Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Líadan

" I can't remember the last time I've had this much fun," I say with a small smile as we walk back to the hotel. "Well, where I didn't kill anyone, anyway."

"I'm going to need to make sure we make a habit of this," Brendan says, smirking. "People will still regularly die, we'll just be ensuring you get more life experience."

"I'm vaguely aware this isn't normal conversation, but it fits you two so well," Jordan says, chuckling as he opens the door for both of us.

"I can open the door," I tease him as I walk through it with Brendan. We look around the entryway of the hotel for signs that we've been found, but it's pretty calm, which is normal for this hotel.

I love that we were able to get lost so easily in New York City. It may be time to find a new place to move to after we take care of business. Talking to Jordan about all of the places he's visited made me realize that I don't need to make my home base Chicago.

There are too many ghosts there anyway.

Jordan's hand rubs my back as he waits for me to start walking. I don't feel pressured to do anything, he's just being supportive in whatever I need. It's nice to know he'll follow my lead. Brendan is the same way, though it's different, because he worries so much about me.

He's not wrong, life has fucked me over often enough that I should have a trophy in compensation. I'll take a few days just like this instead.

"I know you can open it, doesn't mean you should need to, Princess," Jordan says, picking up the thread of our conversation. "Just like how I know for damn sure that Brendan can open his own door. I'm an equal opportunity door opener."

Brendan chuckles at how normal it is to fake argue about such mundane things. Sighing happily, I ignore the elevator for the stairs. If anyone is going to be waiting for us upstairs, this is the safer option.

"I think I'm a terrible boyfriend," Jordan says, eyes wide as he stumbles to a stop.

"Why do you say that? We just had the best date, and I got orgasms on my birthday," I tell him with a grin.

I kind of forgot it was even my birthday until I said it. There's been so much going on that it was just another day.

Jordan blows out a breath as he tugs me into his arms, dropping his lips to mine to suck the soul out of my body.

"This is what I mean," he murmurs against my lips. "Happy birthday, beautiful."

"Lía usually hates to be reminded of it, so I've gotten out of the habit of wishing her a happy birthday," Brendan says. "We need to make new memories now, beautiful."

"I think I'd like that," I say with a nod. "We get to rewrite what today means now."

The guys beam at me before we begin moving again. These stairs won't climb themselves.

"Think they've found us yet?" Brendan asks softly as we trudge up the four flights of stairs.

"It's possible, but it doesn't hurt to play it safe. If we're staying in the city any longer, we may want to switch hotels," I say. The farther up we go, the more I can feel myself tensing.

"I can sort it," Jordan murmurs, already on the same wavelength as we are.

"I feel almost twitchy," I mutter. "I was fine a moment ago. It's hard to explain."

"Like something is going to happen and it's weird that nothing has yet?" Jordan asks, surprising me.

"God, yes. Exactly like that," I admit. It's almost too damn quiet.

"It's your intuition, baby. I'll never discount it and neither should you," he grunts.

Taking a deep breath, I nod as I peek out the heavy stairwell door into the hallway where our room is located.

"Did you bring any weapons with you today?" Brendan asks.

"There's a knife in my left boot," I murmur as I ease my way out of the doorway. "I always have something."

"It's the opposite boot I threw off, so that's good to know," Jordan mumbles.

Lips pressing together to hide the smile that threatens to come out, I nod. It feels odd to be able to show emotion. Everything has been stuffed away for so long, Daddy dying helped to be able to start unpacking things.

The only thing I'm worried about are possible nightmares, because they were terrible right after the rapes happened. I'll deal with it all as things come up, but I think Brendan or Jordan will help with whatever feelings bubble up.

Brendan's face was filled with wonder and awe when I started crying. To be honest, it was a surprise to me as well. I've never been very emotional to begin with. Emotions were always something Daddy hated when I exhibited them. He wanted me to be stoic and serious all of the time.

It was easier to hone my poker face that way.

Taking a deep, quiet breath, I begin walking to my room with Brendan and Jordan. The itching between my shoulder blades is beginning to increase, but I know there's no one behind us. I checked.

"I'm covering you, Lía," Brendan murmurs. Some people would think it's odd that he's having me go first. I prefer it. I want the first crack at whatever is on the other side of this door.

Pulling out my keycard, I notice the maid's cart who is working in a room four doors down. It's almost seven at night. They should be done by now. It's definitely time to get the fuck out.

