by L. A. Casey
Damien got about five or six hits in before Marco's men intervened and pulled him off Trent.
"She was ten weeks pregnant!" Damien screamed as he tried to break free of the men's hold on him and charge for Trent again.
I flung my hand over my mouth and let the tears that filled my eyes fall down my cheeks. Damien let out a male cry that broke my heart and made me cry out for him and for Nala.
She was pregnant when she was raped and murdered?
Oh, my God!
"I'll kill you for this!" Damien swore to Trent, who was getting up from the ground and swiping away the blood from under his nose and from his lip.
Trent looked at Damien and smiled a smile so evil it made me shiver. "So I killed your bitch and your kid? Fuck me, talk about killing two birds with one stone, or one bullet as it was."
Damien roared again and tried to break out of the hold the arms had on him but he couldn't. Nobody held me or was paying me any attention though, so with anger and grief for Nala I charged Trent and dug my nails into his face and scratched with every bit of power in me. Trent screamed so loud and knocked me off him and to the ground, but it was too late. I had already raked his face with deep scratches and cuts that would scar no matter how many stitches he got.
I laughed, but then screamed when he let out a roar and gave me a kick in the stomach with such force it caused me to heave and throw up all over the floor.
"I'm going to make you scream, bitch. You will see how much of a vile creature I can fucking be," Trent growled down as he stood over me with blood running down his neck and under his shirt from the cuts I had caused.
He made a move to hit me again but stopped when Marco appeared over me and grabbed his raised arm, halting his movements.
"Enough! I need her alive. How many times do I have to fucking say that?" Marco snapped to Trent.
Trent lowered his hand when Marco let go of it and swallowed. "But uncle-"
"No buts, you can't have the other one. This one belongs to Nico, and I need him, and he needs her, so she is off limits. Do you understand that, boy?" Marco asked Trent, his gaze now a glare.
Trent nodded his head and swallowed again. "Yes, sir."
Marco sighed a little then waved his hand to two men who were standing guard over a whimpering Damien. They let him fall to the floor and walked off towards the hallway and down to the private rooms.
"If you keep it together for the rest of this meeting then you can have this one to play with."
I carefully pushed myself up into a sitting position wincing at the pain in my side so I could look past Marco and see who he was talking about. I felt like throwing up again when the unconscious body of a female was dragged into the room and dropped a few feet away from me.
"Alannah!" I whimpered when I seen her face. I then crawled over to her body and my fingers instantly went to her throat looking for a pulse, and when I found one I cried out in relief.
"Is she alive?" Damien shouted.
"Yes," I called back to him and gathered Alannah in my arms before I looked up to Marco, daring him with my eyes to try and let Trent take her from me.
Marco seemed to know what I was thinking because he laughed and shook his head at me. "I like you, kiddo. You have heart, but I'm not sure if that makes you brave or stupid."
I glared at him and said, "Probably both."
He pointed his finger at me. "Definitely like you."
"Yeah, well I fuckin' hate you!" I growled.
Marco snorted. "You wouldn't be the first or the last to hate me, kiddo."
I held tight to Alannah and looked at Damien as he crawled over to us. He could barely pull himself, but he managed to put himself in front of Alannah and me, which made me cry even more than I already was. I was shaking with Alannah in my arms, I had vomit and blood on me and felt like I was about to fall over at any second, but I forced myself to stay upright. I couldn't allow Trent to get her and drag her to one of the private rooms. I would die before I'd let that happen.
Trent was laughing at our little huddle but stopped when he heard the noise of gunshots come from the stairway entrance to Darkness; the doors were slightly open allowing us to hear them. I gripped onto Alannah and reached for Damien's arm and gave him a squeeze.
I looked at Marco and found him grinning as he said, "The Slater brothers are here."
