Page 9 of Sweet Vengeance
“I know. You think I don’t know that? But I’m also not going to let that change who I am.”
Cillian grins. “Yeah…yeah, I see that. You’re cute when you’re being all self-righteous. Next time, try not to let your voice shake when you speak, though.”
Without another word, Cillian O’Shea walks out of my room, leaving the door open behind him, while I stand there, trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
CHAPTER THREE
Cillian
What is itabout Ollie that he’s so fucking adorable? Rory was right—it would be fun to keep Ollie. Is it weird that I want to? Maybe it’s because I worry he’ll get himself in trouble. Tiernan would never really hurt him unless he had to. That’s the nature of what we do. Sometimes we don’t have a choice. Sometimes certain things must be done, but again, I don’t think it would ever come to that. It’s not that Tiernan cares about Ollie himself, but he cares about Dean. Hurting Ollie would hurt Dean, and Tiernan would cut out his own heart before he did that.
Still, Ollie is a brave little shit. He opens his mouth when he shouldn’t, and the person on the other side might not always be as understanding.
“I’m gonna head to my dorm,” Aislin says when I join them outside Ollie’s building.
She has a room at the house where the rest of us live, but she’s steadfast in trying to have “a normal college experience.” Aislin resents the lifestyle our fathers brought us into, though I think shewantsto hate it more than she actually does. And while we all accept the benefits willingly, Aislin is determined to resist. I truly don’t get it—why would she want that when what we have is so fucking extraordinary?
“Hope your roommate doesn’t suck.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her in for a noogie.
“What the fuck, Cil. Let me go.” She stomps on my foot, making pain shoot up through my leg, and I immediately let go.
“Ouch. What did you do that for?” I limp while Tiernan, Rory, and Dean laugh at me.
“Because you’re an asshole and you messed up my hair.” She runs her fingers through the long, black locks. “Also, I met my roommate earlier this morning, and she’s great.”
“Is she hot?” Rory asks.
“Actually yes, but you’re not allowed to touch her.” She looks at me. “You neither.”
I hold up my hands. “I wouldn’t think of it.”
Aislin rolls her eyes, then flips me off as she begins walking the other direction. God, I love her. Love all of them and this wild life we live.
“How did everything go?” Dean asks.
We all walked together to the campus, him going to see Ollie while Tiernan, Rory, and I had an appointment with the dean. It’s something we do every year to make sure he still understands the rules and that there’s nothing we can’t do here if we want. If he doesn’t fix it for us, then the cops and his nice little wife and kids will conveniently find out about the women he pays to fuck and the one he accidentally choked to death while doing it.
“Good. He knows his place, and he knows yours is with me,” Tiernan replies. Everyone knows Dean is Tiernan’s, knows not to fuck with him, that he’s with us. Dean is a badass motherfucker and doesn’t need Tiernan to take care of him, but I think a part of him secretly likes it. We’ve been easing him into some aspects of what it’s like to be in our family, bringing him gradually into the fold.
“Fuck him. I don’t need shit from him,” Dean grumbles in his grumpy-ass way.
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t hurt to have everyone you can in your pocket,” I tell him. Dean is a leap-before-he-thinks kind of person, and that shit will get us killed.
We chat as we make it back to the large brick house that sits at the end of a long gravel driveway, away from the road. Rory presses the entry code, our shit already here from earlier.
“God, it feels good to be home.” There’s freedom in being out of Boston. We’re still under my father’s thumb—Sloan’s before him—but here we can do what we want, when we want, as long as we’re making money for the organization.
“I need to smoke a bowl,” Rory says.
“I’ll go get it.” I head toward the back of the house, down a long hallway, and unlock the secret door that leads to the underground level. It’s where we keep the stuff no one is supposed to know about—enough drugs to put us in prison for a hundred lifetimes. And though weed is legal here, you can’t buy it unless you’re twenty-one, so there’s a small market for it at school. Still, it’s mostly the molly and coke that people go crazy for.
I walk past the locked gun cabinets filled with more firearms than we have anything to do with, then grab one of the baggies we’ve broken up for us and head back up.
Rory’s pacing the living room, while Dean and Tiernan are sitting on the oversize armchair that fits both of them, all over each other the way they always are.
“You two are the horniest sons of bitches I’ve ever known.”
Tiernan looks up from where he’s sucking on Dean’s neck. He grins. “Just marking what’s mine before classes tomorrow.”
