He climbed on the back of his bike, a Harley CVO Road King, and started the engine before he put on his helmet. The helmet was a custom job, like his bike, completely bulletproof and with all the latest technology to drown out the sound of the engine.
Desmond had given him shit about it but he thought it was better to be safe than dead. As for his bike, his father hated it and still rode on a classic-style Harley. No way would he ever upgrade but Cillian didn’t give a shit about all of that. He loved his bike and would never trade it in for one of those old-school Harleys. It wasn’t him.
He was from a new generation and thought his bike should reflect that. Wasn’t it bad enough most of the time he wore shitkickers while he was on his bike? He preferred Chuck Taylors and owned more pairs than he could count; when he drove his truck, he wore them too. The old man couldn’t call all the shots, and he had to draw a line in the sand at a certain point.
Fuck Gisela and her fucking demands.
She would be the death of him and she didn’t even know it. All he could think about was fucking her and having those silky legs wrapped around his waist. Her pussy affected him like fucking Kryptonite but he desperately needed her, if only to get through tonight. He wasn’t looking forward to killing anyone.
Riley was a dickhead and a waste of space but he was only doing his job and didn’t deserve to die behind it. He knew a bit about the Club but not enough. He was just a business associate Quinn had gone to school with who claimed he was now working on the wrong side of the law but he had Fed written all over him.
The worst part was that he hadn’t even served any time in the military branches so he wasn’t battle hardened. Not like some of the older fellas who’d come straight out of the IRA or even himself. He’d worked with the Real IRA, knew how to build bombs and shoot someone from fifty meters away. He’d killed his first human being the same day Gisela went into a labor. A guy from the Unionist faction. He was given a crappy fucking .45 and told to shoot the motherfucker in the head. Of course the fucker had jammed on him and he’d end up beating the man to death with the gun instead.
The moment he saw the guy’s skull split open and his brains coming out, he knew the bastard was beyond saving.
Fuck!
Why the hell was his father putting him in this position again? He had his own demons he had to deal with, and compartmentalizing them into the far off recesses of his brain he never accessed worked just fine for him. But the older he got, the harder it became to just forget that shit.
Cillian drove even faster, the wind whipping past him as he passed tall pine trees on narrow highways but it was the best therapy he had to get rid of all of the macabre and sick shit he’d seen in his short life.
Riding his Harley and riding Gisela were the only two activities that made him feel human and murdered the feeling of him being evil incarnate. He could go home and face Declan and Caitlin and smile at them because he truly did feel at peace after a ride.
Now he’d done both his favorite past times, he could also grow a pair of balls and tell his skanky fucking old lady she was gone after this week. He’d move the kids out to his parents’ house while he would stay at the Clubhouse until she left and decided what she was going to do. As long as she agreed to leave Northern Nevada, he was cool with where ever the fuck she went.
She had an aunt and uncle who lived in Boston but something told him he wouldn’t get that lucky. The bitch would want to go to Las Vegas or L.A. She had such delusions of grandeur and was so in love with herself, she really did believe fucking different men made Cillian jealous.
It just made him fucking disgusted with her.
Especially since she’d been through half his blood brothers. There was a line a woman didn’t cross and fucking his brothers was it.
Then she’d gone and committed the ultimate sin.
She’d fucked a Demon’s Bastard.
Trey fucking Lennon.
And got pregnant with his baby.
Caitlin was not Cillian’s biological daughter though he’d raised her like she was and would never allow another man to touch her, including her sperm donor father. As far as he was concerned, she was his daughter and he’d be damned if she would ever call another man, “Dad.”
Cillian pulled into the driveway of his house. He lived in a new housing tract in Birch Tree. The gated community—ironically titled Serenity Village—was a mixed community of both one-story and two-story homes. It also contained a swimming pool, several parks for the family friendly image, and its own Fresh & Easy grocery store.
His home was a canary yellow two-story with white trim, a large grassy area in the front of the house, and a three car garage. He opened the third garage door and guided his bike in backwards before he cut the engine and got off after securing the kick stand.
Although the house was only a year old, 3,200 square feet with three bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and included a half bathroom near the living room, it would have been a perpetual pig-sty if he didn’t employ a maid, Griselda, who came in twice a week to clean.
Brianna did not do dishes, occasionally cooked when she felt like it but mostly, they lived on take out, and rarely paid the kids any attention.
He walked into the laundry room from the garage and loud music assaulted his senses immediately, despite it being a school day for the kids.
Mike Will Made It’s “23” played on the stereo while the sixty inch television was turned on though the sound was muted. His old lady danced by herself and still wore what she’d had on the day before. A short, spaghetti-strapped scarlet dress that ended at mid-thigh, black fishnet tights and a pair of black “fuck me” heels.
She’d had her hair done recently because instead of it being straight honey blonde, it was now her natural dark auburn with large honey-blonde chunks throughout. She looked like a skunk as far as he was concerned though she probably thought she appeared to be old lady, biker chic.
