Kane carried Alannah, and Dominic carried Bronagh into an empty room with a large bed.
“What’d they do to you?” Kane asked, anger in his tone.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “They did this to me when I was out cold.”
“Fucking pussies.”
“We can’t leave them for long,” I said to Dominic. “Bronagh has a concussion, and Lana hasn’t woken up since one of those pricks knocked her out.”
He cracked his knuckles. “Trust me, bro, this won’t take long.”
“Promise me something.”
“What?”
“He killed Nala, he killed my child, and he planned to rape Alannah,” I said, my voice a growl. “Leave Trent to me.”
My brothers nodded their heads. They knew taking care of the evil that was Trent Miles was what I needed to do. He had ruined my life for the past three years, and he took someone I loved away from me and stole my first child from me. I was going to kill him, and this time, I’d make sure of it.
CHAPTER FIVE
Twenty-one years old ...
“What’s popping, little brother?”
I smiled, just as I always did when one of my brothers called me. I relaxed on my couch, looked around my embarrassment of an apartment, and said, “Nothing much. What’s new with you guys?”
“Other than me going to the Bahamas as escort for Branna’s best friend’s friend, nothing much.”
I shot upright. “Hold the fuck on.”
Alec laughed.
“Repeat that for me, slowly.”
“It’s as crazy as it sounds, Dame,” Alec said. “Branna’s best friend, Aideen, has this other friend, Keela, who is smoking hot. Little brother, I mean the devil crawled out of hell and sat his ass crack on Earth kind of hot. She has red hair, legs for days, and her mouth ... Jesus.”
I laughed. “I get it, Alec, she’s hot. Now, why are you her escort?”
“Right.” He cleared his throat. “So, she was fucking this dude a while who was actually dating her cousin, and he slept with Keela in a revenge plot against her cousin, but the twist is, him and the cousin made up, and now they’re getting fucking married, and Keela has to go to the wedding because her mom is Satan and will make her life hell otherwise. She asked me to escort her, to be her fake boyfriend, so she can get through the wedding in one piece.”
I sat back. “Holy fuck.”
“Tell me about it,” Alec snorted. “It’s fucked up, but bro, it’s in the Bahamas, and my fake girlfriend is hot. I’m deadass happy.”
I shook my head. “Good luck, I guess.”
Alec chuckled. “Why do you sound bored?”
“Because I am bored,” I said. “There nothing to do here.”
“Damien, you live Queens. There is plenty to do.”
“Nothing I wanna do,” I explained. “Besides, someone shot up my block an hour ago. Cops are everywhere, so I’m not leaving this place for nothin.”
“You’re an idiot,” Alec clipped. “You’re happy to live in the hood, but not here in Dublin with us?”
“I don’t wanna argue with you about this again, Alec.” I sighed. “I’m here because I need to be.”
I was bad luck. Everything or everyone that I touched was followed by something bad. I shot Trent, which led to Marco on upping my brothers and roping them into a life of hell. I got close to Alannah when I shouldn’t have, and she was nearly raped and killed because of her involvement with me. I was a sorry excuse for a person, and I knew it. I left Dublin three years ago because it was what was best for everyone.
The first thing I did when I got to New York was remove the false tombstone on the grave of Nala and our baby, then I had a new one erected for them. It wasn’t much, but it was the best I could do for them both. Since then, I got a shitty apartment in Queens, and a job in a butcher shop and just existed. I missed my brothers, I missed Bronagh, Branna, and I missed Alannah. I missed her a lot. I thought about her all the time, so much that I knew it wasn’t good for my mental health.
“Damien,” my brother said. “Why did you run away?”
I leaned my head back against the chair.
“I break everything, Alec,” I answered. “I wanted to leave everyone because I believe you’re all better off without me. The problem is, I’m not better off without you guys.”
“You’re a dumbass,” my brother snapped. “You break nothing! Every shitty thing that has happened to our family, happened to me, was never your fault, and if you stopped feeling sorry for yourself for two seconds, you would see that!”
I didn’t understand how he could defend me when every problem he and my other brothers faced was because of me. If I didn’t shoot Trent, Marco would have never faked his death and took up my brothers on their offer to work off my life debt.