Alistair

Another boring night at home. I knew I didn’t have to sit here and do nothing. I could be hanging with the other Hounds or out on the town. If I wanted companionship for the night, finding some wouldn’t be hard. The problem was none of those things tempted me. This funk I was in lately wouldn’t go away. I needed to find a way to get rid of it.

It didn’t help that I was waiting for two more days to pass. Once they did, I’d be on a plane to California to see what the hell was going on between Aisling and fucking Christopher Brynes. The thought of them together had been eating at me since I overheard Darragh and them talking about it. Images of the two of them together haunted me, especially the ones of them in bed together. If I went there like this and he was sleeping with her, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to resist killing the bastard.

Snapping off the television with the remote, I got to my feet. I had to get out of here even though it was almost midnight. The walls were beginning to make it hard to breathe. I got halfway to the door where my boots and stuff were when my cell phone rang. Sliding it out of my pocket I saw it was Darragh. My heart sped up. Maybe we had an assignment. That would be perfect to occupy my mind.

“Hey, Dar, good evening. What’s up?”

“Alistair, I need you to get to the Command Center ASAP. Where are you?” was his urgent reply. My whole body snapped to attention. Adrenaline began to flow. Something was wrong, and based on the edge I heard in his voice, it was something terrible.

“I’m at home. I can be there in ten,” I told him.

I lived on my own property not far from the family compound. As I was talking, I was slipping on my boots and shoving my other shit into my pockets and putting my gun in its holster. Anything else I might need was in my vehicle or at CC.

“Hurry,” was all he said before he hung up.

Mere minutes later, I was flying down the road toward the compound. My mind was racing with thoughts of everything that could be wrong. The list was long. Was an enemy making a move against us? Or had one of the possible missions we were investigating taken an unexpected turn, requiring us to head out now? But if it was that, why didn’t he just say so? No, it had to be something not related to an upcoming mission. Maybe an old one. Or had someone connected us to the work, although I didn’t believe it was possible, not with all the precautions and things Cody had implemented to prevent it from happening?

Usually, I’d take one of the underground tunnels into the CC. We did this so as not to attract attention as to why multiple vehicles were coming and going to the compound all the time or at odd hours. Paparazzi were constantly popping up trying to get photographs. Tonight, I didn’t bother. I went through the main gate. The guards waved me through. As I parked in front of the main house, I barely remembered to turn off the engine before bounding out of the car and up the stairs. I knocked and rang the doorbell impatiently.

The thing with the O’Sheerans was that despite their extreme wealth, they weren’t catered to by an army of servants. Sure, they had Agatha as their cook, but she was more like family, and she didn’t work all the time. The ladies liked to cook for the family themselves a lot. They had gardeners and guards but no butler or anything fancy like that, which meant I had to wait for someone in the family to open the door.

When it opened, I saw an upset Cyndi standing there. I walked in. “What’s wrong?” I asked. If she was upset then it wasn’t work-related or not in the sense it was an assignment.

“Darragh will explain. They’re all down in the Center. Hurry, Alistair.” Tears gathered in her eyes.

A quick nod and I left her to get to the closest entrance to the tunnels. As I got closer to the center, I heard the loud murmur of voices. They all sounded upset. Bursting into the room, over a dozen sets of eyes landed on me, and the talk died down. I saw all the O’Sheeran men were present. The women were not. I went straight to Darragh, who was talking to Shane—Aidan and Tiernan’s other brother, and their dad, Cormac. The rest of the family was gathered around them in a circle.

“I’m here. What the fuck is wrong? Cyndi looked upset as hell.”

“Alistair, we need you to keep yourself locked down,” Darragh said cautiously.

What the hell? Why would he tell me something like that? I had no issues keeping myself under control. I scanned the faces of the others. They were filled with worry, pain, and anger. I waited. If only I’d had a clue what was about to be said next. If I had, I would’ve told them to lock my ass down first.

“We just got a call from Creed. Aisling was in an accident,” Darragh started out. As soon as I heard her name and accident, I let out a rumbling growl.

“Dar, it was more than that,” Aidan said in a protesting tone.

“Is she alright? What does Aidan mean it was more than that?” I barked.

“Apparently, she was out with Christopher.” As soon as Dar said Christopher, I growled again, only louder. He continued, “They were on their way back to our house when a car cut off Creed and Christopher’s bodyguard in their car. While they tried to get around it, another vehicle T-boned the one Aisling and Christopher were in. It flipped their car—”

I cut him off before he went further. “Is she alive?”