Brianna turned around and faced him but continued to twerk while her steel-gray eyes bore into his own eyes. He nodded, indicating the music, and she turned it down low enough for them to carry on a conversation.
“What the fook are you doin’ here? I thought you were sleepin’ at the Clubhouse.” Her Irish accent was more pronounced than his but then it would be; she’d grown up in Belfast her whole life.
Her mother was a hard-core heroin addict and her father was an alcoholic who’d dipped in and out of her life. It was her vulnerability that had first attracted her to him. She needed him to rescue her; Gisela’s parents had barred him from the hospital and had a bodyguard for their daughter. He couldn’t even see her or get a message to her.
When she’d gone back to the States, her cell phone number had been changed and every letter he sent to her was returned unopened.
Brianna was there and she was so beautiful then, only fourteen but so worldly because she had no one to depend on and she was streetwise.
It wasn’t love at first sight but lust definitely played a huge role.
“Yeah, I thought I’d come home in time to take the kids to school.” He attempted to walk past her before she grabbed his arm and turned him toward her.
She was still a beautiful woman at the age of twenty-seven but a life of booze, drugs and late nights was starting to catch up with her. She wore too much makeup though she was naturally beautiful. She had a tattoo half-sleeve on her right arm while she had a portrait of her little brother on her left forearm. Her alabaster skin looked gorgeous and bright thanks to all her beauty treatments and she was still a perfect size four but that didn’t make him love her any more than he did.
At one time, Cillian felt sorry for her but now, he only wanted her to get the fuck out his life.
“Mmm, that’s a new one. Since when have you ever worried about the kids gettin’ to school on time? ” She let go of him long enough to grab a Marlboro Silver and light it with a silver Zippo lighter. “I thought you had Club business today and you couldn’t be arsed.”
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“Does it matter?” He breathed deeply and grabbed a Camel from his jacket before he took it off and grabbed her lighter. “Listen, drop the kids off at my parents after school.”
“Why? Because you don’t want me to be your old lady anymore and want that bitch you left to be with me for?”
Cillian’s crystal blue eyes paled as she raised one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows. “You stink of her, you know. She’s the only cunt I know around these parts who wears French perfume.”
“You don’t want me or you’d know how to be faithful—”
“Ah, is that what it is, luv? I’m not faithful to you and that gives you the right to divorce me? Even if I had been faithful to you, you’d still be fucking every hot skirt on two legs. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander or is it perfectly okay for you to be a manwhore while I’m stuck here with your children?”
“Fuck you, bitch. We both know the truth about Caitlin so don’t act so goddamn innocent. If you were Ronan’s old lady, he would have murdered your ass. Hell, if my mother had tried that shit with my father, she would have never lived to see old age—”
“But it’s okay for your Da to have three illegitimate kids?” she screamed back at him. “Yeah, I know about Kaz and Loire…who’s the fookin’ third one?”
“Not my issue, and not my fucking problem, Bree. I don’t fuckin’ know and even if I fuckin’ did, I wouldn’t tell your dumb ass.”
That was an outright lie. He knew who the third illegitimate kid his father had was but he wouldn’t ever tell her. He couldn’t risk the loss of his daughter.
Brianna on a vengeful spree was a frightening sight indeed and if she knew she had any leverage over Cillian at all, she’d use it just to get back at him. She would also end up a dead bitch because Dizzy didn’t believe in those kind of games and would kill anyone who threatened the Club.
He wanted to divorce his old lady but he also wanted her to have access to their children. What he didn’t want was her cold, dead body on a slab. He was a lot of things but he would never want her murdered no matter how much they’d hurt one another in the past.
“I don’t believe you.” She shook her head and the tears slid down her cheeks in black stains from her mascara and eyeliner. “Cillian, we can work this out. I’ll stop fookin’ around with other men but you have to promise the same to me. You have got to stop your whoring ways with other women.”
Cillian wasn’t made of stone and although he didn’t love his wife any longer, it still hurt him to see her in pain. “Brianna, I’m in love with another woman and I’ll always be in love with her. Do you really want to be with some douchebag who can’t be faithful to you because he wants someone he can’t have? Listen to yourself and what you’re asking from me and you’ll understand how ridiculous you sound.”
“Why? Why did you save me at all? Why did we have children and get married if you knew you’ve been in love with that…that cunt all along? Why didn’t you just leave me where you found me? Do you know how fookin’ unfair you sound?”
“Yeah, I do. I’m an asshole and I’m fucked in the head, babe. I should have left you where I found you but I couldn’t in good conscience do that and live with myself.” He dragged from his cigarette before he stubbed it out in an oversized ashtray. “Just…drop the kids off at my parents’ house, okay? You can stay here as long as you want and where ever you decide to move, I’ll get you set up. You’ll never want for anything and I’ll take care of ya…but ya gotta give me what I want and what I desire right now is freedom.
