Kingdom (Avenues Ink Series Book 2)

by A. M. Johnson

  “She’s a mess,” I muttered mostly to myself.

  The nurse’s eyes drifted to Kelly and then back to me. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it. She licked her lips and exhaled. “I’m afraid she was intoxicated at the time of the accident. We drew some routine lab work and her blood tested positive for benzodiazepines and alcohol. Her blood alcohol was just barely over the limit, but…” She walked over to Kelly’s tray table, and I clenched my jaw. “Here.” She handed me a small business card. “This is the officer in charge of her case. We’re working on getting her medical records from California to see if she was legally prescribed the medication.”

  “Kelly doesn’t do drugs.” I spoke through clenched teeth as I placed the card in my jacket pocket.

  “I’m sure it’s prescribed then.” The nurse gave me a placating smile.

  My anger ebbed as I realized I didn’t fucking know if Kelly did drugs or not anymore.

  The hospital room door opened and a guy no older than me walked in wearing a white coat over his plaid shirt and tan pants. “Hi, I’m Dr. Irwin.” His lips set in a serious line as he held out his hand.

  I shook his hand. “Liam O’ Connell, Kelly and I… we… used to—”

  “Semantics.” The doctor smiled as he released my grip. “Family is family, and our case worker contacted you, correct?” I nodded. “Ms. Kavanagh is lucky to be alive.”

  My eyes dusted over her ruined face and something deep inside my heart died. I had a feeling Kelly wouldn’t think she was fucking lucky.

  “If that piece of the car frame had been just a few inches left or right, she might not have made it.”

  “Is that what that tube is for?” I pointed to the plastic thing hanging from her side.

  “She had a pneumothorax. The tube helps remove the air that caused her lung to collapse.”

  “And her face, will it heal?” I asked already knowing the answer.

  “The burn was from the air bag, and will leave minimal scarring. But the cuts on her face… those are permanent. The ER doc said he pulled a ton of glass and debris from the three lacerations. Two were deep enough to require stitches, especially the one that runs down her cheek and into her lip.” He walked over to the opposite side of the bed and used his pen to direct the gruesome path along her cheek.

  Kelly’s eyes were surrounded with black and blue as if her face had hit the steering wheel. Her cheeks were sliced and burned. She’d been alone… hurting, and it was all my fault. Guilt washed over me in crashing waves as the room stilled and nausea filled my throat with bile. All I hoped for now was that she could be spared any memories from the crash. She’d been chewed up and spit out. A memory like that would haunt her forever, and she already had enough ghosts.

  “I think tomorrow she’ll be able to go to the step down unit. We’ll cast her leg most likely tomorrow or the next. It was a stable fracture… no surgery will be needed. Like I said, lucky girl.” The doctor looked at the nurse and nodded his chin.

  “Mr. O’Connell, visiting hours are—”

  “I’m not moving from this fucking chair, so if you need to get security, go ahead.”

  “It’s okay, Karlee.” The doctor gave me a grim smile. “Just remember, Mr. O’Connell, rest is just as important to the healing process as medicine.”

  They both left the room without another word, and I inched the chair closer to the bed, avoiding the chest tube as I took her hand in mine. Kelly’s fingers laced through mine, and my heart skipped two whole fucking beats. She moaned, and her lips parted as her eyes fluttered open. She scanned the ceiling, and her eyes tracked with uncoordinated movements until they found mine. She barely rolled her head to the side and tears leaked from the corner of her eyes.

  “Why are you here?” Her voice was scratchy and weak.

  Her brown eyes spilled every rotten fucking thing I’d ever said to her, and I had to look away. I dropped my hand from hers and focused on the tube that saved her life.

  “Why did you wrap your car around a tree?” Since the moment the nurse told me, I had a sick feeling Kelly might have missed the red light on purpose.

  “Why would you even care?” she asked and, as I raised my eyes back to her face, she moved hers to the ceiling.

  I deserved her hatred, her fury.

  “Because no matter where the hell we stand, or how far apart we’ve become, you’re still my fucking family.”