“She’s been taken to the nearest level one trauma center, which is Loma Linda University Medical Center. Creed has no other information. He’s there with her.”

A howl of pure anguish ripped from me. I wasn’t any more able to hide my feelings than I was able to stop myself from loving her. Any thought of hiding how I felt about her washed away. I slammed both fists down on the table near me as I sank to my knees. I felt hands on my back and shoulders, but I was numb and blind to who they belonged to or what was being said. All I was able to do was think of her and the fact I might be losing her forever. If it happened, they might as well put me in the ground with her.

I had no idea how long I was lost in my head before I snapped out of it. When I did, the others were moving. Cormac was still beside me. As I looked up at him, he gave me a grim look. His hand squeezed my left shoulder tightly, painfully.

“We need you. Get up. We’re going to California. The plane is gassed and ready. Let’s go.” His gruff command got me to my feet.

I’d like to say I started to fully function and think at that point but it would be a lie. I was on autopilot as those going loaded up, and we left for the airstrip, where they kept their private planes. As we boarded and began to taxi down the runway, not too much later, it finally registered who was going. Darragh was there, as well as Cormac, Cyndi, Aidan, Shane, Tiernan, and Cathal which made sense since they were her brothers and parents. Darragh made sense as the head of the family, and I understood why Patrick and Maeve came, too. The rest were their personal bodyguards. They were gathered in the far back, giving the family a semblance of privacy. I knew it must be killing the others to stay behind.

“The rest of the family is on standby. They’ll come as soon as we have news. I didn’t think we’d get out of there without all of them but time was of the essence,” Darragh was saying when I tuned back in.

“Why the hell was Creed in a different car?” I barked out.

He sighed. “Aisling wanted privacy. We all do it, Alistair. There was no indication anything was wrong or that she was in danger. They were lucky Creed wasn’t. It allowed him to get to her and run off the assailants before they finished the job.”

“Finished it? What?” I snapped.

“It wasn’t an accident. It was intentional, and the people who caused it aggressively converged on the car, Creed said. They acted like they were there to kill someone. The only thing we don’t know is, was Christopher the target or her?” Cormac added. He was holding Cyndi tucked against his chest. Her red-rimmed eyes attested to her crying even if I hadn’t been able to see the tear tracks on her face. Maeve was on the other side of her, rubbing her back.

This news shifted me into warrior mode. We were in the air, so I got up to move around the cabin. “What’s Cody got so far? Any threats online, on the dark web? Who’s there we can add to be on her protection detail? Creed alone isn’t enough. We need to lock down the premises so whoever did this can’t get another chance.” I didn’t give a damn about Brynes but it would satisfy me if he was in bad shape or even dead. The monster inside of me would relish it.

“Cody hasn’t found anything but he’s on it. As for security, we called Aegis and they have people out there. They’re on their way now. We’ll get some of our own on it too. Right now we just need to get to the hospital. Cormac had a call already, and he granted the doctor caring for her permission to do anything they needed to save her life. She’s in surgery,” Darragh informed me.

My brain shied away from the “save her life” part. I couldn’t deal with it right now. Instead, I latched onto something else. “So I’m here as added security for you or her? Or do you need me to hunt down the culprits?”

“Believe me, we’ll be hunting as soon as we can, and yes, when the time comes, I want you there for it, but that’s not why we brought you. Nor is it to be additional security,” Darragh stated.

“Then why? I’m confused.”

I heard a throat clear. It was Cormac. He was staring intently at me. “ Mac , son, we told you and brought you because we know how you feel about my daughter. We’ve watched and waited and it’s gone on long enough. It’s time to confess those feelings. That’s why we brought you.”

A sense of panic filled me. Shit, how had they guessed before my outburst in the Center? I was sure I kept it well hidden. I decided to play it off.

“Cormac, I do care for Aisling. She’s been like a little sister to me since the day she was born. I remember the day you and Cyndi brought her home from the hospital. Us boys were hanging out at the house. Of course I care about her but so do a lot of others. I’ll gladly help do anything she needs.”

Aidan snorted and rolled his eyes. “Come on, cut the crap. You don’t see her as a sister. You haven’t for a long time, I expect. Admit it.”

“I have no idea where you got that idea.”

“If he can’t admit it, even when she might be dying, then fuck him,” Tiernan snarled. He was on his feet, glaring at me.

“She’s not gonna die!” I yelled.