Handing the bags in my hand to Jordan, I ensure that my hands are free. Scanning the card, I push it open slowly, listening hard to see if anyone else is inside.

Dammit, I can't fucking tell. Bending over as if I dropped something, I pull my blade from my boot, entering the room completely. A heavy body tackles me immediately, shoving me into the wall.

This man is built like a shit house, large and blocky. His cologne is non-existent, and he somehow smells like nothing. He's also incredibly quiet as he thrashes me over and over into the wall, which explains why I didn't hear the fucker.

The breath is knocked out of me, but thankfully I don't need to breathe in order to kill someone.

Brendan follows me in, but gives me time to open my knife and shove it into the man's side. If he's going to treat me like a rag doll, I'm not going to waste time figuring out who he is or what he wants.

It's obvious that he's someone's hired muscle. As soon as I have, Brendan pushes the man away from me, pulling his firearm as Jordan calmly follows us in and shuts the door behind us.

"Wait, could you not kill him? Good help is hard to find," a woman says quickly from her chair by the window. She calls attention to herself, again showing how easily they managed to get into the room.

Sneering at her, I watch as Brendan makes her goon kneel at his feet with the gun trained on him. My breath is still not back completely, and I hate showing my cards as I force the air into my lungs. Fuck, this hurts.

"And you are?" Jordan asks fluidly, stepping up next to me in perfect sync, easily covering for me.

"Aine O'Clery," she says. "I'm your aunt, Líadan."

Finally able to breathe, I shake my head in denial as Jordan takes my knife to wash it off in the bathroom. It would suck if we left blood splatter everywhere, I guess.

"I don't have an aunt," I tell her. "Daddy had two brothers. No offense, but you're not my aunt."

"He met your mother in Ireland," she says. "Your mother had three brothers and two sisters. I'm one of them. After he killed her, he cut off all communication with us."

"Sounds like something he would do," I mutter as Jordan comes back into the living room with a dry knife. Taking it back, I hold it loosely in my hand. I make sure to test the balance of all my blades, and this one is perfect to throw as well. It's why I prefer them over guns. "Why are you in my hotel room? Your goon enjoyed tossing me around way too much."

"I'll be dealing with him later over that," Aine growls. "Are you alright?"

"It's not even close to the worst thing that's happened this week to me," I say with a shrug. I don't mention that I'm a bit dizzy, because I don't make it a habit to tell someone my weaknesses.

"That's kind of fucked," she mutters. "You're the new leader of your father's empire. It's filled with people who are dangerous, insane, and quite honestly, evil. Your grandfather wants to know what your plans are."

"I have a grandfather?" I ask before shaking myself off the small pieces of information I'm being given. "I don't understand why he's interested at all."

"He is part of the Irish Mob," Brendan says softly, dropping his hand to his side. "I didn't really think it mattered at the time, but I heard bits and pieces about him when I was in Ireland during that summer of hell. The O'Clery was spoken about a few times. I didn't meet him or anything, though."

"So, this is legit?" I ask, reminding myself to breathe. Aine has bright red hair that's back in a sleek bun. She doesn't look like mom or myself at all, until I gaze at her eyes. They're the same forest-green eyes I see every day in the mirror.

Holy shit, she's for real. It would have been nice to be able to have a piece of my mother to remember, but it's been too long, so I can't recall much about her anymore. I don't know what she smelled like, her favorite color, or anything else.

She's this shadowy person, someone else who couldn't stay around to protect me from my father.

"I have a feeling you have good instincts, Líadan. You'd know if I was full of shite. What do you think?" she asks.

"Tell my grandfather I'm burning my father's organization to the ground. I don't want to be involved in selling people, so those who do are as good as dead. Anyone who doesn't come when I call is also dead," I tell her. "They just don't know it yet."

"You're a slip of a girl. How the hell are you going to accomplish all that?" Aine asks, making me roll my eyes.

"I see sexism manages to travel across the pond, too. I'm the Banshee, Auntie," I say, grinning widely when her lips part in surprise. There's no amusement, though. It's more a bearing of teeth. I had this entire family that fucking left me with a monster.

"Great, so you've heard of me. I would have thought everyone would be flapping their lips after yesterday's reveal," I murmur.

"How… The Banshee is a ruthless monster," Aine cries out, eyes wide.

"I think you should keep your mouth shut," Jordan growls. "You said so yourself that you left Líadan to the wolves. What the fuck do you think happens when you do that? Please, think about the horrors this woman could have gone through in order to become a living boogeyman."

