by Fiona Keane
I was horrified at the fleeting thought that my destiny wasn’t what I wanted. It was precisely what brought us together and what would reunite us. I wanted Aideen. I needed her. His hands were on her skin. My little piss-ant of a brother touched her. I should have been relieved he was there to help her, but it had been days since he showed his smarmy face. I had no idea where he was, what bullshit he told her. Had he helped them? Had he hurt her?
“I can’t trust you, baby brother,” I stated through gritted teeth. I turned my head from Liam, dropping the letter through the iron bars and listening to the soft padding sound it made hitting the floor near Liam’s feet.
My gaze lifted to the small window, the amber glow replaced with darkness. I need to get out of here. One more second away from her, without answers and reassurance, was too much.
“Julian,” Liam seethed. “You’re the slimiest bastard I have ever known. You honestly think I screwed your girl? Let her rot? Had a hand in destroying her innocence?”
“Tell me she’s dead,” I yelled over my shoulder. I need to hear it. “If it’s the truth, let me know so I can start planning your death, Liam.”
He shook the bars, spitting on the ground while screaming my name. The sound of his voice, its guttural expression, distracted me and I turned to watch him. Liam was fuming, his eyes wide and nostrils flared, unable to contain the anger he felt. Good. I hope he takes it to the grave and rots in torment.
Liam untucked his shirt, rolling it along his abdomen with his suit coat and tie, revealing the map of loyalty and etchings against his skin. I scoffed, shaking my head at him.
“You want to look like me now? You want to look as pathetic as your brother, shirtless and stained in a prison cell? Come on in, baby brother. There’s plenty of room!”
“Julian!” he shouted, and I stopped, watching Liam approach without hesitation.
“Fifth tally,” Liam growled, and my eyes fell to the etchings. “For Aideen. For you.”
My brows met, counting the tallies against his skin, studying the healing skin around his latest kill. “Who?”
“Don’t question me again,” Liam snarled. “I will always be loyal to you, Julian. You’re my goddamned brother.”
“Who was it, Liam?” I repeated, holding back the bile churning in my throat, resenting him for giving me reason to believe the kill was her. His steps were swift as he moved away while tucking in his shirt and adjusting his tie, determined to leave the cloud of anger hanging around me.
“The kid. The one who drugged her and dragged her out once you’d left. Jack.” A laugh interrupted his story. “You would have been so proud of your precious babby, Julian. She protected me like I protected her. She knows what she’s doing. You should give her more credit.” Hearing Liam talk about Aideen with anecdotes sent my heart haywire. I didn’t know what controlled me in that moment—brain, heart, her.
“Tell me, Liam.”
His eyes raised to mine beneath his furrowed brow. “She’s alive, Julian. Barely, but alive.”
Profanities fell from my gasping mouth as I shoved my knuckles in and clamped down, tumbling to the floor with a sob. Alive. I let the tears fall, unashamed and overwhelmed. Liam gave me two minutes before coming back to my cage and clearing his throat. He said nothing of my weakness, nothing of the differences we exchanged in that moment.
“I would never betray you, Julian.”
“You can’t hold my feelings against me. You can’t imagine what I’ve been through! How dare you find any offense in my hesitance? These bastards told me you are the one who told Aideen to kill herself!”
“She is alive!” he screamed, storming toward me, fists slamming against the cell bars. “Aideen is alive because of me. Because of what I did, what I said, and who I killed. That is why I’m pissed as hell that you won’t even acknowledge any sense of gratitude. She’s blue, Julian, black and blue, and still the most damn beautiful flower in Eden’s garden. I killed the stoner, and I’ll kill whoever is next.”
“I knew I couldn’t trust him.” I stood, wiping my eyes while staring at the ceiling. “The way he looked at her. He was tracking her, Liam.” I noticed he was staring at me when my face moved forward, and I considered the tally once more. His skin was clear of wound, simply marked.
“You weren’t stabbed,” I realized, approaching him. “Where the hell have you been this entire time?”
“With Aideen,” Liam admitted, watching me wearily. “It was a bitch trying to find you, Julian.”
