Page 76 of The Chief
I crawled toward the center of the room where Orla was sitting. Her short, sharp breaths ruffled the hair at my nape as I positioned myself between her and, what I assumed, was a man.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
A match rasped against the striker for a split second before light flared about ten feet in front of us. The flame grew, revealing a familiar face.
“Owen,” I said, hating the way his name felt on my lips. I’d gotten a bad feeling from him when we were at Gael’s house, and time hadn’t changed my opinion. “What are you doing here?”
“Collecting something that’s owed to me,” he replied.
I shifted in the dirt, blocking my sister from his view. “You want me?”
The flame disappeared with the shake of his hand, so the only light which showed where he now stood came from the cigarette perched in his mouth. “I was promised you, but now I’ve seen your sister, I think I might want to keep you both.”
“Who told you that you could have me?”
A sinister chuckle rolled through the room, and the red end of his cigarette flared to life as he inhaled. The noxious scent of tobacco tickled my nose, and I found myself searching for the smell of something sweeter and spicier instead. Something mixed with the subtle notes of dark chocolate.
“Your mother, kitten.”
Behind me, my sister made a small noise, and I reached a hand out to hold hers. “My mother?” I asked.
He took another deep inhale from the cigarette. “Her cunt is getting a little tired for the streets, but she knows her stuff. Knows which girls to target and bring into the business. Knows which johns will pay the most.”
None of this made sense. “My mother?” I repeated. “What does she have to do with this?”
“She wanted you home, kitten. Said she’d do anything to make it happen.”
Anger popped and fizzed in my veins. “How do you know her?”
Again, there was that chuckle, the one which said he was enjoying this game of half-truths and deception. “She’s my whore. Well, shewasmy whore. She’s my business partner now. She runs my brothels, and in exchange for money and power, I get you.”
“Cait, what’s he talking about?” Orla whispered.
“I don’t know,” I replied just as softly, but I was going to find out. “I still don’t understand.”
A bare bulb flickered to life overhead, and I squinted against the sudden illumination, shielding my eyes so I could keep my gaze on the threat.
“Tell me what the fuck is going on!” I demanded, my thumb accidentally brushing against the splinter-riddled pads of my fingers when my free hand curled into a fist. I kept the pain hidden, though, as a predator like this didn’t need any encouragement.
Owen moved further into the room, though a shadow lurked in the once hidden doorway behind him. It was the Caddie, who watched the entire exchange with an almost avaricious gleam in his cold eyes.
“I only know her because of you, kitten,” Owen crooned. “After you disappeared from Dublin, I became obsessed with what you did. How ruthlessly you killed your father.”
“Stepfather,” I corrected. I never wanted to be associated with that man.
Owen smirked. “Your stepfather, my apologies.” He started walking around the room, and I followed him with my gaze. “Atfirst I wanted to meet the girl who had killed a full-grown man so thoroughly, so savagely. But as I tracked you across the country, my curiosity turned into an obsession.”
Anobsession? He was obsessed with me? I’d been fifteen when I’d killed Brian. It was nine years ago. He couldn’t have been older than sixteen or seventeen at the time.
“You were always meant to be mine, kitten. We were always meant to rule together.” He flicked the ash from his cigarette, then stared at the glowing end. “When I saw you with that bastard Keir in our living room, on your knees, sucking his cock, I’ll admit I almost lost my fucking mind and blew the whole thing. I had to remind myself of the greater plan.”
A frown formed on my brow as I tried to piece it all together.
“I can see things aren’t clear for you yet, so let me share some more of the details.” Owen was behind us now, and I turned my head so I could watch both men. “Getting you here was complicated. I knew you wouldn’t come back for your mother, she’d told me enough about your turbulent relationship. I knew you’d come back for Orla, though. So, what was I to do? There needed to be a threat, and that came in the form of your ex-boyfriend, Grady. I’ll admit, when I found out he’d been between your legs, I’d wanted to put a bullet in his skull and dismember his body to feed to my pigs. But I’m a smart man. A patient man. I knew I could use him somehow. Once I did a bit of digging, I found out I’d had some business with his cousin. In exchange for wiping our debts, his cousin brought him into the Fiach Clan and I sent him to Galway with a special delivery.”
“You sent the bullet?”
He wound his way back to the doorway, his smirk like the cat who got the canary.