  Her eyes closed and more tears escaped down the burn of her cheek and wet her stitches. As her eyes opened she winced, and the pain I felt was visceral as if her cuts, her bruises were my own. She let her head fall to the side, and the amber in her eyes shimmered behind her tears. “Family,” she said it like a swear word. “You’ve been gone for three years.”

  The line between love and hate, it was a goddamn precipice when it came to Kelly. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but I couldn’t walk away from her.

  “I’m here now.”

  The young man had no other choice. The bill he’d seen on the countertop, there was no way his parents could afford it. Declan’s medical bills, his father’s recent demotion, someone had to stop his family from falling apart. His knuckles ached and split as they gripped the steering wheel, but he ignored the pain as his eyes slid to the passenger seat.

  “I guess you think you’re better than us?” he asked despite the way the small girl shook in her own skin.

  “W-what?”

  Declan’s girlfriend stuttered and guilt compressed his jaw. He pulled the car to the side of the road. He watched her… her eyes opened liked saucers. She looked at him like he was an animal. She probably thought he was. After tonight, after she’d witnessed the fist fight he and his father had gotten into, what else was she supposed to think? She had shrunk under his glare. He didn’t know much about her, except she was a doctor’s daughter and had no business messing around with Dex’s head.

  “Is he your charity project?” Liam raised his hands in question, even though it was more of an accusation. Her eyes darted to his cracked knuckles as she swallowed. “We’re a fucking freak show compared to your palace on the bench.”

  “Excuse me?” She lifted in her seat, her tiny frame proud.

  He didn’t give a shit about her pride. He was afraid she’d take everything that was good about Declan, she’d give him the lie of hope, and then leave him shredded. He wasn’t much older than her, or his brother, just a couple of years, but he’d almost lost Declan and…

  “Dex is special. He always has been, and if you—”

  “Declan is more than special, he’s brilliant, and beautiful, and…” She paused as Liam’s mouth raised at the corners. The girl’s eyes had filled with color as she’d spoken about his brother, and the look she’d given him, it released all the pressure building in his temples. “I suppose you think I’m just some dumb kid? I care about your brother. He’s the only one who gets me.”

  Liam lowered his head and said, “I’m sorry.” All the fight… all the anger seeped from his lungs as he exhaled. “I’m sorry you had to see that tonight, it’s…it’s fucked. This whole life… it’s not right.”

  He raised his gaze and stared out of the windshield of the car. He thought about what it would be like, to have someone think about him like that. Having someone fit him, accept him… but reality pinched and seared his knuckles. He didn’t have time to indulge in fairytales.

  Someone had to pay the bills, and, his father, he’d rather get lost in the bottle.

  No matter what his father had said, or how hard he’d hit Liam, quitting school and getting a full-time job was the only answer.

  He’d burn down the world if it kept his family afloat. He’d take on the worst kind of punishments if it meant there was food on the table and his little brothers were safe, but tonight he’d made sure that his father knew. The punch he’d landed would be his one and only.

  Once Upon a Time

  “Do you think we met by coincidence?”


  I chuckled. “Isn’t that how it works… chance?”

  Kelly rolled to her side, pulling the thin sheet with her and let her hands explore along the surface of my chest and ribs. The reflection of the street lamp flickered through her open blinds and penetrated the heavy flakes of snow as they steadily fell from the sky.

  “I mean, do you think it was fate?” she asked as the tips of her fingers toyed with the dermal piercing on my ribcage.

  Shit like fate, love at first sight, I didn’t believe in any of it. But I couldn’t deny the connection we had.

  “I think we just fit.”

  “I think it’s fate.” I chuckled and she smacked my chest. “Everything…” she exhaled a sad sigh. “Your dad, my dad, it’s all too similar, I think we were supposed to meet.”

  “Maybe.” My face split into a grin as I said, “I’m a lucky fuck, regardless.”

  Her hand drifted up my chest and rested on my left shoulder as her nose buried into the right side of my neck. I felt her lips spread against my skin into a smile as she inhaled. Kelly’s hair poured down her shoulders and tickled my chin as I pulled her closer.