Aine shudders as she nods. "I didn't think…"

"Please don't say anything else," I sigh. "My father was incredibly calculating. He needed someone to keep his people in line, so he made it happen. He tried to play God again last night, and he found out what it's like to fuck with the wrong person. Turns out, trying to sell women against their will catches up with you."

"So you did kill him?" she asks curiously.

"No, but I'm not going to tell you who did. She deserves a normal life," I tell her. "I absolutely killed other people last night, but not my father."

"This isn't going at all how I thought it would," she grumbles.

"Did you think you were going to come in and save Líadan?" Jordan asks. His fingers twitch as he speaks, and I realize he's angry for me, and not at me. "She's kept herself alive, with the help of Brendan. Seán O'Brien was a manipulative motherfucker, volatile, and violent."

"Who are you two to my niece?" Aine asks, making me annoyed. She can't just claim me as family because we share a little blood. This protectiveness is bullshit.

"We're hers," Brendan rumbles. "We can never be manipulated, turned, or forced to hurt her. We will not. Especially now that my boss is dead and gone."

"I've heard about you," she murmurs. "His enforcer. You ran a lot of his meetings as well, didn't you? You've been photographed at his side at events. Where were you during this all, Líadan?"

"Hiding," I grunt. "Before yesterday, no one's seen me since my seventeenth birthday party."

The blood drains from her face as I wave toward the door behind me. "You can tell my grandfather I'll take care of it all," I say. "I'm very good at cleaning up after myself. If you managed to find us, we obviously need to move. I'm sure this wasn't the reunion you thought it would be, but that's all I can give you."

"Wait—"

"You left me with a monster!" I scream at her, a piece of me enjoying her flinch. "What did you think I was going to do when you broke in here?"

"I didn't think he was going to turn you into whatever this is," she says, her lip curling in disgust.

"Yep, I'm done. I'm going to pack. Brendan can you?—"

"I'll escort them out," he says.

Leaving behind the bags of sex toys, I walk to my bedroom. I need a shower desperately after that conversation. I feel gross, and the memories are threatening to take over.

I can hear yelling behind me, but I ignore it to pull off my clothes, naked by the time my feet touch the cool tile of the bathroom. Maybe our next hotel will have heated floors…

"Woah, do you fucking mind," Brendan shouts, surprising me as I turn quickly to find Aine holding her hand up in front of her face, since I'm butt naked.

"Apparently she doesn't," I mutter, shaking my head as I turn away to start the shower. Pulling my headband off, I toss it at the sink before stepping into the water. I don't plan to get my hair wet, I just want to wash off this conversation, and Aine doesn't seem to want to let it die.

"What do you want?"

"I don't want the last thing you remember of our conversation to be that I'm disgusted by your experiences. I'm usually better about controlling my face?—"

"So you are disgusted, you're just sorry you couldn't control what I saw. Fabulous," I say, picking up the body wash to pour some onto a washcloth.

"No," Aine sighs. "I'm disgusted that my brother-in-law used you. I'm pissed off at myself that I didn't insist we kidnap you from Chicago. We had a family conversation after your mother died, and one of my brothers was very insistent that your father wouldn't hurt you."

"Mmhmm," I grunt as I continue to wash my body. "Daddy started hitting me when I was ten, but I was twelve when he helped three grown men beat the fuck out of me. The entire time he spoke about how he needed someone to keep the family in line. I think everyone thought he meant Brendan, who he groomed to be his enforcer. Daddy sold me when I was seventeen to the Family. But no, he wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Líadan," she whispers as I take a deep breath. I'm so done with this woman.

Washing my face takes a few minutes as I ignore her, hoping she'll go away.

"Come on then," Brendan says. "You said your piece. We still think you're all shit humans for the record, though. It's time to go."

"I didn't know!" Aine screams, her composure shredding as I finish in the shower and turn off the water.

Brendan grabs me a towel, handing it to me silently.

"I don't know anything about you, and now I have to go back and explain this to the family," she says, gasping for air. "How am I supposed to tell my ninety-year-old father about this?"

"Hand me the phone, I can give him all the details," I say dully as I begin drying off. "I can't be emotionally manipulated, Aine. I'm not built for it. You can't force me to see things from your side, because for the most part, I don't have empathy for others. I see a sad woman who fucked up. Take your regrets somewhere else. I don't have time for it."

