IRISH: a Bad Boy Fighter Romance

by Olivia Hawthorne

  “Are ye sure ye want to come along, kitten?” he asked as we pulled up on the tarmac next to his private jet.

  “I wouldn’t leave your side for anything,” I replied, smiling to hide the bundle of anxious nerves that were swirling in my stomach like a nest of snakes. I didn’t think it worked though; he pulled me to him and kissed me to calm me down.

  It worked, as long as I was touching him, I felt safe and sane again.

  We got onto the plane and I was surprised to see Jake waiting for us.

  “You have too much te lose,” Knox told him with a dark look, “yer not coming along.”

  “I won’t let you walk back into that viper’s den alone,” Jake replied steadily, not getting up from his seat. “I’ve been by your side since I found you broken and fighting for survival back in Ireland. I’m not leaving you now.”

  “What about your wife?” I asked softly.

  “She knows what’s going down, and she’s more than prepared to handle shit if anything happens. We need one legal representative with access to money and lawyers if this goes wrong,” Jake replied.

  “Is the cargo secured?” Knox asked and sat down in the luxurious leather seat opposite Jake. He patted the one next to him for me to sit. I did.

  “It is, we’re a go once Sabrina gets here,” Jake replied with a grimace. I wondered if he knew who she was already.

  A few moments later she arrived with another girl, a teenager with similar hair and a bright spatter of freckles across the bridge of her nose.

  She should have been texting with her friends or listening to the latest boy bands, not part of an international smuggling ring. I couldn’t fathom the life that had brought her into this so young.

  “Are we all set to go, love?” Sabrina asked as she flounced on board and draped herself in one of the chairs. The girl sat next to her.

  “We are,” Jake said and I noticed Knox could barely look at her; his hands were almost shaking with anger.

  She must have decimated his heart back in the day, but I was here to scoop him up and sooth his rage.

  I looked across the aisle at her and didn’t flinch when she gave me a smug grin. She ended up looking away first and I took Knox’s hand in mine and fell into his arms for the duration of the flight.

  I might as well give him something to think about other than how Sabrina had hurt him.

  From his hurt he could see the love that was in front of him, and he could ignore her simpering attempts to flirt with Jake if I was in his arms.

  It was during the mostly silent flight that I realized something important.

  Our love might have happened fast and hard, but it had happened for all the right reasons.

  We were in each other’s lives to heal the past and build the future…together.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Knox

  We landed at a little airstrip somewhere across the US border into Mexico. It wasn’t that far in, but far enough that we’d be in deep deep shite if we were caught.

  It was pure folly to have brought Lennon with me, but I was a weak fekking man in her presence. I couldn’t turn her down when she demanded she come along, and I didn’t know how to say no when she insisted on being included in every aspect of my life.

  I didn’t fekking know how, and it felt unnatural to keep her outta me business.

  She was also the one thing that kept me from jumping across the aisle and smacking the shite outta Sabrina.

  I wasn’t one to hit women, I never had, but for Sabrina to drag some poor girl into this life of hers was beyond my ability to reason. She knew exactly the kind of effect it would have on me.

  She was the one who had lead my sister astray and she was the one who had eventually gotten her killed.

  Sabrina had latched onto me little sis after she’d had her way with me. We’d been running around when Katie had gotten bounced into the same home as us and Sabrina had done her a solid by taking me wee sis under her wing.

  What a fekking mistake that had turned out te be.

  I had already cleaned up me act and started fighting when I’d heard the news. Sabrina had gotten Katie killed on a run like this one, into Budapest.

  It was the final broken tie to me past and had allowed me to push it all behind me and move ahead.

  Until now, seeing Sabrina with the young girl made me rage with a fury that worried me.

  I needed to release it soon or I would explode, and I prayed it wasn’t on the wrong person.

  Not Lennon, I would never direct me rage towards her, but to Jake or Joe. I didn’t want te hurt either one of them, good loyal friends that they were.

  Sabrina sauntered off the plane to meet her fella on the runway and I stayed back with Lennon.

