab as soon as possible and find permanent status before she was finished.

“It feels like ye got everything plus the kitchen sink,” she laughed and groaned under the weight of my suitcase.

“I had to buy a few gifts,” I said, blushing red. Katie and I got along just fine, but there was still that unfamiliarity that kept us at arms length. I wasn’t quite her family, and she still felt shame over the life she’d lead…I hoped she’d realize that I didn’t judge her sooner rather than later.

“I didn’t bring much, I don’t have much,” she said, lowering her eyes.

“You’ll have the chance to catch up to me,” I laughed. “The minute you’re out of the facility, we’ll go on a huge shopping spree. I promise.”

“That would be nice,” Katie said. “Sisters shopping together, I never woulda thought my life would end up so normal.”

“I’m glad we found you,” I said, dropped my suitcase and gave her a quick hug to stop the tears from flowing. It wasn’t helping Katie feel comfortable around me when I started to cry every time I thought about the horrible life she’d had.

It really put things into perspective; my life hadn’t been that bad growing up when you compared it to what my sister in law had to endure.

And now of course it was so full of good things that it was practically bursting at the seams.

I picked up my bag and followed Katie to the front door. I slipped our concierge a few hundred Euros for his trouble and went back upstairs to find Knox. He’d been on edge lately, Katie hadn’t been doing well as we tried to help her battle her addictions, and I knew Knox felt guilty every time she threw up or had the shakes or spent the night sweating and moaning.

“We’re ready to go home,” I said and slipped my hand in his to admire the view from our master bedroom one last time. “I’m going to miss this view.”

“We’ll be back,” he told me and kissed the top of my head. “I still haven’t shown ye half of me old haunts, kitten. And I want ye te see everything in me life.”

“Total transparency,” I said and felt a stab of guilt over the Sabrina thing. I wanted to tell him, but it just hadn’t been the right time. “I suppose we should go back to my old neighborhoods at some point, but they’re boring as hell.”

“Anything that helped create you can’t be boring,” he smiled and squeezed my hand.

We looked at the city one last time, turned and left the penthouse. Knox still owned it, but we left a set of keys with the concierge so the cleaning crew could still manage to take care of it while we were back home. I actually couldn’t wait to come back to Belfast some day soon.

***

“Please put your seatbelts on, we will be landing shortly,” our flight attendant told us as the private jet took a bit of a pitch to the right.

“That was bloody fast,” Katie said from her seat across the aisle.

“I think Knox’s jet is faster than a commercial airliner,” I replied and snapped myself in place and watched Knox and Katie do the same.

“I’ve never flown on anything,” Katie said, “yer gonna spoil me for flying boring old regular planes.”

“Ye don’t have te,” Knox said, “ye know yer welcome to whatever’s mine, I’m not gonna turn me back on me wee sis now that I got ye in me life again.”

“There’s no way we’d force you to fly regular,” I grinned. “I’ve never flown it either, this plane is the only one I’ve been on.”

“I broke ye in,” Knox said and a low voice and kissed me quickly before the plane took a sharper downturn and I gasped.

“I hate this part,” I said and gripped his hand.

“We’ll be fine, kitten,” he smiled and reassured me.

Back on planet earth, we got off the plane to find Jake and Melody waiting for us. In the month I’d been gone, Melody’s stomach had grown incredibly but she was still gorgeous. She still had that glow that everybody about.

I felt a pang in my own stomach thinking about how it would feel to have Knox’s baby growing inside of me, to bring him the greatest gift of all.

“Welcome back!” Melody exclaimed and wrapped her arms around me. Jake shook our hands and already seemed to know who Katie was.

We got into the limo and headed home.

Home. It felt good to be back, and it felt good to be surrounded by friends and family again.

Chapter Forty Seven

Knox

The clinic we chose for Katie’s rehab was only a short drive from me place, but it felt like fekking miles and miles. We weren’t allowed to see her fer two weeks while she settled into their routine and adjusted to their rules.

After getting her back it felt strange to abandon her again, but Lennon reminded me over and over that this was for Katie’s own good. Her health depended on it.

“She’ll do fine,” Lennon told me, taking me hand as we drove back home. “I promise, she’s been looking forward to this new life you’re giving her.”

“Aye, it’s the least I could do,” I replied, trying to ignore that nagging sensation that told me her life had been horrible to begin with because of me.

I would spend decades making it up to her.

“Melody sure does look good, doesn’t she?” Lennon said out of the blue. I put my hand on her knee and looked at her. She glanced up from under her thick lashes, blushed a light pink, and said, “What?”

“Yer thinking about a babe of our own, ain’t ye?” I asked.

“Don’t pull your dick out right here or anything, but sometimes I think about what it would be like to have a family with you,” she said with a smile that was almost shy.

“Kitten, ye know I’m gonna put a baby in that belly of yers,” I told her and ran my other hand along the back of her neck, under her hair. She shivered at my touch and my words. I leaned closer and said in her ear, “I’m gonna fek ye until yer big with me baby, and then I’m gonna fek ye again and again. We’re gonna have a right big family.”

“You’ll hate it if I’m flabby and exhausted though, so let’s not go overboard with the kids,” she said, but the vein in her neck was fluttering and her lips were bright red with desire. She was getting turned on at the thought of having me child, and that made me cock rock hard.

“Yer mine, kitten, and I’ll fek ye as much as I want. If we have lots of babies, so be it. It’s natural and I’ll love ye no matter the size of yer body. It’s yer heart and soul I fell in love with,” I said in a deep voice near her ear. She shuddered and let out a little moan. I brushed her hair back and kissed her on the ridge of her collarbone.

“Oh Knox, how do you do that? You make pushing out a busload of kids and getting fat seem sexy,” she sighed as my tongue darted against her skin.

She arched herself against me and slid her hand along my thigh to my cock, stroked it through me jeans and made me feel like I wanted te take her right then and there.

“We’re almost home,” I said, nibbling on her smooth skin, “I’m gonna fek ye the minute we’re alone.”

“God I hope so,” she groaned and squeezed my cock. “I need this so bad, Knox. I don’t care if you have to go train today, I need you first.”

I pulled her towards me and our mouths linked, our tongues danced and our bodies folded against each other, signaling our ever-present desire. She had me wrapped around her little finger and I couldn’t have been happier about it.

***

We heard from the rehab center about a week after Katie first went in. She was adjusting well and sent her love to us, but dammit, it was tough not being able te see her.

Lennon was as stoic about it as ever, she had become my rock keeping me from going crazy knowing Katie was going through her own hell locked away in a private clinic.