Brooke didn't sleep that night. She tried, really tried. Forced her eyes shut, try to clear her mind but that seemed nearly impossible. So she stayed up, tossing and turning in the bed she shared with Liam, plagued by a thousand thoughts.
Her father was dead.
What should she tell her mother? Would she even notice that her father was gone?
The dinner part with Liam's family and his dreadful father; Darcie.
Aoibheann and Chon.
Were they still together after what Chon did to her?
She really tried not to think about Chon when she was wrapped in the arms of Liam but his stupid face kept popping up in her mind. The fact that he was with Aoibheann devastated Brooke because, well, because she was selfish and wanted Chon to herself. She never thought he'd find someone like Aoibheann, who, though Brooke hated to say it, was perfect for Chon. And Aoibheann was a good person. She hadn't planned on taking a liking to a girl who was screwing Chon – but after spending time with Aoibheann; she couldn't help but develop a friendship with her.
Brooke closed her eyes tight, trying to rid herself of every thought that came through her head. When that failed, she snuck out of bed and rummaged through Liam's bathroom. Well, hers and Liam's bathroom. She still couldn't believe that she had moved in with him. Was this all a mistake? She shook those thoughts away. No, I love Liam. She told herself. You love Chon, too. Another voice whispered in her head. SHUT UP! She screamed in her head. It didn't matter if she had feelings for Chon. She was with Liam and he was with Aoibheann, well she didn't know that for sure but it didn't matter. She loved Liam. Liam, Liam, Liam!
Brooke sighed in relief when she saw a prescription for sleeping pills in Liam's bathroom cabinet. She opened the bottle quickly and popped two of the pills in to her mouth. It was a strong dosage so she would be knocked out any time now. She sunk down on to the bathroom floor and ran her fingers through her hair.
She tried to think of better things.
Brian and Anna's wedding. That was coming up. She thought of the dress she was planning to wear. Something beautiful, something eloquent. She needed to make a better impression on the rest of Liam's family than she had made on Darcie.
What color did she want the dress to be?
Red.
Liam always told her how intoxicating she looked when she wore red. She'd wear red for him.
Long dress or short dress?
The wedding was in California – it'd have to be a short dress.
She had a design in mind; she'd have to go to her old house in the morning to get some fabric to make the dress. She dreaded going back to her parent's house, given what had just happened. But that's where all her things were. Maybe Liam would go with her to her parent's house? No, she didn't want to bother him with that.
Brooke got up off the bathroom floor and headed back to bed, grabbing her cell phone off the desk next to the bed and sent a message to Ben. Will you come with me to my parent's house tomorrow to grab a few things? She sent the message.
Ben had been trying to get a hold of her all night but she had ignored his calls and text messages. She hadn't been ready to talk to him yet. But now he was the only person she could imagine going to her parent's house with after what happened.
Ophelia would be too traumatized to go back. She could ask Aoibheann to go with her but she still didn't know her that well to do that. She wanted Ben to come with her.
It didn't take long for Ben to reply to her text, almost immediately after she sent the message,
she received one from Ben saying; Of course.
She breathed in a sigh of relief. "-Brooke?" A groggy voice pulled her away from her phone screen. She looked down to see Liam looked up at her from bed. He moved his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. "Having trouble sleeping?" He asked her. She nodded, laying down and snuggling next to Liam's body. He kissed her temple, breathing in the scent of her hair.
"That was quite some dinner." She said quietly. Liam chuckled.
"Yes, well there's never really an uneventful dinner when Darcie is around. Usually a lot more swearing, sometimes Ryan pulls out a knife. This was a piece of cake, you did very good, love."
"Seemed like Aoibheann kind of got the worst of it." Brooke pointed out. "I tried to find her after dinner but she was gone." Liam nodded, wrapping his arm around Brooke tighter.
"He's a son of a bitch. God only knows why he had kids. Perhaps he needed someone to knock around other than our mother." He then looked to Brooke. "Why didn't you ever say anything about your father?" He asked her. "You could have told me."
"I never told anyone, Liam." Brooke replied. "Not even Ben." She sighed. "I was too embarrassed, ashamed, horrified by it all." She ran her fingers across his chest, the hair tickling her skin. She couldn't help but think how Chons chest was always smooth compared to Liams. "I mean, what kind of sick fuck touches his daughter – and what kind of sick fuck would people think I am for letting it happen all these years."
Liam shook his head. "You're not sick. He is. And now he's dead." He said softly. "And you don't ever have to think about him again if you don't want to."
"I don't want to think about him ever again." Brooke confessed.
Liam nodded his head. "Then we won't talk about it. Ever again." He promised, kissing her head. "So close your eyes and let me hold you while you sleep. I promise I won't let anything happen to you." He swore.
