I forgot what all the ratings are, but this one has some sexual content, so be advised, those of you who who need to be advised.
Chapter 4
In the car, Anna was just about beside herself with excitement.
"They're amazing," she was gushing. "More amazing than I had ever dreamed. And fucking gorgeous besides. Oh, Evie, this has to be the best day ever."
Her sister's smile was silent, but it was genuine and that was more than Anna had witnessed in years. It made her excitement even more palpable.
"We're gonna meet up with them, right? You weren't just saying that to get us out of there, were you?" She felt like a little kid, as giddy as if she had been promised a trip to Disneyland.
"Yeah, we'll go," Evie assented. "I just need to swing by somewhere first, if that's okay."
"Of course it's okay. I'd go with you to the moon after today. Not that I wouldn't have before today, of course, but today I'm pumped enough to try just about anything."
Anna wanted to sing. The nightmare was finally over. The years of watching the hate and rage eat away at her sister had come to an end as surely as Jarvis' life had. And, they had met the Saints. She'd known, in her heart of hearts, that it had been inevitable. Their paths were destined to cross and they had – in the most unexpected and fantastic way, they had. The fact that they had shown up to kill Jarvis themselves was the absolute icing on the cake. It meant that other people knew what a bastard he was. It meant that what they had done was practically justified in the sight of God. She felt such an overwhelming sense of joy that she didn't even notice her sister's darkening demeanor until they'd come to a stop.
"Where are we?" she asked, desperately trying to hang on to her elation in spite of the deadly expression on Evie's face.
With a shake of her head, the expression was gone and Evie smiled at her. "Nowhere. Let's find this McGinty's."
A wave of panic swept over Anna as Evie put the car back in gear. Something was wrong, wrong, wrong. That look was supposed to be gone.
"Are you all right?" Anna asked cautiously.
"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm great," her sister said as convincingly as possible. "Best day ever."
"Just…you had that look. I thought killing Jarvis would make that look go away," Anna persisted.
"What? No, I was just reliving the night, that's all. I'm good, I promise." She reached over and squeezed Anna's hand.
The desperation to believe Evie was so intense that she chose to give in to it, bottling her panic and shoving it as deep inside herself as she could manage.
"Tell me about the other brother," Evie said. "What was his name?"
Anna knew she was trying to distract her by changing the subject, but she also knew Evie had picked a very distracting subject. Her brief conversation with Murphy had been incredibly tantalizing and she felt like a teenager who needed to spill everything about her latest crush.
"Murphy," she answered. "Wasn't he hot?"
"I was a little distracted and you swept him out of there so fast I didn't get a good look, so I'll have to take your word for it."
"He's hot, trust me. But so was Connor."
"I know. I met him before."
Needless to say, Anna was quite taken aback. "You what?"
"I met him at the motel."
"When? Why didn't you tell me about that?"
"It was two nights ago and it didn't seem important. I'd gone out for a smoke and a run and didn't have my lighter. He and Murphy were on their way to the room down the hall where you found out about them the next day. Connor gave me a light, that's all."
"That's all?!" Anna practically shouted. "What do you mean, 'that's all'?! Why wouldn't you tell me about something like that?!"
Evie cocked an eyebrow at her. "Because I knew you'd get all like this."
"Like what? I'm not like anything! Some sister you are! Meets a hot guy in the middle of the night and doesn't even bother to tell me about it."
"Oh, my god, are you pouting?" Evie laughed. "Look, I didn't know they were who they are until I saw them today, okay? If I had thought…"
Anna punched her arm. "You did so think. You could have said something when I told you about the hit down the hall. Oh! You're such a bitch!"
"What would you have done, huh? They were long gone by the time I put two and two together. Besides, it was 4:00 in the morning – it was dark and I wasn't even sure what I saw. Don't be mad."
"I'm not mad," Anna pouted.
"You are so."
"No, I'm just disappointed, that's all."
"Why? We met them, didn't we? Just like you said we would. And now we're going to some bar with them to 'celebrate'. And don't you dare try to tell me I ought to talk you out of sleeping with Murphy – I saw the look you were giving him. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what you took him away to do!"
Anna feigned insult. "Ah! Excuse me, I am not some tart who kills her former step-father and then promptly fucks the hot man who was there to do the same thing. Geez, I need a few drinks first!" She flung her hair back dramatically then burst out laughing.