  I waited until Jake had come back on board and asked him, “Everything all ready?”

  “Looks like,” he said and glanced at Lennon. “They’re asking for you though.”

  “Shite,” I mumbled. “Stay here, kitten.”

  I stood up and she tried to follow but I was firm with her. “Jake, keep her in here.”

  He grabbed her wrists and said, “I’m sorry for this, but he’s the boss.”

  “Knox, wait,” she wailed. “This is bullshit, let me off the plane!”

  It broke my heart to hear the fear in her voice, but I needed her safe for her own good and mine.

  With her in my head, my head wasn’t clear…if I was worried about her safety I wouldn’t be able to negotiate the deal.

  “Knox O’Fuckin Connor,” said a man walking towards me with his hand out. “I canna tell ye what an honor it is te meet the King.”

  I shook his hand and saw Sabrina glaring at me. “Don’t give him a bigger head than he’s got,” she spat.

  “I’m afraid ye have me at a disadvantage,” I said, “I don’t know yer name.”

  “My name is Duncan Moran and I wanna marry yer wife,” he said with a wide grin.

  “Ye mean Sabrina?” I laughed. “She’s all yers as far as I can tell.”

  “Aye, that she is,” he replied, the smile gone from his face. “The thing is we’d like what’s hers too.”

  “What do you mean?” I replied, anger rising up inside me now. “I brought the cargo. It’s all yours.”

  “I imagine we mean half of yer money,” Duncan said in a low tone. “It’s only fair what’s comin to her.”

  “Half me money?” I exclaimed. “Ye must be daft. Now unload yer cargo before I dump it off the plane right here on the runway.”

  Duncan glanced at Sabrina and back at me. He drew in a deep breath and said, “Ye see that’s where we differ. We want more than the cargo, we got a revolution to fund and ye got the funds.”

  “Listen,” I growled, “Yer fekkin lucky I even brought the cargo. Now get it off me plane or get the fek outta me way.”

  “I don’t think ye get what we’re doing here,” Sabrina said stepping towards me. “We’re funding a war. And we need yer fekking money. If ye don’t wanna give me half in the annulment, then I’ll take it all after yer dead.”

  I realized where they’d been going with it a little too late. I bellowed for Jake to keep Lennon safe and I dove to the side as Duncan pulled out a handgun and fired at me.

  I felt a searing pain in my thigh where the bullet grazed me and I rolled behind the huge wheel well of the jet.

  I clutched at myself and realized I had left my gun on the plane under the seat. I hadn’t wanted to frighten Lennon by pulling it out in front of her.

  How the fek had I gotten us into the shite and how the fek was I gonna get us out of it?

  Chapter Thirty

  Lennon

  “Get down,” Jake ordered and pushed me in a space behind the bar at the back of the jet.

  “What’s going on? Was that a gun?” I yelped as he shoved me harder. “Knox!”

  “Stay quiet,” Jake said and reached under his black leather jacket for a gun. “I’m going to see what happened.”

  “I knew w
e shouldn’t have come here,” I said to myself more than Jake. I huddled behind the bar with uncertainty racing through my veins. I could feel my pulse throbbing in my temples and I wondered how the hell my life had turned upside down in such a short time.

  I didn’t know if I was cut out for this kind of life, the ups and downs and dangers were making my anxiety pulse through my body in an almost incontrollable fashion.

  I forced myself to breathe slowly, focused on my heartbeat and tried to listen to the outside of the plane for any more gunshots.

  I heard somebody on the stairs to the plane and I ducked down even lower. I crawled towards the chair Knox and I had been sitting in, hoping to find my phone or something I could use to help me.

  I reached around the chair, but a dark figure blocked out the doorway and Sabrina’s voice said, “Kitten, ain’t that what he calls ye? Where are ye? Here kitty, kitty.”

  I crouched lower and pushed my hand under the seat looking for a weapon of any kind. My hand struck cool metal and I wrapped my hands around it.

