by Kay Maree
"You didn't warn him that we were coming?"
"Like I said, he went off the grid. I thought maybe one of the guys who is usually out here could have pre-warned him but I couldn't reach him either." He took the keys out of the ignition and undid his seat belt. Undoing mine, I watched him get out of the car and waited for him to signal that it was okay for me to come up. I half expected dogs to come out of nowhere but there was nothing but silence. Twenty minutes later, Liam came back out and motioned for me to come inside. Getting out of the car, I followed the same path up the stairs that he had and met him at the front door. Moving past him as he held the door open for me, I walked inside the house. I stopped and let Liam walk ahead of me to where Eoin was waiting in the kitchen.
"Corey, this is Eoin. He has agreed to talk to you, but can't promise that he has the answers that you are looking for."
"Thank you, I appreciate you seeing me." Eoin stayed silent but motioned to the chair in front of him. Taking a seat, I rest my arms on the table in front of me. "I'm not sure what Liam has told you but I was sent here by my father. There is a secret hidden here, one that I think was left by Derek Evans when he was a Reaper. I haven't asked Raven just how much his dad spent over here, I'm not sure he would be able to answer me if I did so I was wondering if you could help. I wasn't given much to go on so I just need somewhere to start."
"I know the secret you mean. It was left here by him when his boy was five. It's not a what you are searching for though, it's a who and it's not hidden. They have been in plain sight all this time. The only secret was who they belonged to." I looked to Liam who wore the same confused look as me. I was looking for someone not something? That didn't fucking help me at all, just led to more questions. As though a light was turned on, Liam's look of confusion disappeared.
"Oh for fuck! Eoin, do you mean who I think you mean?" Eoin just nodded.
"Okay awesome, someone want to fill me in now?" Liam took a deep breath.
"Please believe me when I say, if I had any idea, I would have told him a long time ago."
"Told who what? What the hell is going on Liam? Just spit it out?"
"The who he is referring to is Rosaleen Byrne. I believe it should be Rosaleen Evans though... Raven's half-sister and Derek's biological daughter." I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out so I closed it again. What the fuck could I say to that? How the hell did we not know that Raven had a sister living over here and had been in plain sight this whole time? Had we met her before? I had so many new questions, erasing the old ones.
"Where is she?"
"She works at the clubhouse behind the bar."
"Just in the bar?"
"Yes, Corey, just in the bar. She owns another one in town, but she stays in the clubhouse where our guys can keep her safe. We always saw her as family so we kept her safe."
"What about her mother?"
"Caitlin. She's a paediatric nurse at the hospital. Also helps us out if we need any medical attention that isn't serious enough to need a doctor." I let out a breath and just let all this information sink in. "What are you going to do, lad?"
"Well, I have to tell Raven. If he doesn't believe it, he'll bring Tucker out here for a DNA test. If he does, he will want me to take her home to the States. In the end though, it will be Rosaleen's choice on what she does. She has lived here all her life, I doubt she will want to up and leave because the brother she has never met wants her too."
"Shouldn't you maybe go and speak with her first before you bring Raven into it? If he comes in here, you won't get much of a chance." Liam had a point. Raven was the shoot first and ask questions later kinda guy. Maybe if I calmly explained the situation to her, she could decide if she wanted to come and meet him and then come back or whatever she wanted to do.
"You've got a point. Let's go and speak with her then, I'll call him and tell him what's going on. As I said though, he may not believe it."
"Would not calling and taking Rosa back to the States to break the news to him work better? If she will go, of course."
"I don't know if springing this on him will go down any better. Let's just go and speak to Rosaleen then we can go from there." Liam nodded and stood up. I followed suit. On his way past, he clasped his hand on Eoin's shoulder and squeezed it softly. "Thank you for telling me. I appreciate you seeing us." Eoin stood up and followed us out of the house so he could lock the door behind us.
CHAPTER FOUR
Corey
Liam took me straight to meet Rosaleen after we were done with Eoin after first calling ahead to make sure that she was in. We pulled up and got out of the car. He put his code into the keypad on the door to open it up and I followed him inside.
"If you want to head down to my office, I will grab Rosaleen and bring her in. I don't think this is a conversation to have in front of everyone." I nodded and took the keys that handed to me. "It's the last door on the right." Letting myself into his office, I put his keys on his desk and sat down in one of the chairs. Pulling my phone out of my pocket when it went off, I saw a message from Raven asking how things were going. Not knowing what to say, I put my phone back in my pocket deciding to deal with one problem at a time. Not that Rosaleen was a problem... Yet.
The sound of the door opening pulled my attention back to the task at hand. When Rosaleen and Liam walked into the room, I stood up as a sign of respect. We always stood for our Pres so I was showing that same courtesy. Beside him was not what I expected. She was completely opposite to Raven so I guessed they both took after their mothers although they both had the dark hair and green eyes.
"Rosa, meet Corey. He is one our brothers from America." I held out my hand towards her.
"Nice to meet you, Rosaleen."
