Page 3 of Sweet Vengeance
“She would want this for you, Ollie. I want this for you too.”
I bet everything on Ashford. It’s the only out-of-state college I apply to. If I don’t get in, I’ll take it as a sign that I should stay home.
When I finish reading my acceptance letter, Dad wraps his arms around me, lifting me and trying to jump with me in his arms. I laugh and cry because it’s perfect and scary and everything in between.
“You did it! I’m so damn proud of you!” He puts me on my feet again.
I’m going to Ashford.
With a lot of scholarship money.
My hard work has paid off. All the hours studying and AP courses and lack of a social life were worth it, and I won’t ever do anything to risk this chance I’ve been given.
CHAPTER ONE
Cillian
“Imiss thisplace when we’re back at Ashford,” Rory says as we sit at a private table in Paradise, the club we use to launder money. When I saywe, I don’t mean me, Rory, and Tiernan specifically, but our family, our organization.
“Yeah, there’s nothing like this in downtown Ashford,” Dean, Tiernan’s boyfriend, says. They met last year at school. Dean is a year below us. He was a freshman, and Tiernan wanted him the second he saw him. We thought he was just some random first year, but little did we know, Dean came to Ashford on purpose, looking for Tiernan. His dad had been killed by Tiernan’s, and he’d come seeking revenge.
What none of us expected, Dean and Tiernan included, is that the two of them would fall in love. Dean is Tiernan’s, and if anyone fucks with him, they’ll have us to deal with, and that’s not something anyone would want. I’m not saying accepting Dean after everything was easy. Dean had betrayed Tiernan, but they’ve worked their shit out.
Tiernan hated his father too, and all our lives are a lot easier now that Sloan O’Shea is six feet under. For me, that means my dad—if you can even call him that—is now the boss of the O’Shea family, and my cousin—Tiernan—is his second. Oh, and we’re also keeping a whole-ass secret abouthow Sloan died, which could come back and get any of us killed at any moment.
And my father would be the one to order it.
“Have you ever been in a club like this before us?” I ask Dean.
“How would I? We’re not supposed to be in here now,” he replies with that typical asshole tone. It used to piss me off, but he’s just like Tiernan, really, so I’ve learned to live with it.
“Perk of being who we are.” Rory pumps his brows.
He’s right. Even if this club wasn’t owned by us, no one would argue about us being here, despite none of us being twenty-one yet.
I look up at the men and women dancing half naked on stages and poles. Most of the women are in G-strings with little pasties on their nipples, the men in G-strings or skimpy underwear. No matter what you’re looking for, you can find it in Paradise—drugs, sex, danger…pick your poison. And we indulge in them all, though when it comes to drugs, I only smoke weed. I’ve tried coke and molly, our biggest sellers, but I don’t like how either makes me feel. I have enough shit going on in my life, so if I’m taking a drug to feel something, I want it to mellow me out.
“Anything we need to know?” Rory asks Tiernan as he spins his vape in circles on his thigh. He can never keep still. I give him fidget spinners sometimes, but he always loses them, and I don’t have any on me tonight.
“I met up with Rian earlier today. It’s basically business as usual. We sell product while at Ashford. I’ll keep in touch with him in case we need to deal with anything that goes down here. There’s been a little issue with the last shipment of guns, but they’re handling it.”
Now it’s me fidgeting, the tip of my finger drawing circles on my jeans. Tiernan talks to my father more than I do. I’mnot jealous of my cousin—or at least, I don’t blame him—and I’m old enough that I don’t care as much as I used to. When I needed my dad, he was never there for me, so I made sure not to need him anymore.
In my head, it’s almost like he died when Mom died, and I just don’t understand why. Yeah, it fucking killed me to lose her, but why did it make him not want anything to do with me?
I look up, and my gaze snags on a man and a woman dancing against each other. She’s riding his thigh, the two of them rubbing their hands all over each other. The guy watches me with an intense stare that doesn’t leave much to the imagination. He’s clearly into men, and he likes what he sees.
I’ve never fucked around with a guy before, but it’s something I’ve been curious about. Sex is sex. Bodies are beautiful. Plus, Rory and I have fucked a whole lot of women together over the years, and while we don’t mess around with each other, I can’t pretend I haven’t seen every part of Rory there is to see, can’t lie and say there have never been accidental touches or the brushing of hands and skin and bodies. I can understand the attraction to men, though I’ve never met one who’s made me go there yet.
The guy winks at me as he presses his dick against the woman’s ass. I spread my legs, adjusting my cock, which is starting to bulge. But as hot as this blond guy is, tonight…he’s not what I want. Tonight I want something familiar, and maybe with my best friend.
Glancing over, I see Tiernan and Dean making out, in their own world, and apparently done talking to the rest of us, so I lean closer to Rory. “You wanna see if we can find someone to play with tonight?”
“You know I’m always down for that.”
“Bet,” I reply.
“I think Cherie is here. You remember her? She’s that dancer who blew me, and we’ve talked about hooking up again, but I was at Ashford.”
