“Marie.” Fiona already knew what her mother was like, so Nora just sighed and nodded.
Fiona took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “Wow. You’re working as a bikini waitress, you’re getting in fistfights, you owe money to a bookie, and you’re failing out of school.”
Nora remained silent. Fiona had done such a good job of summarizing the last few months, she had nothing to add. Little bad things happening here and there, she’d dealt with. But hearing them all laid out in one long list sounded insane…and overwhelming.
Fiona’s wide eyes turned to her again. “Is that all of it? Or is there more you haven’t told me?”
“Um,” Nora debated whether or not she should tell Fiona about her new romance that had seemingly dissipated as well. At this point, she’d put all her cards out on the table, and there was nothing else to lose. Fiona had been her only true support system for most of her life, the only person who thought she was worth it. She didn’t deserve the way Nora had been lying and holding back on her. “There’s more.”
“Oh, hell.”
Nora smiled slightly at Fi’s sarcasm. “This one isn’t as bad…I think. I’ve been, um, sleeping with Kane.”
Fiona blinked at her for a minute, then stomped her foot hard on the sidewalk, clapping her hands at the same time. “I knew it! I told Kieran, and he said you two hated each other, but I knew it!”
“What the hell? How did you know?” Nora was baffled both by Fiona’s keen perception and by her overly excited response. “We never told anyone.”
Fiona smiled and gave her a big hug. “You might have been a lying brat the last few months, but you’re still my best friend, Nora. I know you better than anyone. Wait, didn’t you just say upstairs that he dumped you?”
“I think he did.” Nora handed her phone to Fiona, who quickly scrolled through the messages she and Kane had exchanged tonight.
Fiona’s excitement waned quickly. “That bastard! I’m going to tell Kieran to kick his twin’s ass.”
“No, don’t!” Nora told her. “This is on me.”
“Bullshit. He blew you off tonight instead of just being honest and having an actual conversation with you.”
“He’s busy training for the championship, Fi. Seriously, this is not his fault. He was honest with me from the beginning about what we were. I was the one who maybe got a little carried away in my head.”
“I need to hear this story,” Fiona said.
Nora quickly filled her in on how Kane had stood up for her at the bar, then taken her to the doctor and cared for her afterward. She also told her about her mother dropping in the next morning, and how Kane had offered her the money her mother had demanded but that she’d turned it down.
“So all of this—this crazy shit you got involved in—is because of your mom,” Fiona confirmed in a flat voice.
“Surprised?”
“Not in the slightest. That woman was never the kind of mother you deserved. Even my mom, who certainly wasn’t a saint when she was alive, used to say that about Marie, and they were best friends.”
Fiona always got her, and Nora couldn’t understand why she’d waited so long to open up to her best friend. She’d needed her, and now that it was all out in the open, she felt…cleansed. The heavy burden on her shoulders was lighter because her best friend was helping her carry it.
“Do you have the rest of the money to give to this guy in twenty-four hours, Nora?” Fiona asked the question Nora couldn’t stop thinking about.
“I can try to find my mom,” Nora said, wondering how that would even be possible, or if it would even matter if she could. A new thought crossed her mind: if she couldn’t pay her mother’s debt, would her mother even intervene when she learned Nora had been threatened? She was afraid she knew the answer already. Her mother wouldn’t care if she was hurt—or worse—because of her. The thought chilled her and made her see her mother in a whole new light. “Or maybe I can get a loan from…somewhere?” she said hopelessly.
“Nora, we have to tell them. That’s the only way out of this.”
“Tell who?”
Fiona squeezed her hand. “Kane. Kieran. Seamus. All of them. They can help.”
“No,” Nora replied quickly. “Definitely not. This guy is dangerous. The Kavanaghs have been so kind to me already, and they don’t deserve to have to clean up my mess.”
“You’re out of options here, Nora. We are out of options. I’m in this with you now. And no, you don’t get a say in that. I’m telling Kieran, and you’re staying here tonight until he tells me what we should do.”
Nora groaned and stared at her friend. Fiona’s expression was unwavering, and, truthfully, she was probably right. Her situation was spiraling out of control, and she did need help. While Kane was the last person she wanted to ask for anything right now, his family members were the only people she knew who could truly handle a situation like this. Their Mafia ties, particularly Seamus’s, were a well-known secret. A small-time loan shark didn’t seem like much of a match.
Nora finally agreed, joining her best friend inside as she called her fiancé. The other women left shortly after, none the wiser and full of wedding plans for Clare and Rory. After the call was made, Nora curled up on Fi’s couch, snuggled against the pillows, and covered herself with a cozy throw while she waited for Kieran to come by and tell her the plan.
Exhausted after such an emotionally taxing day, she struggled to stay awake, but her eyelids weren’t cooperating. Within minutes, she was fast asleep and dreaming about a life that didn’t involve debts, breakups, or Mafia families.
Chapter 15
“Kane, wake up.” His brother’s voice pierced through his dreams, stirring him to consciousness.
“The hell?” Kane sat up slowly, trying to acclimate himself to his surroundings.
Knock knock knock.
“Who the fuck is at the door?” Kane asked.