“Shit is about to kick off and if you’re not with me then you’re in danger if you stay here. Go to Vegas, L.A., but just agree that within a week, you’ll be ready to get the fuck outta dodge and stay put where ever I place ya. The important part is you go where there’s a Saints’ chapter. The one in Glendale and the one in Vegas pack a lot of manpower and firepower. The first hint you think you’re being followed, you let a brother know and they’ll put protection on youse, okay?”
Brianna breathed deeply as she continued to smoke her cigarette. “This is all so fookin’ unfair…how I have to uproot me life—”
“—yeah, you’re worthless fuckin’ life because the kids are staying behind. What are you so upset about? You get a nice place, a nice car to drive and you’re no longer saddled with a life you never wanted in the first place. You can stay out as late as ya want every night and fuck whoever you want to and don’t even have to worry about PTA meetings and fuckin’ kids you never wanted in in the first place. Boo motherfuckin’ hoo. I’m not gonna feel sorry for you.”
Brianna was calm for a moment as she finished her cigarette and extinguished it in the ashtray before she suddenly ran towards Cillian, and began to attack him.
“You arsehole. You fookin’ no good, can’t-keep-it-in-your-pants prick! You fookin’ ruined me life and I fookin’ hate youse for what ya did! I wish we’d never met, Cillian Cox. I wish I’d never laid eyes on youse!”
“Back the fuck up, woman. You don’t wanna see my bad side so you best get control of that temper before I do somethin’ we’ll both regret. The kids will be up soon and I said I would take them to school. Sleep that shit off—whatever the fuck drug is pumpin’ through your system and get a hold of yourself. It’s over. The. Motherfucking. End. Get that through your thick skull, you stupid mick bitch, and if you ever put your hands on me like that again, I will knock you the fuck out, so help me God.”
She slumped to the floor and continued to sob as both Declan and Caitlin ran down the stairs. Cillian looked at the clock and realized it was time to take them to school.
Declan, a mixture of both parents with his good looking features, gray eyes and brown hair looked from his mother to his father and back again. “Dad, is Mom okay?”
“Your mother is gonna be fine, son. She’s just a bit upset and had too much to drink last night, that’s all.”
“Okay.” His son walked towards the kitchen as Caitlin approached Brianna and knelt down.
“Mommy, are you going to be okay?”
His wife embraced their daughter and stroked her dark auburn hair. “Mommy’s gonna be fine but…guess what? You and your brother get to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a while. Won’t that be fun?”
“Not really. We have to hang out at the Clubhouse with all the other kids and some of their parents are really messed up. They get lousy grades in school and they call Declan and I names because we do our schoolwork.” Caitlin’s hazel-green eyes turned toward Cillian. “Daddy, do we have to go to the Clubhouse?”
“Baby, that’s where I’m gonna be stayin’ for a while so I’ll make sure none of those little bastards talk down to your or Declan.”
His daughter abandoned her mother and walked over to him. “Why are you staying at the Clubhouse, Daddy? Did you and Mommy have another fight?”
“No—actually, yes, we did but…Mommy is gonna go away for a while but she will come back to see you and Declan. She’s picking you up from school so you can say goodbye to her then, okay?”
Caitlin nodded her head, her creamy skin so much like Brianna’s but her complexion was healthy and she glowed with the abundance of youth.
“Okay.”
“Who wants to ride in Daddy’s Ford F-15o?”
“I do!” Declan yelled from the kitchen.
“So do I, Daddy!” Caitlin exclaimed.
He smiled at his daughter and ruffled her hair before both kids followed him to the garage and they all got in his 2014 Ford F-150.
Cillian knew in his heart that sometimes, the hardest issues to overcome were the ones a person never saw coming. He knew he had to end it with Brianna but he wished to God it hadn’t been so fucking hard and he didn’t feel so confused about it.
Twelve years and some change was a long time to spend with anyone, let alone someone you could marginally stand most of the time and other times, felt sorry for, but he couldn’t go back.
This time, Brianna would have to learn h
ow to stand on her own two feet.
Cillian arrived at the Clubhouse shortly after he dropped his kids off at St. Francis, a private Catholic grammar school which spanned from Kindergarten to Eighth grade. For high school, they would attend St. Joseph’s, another private Catholic high school.
Yes, he came from a long lineage of outlaws but that didn’t mean they didn’t believe in God or justice. The public schools in Birch Tree were just fine but his kids only received the best. Plus, he and Gisela’s son attended a private Catholic high school.
Their son, Conan, was extremely intelligent and a computer whiz, not to mention he’d skipped a grade and was a freshman at the ripe age of thirteen. He was a straight-A student who was popular with jocks, geeks, cool kids, and the teenage girls. However, due to who his parents were, he focused solely on schoolwork, sports, and not much else.
Deadly Seduction (A Rough Riders MC Novel) (The Rough Riders Series) Page 6