"Don't call her a bitch, because she's not," Brendan growls as I wrap the towel around my body.

"I wasn't going to," Aine says as I walk past her.

Jordan is sitting on the bed, clothes already laid out for me. "Her goon is sitting outside on the balcony, nursing his stab wound," he says.

It's freezing outside. My lips twitch as I think about him becoming a popsicle. I guess that's just one of the dangers of the job. Oh well.

"I was going to say that I don't blame you for your words," Aine says, crossing her arms over her chest as I get dressed. "How are you going to get any of these people to pay attention to you?"

"Their planes are grounded," Jordan says. "The international people can't leave. The Irish families were told they had to report to Chicago the moment that Líadan called for them."

"I really think that blowing up a building with all of them in it is the easiest," Brendan says.

"So be it. Jordan, go through your portfolios of each person, and make me a list. Those are the people we'll invite to speak to," I say softly, putting on my panties. My nudity is no longer bothering my aunt, and she listens intently as I speak.

I wouldn't normally bother with underwear, but I need some clothing between us. "I'll speak to them, and as I leave, you can blow up the building. We can make it one of the warehouses where we know there won't be too much fallout."

"Just like that?" Aine asks, almost appalled.

"Yep. I'm ready to live my life, Aine. I don't want to be looking over my shoulder every five seconds," I state. A comfortable blue long-sleeved tunic goes over my head next, warm and soft against my skin.

Jordan has really great instincts himself when it comes to what I want or need. "It'll be a warning to anyone else in the family who decides to continue selling humans like they're animals as well."

"From there, we'll police things in house," Brendan states. "The family has procreated like rabbits, and it's difficult to keep them in line. Time to cull."

"I've been killing them for the last five years, and they're still out of control," I murmur. "As you said, they're evil. Do you really have an issue with this plan of action?"

"No. It's just hard hearing someone so young discuss murder as if they're talking about the weather," she says. "I'll go home to my father and tell him you have it handled."

"What, no threats?" I ask, pulling on my leggings. These will be comfortable to travel in as we make our next move. Fuck it, maybe we should head home today. The train wouldn't be terrible to travel by night to Chicago.

I don't really want to go to the airport right now.

"No, no threats. I've lived a long time by being able to recognize the largest predator in the room," she says. "You're definitely it."

"I love hearing that," I say with a smirk, grabbing my suitcase to pack. Brendan does the same, while Jordan shrugs.

"I never really unpacked," he says. "I'm ready to go."

"I guess I'll collect Kellen then," Aine says. "Be safe, Líadan. I'm sorry we all failed you in so many ways. Maybe we can talk another time."

Zipping up my bag, I glance at her as Brendan goes to the bathroom to grab anything else.

"I don't know that we'll need to without opening a mess of scars that I'd rather leave alone," I say.

Brendan packs up the items we need from the bathroom and the sex toys we bought earlier, and I ignore the look Aine makes when she catches sight of a large dildo. We may have had a lot of fun buying new shit.

"So, this is a completely nosy question, and you can tell me to go to hell," she says slowly.

Jordan snorts as he looks at Aine as if to say, " You're kidding, right ?"

"I can assure you, Líadan will not hesitate to say exactly that," he drawls.

"With an introduction like that, I'm sure it's going to be a fairly nosy and uncomfortable question," I remark.

"Probably," Aine agrees. "Brendan said that they are yours. Are you with both of these men?"

"Yep, you're right. That's very much none of your concern," I say, picking up my bag. "Time to go. I think New York has had enough of us."

"Am I booking plane tickets?" Jordan calls over his shoulder as he goes to the other room to get his bag.

"Not quite," I tell him. "I'll tell you in the subway."

"You're taking the subway?" she gasps.

"As you said, I'm the one that people should be afraid of," I remind her as I put my socks and boots on, tucking away my knife. "None of the people who want to hurt me would be caught dead in the subways. So it's been nice and quiet."

Brendan helps me put on my coat, and then we're leaving Aine behind without a second glance.

"Destination?" Jordan asks once we're settled in the subway train.

"Penn Station, please," I tell him. "We're going to take the train back to Chicago. A long nap sounds really good. I want to get the ball rolling on all of this. If we wait too long, it'll allow the natives to get restless."

"You're the boss, Princess," he teases me, getting to work. Leaning into his side, I press my lips against his cheek.

"Thanks, Jordan."

With support like this, I'll actually be able to have a life. Even if it's an unconventional one.