“Maureen did. Right away. Tell me where you’ve been.”
He inhaled a deep breath and spoke while pinching the bridge of his nose. “Maureen? I’ve been on the inside. I’ve been playing both sides like a slimy bastard to keep your bird alive. They’re not going to keep her alive, Julian. I need to stay in.”
Liam was in. How deep and how long didn’t matter at that moment. I needed to piss in a toilet, chug some water, and get my gun. “Get me out.”
“I planned on it.” He smirked, motioning for me to step back while he reached into his waistband. Liam fired his gun six times at the lock on my cell door before it fell apart, smoldering metal tumbling onto the suicide note. I watched each bullet spark and bounce against the metal, letting its sound fill me with a wave of excitement. I pushed through the open door before Liam stood a chance in my shadow.
He was a quick shit, though, stopping me in the doorway before I could leave the room holding my cell. Liam’s arms barricaded the doorway, and I had to control my temper before crushing his skull. He protected her. Trust him.
“You can’t just leave, Julian. You want to know where you are? You want to know what a fucking hoax this has been? You want to know why I couldn’t find you? Because you were under my damn nose this entire time.”
“What do you mean? Where am I? Where is Aideen?” I pressed, shoving his shoulders to make way.
“You’re not in jail,” he muttered, his lip twisting into a sneer. “You’re not arrested. You’ve spent the last few days pissing the floor in your own damn building.”
“What?” I knew the arrest wasn’t legitimate, but there was absolutely no way I was in my own building. How the hell? I went in the car, they drove me around…and around…I was so pissed and worried about Aideen that I became distracted.
“Liam, you texted me when I was with Aideen. You told me you’d been stabbed by Regan. That is why I left Aideen’s apartment. I wouldn’t have left her if it weren’t for you!”
“I didn’t. And I never left my phone out of my sight, Julian. I swear to you. I kept my own two eyes on our grandfather and Edward until they left. I was at your place for hours, trying to reach you and the bird, before I started looking for answers.”
“Answers,” I repeated, practically galloping at his side as he led the way out. “To what?”
“Why you were ignoring me, really. One minute I’m asleep on your couch, the next he’s barging into your place with his damn newspaper about Boston’s newest royalty, then Edward Regan’s pounding on the intercom. Aideen’s not wearing any fucking pants, frozen like a cube of ice. Gorgeous legs, by the way. You two disappear, and I’m at a loss. I kept digging, though, starting right back where this all began.”
“Lucy,” we agreed in unison. I would have smacked Liam’s head for his comments about Aideen’s legs, regardless of how stunning her legs were, had he not helped me. We reached the end of a hallway barricaded by a massive metal door. Liam pushed it open, holding the panel and letting a blizzard flurry into the doorway. His eyes flashed between my body and feet before meeting my stare.
“There isn’t an inside way back to your place.” He shrugged before flipping the collar of his coat along his neck and glancing back at me. “So we’ll just need to go around the front.”
“I need to get Aideen,” I seethed, stepping into the snow without shoes or a shirt. Liam’s hand pulled my shoulder, and I barely gave him a second look.
“You can’t go, Julian. It’s a trap…fo
r you.” Liam’s expression was impassive, his eyes giving away nothing of the personality I expected.
“A trap.”
“You go,” Liam stated, nodding with so much nonchalance I could have killed him, “and she dies.”
My bloodied fist slammed into his stomach on impulse. Nobody was going to keep us apart. Liam gasped for breath, his hands tightening around my wrist as he pulled me from his body.
“Lucy was my in, Julian. I’ve been playing her dad and his best friend Edward like the reckless bastards they are. They think I want you out, so they believe what I tell them. I treat your bird like shit when they’re around—do you know how that makes me feel? How sick I am from it? I’m a bastard, brother, but this block of ice in my chest beats with loyalty, and Aideen is yours. I won’t let anything happen to her, regardless of how this plays out. Oh,” he turned away, releasing his hold on my arm, and stepped into the blizzard, “Lucy isn’t pregnant, by the way. Another lie.”