Kieran headed for the front door. “Everyone. Get dressed, we need to go.”
Kane rolled out of bed, his blood boiling hotter with each second that someone wasn’t explaining to him why the hell he was being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. He’d barely be getting enough sleep before training tomorrow as it was, having spent half the night tossing and turning with guilt over the last text he’d sent Nora. Kieran had told him he needed to cool things down between them, but Kane honestly had no idea how to do that. There was no way he could explain to her in person, because one look at those hazel eyes and he’d never say good-bye.
Kieran unbolted their apartment door and swung it open just as Kane walked into the living room after pulling on some clothes.
Kane was completely confused as his brothers and father barreled past him into the apartment. Seamus led the pack, and Rory, Quinn, and Jimmy were behind him. “What the hell is going on? Who died? Holy shit, where’s Mom? And Casey?” Kane said in a panic; he’d never seen this happen before. He couldn’t think of any reason, short of a disaster, why all his brothers and his father would show up at his apartment in the middle of the night.
“Everyone’s alive and kicking,” Quinn assured him. “But maybe not when we get done with him.”
“With who?” Kane asked.
“Kane, how much do you know about Nora’s money issues?” Seamus asked him.
Kane’s brows lifted as he scanned the faces in front of him. “Nora? Nora Hannigan? Did something happen to her? Why are you asking me about her?”
“Just answer the question.”
Kane licked his lips and ran a hand over his head. “Yeah, her mom got into it with some low-level bookie. Then she took Nora for some cash, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she blew it at the track instead of paying him.”
“Shit,” Jimmy mumbled. “She must have owed more than just the one. Or he’s coming back for more.”
“Not when we’re done with him,” Quinn warned.
Kieran’s gaze landed on him as Kane rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of what
was happening. “There are too many people in here,” Kieran said, a thoughtful look on his face. “Everybody get out and go wait in the car. I’ll be down with Kane in a minute.”
“Fill him in,” Seamus instructed his son as everyone filed out, leaving the twins to talk.
“What the fuck is going on, K?” Kane asked his brother after the others left.
“Everyone knows you’re dating Nora.”
“And that warrants a two a.m. visit, with everyone banging on our apartment door? How the fuck does everybody know?” A frown pulled at Kane’s face.
“Sorry, but anyway, that’s not why they’re here.” Kieran took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. Kane’s body filled with dread. “Nora’s in trouble. Fiona overheard a bookie threatening her. She was a little short on a payment, barely anything, but it pissed him off enough that he demanded the full sum now. She’s got twenty-four hours to pay her mother’s gambling debt off entirely, or…”
Kane’s jaw was tight, his fists clenched at the very idea that someone would dare threaten her. “Or what, Kieran?”
“Fiona said he implied that if she couldn’t pay, she’d have to work it off for him…sexually.”
“What?” Kane paced across the room and back. “I need a name. Now.”
“Here.” Kieran handed his phone to Kane. The screen contained the bookie’s mug shot and last known address, thanks to Jimmy’s unauthorized access of DMV records. “Listen, bro, we’ve all got your back. Let’s get this done together.”
“This guy is done the moment I see him,” Kane seethed, grabbing his keys and heading for the front door with his twin right on his heels.
“Kane, wait! You need to let us take point on this,” Kieran told him as they locked the front door behind them. “You can’t afford to get injured.”
“Fuck that.”
Kieran sighed. “Take it up with Pops. He’s not going to let you risk it.”
Kane whirled around to face his brother, his index finger in his face. “This is for me to handle. Not my brothers, not my dad. Nora is my wo—uh…Nora is my responsibility.” He shook his head, wondering what he and Nora actually were to each other and why it felt as if it was all coming to an end.
What he did know was that he was about to take out on someone’s face the massive frustration he currently felt. And he wasn’t about to let his brothers take the first shot.
Chapter 16
“You’re a fucking idiot.”
Nora’s eyes blinked open slowly as she took in her surroundings. She found herself staring at the edge of a coffee table piled high with middle-school textbooks. Definitely Fiona and Shea’s living room.
Only a sliver of morning sun peeked through the windows. Despite having spent the night on the couch, Nora felt surprisingly rested.
“It got the job done, didn’t it?”
She froze as hushed, angry voices from somewhere behind her filtered into the room. Kane’s deep growl was unmistakable as he argued with his twin.
“Your career is almost done, too.” Kieran’s voice lowered even more, but Nora still heard him as she burrowed deeper into the pillows.
Kane exhaled loudly. “I knew what I was doing, K. I’m not stupid.”
“Oh really? Well, let’s see: you jumped out of a still-moving car, raced into the building before we’d even checked it out or could have your back, then beat the hell out of a bookie and nearly broke your fucking hand just a month and a half before the biggest moment of your career. You don’t call that fucking stupid?”
Nora pinched her eyes closed more tightly, hoping they didn’t come out of the kitchen and notice her lying on the sofa. Nausea welled up in her gut as she realized that the situation they were talking about was entirely her fault.
“Maybe,” Kane admitted. “But are you telling me you wouldn’t have done the same thing for Fi?”
Kieran scoffed. “For my fiancée? Seriously, Kane? You’re going to compare the two?”