X
X
X
Brooke had woken up alone, Liam had left a note telling her he had to do some business with the IRA but left her his credit card telling her to pick out something nice to wear because he was going to take her out tonight for dinner. She smiled and got out of bed. Brooke got dressed and grabbed her phone. She already had a missed call from Ben.
She put the phone to her ear and listened to the message he left her.
Brooke, I can't meet up with you today, Chon and I have some meetings we need to go to. Can we do it tomorrow? Call me back.
Brooke sighed and put the phone down. She needed to get her things today she couldn't keep waiting to go – she wanted to get her things and then everything would be over she'd never have to step foot in that house again. She began to walk out of the room she shared with Liam and down the long hallway to where Aoibheann's room was. "Aoibheann?" She said softly, knocking on the bedroom door.
"Come in," The Irish voice said from inside the room. When Brooke walked in to the room she saw Aoibheann sitting at the vanity, looking at her neck in the mirror. The bruising was gone. Whatever Brooke had given her had worked wonders. "What's up?" She asked Brooke.
"I was wondering if you might want to come with me to my house." Brooke asked her. "I really rather not go alone after what happened and Ben said he can't come with me." She told her. "I just need to grab some things so I can make my dress for Anna and Brian's wedding."
Aoibheann nodded her head with a soft smile. "Of course." She said. "First though." Aoibheann said to Brooke as she strolled over to her walk in closet. "I need to change." As the words left her mouth, she saw Brooke staring at her shirt… it was Chon's shirt. Biting her bottom lip, the younger chestnut brunette knew she was going to have to tell Brooke what happened last night, after she left the wonderful dinner party. "I'll explain everything later." Brooke only responded with a raised eyebrow. "Promise!" Aoibheann added as she put on a part of black skinny jeans and a dark navy tank top.
"You better." Brooke slowly walked around Liam's little sister's room, taking in everything. Her room, it was something you would see in Vogue, but yet it still had a younger girls touch to it. There was pictures of her family and friends covering her floor length mirror.
"Okay, I'm ready." Aoibheann told Brooke as she carefully slipped on her pair of Chanel flats, while trying not to hurt her broken wrist. Brooke just nodded her head and followed the other brunette down the stairs and towards the front door.
"So what are you going to wear to the wedding?" Aoibheann asked as she opened the bulletproof glass front door. Before Brooke could even open her mouth, she watched as Aoibheann's face expression went from cheerful to fuming in less than two seconds. Brooke just stood there watching as Aoibheann glared at the women standing right outside of the front door, she couldn't help but to be curios of the other stunning female.
"How dare you," Aoibheann snarled, right before she punched the other women square in the face. Knowing that she broke her nose, Aoibheann gave Brooke a winning smile as she walked around the women who was crying and yelling about her nose. "I hate that soith."
"Aoibhenn!" A male voiced yelled from behind Brooke and Aoibheann.
'Fuck.' Aoibheann thought as she turned around to see her oldest brother, Brain and his soon to be wife, Anna standing next to the women with the broken nose. Brain looked like he just came back from a meeting, he was still wearing his suit. To tell the truth, Aoibheann couldn't remember the last time her oldest brother wasn't wearing a suit, or at least dressed up. Anna on the other hand, was letting the Southern Belle in her shine through. She was wearing a pair of coral skinny jeans, nude wedges, a white tank top, a navy cardigan and pearl earrings. Let's not forget that Anna's looks like the all American girl; blonde hair and blue eyes.
"What is the meaning of this, sister?" Brain quickly walked over to his younger sister, his brown eyes fumed with anger, but he kept his voice calm." Ms. Davis." He added with a nod, once he noticed that his sister was no alone.
"You and Anna aren't supposed to be here." Was the only replied Brian got.
"Well the wedding planner Anna hired has royally messed up the whole wedding, so we're here to fix it all." Crossing his arms over his chest, Brian again asked his sister, "What is the meaning of this?" He knew that both woman had a bad past, but Aoibheann was acting like Ryan. Acting before thinking.
"Just seeing her face, makes me want to snap her neck."
Brian rubbed his temple, knowing that if Aoibheann had a chance she would most likely snap the poor girl's neck." Sister, she is in the wedding and came here to help Anna. Play nice." With that being said, Brian walked back to the house, knowing that Anna was freaking out inside the mansion.
"Such the noble one, aren't you?" Aoibheann added in, only loud enough for Brooke to hear.
When they were far enough away and in the safety of her own car, Brooke turned herself to face Aoibheann. "That was Irene, right?" She asked.
"Yup."
"And I take it you don't like her?" Brooke said, trying to hold back her laughter from seeing Aoibheann punch her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend in the nose.
"What tipped you off?" Aoibheann smirked.
Brooke laughed. "The gush of blood running down her nose?" She chuckled. "You really don't like her." She tried to focus on the fact that Irene would probably look horrid in the wedding pictures and that she'd look flawless in the dress she was making and not the fact that when she walked in to Aoibheann's room, Aoibheann was wearing Chon's t-shirt. The exact one she used to wear. She needed to get over this. She was with Liam – she loved Liam – Liam loved her. What else could she possibly need? Brooke chewed on her bottom lip, wondering if she should ask. It was none of her business really. But she was dying to know. Did Aoibheann go back to Chon after what he did to her?