  “Yeah, you are,” she hummed.

  Her nails trailed up and down my stomach, and I shivered. It was cold as fuck outside, it hadn’t stopped snowing for a few days, but that had nothing to do with the goose bumps on my skin.

  I drew a line down her spine and she pressed against me. The heat of her body stirred my pulse and set my heart’s rhythm into an uncontrollable beat.

  “What time will your parents be home?” I asked.

  Kelly lifted onto her elbow. I groaned at the distance and she giggled, the sound of it loosened the muscles in my shoulders.

  “My mom’s at work until seven in the morning. It’s the weekend, so my dad might not come home at all.”

  “Good.”

  I couldn’t help the stupid fucking smile as it spread across my face. Time, it was a fucking blessing. Kelly hovered just above my right side, her long, elegant form completely naked. Her cheeks were red as I stared at her mouth and then her tits. She was perfect. I swore every line of her had been drawn by a professional hand. My palm cupped her breast, and my thumb traced a circle around her pink nipple. She hardened under my touch, and her lips parted with a quiet moan. My fingertips brushed along the curve of her breast, across her collarbone, and gently wrapped around her neck, my thumb resting lightly against her throat. The planes of my stomach became rigid as she tilted her head back, and my hand fell from her throat, down past her breasts, and over her hip bone to her ass. She lowered her mouth to mine, her lips searching as her tongue licked the bow of my upper lip, and I opened for her.

  Kissing her… I’d forget who I was, all the bitterness—all the responsibility—it all fell away, and I submitted to the power of her taste.

  Kelly broke our kiss and, as always, I had to catch my damn breath, inhaling so deep I hoped to steal a little bit of her air to keep as a souvenir. This had become our routine since the first night I’d stayed over on her eighteenth birthday. I’d never been with a girl like her. No one ever fit me, or cared, or even stayed long enough to fucking give a shit about what I could offer, which wasn’t much, but she’d given me everything. She trusted me enough, she’d let me in. There were times, when the bullshit of my life was an undercurrent I couldn’t fight, but she filled all the empty space and made me stronger. I was still just a kid, a kid shouldering the fucking world, but she made me feel like a man. I watched her, watched as her tongue darted along her wet and plump as hell lips, and I didn’t think I was worthy of any of it.

  But every Saturday night, as soon as I was off work, I’d ride over to her place, park on the street a few houses down, and she’d invite me in. It was the best day of my damn week. If I actually subscribed to all the shit my mother had taught me and believed in God, I would thank his ass for making sure Kelly’s parents were never home. It was the only time we’d gotten to ourselves. Otherwise, it was date nights with her friend Kathleen and one of the asshole jocks from her school. Most of the time, Kelly would endure punk rock music and shop talk while she sat at Avenues and watched me work.

  “I missed you this week,” I admitted as I grabbed her waist and pulled her so that she was straddling me.

  She laughed, and it was one of those rare, sexy, low numbers that sent a vibration all the way down my spine. “I missed you, too. I told Kathy she owes me big time for picking up those two shifts.” I skimmed the curve of her hips and gripped her thighs as she rocked against the length of my dick. My fingers pressed into the soft flesh of her legs and she grinned.

  “Are you going to stay?” she asked as she bent down and left kisses along my chest, along the patterns of ink.

  “Don’t I always?” I lifted my hands to her cheeks as she leaned back and she flinched. “Are you okay?”

  Her eyes avoided mine as she sat back. I lifted myself onto my elbows and stared at her face. The light in her room was always too dim.

  “It’s nothing new, Liam.”

  She attempted to slide her body to the side, but I caught her waist. I scanned her face and noticed she had on more make-up than usual. I’d been in such a goddamn hurry to have her, that I’d missed the details. Every damn weekend I was like a depraved lunatic, and today had been no different. We’d tear each other apart, and then fall into the sweaty mess we’d just created. Fast and then slow, it was how we were. But, as Kelly’s lashes wet with tears, I was fucking pissed I hadn’t noticed earlier.