“She might. Face it. She might die and you wanna hold on to your pride or whatever the fuck it is which keeps you from admitting you love our sister!” he shouted back.

We were close now, and I shoved him on the chest. He didn’t rock back far as he stood his ground. I was fuming. “I’m not being prideful, dumbass.”

Over the years, we’d all gotten into our fair share of scraps with each other. We were all strong, alpha men, and we had tempers. Sometimes, those would get out of control. More than one fistfight had occurred. Another was about to if he didn’t get out of my face.

“Stop!” came the alarmed voice of Cyndi. I paused. I glanced over at her.

She was crying again. Shit, I hated to see a woman cry, especially one I cared about. Cyndi was like a mom to me. All the older O’Sheeran women were. I took two steps back and Tiernan did the same. He cast his mom an apologetic look.

“ Mam , I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“Don’t be sorry. Settle down,” Cyndi told him. He retook his seat, and I did the same. Once we were back in them, she turned to me again.

“Alistair, honey, I need you to be honest with me. We know you care for Aisling, and it’s more than as a brother. Why won’t you admit it? The time for hiding is over. We might lose her.” She whispered the last part.

As I watched the misery and pain swamp her, I gave up. It didn’t matter if they knew or not. They were right. If she was dying, this would be my last chance to see and tell her how I felt about her. The fact she didn’t feel the same was no longer important. All of them were watching me.

“What good does it do to admit it, Cyndi? There’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t want anyone to pity me,” I told her reluctantly.

“Why would we pity you? And it’s good to admit the truth,” was her response.

“Because I’m a fool for having these feelings. It’s not like I can do anything about them.”

“Why not?” Cormac interjected.

“Come on, even if Aisling had those kinds of feelings for me, which she doesn’t, there’s no way you’d want her to be with a man like me,” I scoffed. Why were they forcing me to confess this shit? Did they want to make it more painful as they rubbed it in how I was never someone good enough for Aisling? I knew I wasn’t, damn it.

“What kind of man are you?” Patrick asked suddenly. Up until then, he’d been silent and watchful.

“You know what kind I am. Come on, do you really want me to say it?” As I glanced around, I saw none of them were responding, but they were all watching me. Even the guards in the back had gotten quiet and were observing us. Finnigan and Seamus were Darragh’s guards. Madden protected Cormac and Cyndi. Shane was shadowed by Niall while Gael oversaw Aidan’s protection. Milo was here for Tiernan, while Troi and Riggs were guards for Cathal, Patrick, and Maeve. I continued.

“A killer who has blood on his hands he can never wash off. I’ve defended my country, the innocents we protect, and this family, and I don’t regret it, but the things I’ve done have damned my soul. Even if I didn’t have those things, I’m not the same as all of you. I’ll never be the man Aisling deserves. She needs and deserves someone who’ll be able to support her and help her navigate the world while loving and protecting her. A man who is her equal in every way. That’s what I mean.”

“Whether your soul is damned, we can debate, but if it is, it’s not any different from our souls. We’ve killed, and it was in defense of our family and others as well as, in some cases, our country too. We’ll never get the blood off ours either. Like you, we don’t regret it for a second,” Darragh stated.

“You say our daughter deserves a man who can support and help her navigate the world and, on top of that, protect and love her. A man who’s her equal in every way, right?” Cormac asked.

“Yes.” What more did he want me to say? Why were we hashing through this?

“She knows a man who’s all of those things and more,” Cyndi declared.

“You think Christopher Brynes is the man to do all those? Are you joking? What did he do to protect her when their car was hit? Why didn’t he have more men with them to prevent this? Do you honestly think he’ll love her and give her everything she needs? Hell, I doubt he can keep it in his pants for more than a month,” I snapped. My anger over Aisling being with him bubbled over. It was the only excuse for me speaking this way to Cyndi. Remorse was quick on the heels of my words.

“Cyndi, Mrs. O’Sheeran, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.”

“Hush. Enough. I don’t want to hear another word. And enough of the Mrs. O shit. I wasn’t talking about Christopher! He’s a nice enough man, but he’s not the one for my daughter. The man I’m referring to is the one sitting in front of me. The one who has loved her for a lot of years, I’m willing to bet.” She stared hard at me.

I didn’t know what to say. My biggest secret was out. If I weren’t on a plane, thousands of feet in the air, I’d probably be trying to leave.

The silence stretched and stretched until, finally, Darragh broke it. “Well, have you nothing to say, brother? Do you love Aisling or not? Do you want to fight for her or let another man claim her?”