“Congratulations,” I mocked, following him into the snow. “It’s another beautiful day in Boston.” My tone was abrupt as I forced my way through the snow at Liam’s side. His car was tucked in an alleyway behind my building, out of sight and camouflaged in the snowstorm. Flakes melted as they met my skin, my body boiling with rage and fueled by revenge. The fresh air seared my lungs as we approached Liam’s car and I remembered to breathe.
I caught him watching me, a smile consumed by arrogance plastered across his face. “It is a beautiful day in Boston.”
“A beautiful day to kill,” I replied, slipping into the passenger seat of his car. “How long was I in there?”
He wasn’t answering. His attention was focused on navigating out of the alley without scuffing his damn car. Settled into the leather seat, inhaling the scent of his cologne, I glanced at my little brother. His suit could have been mine, the tie likely stolen from me, and he appeared unscathed from the torture hidden beneath the glorified exterior. I, half naked and without shoes, covered in my own blood, felt like a failure at his side. I was supposed to take care of everything, everyone.
“It’s been a week,” he finally replied once we were on the city streets, “and I’ve just seen her a few times.” I wished we could have switched brains, just so I could have his memories of her over the last week. Memories. She just found hers, her past finally secured as the future disappeared like a demolished sand castle.
“Do you know who was responsible at the hospital, Liam?”
“Not yet.”
“Tell me about Aideen.”
He looked at me, furrowed brows and squinted eyes. “Picture her as you last saw her and pretend that’s the same bird I’ve kept alive.”
Stunning, warm, intoxicating, mine. That’s how I remembered her, always, but Liam’s remark made my skin crawl. If it was so bad that he refused to tell me, that my little brother felt I needed protection, then I was already thinking of which bullets to use on each person responsible. She experienced it before, the abuse and degradation, but this time the war started and both sides were aware. Aideen, my sweet angel, detached wings and a shattered soul. I owed Liam my life for protecting her; I just hoped she let him and his methods hadn’t exacerbated her damage.
“You were a good shot back there, Liam. Thank you,” I whispered, anxiously gliding my palms over my thighs. I need to see her. I need to hold her, to love her, to fix this. I need to end them. I need to rule.
“You’re welcome. Do you remember when you taught me to shoot for the first time? You made me learn when you found out about our family.”
“I remember.” And the nostalgia is sickening.
“I knew.” Liam adjusted in his seat when we were at a red light, quickly looking at me. “I already knew who we were, what our destiny was, but I let you teach me anyway.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He laughed, the sound natural and condescending. “I need to stay a few steps ahead, Julian. Nobody expects me to. That’s why I do it. Julian Molloy’s black sheep baby brother is too busy planting his seed, right? Too busy partying and destroying the dignity of the daughters of Boston’s elite. Just biding my time, Julian. Biding our time.”
“Buying Aideen time,” I added, receiving his nod in response. “Thank you, Liam.” He nodded, zooming through the changed light onto the white road ahead. I recognized the buildings alongside our route, knowing we were soon to pass Aideen’s neighborhood.
“Tell me what you know,” I demanded, “and then tell me where we’re going.”
Chapter Nine
“They’ll hurt her if they find you escaped, but they won’t hurt you,” Liam explained, his head shaking. “So we don’t have much time.”
I followed Liam through the hotel parking garage, both of us running between cars toward the elevator. The damn machine was breaking my balls, lethargic and without hurry. When it finally arrived, we stormed into the box and waited until the doors were closed to breathe.
“Who’s there? Who is with her?” I inquired, all ten of my fingers scraping my scalp in frustration. I was powerless and my gut churned with rot considering I was liberated and Aideen wasn’t. Hardly. We’re both imprisoned in this life one way or another. It was Aideen receiving physical and emotional torment once more, and I was desperate to end the game. I was running on hope—the hope Liam kept her safe and alive, and the hope I could save her.
“Malcolm Young and some slick bastard they call Dylan—”
I cut him off, my fist smacking his shoulder. “Dylan? That’s the damn chump who arrested me, Liam. The same fucking guy.”
