As Lisa and Matt are preparing to leave, the bedroom door opens and Jessie walks back inside the room, and I can’t help but frown as she makes her way over to the chair beside the bed and sits down on it. It’s a little after midday but none of us have slept for over twenty four hours and we all need some rest.
Ten minutes earlier, Shane asked me and Mikey to stay with Liam for the rest of the day and tonight, so I had assumed that he and Jessie would be spending that time together, and the fact that they are so obviously not doing that concerns me. I hope he hasn’t fucked this up again. I’m not sure what more she can do to prove herself to him, but he is the most stubborn man I’ve ever met.
When Matt and Lisa are gone, I walk over to her, sitting on the bed in front of her. “Mikey and I can stay with Liam if you like,” I offer.
“I know. But I want to stay too if that’s okay?” she looks up at me, her eyes red from crying earlier. At least I hope it’s from earlier.
“Of course you can. I just wondered if…” I shrug.
“What?” she blinks at me.
“Nothing, Angel,” I say as I reach out and brush my fingertips over the cut on her cheek. “You look tired and it’s been a long night. Why don’t you climb in here with our boy and get some sleep?” I stand up and hold my hand out to her.
“You think it’s okay for me to sleep in there with him? What if I hurt him?”
“Hurt him? You weigh like a third of what he does. And the bed is huge.” I pull her up from the chair. “Besides, he will want you there when he wakes up.” I lift the covers and indicate for her to get inside.
She nods and wipes a stray tear from her cheek and I think I am going to strangle Shane when I get my hands on him, because she wasn’t this upset ten minutes earlier. “My clothes are dirty,” she says as she starts peeling off her jeans. I watch her slide them down her legs and have to remind my cock that this is not the time or the place.
“Here’s a clean t-shirt, Red,” Mikey says as he tosses one of his from the other side of the room.
“Thank you.” She reaches out and catches it, placing it on the bed as she strips off the rest of her clothes. I have to avert my eyes from her incredible curves because my cock is already twitching. When she is ready, I lift the covers again, and she climbs into bed. She looks so vulnerable and fragile lying there, in Mikey’s t-shirt that dwarfs her frame, her eyes red and her cheek smeared with dried blood from the cut there. But I know she is neither of those things. She is a fucking warrior princess. Rightful head of the Bratva, and she would be a fucking good one too, but she walked away from it all to be a Ryan.
“Try to get some sleep, Angel. Mikey will stay here with you both.”
“I’m just going to take a shower. But I’m right here if you need me, Red,” he replies as he saunters to the bathroom.
“And what about you?” she asks as she stares up at me with those incredible blue eyes.
“I have some things I need to take care of. I’ll be back later. Promise,” I say before leaning down to give her a kiss. She wraps her arms around my neck as she kisses me back with so much need that I have to force myself not to climb on top of her and fuck her while my little brother lies two feet away in an opiate induced coma. I pull back from her with a groan. “Sleep. Now,” I order and she gives me one of her incredible smiles before rolling onto her side and resting her hand lightly on Liam’s.
After leaving the twins’ bedroom, I go to find Shane. It’s no surprise he’s in his office, his head bent over his computer and a scowl on his face.
“Everything okay?” I ask when I step inside.
“Yeah,” he snaps, not even bothering to look up at me.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?’ I say as I walk into the room and sit on the edge of his desk. “Cause it kind of seems like you’re super pissed.”
“I’m just busy. And tired.” He looks up at me. “I’ve booked a plane to Chicago in the morning. I’m leaving first thing.”
“Chicago? Why?” I frown at him.
“We just took out the head of the Bratva, Con. That will have consequences. I’ll need to smooth a few things over, is all.”
“You need me to come with you?”
“No,” he shakes his head. “It’s not that kind of business. It’s our legitimate associations I’m worried about.”
“Okay,” I nod.
“Besides, I’ll be gone for at least a week. I need you to take care of things here while I’m gone.”
“A week? Fuck, Shane! Do you really need to be away that long?”
He glares at me. “You just took two months off chasing Jessie all across the country. But I can’t take a week to handle some business?” he snarls.
I hold my hands up in surrender. “I didn’t mean it like that. We’ll miss you, is all. But what the fuck has crawled up your ass?”
He turns away and puts his head in his hands, and I realize exactly what this is about.
“What happened between you two? I thought she’d be with you right now?”
“Yeah? Well, so did I.”
“What? She turned you down? Jessie?”
He looks up at me. “Is that so hard to believe? That she is the one who is pushing me away and not the other way around.”
“Yeah,” I say with a frown. “Because that girl fucking adores you, Shane. So, what did you do?”
“Just forget it, Con. Me and Jessie are done. We will never be what you want us to be. So, for the love of God, will you stop pushing me about it?” he snaps.
I resist the urge to ask him any more questions because it will only piss him off more. “You need me to do anything right now?” I ask instead.
“No. I’ve got a few phone calls to make, and them I’m going to pack and get some sleep. Tell Liam I’ll call him tomorrow night some time. Okay?”
“Okay,” I say with a sigh. I know he’s not lying about having to smooth things over with some of our business associates, but I do wonder about whether he really has to leave so soon, or whether he is running away because he is terrified of confronting this thing between him and Jessie. But I wish the two of them would sort their drama out, because I fucking hate seeing him like this.
It’s another three hours before I go back to Mikey and Liam’s bedroom. I ended up staying in Shane’s office and keeping him company before I helped him pack. I can’t do anything about the situation between him and Jessie, but I can just be there for him. The way he always is for the rest of us.
The room is dark when I step inside and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. Jessie is still in bed with Liam, but Mikey is in there too, lying right behind her with his body pressed up against hers. Each of them with a hand on Liam. I have no idea what any of us would have done if we hadn’t got Liam back safely, but especially Mikey. I swear either one of them would die without the other. I walk over to Mikey’s bed and crawl beneath the covers, not even bothering to undress because I’m so damn tired. By the time the three of them wake up, Shane will be on a plane to Chicago and things are going to get real hectic around here, especially with Liam out of action too. So I guess I’d better sleep while I still can.
I close my eyes and can’t help but smile as I listen to Liam’s soft snoring. It reminds me of a time when he and Mikey were about fourteen and they had been grounded by Shane for smoking weed in the house. He has always been anti-drugs, which is kind of ironic given what we do. The twins snuck out of the house and went to a party. They stole two bottles of tequila from the bar that we owned back in Ireland, and drank almost an entire bottle each. Mikey managed to call me, although he could barely speak, and I went to pick them up. Mikey was drunk and could barely walk, but Liam had completely passed out and I had to carry him to the car and then into the house. I’d been so worried about him choking on his own vomit, that I’d kicked out the girl I had staying over and put him in my bed instead. And then I had to listen to him snore all night. Neither he or Mikey have ever touched tequila since. When Shane came home the following morning, the two of them looked so ill and sorry for themselves, that he couldn’t even bring himself to punish them any further.
Mikey spent most of the day with his head in the toilet, while Liam had just lay on the sofa like a slug, puking into a bucket at half-hour intervals.
I chuckle to myself at the memory. We did have some good times when we were younger. Mostly when our father wasn’t around. He’d been on one of his many trips to Spain that weekend. Even when our mom was alive, he’d disappeared there with one of his lady friends every couple of weeks. I think she looked forward to them, much like we all came to, because it offered some peace from him. If only he had fucked off to Spain permanently, all of our lives would have been a whole lot happier.
