by L. A. Casey
Ryder stepped into the garden, glaring at Harley, who followed him.
“Bro,” he said to Kane, his tone softened, “let’s go.”
“I can’t leave her,” Kane said to Ryder without looking away from me.
I pressed my hand back to my cheek. “Just go home, Kane.”
I turned and walked into my father’s house ignoring Kane calling my name, and my brothers shouting for them to leave. I walked up the stairs to the bathroom and closed the door behind me, turning the lock to make sure no one could come in without my say so.
I rolled my eyes as I put the toilet seat down and sat on it—I never could get my father and Gavin to break the habit of leaving the seat up after my other three brothers moved out. I leaned forward, placed my face in my hands, and sighed. I rubbed my eyes but winced when a pulsing pain in my cheek demanded attention.
“Damn it,” I mumbled to myself and stood up.
I turned and took two steps towards the sink. I turned on the taps and washed my shaking hands. It took a few seconds of inner pep talk and deep breaths in order for me to look up, but when I did, I wished I hadn’t.
“Oh, no,” I grumbled.
My eye wasn’t swollen, but my cheekbone was. It was already bruised as well, a light electric blue spread out over my upper cheek. I thought back to nearly two years ago in Playhouse Nightclub when I last had a bruised face. That was Kane’s fault too, or was it Alec’s? Whatever, it was one of the brother’s fault. A lay of theirs got pissed and hit me because she thought I was trying to take her face down arse up position.
Please.
I shook my head clear of my thoughts and refocused on my reflection.
“How am I goin’ to hide this?” I thought aloud.
The last time I had a bruised face was before school term started so I didn’t have to worry about work. I had to worry about it this time around since term was already in session.
Make up.
I hoped the bruise wouldn’t darken up too much over the coming hours. I would be able to cover it up if it stayed light. Otherwise, it would draw unwanted attention at school from students and fellow colleagues.
“Me stupid brothers,” I muttered as I examined my face in the mirror. “Stupid Kane!”
I lowered my hands and tightly gripped the sides of the sink and took a few breaths to relax myself. I had enough to worry about without adding the Slater feud with my brothers and their stupid fight to my ever-growing list.
I refused to work myself up over them. I wasn’t taking bullshit from anyone, not even my family. That was final. I didn’t need the stress.
I nodded to myself in the mirror, turned and exited the bathroom. I descended the stairs and marched into the kitchen where I found my father scolding my brothers.
I felt my anger dip when I saw Gavin and how beat up he was. I didn’t have a favourite brother, but I did feel a little closer to him because I helped my father with him after my mother died giving birth to him. Granted I was only six when Gavin was born and couldn’t do a lot, but I stepped up as much as a little girl could. I knew not to complain, hog my father’s attention, or be an all-around problem. I accepted I wasn’t the baby anymore and that there was a serious change in our family.
I took it on the chin.
By the time I was ten, and Gavin was four, I would make food for him, wash and clean him, dress and play with him. He came everywhere with me. I would drop him to pre-school on my way to school and collect him from after-school on my way home. One of our older brothers would always tail us to make sure we both got to class on time, and to make sure we were safe. I think they just let me believe I was bringing Gavin to and from school because it made me feel like I had a great deal of responsibility with him.
I never told them I knew they followed us all those years—they were just doing what I was doing with Gavin in making sure we were safe. I couldn’t fault them for that, and I still couldn’t... except when they do really unnecessary things like fight other people over me.
“I’ll clean them up,” I said to my father and got the First-Aid kit from under the kitchen sink.
My father grunted, “You don’t deserve to be fussed over, you little pricks.”
James groaned, “Jesus, Da. What did you expect us to do? It’s the Slaters!”
“I don’t give a fuck who they are; you should have more respect for your sister than to treat her like a child who cannot handle her own situation. She is twenty-eight years of age.”
Go on, Da!
I stepped around my father when he paused his pacing to kick James in the leg. “And that is for makin’ the baby’s father hit Aideen in the face.”
“Da!” James hissed, leaned forward, and rapidly rubbed at the spot where our father kicked him.
I felt my lip quirk.
James glowered at my father but said nothing to him. He was thirty-four, but he knew age didn’t mean a thing when it came to our father. If he back-talked or stepped out of place, he would still get a hiding. All my brothers would. Even if they were bigger than our father, he’d cut them down to size real quick.
I audibly snorted, and it caused James to shoot daggers my way.
“Don’t look at me like that; you’re the one who just made me life ten times harder.”
“You’re blamin’ me?” James asked, angrily.
“Yeah, she is,” my father snapped, “and so am I.”
James threw his hands up in the air. “I defend me baby sister and I get backlash for it? Fuckin’ terrific.”
I glared at James. “You hit Kane for your own bloody reasons, don’t pretend you were doin’ it to defend me honour. I’m twenty-eight. I shouldn’t have to deal with this bullshit from me family.”
I turned away from James and walked over to Gavin who was holding his bloody face. I opened the First-Aid kit and then went and got a bowl of water. I put some ice in it from the ice dispenser in the fridge and grabbed a clean cloth.
“Look at me,” I asked Gavin when I reached him once more.
