Page 5 of Sinful King

Bait set and taken.

My father and cousin weren’t the smartest duo and I had the upper hand in this fight already. Blake… I wasn’t sure about. All I’d ever known was his silence when speaking up would’ve mattered so much to me.

As for my fight with Sean, it was only beginning and I wasn’t sure how to make this process seamless for the both of us—how to get him to forgive and then include me in his work.

With a sigh, I laid back and stretched out on the floor, phone clutched in my right hand as I stared at his contact.

I bit my lip and rolled to my side, placing the phone next to my head and on speaker after initiating the call. Hearing myself talk while he listened was a start and beggars couldn’t be choosers.

The line rang for so long but I never once thought he wouldn’t answer.

Sean O’Sullivan kept his promises. If I called he wouldn’t ignore me, at least not the call itself.

Eventually everything went silent and then a deep sigh from the man on the other side could be heard.

It settled my spirit.

“You’re upset with me, I know,” I whispered, closing my eyes when met with his silence. “I just… I hope you know I didn’t do it maliciously. I was… protecting you and myself.”

Telling him directly what Landell had been up to wouldn’t solve the bigger issue at play here. My father wasn’t just hurting me anymore, but the man I loved, too. The man I’d walk through fire to keep safe, same as he’d do for me even in this crumpled state we found ourselves in.

Sean wasn’t upset because I hacked his cousin’s code. He was upset because I ruined everything we’d been working toward by involving his family, by hurting his family. But they’d involved themselves first, at least by default.

I sighed.

“I can’t apologize because then I’d be a promise breaker and a liar, but I am sorry for breaking said promise. I’ll make it up to you, mo ghrá.”my love.

THREE

sean o’sullivan

PRESENT - O’SULLIVAN FAMILY PLANE

You either kill…or marry her but do it quickly or I’ll make the choice for you.

My father’s personality changed with the wind. He never felt the same about anything or anyone, except us—my brothers and ma.

We were his world, even as grown men.

But when it came to business, when it came to the mob, he wasn’t our father and we weren’t the apples of his eye.

I was Sean, his heir.

And he was Darragh, the boss.

He taught me how to take his place, how to be a man, but my mother taught me everything else—how to love, especially. And that I had a right to be loved back.

But when you mixed all of it with business, shit could get murky. People might get hurt.

I got hurt.

What Blair did, wasn’t the problem.

How she went about it, was.

We made promises and up until now had always kept them. Blair breaking the most important one meant everyone had to suffer for a little bit, including me and her.

“I think you should talk and let her explain,” Aoife said for the thirtieth time since boarding our private flight to New York. “This is Blair we’re talking about.”

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