"Oh, speaking of which," she said, loosing her seatbelt so she could reach for her duffle bag in the back seat. "Do you want a fresh shirt?"
"Um, no, I think I'd like to stay in this hoodie. The brain bits are a great accessory, don't you think?" Evie mocked.
"Ha ha. You're so funny." Anna dug through the bag and came up with two clean t-shirts.
"So what was Connor like, anyway?" she asked as she changed.
"He's very sweet. Pity I felt so…all over the place. I don't know if I made a very good impression."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. I picked on Murphy because of the way Connor was staring at you. Didn't think I had a chance with him."
"What are you talking about?"
"Come on, as if you didn't see the 'I want to save her from the world' look he was giving you."
"'Save her from the world look'? What the hell is that?"
Anna just laughed. "You are amazingly oblivious, you know that, right?"
"I am not oblivious," Evie protested. "I'm just…focused."
"Ha! Focused. Good one," Anna scoffed.
"Oh, shut up and give me my shirt. We're here."
----
Connor and Murphy were each several beers in when the door of McGinty's swung open to admit two strangers whose appearance stopped everyone in their tracks and left every man's jaw hanging open nearly to the floor.
"What?" the redhead asked, "You boys never seen a couple of girls before?"
Stunned silence was all anyone could give her.
"Easy there, lads," Murphy called out as the crowd slowly started to revive and gravitate towards the two women. "They're with us." He draped an arm over Anna's shoulders as she slipped her own around his waist.
As Evie made her way past the gawkers and leerers towards the table where Connor was sitting, he couldn't help but notice that she seemed far more composed than she had been at the house – the raw vulnerability the circumstances had created was carefully replaced by a confident grin and a slight swagger in her gait. He felt his pulse quicken more than a little and stood up to greet her.
"Ye found it all right?" he asked, having nothing more clever to say.
"Piece of cake," she answered, seamlessly retrieving a cigarette from her bag and holding it between her lips before reaching back to find her lighter.
She needn't have bothered. Connor's lighter flicked to life in front of her and she held his gaze as she completed her task.
Taking a long drag, she sat back and seemed to be sizing him up.
"The first time you gave me a light – at the motel – why did you do it?" she asked.
He shrugged dismissively. "Force of habit."
A small grin crossed her lips. "You're not a very good liar."
"Ye want the truth?" he asked, leaning forward conspiratorially.
Her smile deepened slightly as she nodded.
"Ye think ye can handle it?"
She leaned forward. "Try me."
"I was thinkin' how nice it would'a been to be goin' to that motel for a rendezvous with ye instead of takin' out the human trash."
Sitting back with a chuckle, she took another long drag at her cigarette. "In another world, maybe you were."
As it had been earlier that evening, Murphy and Anna's timing was impeccable. Sitting down next to her sister, Anna slid a Guinness across the tabletop at her.
"He wouldn't let me order anything else," she explained with a nod in Murphy's direction.
"Breakfast of Champions!" Murphy exclaimed. "T' what shall we toast?" he inquired, holding aloft his glass.
"To happy endings!" Anna declared.
"No," Evie interjected rather forcefully. "To justice."
"Aye, that's better," Connor agreed, anxious to avoid reviving any coldness in Evie.
They toasted much and often the rest of that night, though Connor was careful to pace himself to Evie, who wasn't drinking nearly as much as her sister. Conversation wound around everything and nothing, since nothing of any importance could really be talked about in public. Murphy and Anna broke into song more than once, conducting the whole bar in awful renditions of "Wild Irish Rose" and "Auld Lang Sine".
The seating arrangements eventually changed so that Anna was perched on Murphy's lap and Evie had assumed a comfortable position under Connor's arm. He reveled in the sense of normalcy that he felt. The situation that had brought the four of them together had been far from anything like normal, but now, here amongst their friends, Connor could almost believe that he and Murphy had never received their call from God that had so changed the course of their lives. He could almost believe that there had been nothing other than good friends, beer and beautiful women in the last four years. Evie shifted slightly next to him, sending a twinge of pain down his leg from an old bullet wound and reality wound itself back around his imaginings. He hid a sigh behind another drink of beer.
He obviously didn't hide it well enough. "You all right?" Evie asked, her mouth tantalizingly close to his own.
