Still, we watch as Axel speeds through the last hour, but there’s nothing. Cars do drive by, but nothing that looks out of the ordinary and none of them driving too fast or anything. It would be hard to decipher any makes and models even if we could see better. The road is dark as hell.
“Fuck,” Dean curses. I’m not as pissed as I thought I would be. I don’t need Axel’s help to find this guy. I can do it on my own, and when I do…I kinda want to play with him, mess with him, experience more of that unexpected high I got when he had a gun to my head.
“I want all the money you have. In the safe too.” Tiernan uses his gun to point to the photo on the wall.
“I can’t do that. How in the hell am I going to keep things going if I give you everything I have?” Axel argues.
“Not my problem. I’d assume you’d be happy because you’re alive. We can make other arrangements if you’d rather. This feels easier to me. If I kill you, then this becomes our responsibility, blah, blah, blah. Less work this way.”
“You’re a real asshole, you know that?” But like everyone, Axel does as Tiernan says. He unlocks the safe and hands over the money.
“Nice doing business with you,” T says. “Keep an ear to the ground. You hear anything, I don’t care how small it is, about someone jumping Rory, you call and tell me.”
“Yeah, whatever. I will. You’re fucking me right now, and this isn’t my fault.”
“I don’t care,” Tiernan says, turning around and going forthe office door.
Before I realize what’s happening, Cillian jumps over the desk, grabbing Axel, throwing him against the wall, then slamming his fist into his face. The man falls to the ground, the rest of us watching while Cillian kicks him in the gut. “He gets hurt here, I hurt you. Don’t let that shit happen again.” Without another word, Cillian storms out of the room.
Tiernan curses. “You’re smart enough not to try and retaliate for any of this, right?”
“I’m not fucking stupid.” Axel spits blood. “The last thing I need is the O’Sheas on my ass.”
“Exactly.”
The three of us follow Cillian out.
Dean and Tiernan take T’s ride, Cillian driving mine back to the house.
“Call Ollie. He’s worried,” is the first thing he says to me. “He wanted to come, but I didn’t know if it was dangerous.”
“I’m fine,” I insist. “It was kinda hot, actually.”
“Shut up, Ror.”
“I’m serious. It got me boned up. It was weird. That’s never happened before.”
“I don’t care if it was hot. You let that fucker get the drop on you. I know it. You did it for a fucking rush, and that shit is dangerous. We do enough stuff that can get us killed. You don’t need to take chances when you don’t have to.”
“He wasn’t going to shoot me.”
“How do you know that?”
I shrug. “I just do. He was inexperienced.”
“That makes him more dangerous.”
“He’s a nobody who needed some money. I got a rush out of it. Don’t get it twisted. I plan to kill the motherfucker, but it’s not that big of a deal.”
I appreciate that he cares, that his boyfriend does too, andthat Cil wants it that way—that the connection between me and his boy is just as important to him as it is to me—but I’m in pain and not in the mood to deal with this shit.
Before he can say anything else, I make the call. Ollie answers right away. “I’m fine, Bunny. It was just a little misunderstanding.”
“I knew you shouldn’t have gone! I had a bad feeling. I told Cillian that after you left. Did that asshole—”
“It wasn’t him. I didn’t even get any dick. I’m bummed about that. It was some rando, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I’m good. We’ll be home soon, and you can baby me.”
Both Ollie and Cillian snort.