Gavin did as asked. He barely even winced when I dipped my cloth into the ice water and began to clean his face. I was angry with him, and not exactly for fighting. He was only helping our brothers, but I was pissed he went for Alec. Alec can be sweet as pie, but he can fight viciously when need be. Gavin’s face was proof of that.
“Big tough lad now… aren’t you?” I muttered to Gavin.
Gavin’s eyes shot to our brothers and father, his demeanour relaxed when he saw they paid us no attention.
“Why are you so nervous? They’re gonna find out sooner or later.”
Gavin grunted, “You’ll tell them?”
I shrugged. “Depends.”
“On what?” my stupid brother asked.
I moved my head down to his. “On whether you leave Brandon’s circle willingly or if I’ve to drag you from it.”
Gavin pulled away from me. “Bloody hell, Aideen.”
I stowed my itching palm and instead placed it gently on Gavin’s shoulder.
“I love you, and makin’ sure you have no part of that life is my job as your—”
“Sister!” Gavin cut me off on a growl. “You’re me sister, not me ma.”
I swallowed down the hurt that Gavin’s statement made me feel and played it off with a shrug. “You’re right, I’m not Ma, but I’m the closest thing you’ve ever had. You would want to start remindin’ yourself of that.”
I pressed a cotton ball hard against a cut over his eyebrow and it caused Gavin to hiss. I cleaned up the rest of his face and pushed the kit over to my other brothers as they began to clean themselves up.
“So,” James mumbled from across the table, “when are you goin’ to have... the baby?”
Fuck, that sounded so strange.
I cleared my throat. “In six months. I’m three months gone so it will be a short while yet before I start to show.”
“What’s that mean?” Dante asked me.
I snorted as I moved away f
rom Gavin. “It means before I start to show a bump. A pregnant belly.”
“Oh. Right,” Dante said and pressed a pack of frozen peas to his jaw.
“Six months’ time will be in January,” Gavin commented.
I smiled. “Yep, and you won’t believe when my due date is?”
My brothers all smiled. “Ma’s birthday?”
“The very one. Can you believe it? Out of all the days for me to be due a baby, it falls on Ma’s birthday.”
“I told you she is watchin’ over you—all over you.” I looked at my father when he stepped next to me. I smiled when he folded his arms around me. “Congratulations, babygirl.”
I squeezed my father tightly. “Thanks, Da.”
“Yeah, congrats sis,” Harley’s voice rang out.
I smiled as I pulled away from my father and found all my brothers up on their feet and moving towards me. I laughed when they surrounded me and we had us a big group hug.
“We’re goin’ to be uncles!” Gavin said, his voice sounding like a child’s.
I laughed and moved away from my brothers and over to the sink where I got a drink of water. “Yep, you will be uncles but so will the Slater brothers, so I’d appreciate you four not attackin’ them when you see them in the future.”
James smirked at me. “No promises.”
I shook my head. “Everythin’ is crazy right now for me and Kane. Please be considerate. He only got out of hospital ten days ago.”
“For what?” Harley questioned.
“He has diabetes,” I explained.
My father shook his head and glared at James.
“I didn’t know he was ill!” my brother snapped in his defence.
I exhaled.
“Besides, he didn’t hit like he was weakened in any way.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. My brothers and father followed suit.
A few hours passed by with just myself, my father, and my brothers talking to one another. We went down memory lane and discussed our futures with smiles and laughter. Around nine pm I began to feel really tired. Harley offered to drive me home, which I happily accepted. I hugged everyone goodbye, let them know I thought they were dicks for fighting, but that I loved them anyway.
Harley drove me home and walked me up to my apartment door. He bailed on my invite for a cup of tea because he knew I was tired. He left when I was safely inside my apartment with the door locked.
For a few moments inside my apartment I was calm and collected but all of a sudden, I couldn’t help it when tears welled in my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. I wasn’t much of a crier—I grew up with four brothers and a single father, it toughened me up—but with everything on my mind, I couldn’t keep it together.
I was going to have a baby, and my family hated the father of the baby.
I looked up to the ceiling and whimpered, “Whatever game you’re playin’, Ma, I don’t find it one bit funny.”
I could hear my mother’s rich laughter in my head and for a moment, it soothed me. I walked into my kitchen, flipped on the lights, and put my bag on the kitchen table. I filled my kettle with water and set it to boil.
I needed a cup of tea.
I actually needed something stronger, but seeing as I was pregnant, tea would have to be my go-to stress reliever drink from now on, and I could see a lot of cups of tea being made in my future.
“Aideen? Open up, it’s me.”
I blinked my eyes open and couldn’t help but smile a little as I got up from my sofa and lazily walked over to my apartment door and opened it wide for my best friend.
“I’m so sorry, babe,” Keela said as she stepped into my apartment and wrapped her arms around me. “I would have come over this mornin’ had I known.”
I hugged her back. “It’s fine.”
“It’s fuckin’ not!” she stated and pulled back.
She closed my door and led me into my sitting room where we sat on my sofa. I tucked my legs under my bum, and Keela did the same.
“Your face!” she gasped.
I waved her off. “It was an accident.”