"Please, call me Rosa. Only my mother calls me Rosaleen and that is only when I am in trouble. It's a pleasure to meet you too Corey." She took a seat, Liam and I following suit. Her accent was as thick as Liam and Eoin's both were so I was really gonna have to pay attention if it got worse if she got angry or upset right now. "So Liam, what's this about? You said you wanted to speak to me about something."
"Not so much me, Rosa as Corey does." He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. I can see he was going to be a lot of help to me. She turned to face me with a confused look on her face. Taking a deep breath, I shifted my chair a little closer to hers.
"I was sent to Ireland by my father. He told me that there was a secret hidden over here that needed to come out. I still don't know why I had to be the one to come when someone else would have been much better suited to this task. With nothing to go on, I jumped on a plane and headed here. With Liam's help, I was able to speak to someone who was able to clear things up for me. The secret that he meant was that one of my brothers back in the States has a sibling here that he never knew about. We don't know how much this person has had to do with his child and I'm sure we will find out, but to clear up some confusion for you, Rosa, you are the secret I was sent here to uncover. My MC club president, Cameron is your brother." I went quiet as I let her process this information. She looked from me to Liam, who nodded to confirm that I was telling the truth.
"Does he know?"
"Who? Cameron?" She nodded. "No, not yet. I haven't told him what I have found out. We thought it would be best to speak to you about it first." Liam cleared his throat. Rolling my eyes, "Okay, Liam thought it would be better."
"Why?"
"If we tell him, he is going to go one of two ways. Fly here to meet you and demand a DNA test if he doesn't believe me or he is going to want me to fly you back with me to the States where he can keep you safe. He has developed this hero complex since he met his girlfriend. That choice should be up to you though. One way or another, this secret is going to come out and he will find out."
"Which way do you think he is gonna go?"
"I'm not too sure to be honest. You would think that illegitimate children were something we dealt with
all the time, but we have cleaned up the club since Cameron took it over from his father and the closest we came was my sister dickhead boyfriend having a boy with one of the club girls. Both now have nothing to do with us." Rosa turned to look at Liam.
"Did you know?" He sighed.
"Yeah, Darlin, I did. Eoin told us when he retired that this day might come. Thought it would be Raven knocking the door down though." I snorted.
"I wish he was. No offence but this isn't the best use of my time." Her hands gripped the chair and she pushed herself up out of it.
"Go home, Corey. Tell Cameron the secret. I won't be joining you though. I have a life and family here, he has the same there. No reason that should change." Rosa got up and walked out of the room. I shook my head to make sure that had actually happened and glanced over at Liam who was trying not to laugh.
"She is a fiery one. Give her time to wrap her head around this and then talk to her again. Try to leave out the part about having better things to do though." I ran my hand over my jaw.
"You would think having a sister would teach me how to choose my words carefully."
"That is something us guys will never learn. We will constantly be putting our foot in it and pissing them off. I do believe that's why we're put on this earth!" I couldn't help but laugh at that. When he stood, I did too and picked up his keys from the desk. "Why don't you take my car and go get some more sleep or call Raven. I know he is gonna be looking for answers too, but want my advice?"
"Yes, please?"
"Keep this from him a little while longer. Tell him you are still looking into some leads or something. The last thing Rosa needs right now is someone coming in and bossing her around. She doesn't even take that shit from us, let alone a brother she hasn't met. She will want to speak to her Ma, who is going to rip me a new one for telling her this without her. She will come to a decision soon enough. Curiosity will get the better of her and she will want to meet her brother."
"Thanks, does she know her father is dead?"
"Doubtful. Don't think she has seen the guy since she was five."
"Can we keep it that way? Just let her digest this?"
"Sure, lad." As Liam was there the day he died, I am sure he was more than willing to take that secret to his grave. Leaving his office, I decided to go and get some food. It had been a while since I'd eaten, then I would do the calls to home. Possibly be a pussy though and just text Raven. I wasn't sure, after all these years, that I could lie to him in a phone call or face-to-face. I felt Rosa's eyes glaring daggers at me as I left the clubhouse and went out to Liam's car. I needed a fucking drink. Alcohol then food.
CHAPTER FIVE
Rosa
Life is funny. You spend the whole time thinking one thing, then someone comes in and in a second, everything you thought you knew gets blown to hell. I knew that my da wasn't a saint. The fact that I hadn't seen him since I was five had told me that many years ago. While all of my friend's fathers were teaching them how to ride bikes or drive cars, mine was in another country with his real family. I couldn't complain though. My ma did a hell of a job raising me and I owe everything to her for the person I became today. She worked so hard to provide for us and make sure we never went without, had a roof over our heads and a warm bed to sleep in at night. Growing up in some parts of Ireland, that is a luxury in itself. Why did he need to show up now? Not even. He sent his minions instead.
When I walked into Liam's office with him, I never expected to hear those words come from a complete stranger. Once he left, Liam came back to check on me and ended up getting the silent treatment. Mature maybe not, but I hated surprises. Not only that, for him to turn around and say he had better things to do really pissed me off. Once I was left alone again, I took my phone and went to sit outside. Now was one of those times that I wish I'd never quit smoking because I could really use one.
