Page 5 of Monsters in the Dark

Just then, one of our cocktail waitresses walked up to the table. “Can I get you anything, Mr. Murphy?”

Noah’s cerulean-blue eyes roamed over her in an appreciative glance. “I’ll take an Irish coffee, darlin’,” he answered. “Black.”

Turning towards me, she asked, “A refill, Mr. O’Brien?”

I shook my head. “Not sure if you realize it or not, but it’s only ten in the morning.”

Her lips twitched before saying, “Of course.”

When she walked away, Noah said, “Laddie, ye need ta get laid if yer drinkin’ whiskey a’ ten in da feckin’ mornin’.”

Unlike Noah, my accent only came out when I was pissed or extremely irritated. However, his accent only came out when he was trying to charm a female or being a sarcastic asshole. Luckily for us, our grandparents had lived long enough to make a cultural impact on us, so we weren’t quite fully Americanized, much to our mothers’ delight.

Heritage aside, now his words had me thinking to the last time that I’d gotten my dick sucked, and admittedly, it’d been a while. While I wouldn’t say that I picked up random pieces of ass regularly, I rarely went more than a couple of weeks without getting my dick wet. I could only blame it on the mess with the Olivers and Cooper Donaldson, but that was probably a lie. If anyone could multitask, it would be me.

“Are we still on for the poker game tomorrow night?”

Noah nodded. “Yeah, why?”

“Maybe I’ll pick up a bonus after I take all of your guys’ money,” I quipped.

Once a month, all the brothers and cousins had a poker game, and it got pretty rowdy sometimes. We always had it in the back room at Lir, a bar that we owned that had more bouncers than it had bartenders and servers. It catered to a rougher crowd, but nothing that we couldn’t handle. After all, the entire city knew who owned Lir.

“You wish,” Noah snorted. “Last I recall, didn’t Aran take off with all our coin?”

This time, it was me that grinned. “Indeed, he did.”

When our cocktail waitress returned with Noah’s coffee, she gave us a terse nod before going about her business, and it was a small gesture that I could appreciate. Too many females liked to cash in on who we were, but we didn’t hire our staff for easy pussy; we hired them to work.

As she walked away, Noah said, “Fuck, maybe it’s time I got laid, too.”

“If you’re checking out the staff, then I’d say that it is,” I retorted.

“I wasn’t checking her out,” he lied. “I was simply appreciating what is the female creation.”

I rolled my eyes.

I couldn’t help it.

After downing the rest of my whiskey, I asked, “Any more sightings of Klive’s associates?”

Noah shook his head as he let out a quiet sigh. “No,” he answered. “But it’s just so damn hard to get a solid handle on who they are. They could be anyone since they’re just a hodgepodge of criminals.”

“They have to have a spot where they all meet and talk about…fuck, whatever it is that they need to talk about,” I said before running my hand down my face. “I just have no idea if it’s in our territory or not. Kotov and Sartori haven’t heard anything, either.”

“Well, we still have guys out looking for them, so that’s all that we can do until we find out more information on these motherfuckers.” Noah shot me a look. “Is that why you’re drinking whiskey this early in the morning?”

“No, asshole,” I replied. “I’m drinking whiskey because it’s fucking cold outside.”

Noah grinned. “It’s practically a hundred degrees outside.”

“You’re a dick, you know that?”

“That’s what makes me your favorite cousin,” he joked.

“Lochlan is my favorite cousin,” I retorted. “He’s not an asshole.”

“Thought I was a dick?”

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