Nora didn’t even breathe. She strained to hear a response, but there was only frustrating silence.
“You’re right.” Kane’s voice was filled with resignation. “But she’s special to me, K.”
Nora bit down on her tongue, pleading for Kane’s words to be true. She longed to be special. To feel loved.
Kieran sighed, and she could hear him turning the kitchen faucet on and off, as if he was wetting a towel under it very quickly. “Nora’s special to me, too. She’s amazing. So…what are you doing then? This uncertainty is where you end up losing focus, and we can’t afford that right now, man. Do you want something serious with her or not?”
More silence. Talk, damn it! Before she spontaneously combusted right then and there.
“No, definitely not. I want to fight. I’m not going to let anything stop that. This was just unexpected.”
“How was it unexpected? You knew Nora wasn’t some one-night stand, but you slept with her anyway,” Kieran said, and Nora cringed with embarrassment. “How else did you think this would play out?”
“She’s gorgeous, K. I wasn’t thinking about much more than that when it started out. She was fun to be around, always kept me on my toes, and we were both stressed out over different things. It seemed like what we both needed at the time, just keeping it casual. At least, that’s how it was supposed to go.”
Kieran sighed loudly. “Because women totally work like that, dude. What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to call it off. For good.”
A sharp pain slammed through Nora’s chest at his words.
“Why?” Kieran asked the question her heart was crying out to ask.
“Because this fight means too much to me. I’m not like you or Rory. I don’t have anything else to fall back on. This is all I’ve ever wanted. And you said it yourself: my game was suffering because of it.” Kane’s words were slow and deliberate, but they lacked conviction.
“Why not just put it on pause till after the championship?” Kieran probed further.
“Because the championship is just the beginning. If I win, there’ll be more fights, more traveling. I don’t want a relationship; I want to fight. I want to win.”
“More than anything?” Kieran pushed.
“The fight is the only thing.”
The fight is the only thing.
A second ago, she’d felt important. She’d felt special, like a priority to him. And even though he’d told her that fighting is his life from the beginning, hearing him say it now filled her with torment. She didn’t want him to pick her over the championship—she truly didn’t. Seeing Kane in the ring was a thing of beauty. It was everything he was meant to be.
She inhaled slowly, filling her lungs with as much air as possible to keep herself from breaking into tears. This is the way it was meant to be. This is what they’d agreed upon. She wasn’t going to change it.
He wanted fighting to be his life, and while this gambling debt was apparently forgiven, it wouldn’t be long until her mother had another. Nora wouldn’t be the one to get in the way of Kane’s dreams. She wanted him to have everything.
Even if that meant she’d have nothing.
“All right, bro. I don’t really agree with you here, but I’ll support whatever you want,” Kieran said. “Here, wash the blood off your hands.”
Nora stayed on the sofa awhile longer, until she heard the brothers finish up in the kitchen and then the front door close. Slowly, she peered up over the back of the couch, looking toward the kitchen. Seeing no one, she stood and began folding the throw she’d used.
As she finished placing the throw and pillows in a neat pile, Kane came walking around the corner from the hallway and almost collided with her.
“N-Nora,” Kane stuttered. “I didn’t see you there.”
Blinking rapidly, she cleared her throat. “Hi, Kane.”
“Did you just get here?” He looked nervous now, and she debated lying, but things were complicated enough without adding another lie.
“No, I slept here last night.” His eyes followed her hand as she pointed to the couch; its back faced away from the kitchen, but it was only a few steps away. She saw understanding register on his face, quickly replaced by an expression of guilt.
“You heard—”
Nora quickly waved a hand between them and headed for the kitchen in search of coffee. “We don’t need to talk about it. It’s okay.”
“Nora, don’t.” He followed her. “Come on, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to hear it like that.”
She whirled around to face him, her jaw clenched. “How did you mean for me to find out, Kane? A text message that you’ll be busy for a while? Or overhearing you talking to your brother about me?” The words were harsh and came out sounding more angry than she felt. Really, she was frustrated that things with him couldn’t be easy…wonderful…simple. But then, nothing was simple with her, either. Her life wasn’t exactly conducive to dating any more than his was—what guy wanted to date a woman with baggage like her mom represented?
Kane hung his head, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve never—I’m not—” He exhaled loudly, unable to find the words. “Listen, I’m not good at this, Nora. I told you that.”
“You did,” she agreed, returning to her task of finding coffee. “And that’s why we don’t need to talk about it.”
And she really didn’t want to. She’d heard plain and clear where he stood, and she couldn’t even fault him for it. They’d agreed to these terms pretty much from the beginning, for the sole purpose of having no hurt feelings later or, better yet, no feelings at all.
And yet somehow, feelings had still crept in.
Nora glanced up at him as she measured out coffee. He looked lost and confused, stranded in the doorway to the kitchen, as if he was unsure what to do or say.
The torment on his face softened her anger, and she remembered the rest of his conversation with Kieran. She thought of everything he’d done for her last night, putting himself in harm’s way to help her, and she was touched. She’d gone straight for petty anger at being rejected, when she should be feeling grateful that this man had risked so much to help her.
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