“I promise I would have been over this mornin’, but the lads went back to Nico and Bronagh’s house to clean up and they stayed away until twenty minutes ago. They thought it would be better for us to hear what happened without seein’ them covered in blood.”
Flashes of the lads fighting this morning flooded my mind.
I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself. “It was horrible, Kay. They beat the shite out of one another. All of me brothers will have black eyes.”
“The lads have sore jaws and bruises, that’s for sure. Kane and Ryder’s jaws are swollen to hell, the bruises are up on their cheekbones and jawbones. Nico’s nose bled for ages he said, his eye is darkening and Alec... well, Alec only had two cuts—he was perfect compared to the others.”
I couldn’t help but snort. “That’s because Gavin stepped up to him, the little eejit.”
“He was helpin’ his brothers, which is what Alec was doin’. They’re both as bad as each other.”
“Men.”
“Yeah.”
We sat in silence then until Keela said, “From all the violence, I take it your brothers didn’t take Kane being the baby’s father well then?”
I burst out into unexpected laughter. “You could say that.”
Keela smiled at me. “Who was more pissed?”
“James,” I sighed. “He hates the brothers, so do the other three, and now me da definitely does. He threatened to kill Kane with a baseball bat.”
Keela gasped, “The steel one?”
“That’s the one.”
“Fuck me.”
“Yep.”
Keela shook her head. “I don’t understand why this shite happens to the lads, they can never just talk stuff out.”
“The day they talk somethin’ out, is the day pigs fly.”
“I second that.”
I smiled, but it was forced and I couldn’t hold it for long.
“Are you goin’ to stay here for rest of the weekend?”
I nodded my head. “No offence to you, but I just want to be on my own to wrap me head around everythin’. I still can’t quite believe I’m pregnant. It’s just so crazy.”
Keela let out a little squeal, “I’m so excited.”
I genuinely smiled at her. “This might be the start of a baby boom in the Slater family.”
Keela nodded her head. “I think it will be. I’m perfectly content with Alec and meself goin’ at a slow pace, but I bet when the baby is born it will be me wantin’ to speed things up this time and not Alec.”
I chuckled, “Once you’re happy, that’s all that matters.”
“I’m gettin’ there,” Keela said. “The four sessions I’ve had this week with me shrink are helpin’. We’re discussin’ things and it’s makin’ me feel better. Much better. Last night was the fourth night in a row that I didn’t have the nightmare. I’m takin’ it as a good sign.”
I reached over and squeezed Keela’s knee.
“It will get even better. Before you know it that horrible nightmare will be a thing of the past, just like its content.”
Keela smiled then waved her hand. “Enough about me, let’s get back to you.”
I groaned, “Let’s not.”
“Come on, you’re pregnant. This is huge.”
I grunted, “I know that, trust me.”
Keela was silent for a moment then she said, “Are you really goin’ to keep it?”
“The baby?” I asked, surprised. “Of course, I already told you that last night.”
Keela beamed. “I know, but I just wanted to make sure. I would support you no matter what you decided to do, but I’m glad to hear you say you’re really keepin’ it. I can’t wait to be an auntie.”
I blinked. “Givin’ the baby up never even entered me mind, neither did an abortion. I was just thinking about livin’ space, and money... and tellin’ Kane and me family.”<
br />
Keela chortled, “That’s normal. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t worry about being able to finance a child, but you can. You have a solid job with good pay. You can do this.”
I was still unsure.
“I guess, besides, it doesn’t look like I could get rid of Kane even if I tried. I’ve a strong feelin’ he came here with you and you just made him wait downstairs.”
Keela stared at me, unblinking. “Are you a Jedi?”
“Yes.”
“Seriously, how did you know he was downstairs?”
I shrugged. “I told him to leave me alone, so he will do the exact opposite of that. He is like his brothers—he doesn’t listen to a word we say.”
“I’m seriously freaked out right now,” Keela said and stared at me like I was Obi Wan.
I snorted. “Were you goin’ to tell me he came with you?”
She shrugged. “I wanted to judge how you were feelin’ first. I thought you’d be pissed, but you just seem... sad?”
I frowned. “I’m not sad, I’m just overwhelmed. It’s been one hell of a twenty-four hours. I’m ready for it to be over.”
A light knock sounded on the door then and Keela growled.
“I told him to wait in the car.”
I winked. “Told you, he doesn’t listen. Just like his brothers.”
Keela sighed and stood up from the sofa. “Will I drag him along with me?”
“Go for it. I want to see how long it takes for him to get past you.”
Keela silently laughed as she stood up and headed towards my front door. She opened it and instantly pressed her hands against Kane’s chest when he tried to step foot inside my apartment.
“She doesn’t want to see you.”
Kane growled, “Tough shit. She is going to see me whether she likes it or not.”
Stubborn arsehole.
“Don’t have me call me brothers, Kane,” I called out from my sofa.
“Because that worked out so well the first time around?” he hissed back.
Keela screeched, “Don’t even think of comin’ over here and takin’ your bullshit out on her. She has been through enough already. She’s stressed to the max and your presence is not helpin’ things. Can you not just do as she asks and leave?”
“No.”