Page 8 of Safe and Sound

Gazing around my surroundings, I frowned. Instead of being in the comfort of my own bed, I was in the office I shared with my brothers at our night club,Bandia, which meant goddess in Irish.

“Fuck,” I groaned, as I ran my hands over my face. I must’ve fallen asleep at my desk. Glancing down at my watch, I blinked in disbelief. I’d been out for almost two hours. So much for working on the paperwork I needed to complete.

“You good, boyo?”

Cutting my gaze to the open doorway, my younger brother, Kellan, stood staring at me, his brows creased with worry. “I didn’t realize I nodded off,” I replied.

“Makes sense considering you’re burning the candle at both ends.”

As I stretched my arms over my head, I snorted. “You sound like Mam.”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

Rubbing my eyes, I replied, “I’m just doing what I have to do to get the casino off the ground.”

While my brothers and I co-ownedBandia, along with our strip club,Alain, The Celtic Grand was my baby. For years, I’d been working to see my dream come to fruition. Since I was in the home stretch, I wasn’t going to let anything, including a lack of sleep, sideline me. Regardless of my determination, my body was starting to succumb to exhaustion.

With a yawn, I rose out of my chair. I slipped into the adjoining bathroom to freshen up. After splashing water on my face, I gazed at my reflection in the mirror. Although I felt like I’d been run over by a truck, thankfully, I didn’t look like it.

As I was drying my face, Kellan appeared in the doorway. When he caught my gaze in the mirror, he cocked his brows at me. “You’re still having nightmares,” he remarked softly.

“What are you talking about?”

“You were moaning and thrashing around.”

Of course I was. In every fucking dream, I’m trying desperately to get Shannon away from my father and his men. But every time, I fail.

But I couldn’t let Kellan know that.

Smirking at him, I replied, “It’s called a sex dream, mate. A gorgeous brunette was deep-throating me. I’m surprised I didn’t come in my pants.”

Kellan narrowed his eyes. “You must think I'm a real plonker to buy that line of bullshite.”

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist. It’s not that serious,” I mused.

He shook his head at me. “After everything I’ve been through, you can’t fool me, Dare.” He tapped my forehead. “I see straight through you. All the jokes and quips can never fully hide your pain.”

With a roll of my eyes, I countered, “Okay, boyo. Just because you had your so-called therapy sessions with Isla, you’re not a fucking shrink.”

Jabbing a finger at me, Kellan snarled, “Don’t you dare knock me trying to be emotionally healthy!”

“Jaysus, do you even hear yourself right now?”

“Do you hearyourself?” Kellan countered.

“I don’t need this bullshit,” I muttered. Wanting to put as much distance between us as possible, I started past him out of the bathroom.

“Whenever you’re ready to be a man and own up to your emotions, let me know,” he called.

I froze. Whirling around, I narrowed my eyes at him. “Fuck.You. What do you know about being a man? While I was in Boston getting the brunt of Da’s brutality, you were back in Belfast with Mam getting coddled. I was always on the front line getting beaten and bloodied!”

“Your trauma doesn’t make you a man. How you handle it does.”

“What a bunch of psychobabble bullshit!” I shot back.

“It’s the truth. What happened to Maeve and my part in it had been festering inside me for the past two years. It’s fucked me in ways you could never imagine. It wasn’t until I started freeing myself of that burden that I could breathe again.”

Standing toe to toe with him, I sneered, “Da was right when he called you a waste of a cock.”

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