"Hmm? Oh, aye," he answered, feeling his hormones beginning to take over everything else that had been going on in his head.
"I think maybe we should go," she said with a nod in the direction of their siblings. Murphy and Anna were currently making out rather furiously across from them and Connor got the point that if they let them continue, it would be quite the show for the rest of the bar.
"Aye. Do ye have a hose?" he asked with a chuckle as they shifted awkwardly to get up.
They managed to drag the two horn-dogs out of the bar and down the street to the house where Connor and Murphy had taken up residence not that long ago. "Sorry about the mess," Connor apologized as they made their way through the door.
"Let me give ye the grand tour," Murphy announced grandly, arm secured firmly around Anna as though he were somewhat afraid she'd take off if he let go. "Living room, dining room, kitchen, bath," he announced in the appropriate locations. "And upstairs," he said with a leer at Anna, "Bedrooms."
She leered back and pulled his face down to kiss him. "That's what I came for," she said with a wicked little grin.
"Lucky me," Murphy murmured.
"Indeed," Anna answered. "But you'll have to catch me first." And with that, she turned and ran up the stairs, Murphy close at her heels.
Connor couldn't help but smile and shake his head at the squeals and laughter that came from above him. This was all very...what was the word he was looking for?
"Bizarre," came the answer. Had he actually asked the question? "We just killed a guy," Evie observed. "Is this how your nights usually end?" she asked.
He couldn't help but laugh. "I wish. No…bizarre is definitely the word for it."
The awkwardness returned to them for a moment before Connor said, "Did you want something to drink?"
"Water, please," Evie answered, following him into the kitchen.
After filling two glasses from the tap, they returned to the living room. "Here," he said, giving her his glass. "Hang on a minute." Tossing the cushions off the couch, he managed to coax the bed out from inside it. He went to the corner of the room and found a few clean blankets which he shook out and draped over the mattress.
"It's not much, but it's clean," he told her, turning to find she was offering him a smoke. He took it as she flicked on the television and climbed onto the bed. Climbing on next to her, they stretched out and resumed their comfortable arm-over-shoulder position.
Connor didn't know what they were watching, nor did he care. He had not experienced this kind of physical contact for far too long. His hormones and his conscience were having a kind of battle in his head, but he had had too many drinks to know who to listen to.
It had escaped his notice that he hadn't yet relinquished the cigarette since she'd given it to him. To that end, Evie suddenly skooched up beside him and repositioned herself to straddle him. She took the cigarette from his mouth and took a long drag before dropping it into an old beer can and leaning in to kiss him, effectively ending the debate in his head. He pulled her in, sliding his hands under her shirt and running them up the length of her back. Surprised and more than a little turned on, he discovered she wasn't wearing a bra.
They kissed for a long time, and he relished every bit of it – the salty taste of her lips, the pressure and pleasure of her tongue against his, the heat of her skin, his own blood pulsing in his ears. He rolled her onto her back and held her arms down as he kissed the length of her neck, causing her to wrap a leg around him and arch her back against him. Releasing her arms, he pulled up enough of her shirt to kiss her belly, letting his tongue caress the soft flesh from her hip to her ribs. A soft moan escaped her lips as she tangled her fingers in his hair. He came back to her neck, lightly biting the lobe of her ear. Her breath quickened as she returned the favor, but guilt suddenly swept over him.
"Are ye sure about this?" he whispered.
She took his face in her hands and held him back to look her in the eyes. "Just this one night," she whispered, "Let's pretend we're normal," and pulled him in again to kiss him.
The guilt washed away and so did everything else. He lived and breathed nothing but those moments, marveling at the softness of her skin while mentally filing away a number of scars he found there; savoring the sensation of being inside her, bodies pressed up hard against each other, muscles and skin reacting to every touch and movement. He saw nothing but her face, heard nothing but the sound of her heavy breathing and quiet moans. He wanted to burn this space and time into his memory as though it were somehow his last rite on earth. They each had built up years of burdens and sadness and anxiety and tension and pressed them into each other with an intensity Connor could never quite describe or get hold of again. He didn't want it to ever end, but when it did, he found them clinging to each other as though they were each other's last hope for salvation. They fell asleep that way, foreheads pressed together, arms and legs wrapped around each other, holding on for dear life as though one or the other might get sucked away if they ever let go.