Trent moved into the shadows to my left while Marco's men drew guns from inside their coats. Marco, too, took out a handgun. Twenty seconds passed before the doors to the entrance to the stairway were fully kicked open. I felt my heart leap when Dominic, Ryder, Alec, and Kane all walked in with guns in their hands. They didn't raise and point them at anyone though, and I was pretty sure it was because Marco's men were stood over Damien, Alannah, and I with their guns pointed at us.
I looked to the brothers and made eye contact with Dominic who looked like he was having an internal battle with himself; I gave him a small smile and mouthed, "I love you," just incase it was my last chance to tell him.
His eyes swam with emotion before he switched them from me to Marco and his face morphed to one of anger. "Let my brother, my girl, and her friend go, and I won't make you suffer when I kill you."
Marco laughed as he sat down in the booth that I decided I wholeheartedly hated. "You haven't seen me in months and that is the greeting you give your uncle?"
"You're nothing to us!" Kane growled.
I widened my eyes, shocked at how different his voice sounded. He looked absolutely terrifying now that he wasn't smiling. He looked as if he had the chance, Marco and all his men would be dead. I looked at Marco when he chuckled and shook my head at him; he was only pissing them off more by laughing.
I got a bit lightheaded then and felt myself droop a bit but the leg behind me held me up. The man who was behind me whistled for Marco's attention, and when he got it he said, "She is going to go any minute."
"Put her up here then," Marco snapped.
Damien grabbed a hold of Alannah when the man who was behind me lifted me to my feet and held onto me as he moved me over to the booth where Marco was sat. I instantly slumped forward onto the table, and Dominic's roar barely registered with me.
"Give it a rest, bro. She took a knock to the head, but she is okay," Trent's voice sang merrily.
"Trent?" all the brothers said in unison. I couldn't see them, but I could hear the shock in their voices.
"Happy to see me?" Trent snickered.
"What the fuck is going on?" Alec shouted.
"I'll tell you," Damien growled from the floor. "Marco lied when he said I killed Trent. He just wanted an easy way to pull you four deep into the business, and saying that working for him would be protection for me was the perfect opportunity."
"We buried the little prick though," Ryder's voice snapped.
"No," Damien said, his voice hollow. "We buried Nala. Trent killed her when she found out he wasn't really dead."
The room filled with silence until Trent said, "And the slut was pregnant with his kid as well. Talk about shit luck for her."
"Pregnant?" the brothers spluttered.
"She told me the day mom and dad were killed," Damien said sadly.
"That was why you'd been distant? Not because of mom and dad but because of Nala?" Dominic asked.
"I thought she fucking left on purpose with my kid so yeah, I've been messed up about that, but now I know she is dead and so is my kid. Having this prick haunting me every night because I thought I had killed him wasn't fun either."
"Does that make me the man of your dreams, D?" Trent voice asked.
I forced my eyes open when Marco chuckled under his breath. He wasn't looking at me; he was looking down at Damien and Alannah. He had his gun on the table but it wasn't in his hand, it was next to him. Either he was cocky or just plain stupid because all the brothers had guns in their hands, and he was sat on the booth with his gun just casually lying on the table in front of him like they weren't a threat.
Either he
thought I was out cold, or he didn't think I would make a play for his gun. He was wrong on both counts because as soon as he lifted his hand to reach for another cigarette inside his coat pocket, I shot my hand forward and grabbed the gun.
I fumbled with it for a second but once I got a grip on the handle, I placed my finger on the trigger and pointed it directly at Marco's head. Marco's eyebrows almost touched his hairline as he looked down the barrel of his own gun. When he flicked his eyes to me, he smiled and said, "Damn, Irish, you sure know how to play a man."
I forced my eyes to stay open and my arm to hold the gun up. "Tell your men to back off or I swear to God, I will pull this trigger and kill you. I'm not afraid to do it."
"Stay where you are!" I heard one of Marco's men growl.
"Unless you want your boss's brains all over the place, I'd advise you to let me go to my girl or she will kill him. Trust me on that."