“Of course, I don’t want another man to claim her! I fucking love her!” I roared as I got to my feet again.

“About fucking time. Jeez, I thought he’d never confess, the stubborn Scottish tuílí, ” Aidan muttered. The others were all nodding.

“I thought for sure he’d say something the day we were talking about her and Christopher seeing each other, but he didn’t. He had me worried,” Tiernan added.

“Worried? About what?” I asked. None of them were making sense. They should be yelling and telling me how stupid I was and how they’d never let me near her. Had I fallen into a parallel universe, or was I dreaming?

“That we had it all wrong, and you didn’t love her, not as a man loves a woman, anyway. We thought for sure you’d confess your feelings that day,” he explained.

“So you talked in front of me on purpose.”

“Now he’s getting it. Keep up. It hasn’t escaped our notice over the last couple of years that you have over-the-top protective instincts when it comes to Ais. And we’ve seen some looks which you didn’t know we saw. We talked and agreed it had to mean you love her, romantically love her. We’ve been waiting for you to tell her—to do something about it. We got tired of waiting, so we staged the conversation where you would hear it,” Aidan told me.

“So she’s not really seeing Christopher? So why were they out together?”

“Oh, she’s been seeing him, and we’re afraid it might mean she’s considering him. Everything they said was true,” Cathal popped in to add.

“Well, then what good does it do for you all to know I’m a fool?” I scowled.

“It frees you to go after her. To tell her how you feel. I refuse to believe this is the end of her. She will get through this, and she’ll need all the love and support she can get,” Shane added.

“I’ll support her no matter what, but confessing my feelings isn’t the way to do it. She doesn’t need the burden of knowing I have these feelings for her. It’ll only make her feel guilty that she doesn’t return them. No, this stays a secret between us.”

“Alistair, for such a smart man, you’re sure dense. Our daughter loves you so much. I venture to say she has since she was a teenager. Confess what you feel to her, and I promise you, she’ll return your feelings,” Cyndi said softly with a sweet smile.

I tried not to let myself get hopeful even though my heart jumped and began to race. They had to be wrong.

“And your nonsense about you not being good enough. It’s cac tarbh , bullshit. Other than our sons and nephews, there’s no other man we know who’s as good as you. You’re already family. We’d love for you to become our son-in-law,” Cormac said gruffly.

Everyone’s beaming smiles and nods made me choke. I was scared yet heartened by them. I slyly pinched myself to see if I was dreaming. Nope, it hurts. I was awake. Joy began to surge through me. Here was my greatest wish: acceptance by the O’Sheeran family and their blessing to be with Aisling. I only had two more things I had to know.

“The whole family agrees? They all know how I feel?”

“Yep, every damn one of them. Hell, I bet Khloe even does the little minx. Mamó told me before we left that if you didn’t confess your love and tie Aisling down soon, she was gonna have to do something drastic. Be more afraid of her than those crazy what-ifs in your head,” Darragh warned me with a grin.

“You think she really does love me in a romantic way?”

“Hell yeah. Now, can we stop talking about love and our baby sister? It’s giving me hives. The mental image is making me want to kill this asshole, and then we don’t have to worry,” Cathal said with a grumble.

“It goes without saying if you hurt her in any way, we love ya, but we will hurt you, aka kill you if you do,” Aidan warned.

“I second that,” Shane called out.

“Third,” Tiernan chimed in.

From the back, I heard someone mutter, “Fourth.”

I saw the steely resolve in Darragh, Patrick, and Cormac’s faces, telling me they would do the same.

“You don’t ever have to worry about me hurting her. I do love her. I’ve tried not to, but I can’t help it. I don’t know what to say. I never imagined you’d all be okay with me and her.”

“ Amadán , idiot,” Darragh said with a roll of his eyes.

With this major obstacle out of the way, my mind went to her and the unknown. I had no idea if she would make it. My gut churned at the thought. I knew they could see my fear as I looked at them and voiced the question. “What if she doesn’t pull through?”

“She will. All we have to do is pray,” Maeve declared.

It was this that brought all of us, even the bodyguards, together to bow our heads and pray. Even after we were done, I kept praying the whole way to California. Heads were gonna roll, and bodies would be piling up once I found out who’d dared to harm her. Even if Brynes were the intended target, it wouldn’t save them from my wrath or that of the O’Sheerans. I had no doubt this hound would soon be baying for blood.