  A gun! I pulled it towards me and looked at it.

  I didn’t have the first idea of what I was supposed to do with it, but I felt stronger for having it in my hands.

  I vaguely remembered things I’d seen on movies and TV and looked for the safety switch.

  I assumed I’d found it and slid it up, put my finger on the trigger and waited, holding my breath.

  The blood pumping through my body felt like ocean waves crashing on the shore. I could hear it in my head, rushing and throbbing until I felt like I would go blind from the pressure and stress of the situation.

  “Kitty kitty,” Sabrina said in a sarcastic tone. “Where are ye?”

  She was right in front of the chair, I knew she was about to find me and there was nothing I could do about it.

  I felt her hand grip my ankle and pull. I kicked and flipped over, facing her at last.

  “There ye are!” she shrieked triumphantly.

  “Here I am,” I said, holding the gun up and pointing it right at her face.

  She laughed at me as if this whole thing was a fucking game.

  “You don’t know what yer doin,” she crowed.

  I steadied my hand, took every ounce of my control to stop the shaking, and pulled the trigger.

  Nothing happened.

  Sabrina grabbed for it and I crab crawled backwards across the floor of the jet. “Fuck off,” I yelled. “Get bent, you fucking whore!”

  I slid the safety clip the opposite direction but Sabrina was on me before I could take aim.

  She tried to wrestle the gun out of my hands, punching and kicking and even biting to get me to loosen my grip but I didn’t give in.

  “Get your hands off me,” I spat and heard the crack of a weapon going off. I heard a scream and fell backwards.

  Sabrina rolled off me holding her abdomen, blood swelled out from between her fingers and she started to convulse.

  I jumped to my feet, held the gun in front of me and rushed to the plane’s door. It was hanging open, the stairs still attached, and I could see nothing on the tarmac.

  I gingerly stepped down the steps and looked around carefully for Knox.

  A tall man with dark hair and a lithe, athletic body stepped out from behind a stack of containers and said, “Ye must be the blushing bride. Pleased to meet ye, I’m sorry I had to kill yer groom.”

  “Knox?” I whispered and blanched as the blood drained from my face.

  “Aye, sorry, he’s dead,” the man said and I felt my knees give way as I fell down the remaining stairs to the runway.

  I hit the pavement hard and my breath was knocked out of me with a deep grunt.

  I didn’t lose consciousness, but I felt darkness along the edges of my vision. A movement at the corner caught my attention and I turned my head just in time to see Knox leap out and jump on the man who had claimed he’d killed him.

  “Knox,” I croaked as he wrapped his hands around the man’s head and twisted brutally. I heard a discernable crack and the man collapsed in front of Knox.

  Knox shoved the man to the side and crossed the pavement between us in three long strides.

  “Kitten, are ye all right?” he asked in a voice thick with concern.

  “I think so,” I replied slowly. “I killed her. Oh my god I killed her.”

  “Who?” he asked and drew me up in his arms.

  “Sabrina,” I replied looking up at him. Would he hate me for killing a woman he’d once loved?

  “Ah, thank god,” he said, “she deserved what was comin to her.”

  “You killed him,” I said, looking over at the man’s crumpled body.

  “I’ve killed many more than him, kitten,” he replied sadly. “I haven’t been totally honest with ye…I used to be a terrible man. There’s so much I need to tell ye.”

  “I don’t care about any of it,” I said, “I just want to get home and get married.”

  He helped me up and kissed me as he wrapped his arms around me. “I thought I lost ye,” he said with a groan. “I woulda fekking died if I’d lost ye, kitten.”

  “I know, me too,” I said and fought a sob in my throat.

  We heard a moan from behind the stacked crates and he said, “Shite, Jake!”

  I followed him around and we found his best friend and manager lying on the ground with blood streaming from an open gash in his head.

  He wouldn’t open his eyes when we spoke to him and I looked around for something to help him.

  There was nothing, we were trapped with a plane load of weapons and drugs, two dead bodies and my man’s best friend possibly dying in our arms.