Trent growled from behind Damien and Alannah. He stepped fully into my view and spat in my direction before he said, "She's bluffing, she doesn't have it in her to pull that trigger."
"I wouldn't put money on that," Kane's voice said as I heard footsteps come from behind me.
"Hey, pretty girl," Dominic's voice said from my right as he slid into the booth next to me.
My hand was shaking and tears were in my eyes.
"I could kill him and make all this go away, I could do it," I said to Dominic without looking away from Marco, who actually started to look nervous.
"I know you can baby, but this piece of shit isn't worth it," Dominic said and carefully reached for me.
I leaned a little away from him. "He wants to take you away from me, and I won't let him. You're mine, not his!"
I could feel Dominic get closer to me, he kissed my shoulder and whispered, "I'm already yours, pretty girl."
I started to cry then.
"Give me the gun," he whispered. "That's it, good girl,"
I lowered my arm down a little but still had the gun in my hand when a bang sounded around the room. I screamed and my hand instinctively pulled the trigger on the gun causing an even louder bang to ring in my ears. I dropped the gun as a shockwave of pain flew up my arm, I thought I was somehow shot, but after a second, I realised it was the force of the gun going off that hurt me.
When more shots went off around the room Dominic dove on me and covered me with his body. I felt like I was being crushed by him. When he moved off me I gasped for air and greedily sucked it into my lungs.
I opened my eyes and widened them when I looked to Marco who was still sat across from me in the booth but he was holding his shoulder and groaning in pain. I gasped and looked around Dominic and found both of Marco's men on the ground unmoving with blood splotches on their chest. Trent was on the ground too but he was alive; I could tell from his crying, and how he was writhing in pain.
I looked back to Marco and widened my eyes as blood started to soak around the material of his shirt even though his hand was pressed against the gunshot wound in his shoulder.
I shot him, I actually shot somebody.
Oh, my God.
"'I didn't mean to, I got a fright and-"
"Bronagh!" Dominic snapped, cutting me off. "It's okay baby, it's going to be okay."
I shook my head. "We're going to go to prison, those men-"
"Will be disposed of, as will Marco and Trent when we're finished with them."
I snapped my head in the direction of Kane's voice and felt myself tremble under his stare. "We won't get in trouble then?" I asked.
He smiled at me and for some reason, with just a small smile from him, things didn't seem to be that messed up.
"I did a lot more for this scumbag than just hurt people Bronagh. He is about to get the experience of me fully displaying my 'services'."
Okay, forget what I just said, things were beyond fucking messed up.
"Nico, Kane… we can talk about this," Marco said then cried out in pain when Alec rounded on the booth and pressed a finger into Marco's wound, making me almost vomit.
"Out of all the things on the to-do list Marco, talking to you won't be one of them."
Oh, my God.
I felt myself droop again when arms came around me. "Bring Alannah to the room I'm putting Bronagh in. They are soundproof so they won't hear a thing if they wake up."
Oh, my fucking God!
I was then being lifted into the air and, after a minute or two, I was placed down on a soft surface that made me groan out loud. I felt a kiss on my forehead then a voice whispered, "I'm going to make all this go away, pretty girl."
"We can't leave them for long. Bronagh has a concussion, and Lana hasn't woken up since one of those pricks knocked her out."
I heard knuckles crack before Dominic replied, "Trust me bro, this won't take long."
"Promise me something," Damien said to Dominic.
"What?" Dominic asked.
"Leave Trent to me."
My mind picked that exact moment to go black and send me into a sea of darkness.
"You want me to lie to me best friend, Dominic?" I snapped to my irritating boyfriend as Branna stood behind me carefully brushing my hair out.
I couldn't do it myself because every time I tried to, the bristles of the hairbrush scraped on my head wound, which hurt like hell itself. Branna was careful though, so I didn't mind her doing it, and that was the only thing I didn't mind her doing. Since shite hit the fan a week ago in Darkness, everyone has treated me like a glass doll.