I checked the time to make sure that it was long enough between when she would have ended her shift and the start of her next one, she was in the safe area. I wouldn't wake her but if I did, she would need to be getting up soon anyway. Dialing her number, I sat on the picnic table that I made Liam put out here and waited for her to pick up.
"Baby girl, you okay? Shouldn't you be at work?"
"I am, Ma, I just had a visitor though so I am getting some air."
"Oh? Visit from who?"
"Someone from the States. Ma... Did you know I had a brother?"
"No sweetheart, I didn't, but I'm not surprised either. Your father wasn't one for commitment. When he found out that I was pregnant, he originally wanted me to have an abortion but when I refused, he said he would help me out however he could. I told him he could help me by staying the hell out of your life, but he didn't listen when he should have. It wasn't him who came to see you was it?"
"My da? No, it was a friend or club member of my brother's. He was sent here by someone to uncover a secret. Liam told me he knew."
"Okay, so what does your brother want?"
"Nothing I guess, I don't know. He doesn't know about me. His friend Corey said when he finds out, it's going to go one of two ways. Either Cameron will be coming here to do a DNA test to prove it or he will want me to go back with Corey to the States where he can keep me safe."
"What do you want to happen?"
"I want to go back to not knowing a damn thing! This is my home, why should I have to leave it or prove something I had no idea about nor do I care about. So we share the same DNA. If you aren't surprised that I have a brother, who's to say there aren't more running around out there. He could have one in every damn country for all I know."
"Why don't you go home and let one of the girls cover the bar tonight. Take a day or so to think about this and wrap your head around it. If you still don't want anything to do with your brother then tell his friend and make sure he knows that you don't want Cameron showing up. They can't force themselves on you. At the end of the day, Liam will do whatever you want and if that means stopping them from coming near you then he will do that. Trust him. We have gotten this far with his help."
"I think I might. Holly can cover the bar."
"Okay, baby girl, go swimming. That would always have you thinking clearly. If you need me later, you can call me. If I don't answer, I will call you back when I can."
"Thanks, Ma, I will talk to you soon. Love you."
"I love you too baby." Hanging up the phone, I got down from the table and head inside. Holly was just arriving as I went back inside.
"Hey, I'm not feeling so well. Do you think you can cover tonight? Call in one of the other girls if you need an extra set of hands."
"No problem. You gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." I said goodbye to her and grabbed my bag. Heading out to my car, I chucked my stuff in the passenger seat and started up the engine. I would start at the gym then go swimming. Hopefully by then I would have a clear head so I could decide where I wanted to go from here.
CHAPTER SIX
Corey
After the not so successful talk with Rosa, I gave her some space. Had it have been any of the other guys in my shoes, they would be more relentless, however, I had seen them all crash and burn a time or two so I learnt from their mistakes. I had called home to let them all know that I was okay. Abby tried again to get me to tell her what I was doing but I couldn't tell her. Not yet. I wouldn't ask her to keep this from Hailee, who would then have to keep this a secret from Raven. No, I couldn't ask anyone to do that so I would have to bare that burden. Liam offered to let me hang out with him and his guys, but I opted to stay out of his club business and his hair. He seemed a little relived when I told him that I had never been to Ireland so I was gonna see what was out there and do the tourist thing.
The first day of waiting for Rosa to come around, I stayed close by and went to see Grafton Street. I had googled the top must see places in Ireland and this was one of them. I, along with Abby, shared a love of music and it
was one of the ways we got her to relax, so with Grafton Street having buskers and performance artists, it kept my mind off everything. It was there that led me to my next destination. An old man who I met in one of the coffee shops there told me that I just had to go and visit the Kilmainham Gaol; I found out it was a jail in my language. It was where the leaders of the 1916 Uprising were taken before their trials. Once convicted they were executed in the prison yard. The history nerd in me was right there so I went to see that but not before going to see The Little Museum of Dublin. He told me that it must have been my lucky day because I managed to get a ticket. It often sold out days in advance. It was only two minutes away from the top of Grafton Street so it made sense to do that next.
On the second day, I wanted to reach out further. I debated between Cork for the Blarney Stone, and The Ring of Kerry at Country Kerry, or the Cliffs of Moher. After checking with Liam that the car I was borrowing from him wasn't needed anytime soon, I packed my bag and decided on both. I would head down to The Ring of Kerry and stay there overnight, even if it was only a four hour drive then a four hour drive to the cliffs via the ferry, I wanted to savor this so I opted to stay overnight. I was just walking out the door when Rosa was just about to knock on it.
"Hey, Rosaleen."
"Rosa please." She looked down at the bag I had in my hand. "I'm sorry, were you going somewhere?"
"I was. I wanted to see some of what Ireland has to offer so I was going driving for a couple of days. I can stay though if you needed something."
"No, you're fine. I don't want to keep you. Maybe we can talk when you come back?"
"Of course." She didn't move though and neither did I. I had a feeling whatever brought her to Liam's door today, wasn't going to let her relax anytime soon. "If you can take a few days off work, you could always come? I could use a tour guide or local in case I get lost. We can talk on the way?"