  My chest tightened as I wondered if life would ever settle down long enough for Knox and I to have a normal relationship. In spite of starting it out as business, our hearts had grown together and we needed time to let our love blossom beyond the initial contract.

  The question now was would we ever get that time? When was our love going to be given a chance to bloom?

  Chapter Thirty One

  Lennon

  “This looks bad,” I said, crouching down next to Jake. “Was he shot?”

  “I don’t know,” Knox replied, dropping to the tarmac on the other side of Jake’s body. “Can ye see an exit wound?”

  I gingerly rolled Jake’s head so I could check the back. I saw nothing but the wound on the front. “I don’t think so. He was probably hit which is much better than him being shot but he’s still losing a lot of blood.”

  I scanned the area for anything to help us load Jake back into the plane. There wasn’t much, just boxes of who knows what stacked beside us.

  “I’m gonna get the pilot,” Knox said, “ye stay here with him.”

  I nodded as he stood up and ran towards the plane. I took off my hoodie and pressed it against Jake’s bleeding head. Something was better than nothing I supposed.

  Jake moaned as I kept pressure on his head, I felt bad but I was doing my best to keep him from bleeding out. I cursed my lack of first aid training just then.

  “Where’s Sabrina?” a voice whispered to me from behind the stack of containers and I jumped and looked around. I recognized the young girl from the plane.

  “I’m so sorry…she’s dead,” I replied in a low voice. I tried not to let my guilt consume me just then, I would have time to grieve once we’d made our way back home.

  “What do you mean she’s dead?” the girl wailed and walked around the stacked containers. “She promised to get me home.”

  “Where is home?” I asked, wishing I could stand up but I didn’t want let up on the hoodie.

  “Dublin,” she replied. “I’m not a criminal, ye know. Sabrina’s me cousin and was supposed to take me on a vacation to America.”

  “I’m sorry you got caught up in this. Where are your parents? Are they in Dublin or did they come to the US with you?”

  “Dublin,” she said. “They would die if they knew what had happened. You can’t tell th
em…they’ll never let me go anywhere ever again if you do!”

  “I won’t,” I smiled. “I promise. What’s your name?”

  “Kelly,” she replied. “I hate it.”

  “It’s a lovely name,” I said. “I’m Lennon.”

  “I know, Sabrina told me. She hates you, but I think yer nice,” Kelly said.

  “I think you’re nice too,” I replied and tried to force the image of Sabrina’s death into the back of my head. I couldn’t handle dealing with it right now.

  “Lennon!” Knox said as he and the pilot scrambled down the stairs of the plane. “Is Jake still…”

  “He’s alive,” I said, “but we have to get him to a hospital.”

  “We’ll carry him in,” Knox told me and indicated to the pilot to help him lift Jake. I took the hoodie away as they hauled him up into their arms. The bleeding had slowed considerably. “Take yer jacket and get inside. Sabrina’s bleeding like mad.”

  “Sabrina?” I gasped. “I thought I killed her!”

  “Ye almost did, kitten,” Knox replied with a grim look. “But she’s alive. She’s been gut shot. She needs a hospital too.”

  I ran up the stairs ahead of them with Kelly right on my heels. I dropped to the floor next to Sabrina’s prone body and saw that her shirt had been lifted, exposing a massive wound to her abdomen.

  A flash of jealousy exploded inside of me and I wondered if Knox had tried to undress her, if he’d cared for her. Did he still care for her?”

  I pressed the bloody hoodie against her stomach and her eyes fluttered open. She gave me a weak smile and said, “Coming te finish the job?”

  “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead,” I said but we both knew I was bluffing. I thought I’d killed her, and part of me was relieved that I wasn’t a murderer…but a little voice said in the back of my head that it would have been so much easier to handle the annulment if Sabrina had just died.

  “Is she gonna live?” Kelly asked, joining me on the other side of her cousin.

  “I’m gonna live,” Sabrina said in her weak voice. “Where’s Duncan.”