Sure, I was hit in the head and got cut from it. Sure I received a minor concussion. And sure I was beaten and subjected to the hands of one of the most dangerous men in the world and have had nightmares about it ever since, but I wasn't that fucking fragile. I could happily deal with this on my own; I just wish everyone else would realise that.
"She doesn't know who hit her, and she didn't wake up until the morning after, so it is best to keep her in the dark about what happened. I understand she is your friend, but the fewer people who know about what happened, the better. Ryder already cut all ties with Marco's business associates. Everyone believes he is missing, and since Trent was thought dead all these years, no one knows about him. We took care of Marco's men upstairs and downstairs, and we cleaned every part of Darkness. No one knew he was at Darkness anyway since he flew in on his own plane unannounced to catch us off-guard. That shit blew up in his face."
I nodded my head; I understood this but hated talking about it. I didn't ask for details about that night, and I didn't want them. Marco and Trent were dead, and that was all I needed to know to feel safe. Any more information on how they died would make my current nightmares worse than they already were.
"There you go. Hair is all done so we can finally go collect our shoppin'!"
I groaned, Branna was the only person who would tackle Dublin's city centre on Christmas Eve. "I think the lads will understand if we have no presents for them to open tomorrow mornin' after everythin' that's happened this week."
Branna rounded on me and pinned me with a look that told me to shut my mouth, so I did. "I don't care if Jesus himself shows up at the door for dinner, we're collectin' those presents. Besides, everythin' is paid for, we just need to collect them, and that is final, understood?"
I saluted her. "Yes, Mother."
She chuckled as she kissed my shoulder. She bumped Dominic with her hip as she passed him at my bedroom door, which made him smile. He looked over his shoulder and watched her go, which led to me taking off my shoe and throwing it at him. It clocked him right in the head and caused him to yelp.
"You fucking bitch, what was that for?" Dominic snapped when he turned to face me.
"Lookin' at me sister's arse, you pervy bastard!" I growled.
I heard Branna's laughter come from down the hallway, and it made Dominic grin as he rubbed his head and walked towards my bed. "Why do you and Branna always aim for my head when you throw things at me?" he asked when he all but fell on top of me.
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I grunted and tried to move him, but he wouldn't budge. "We're tryin' to literally knock some sense into you."
Dominic laughed as he climbed up beside me and pulled me close to him. He was quiet for a moment then said, "Damien booked his flight."
I frowned; Damien was going back to America one last time to say goodbye to Nala. He knew he couldn't have her taken out of Trent's marked grave, because it would raise too many questions, so the best he could do was ignore the gravestone that was engraved for Trent and lay fresh flowers for her.
He said he was coming back to Ireland; he promised me he would. He just never promised when and that made me sad because I knew deep down it wouldn't be anytime soon.
"You know he is goin' to be gone away for a while, right?" I murmured to Dominic.
He nodded his head. "I know, he won't come back here for a few years at least, but if it helps him sort out his head then good for him."
"What if he never comes back?" I whispered and clamped my mouth shut when my voice shook.
Dominic squeezed. "He will come back; this is our home, Bronagh. We're his family… plus, Lana is here and even though she kicked him in the nuts yesterday when he tried to say sorry for what he had done; he will still come back for her. Kicking him in the nuts just put the final stamp on things. No girl will measure up to her now."
I snorted. "I still can't believe she did that. I understand it but still can't believe it."
"I don't know what it is about my family but once a girl knocks us about, we set our sights on them. You're a prime example of that, you mouthed off at me from day one and slapped me when I tried to get a spider off your ass-"
I elbowed him in the stomach cutting him off. "You're a lying piece of crap. You were trying to feel me arse, not wipe anythin' off it!"
Dominic shrugged and chuckled. "I love that phat ass."
I rolled my eyes and said, "I invited Gavin over for Christmas Eve drinks tonight after our family dinner so you have to be on your best behaviour or you won't get any fat arse again."