  “What happened?” I almost growled as I sat up all the way.

  She wrapped her legs around my hips and rested her forehead on my chest just below my shoulder. Her cool tears sliced me open as they trickled down my skin. We’d been together for almost five months, and her prick father had only met me once. He’d laid off her for a while, and I’d hoped my presence would’ve kept her safe.

  “What happened?” I asked again. This time with a gentle tone as my fingers ran through her hair.

  She lifted her head and locked her eyes on mine. “It was a few days ago. He was so drunk, Liam, I don’t think he realized what he was doing. He came home from the pub, and I’d just gotten back from work. I don’t even know what the hell he was pissed about. He just barged in my room, yelled at me for always being late. I told him to get out and he backhanded me.”

  She turned her cheek so I had a better view. It was faint, but it was there. I dusted the pad of my thumb along her cheekbone and her eyes closed. I was grateful, because if she could see the murder in my eyes, feel the fucking rage forming in my chest, my limbs, my heart, I was worried she’d cower away, and I never wanted her to fear me.

  “I won’t let this happen again.” It was an oath.

  Her eyes opened wide and vacant. “You can’t stop him,” she whispered.

  I brought my lips to her cheek and left a path of kisses along the bruised skin.

  “I’ll do whatever I can,” I promised as I leaned back and gave her the full weight of my stare.

  “When I graduate, I want to leave. Move to California, like I said before. It’s not just a kid dream, Liam, it’s the only way I’ll be able to keep him out of my life.” Her lips trembled as her hands gripped my shoulders. It was a plea, and I could feel it in my pulse. She wasn’t asking, she was begging me. “Come with me?”

  Every breath I inhaled and exhaled was marked as the hope drained from her eyes. It was fucking crazy, but I wanted to give her everything, give her the world, and maybe I couldn’t move to California, maybe I’d just get my own place, and we could live together. She was smarter than she thought she was. She could go to college here, she didn’t have to be a model. But the fear in her eyes told me she wasn’t ready for options, so I said the only thing I could to protect her, to let her know she’d always be safe, “I’ll go anywhere with you.”

  The frigid air crept along the sheets and covered me in a cool, damp sweat. My hand automatically searched across the small, full-sized bed for Ke
lly, but she was gone.

  “Don’t fucking tell me you don’t know! It’s every goddamn weekend.”

  I sat up in the empty bed and ran my hand through my hair, half asleep and half stuck in a nightmare.

  “Ira, calm down. She’s eighteen, it—”

  “This is my house and no fucking punk kid is—”

  “Maybe if you worked and actually paid the mortgage you could have a say.”

  The muffled groan, the sickening sound of bone on skin had me jumping from the bed. I quickly stepped into my jeans and pulled on my t-shirt.

  “Dad!” Kelly cried out. “Stop!”

  My heart was in my throat, my stomach clenched into a ball as I swung open her bedroom door and rushed down the hallway to the family room.

  Kelly’s face was drawn and white and my heart fractured. Her dad noticed me before anyone else. Kelly’s mom had her hand raised to her cheek. The right side of her lip was swollen. My eyes flicked to Kelly again, quickly assessing her face, her body. Her shoulders dipped and tears stained her cheeks and lips, but there was no sign that he’d hit her, too.

  “Get the fuck out of my house, you think you can—”

  “Dad! Don’t!” Kelly’s voice splintered and so did my self-preservation.

  He lunged at me, and I lunged right the fuck back. I didn’t give a shit that he had about fifty pounds on me, I was fueled by fury. Seeing the damage he’d caused first hand, live in action, it was what I’d needed to set him straight. I dodged his attempt to grab me and put every pound of anger, outrage, and power I had behind my fist as it crashed into his jaw. Kelly’s sharp intake of breath, her mother’s gasp, they echoed in the room as he fell to the floor. He muttered and groaned as he tried to get to his knees. This piece of shit was supposed to nurture and love his family, but just like my father, he let the lure of poison steal his affections. His sloppy breathing, his uncoordinated movement, I figured he was still a little drunk and it was probably why he’d gone down so easy.