Liam rubbed his wound and replied, “The same men locked you both up. Charles Foley is at the warehouse, and yet no word from our grandfather?”
“Maureen came to me the first night. She told me someone has evidence of me killing Elliott and Aideen and that someone saw me arguing with Elliott the day you left Aideen after your lunch date.” I seethed in reflection of that day and the night that followed.
“Did she say who saw you? Who gave that evidence? Even if,” he paused as we silently left the elevator and approached the door to his room, “it was a press photograph or someone heard you…why did Mau come to tell you all that?”
We entered the sterile hotel room, its scent of cleaning product burning my sinuses. Liam pointed to a pile of clothes on the bed. “I took some things from your place. Take a shower.”
“Liam,” I paused, my fingers tightly clenched atop my head, “where is our father?”
“Martinique.”
I scoffed, accepting a towel Liam tossed toward me. “Convenient. You know what else I find curious, Liam? David. He was the last person to see Aideen with me.”
“I haven’t seen him anywhere.” I watched Liam scoop cubes of ice from a silver container between bottles of liquor. The tongs fell from his hand with a loud scratch against the metal platter, and Liam spun around with narrowed eyes.
“How did Maureen know where you were before me? It took me days to find you, Julian, but she knew in a blink.”
I unrolled the waistband of my sweats while he talked to me, before sitting on the edge of the mattress, my brows furrowed in thought. How could she have known? Why would she have known?
“Our grandfather didn’t even know, according to Maureen. Regan did, though, and fucking Malcolm Young.” I wanted to vomit at the thought of Malcolm and what damage he caused Aideen, but the more I pondered Maureen’s convenient response to my incarceration, and Regan’s suspiciously quick awareness, all need to throw up was replaced with anger.
“Jesus. She gets that ring, we’re almost killed. Who’s there right away?”
“Our sister.”
“And our grandfather, but he hasn’t so much as contacted you. Has he?” Liam shook his head in response. I studied him, showered and dressed to enforce the laws of our land while I was covered in filth. I miss Aideen.
“Do you think he knew and sent her?” Liam inquired, hands stuffed tensely into the pockets
of his pants. “How much would she know?”
I pulled my hands around the back of my neck, my muscles aching from sleeping on cement for several days. I shook my head, unsure and desperate to bathe before my brain could further function. His earlier words about Aideen being a trap for me burned into my thoughts. How can I get her and keep her alive?
“She doesn’t know anything other than what is passed through the lady vine. Lucy’s been more than forthcoming.” Liam rolled his eyes. “Trust me. There’s nothing new there except…” His head briefly hung before my brother’s hesitant gaze lifted to mine, his mouth sealed.
“What?” I demanded, standing in frustration. “Nothing new except what?”
“She spilled the news about a friend of hers bearing the seed,” Liam uttered, quick to turn and reach for his scotch. “It seems Lucy isn’t the only one getting around out there.”
“That’s no surprise. You think it’s Maureen?” I questioned, anxiously gnawing on my thumb. I tasted like shit. God dammit! All of this bullshit! I threw my hands in the air, letting a roaring shout escape my throat as I turned from Liam and stormed into the bathroom. I needed to burn my incarceration from my skin.
Maureen wouldn’t bring scandal to herself without talking to me. She would’ve asked me to fix it, just like Liam, and yet she was the first and only person to visit me in their fucked-up incarceration.
I leaned against the bathroom wall with the shower pouring its spray down the drain while I waited for the hottest temperature, the room a cloud of steam. The tightness in my lungs was asphyxiating, but I couldn’t find joy in the mist that cleared my angst while climbing into the shower because I knew I was participating in a luxury forbidden to Aideen. I was heir to her torture, to the ways of the past.
I pressed my forehead into the wall, letting the scalding water cascade down my back, trying to prevent myself from tearing the showerhead from the wall. I knew what they were doing to her, of their horrendous potential, and I wanted to kill them all. Slowly. First, Malcolm. Limb by limb, torturous in each way he hurt Aideen, everywhere he touched her. I didn’t deserve to be clean when my love was breaking.