Her phone began to buzz. She looked down to see that Ophelia was calling her. She hadn't talked to her since everything that happened with her dad. Honestly, she didn't think O would call this soon. It usually took her a few days to get over something – and watching Brooke's dad get killed execution style? She figured that might take a few weeks for Ophelia to get over. "Hey," Brooke said as she answered the phone. "How are you?"
"I'm … dealing." O said from the other line. "But I miss you." Brooke smiled. They were never really apart and since Brooke moved in with Liam, O would surely voice her concern of never seeing Brooke as much. "Can you come over? I need help picking out a dress for Brian and Anna's wedding and Ben was just no help compared to you."
Brooke chuckled. "Yeah, I'm stopping by my place to get things for my dress and then I'll stop by. Chon and Ben aren't there, are they?" She asked.
"No, they said they're meeting up with someone to discuss some things. The less I know the better, I guess." O told Brooke.
"Aoibheann's with me." Brooke told O.
"Good! Two opinions are better than one!" O cheered. Brooke laughed, said her goodbyes, and hung up.
When they pulled up to her house, Brooke took in a deep breath.
"You OK?" Aoibheann asked.
Brooke nodded her head, sucking in air. "Let's just get this over with." She told Aoibheann. They walked in to Brooke's house and Brooke was more than surprised to see that the place was spotless. But what did she expect? Of course Liam would have his men clean up the place. The entire house looked like nothing had even happened – but Brooke knew. Her father had begged for her help and she told Liam to pull the trigger. Rot in hell. She thought when her dads face came to her mind.
"Here," Brooke said as she walked in to her room. She grabbed two large bags and began to fill them with fabric. "-This is what I have so far." Brooke pointed to the long red dress. "Liam said he likes me best in red." She told Aoibheann. "I'm not quite finished." Brooke said shyly. The only other person she had shown the dress to was Ophelia. She wasn't sure why she felt so embarrassed to show Aoibheann the dress. "Is it too much?" She asked.
"Oh wow." Aoibheann said as she slowly walked towards the red dress. "Brooke this is amazing!" The young Irish girl added. Aoibheann was speechless, she had no idea how good Brooke was and the fact that she wasn't a famous fashion designer yet, confused her. "The next time I got to a charity event, I am going to wear one of your dress, so I can get your name out there."
Once both girls gather all the clothes and items that Brooke needed, they quickly headed down stairs.
"Why did you stop?" Brooke asked as she barely missed walking into Aoibheann. "Aoibheann?" Brooke watched as the younger girl walk into the living and studied every little detail of the room, even the wood floor. It seem like Aoibheann was in her own world at that moment.
"They used an axe," Aoibheann said as ran her hand over part of the living floor. "To cut up the bodies." As she studied more parts of the floor, Aoibheann could tell Brooke word to word what Liam, Ryan and his guys did to the sick fucks. Shaking her head, Aoibheann stood up and said "Sorry. Let's go see Ophelia." Before following Brooke, the young girl took one more looking the living room, thinking to herself that she had to let Ryan know that he was getting sloppy.
Aoibheann's phone started to go off, as Brooke pulled out of the drive and started to drive over to Ben's place.
"Yes Ryan." She said with an annoying tone.
"Tell me sister, are the rumors true?" Ryan asked as he took a hit of his pipe. When he saw Irene nose, Ryan couldn't help but to laugh and make a few jokes about the whole thing.
"I know that you already know."
Ryan pouted. "You aren't being fun. I guess I'll have to ask a better question. Why did you lie to me… you know I don't like liars."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
That pissed Ryan off. "Why did Chon break your wrist?" Ryan snapped out.
Aoibheann was thanking god that her brother could not see her face at that moment, but Brooke could. "He didn't. Look I would love to keep playing this game, but me and Brooke just got to Ben's. Bye."
Aoibheann glanced down at her cell phone than at Brooke before told her, "Ryan knows."
.
.
.
.
They drove in silence, Ben contemplating everything Liam and Ryan discussed with himself and Chon. He hadn't known that Brooke's dad had done anything bad to her – she mostly talked about how her parents ignored her. But that obviously wasn't the truth when it came to her father. How could she not tell him? They told each other everything.
He looked down at his phone to see that O was calling him. "Hey babe," he said from his line.
"Brooke and Aoibheann are on their way over to the house." O told him.
He looked to Chon who was clenching his fists. Ryan had confronted him about him choking Aoibheann and breaking her wrist. He told the truth, said he lost control. Ryan wanted to take his hands – but Liam stopped him. For our sister sake - and for Brookes sake. Liam told Ryan. Chon understood, he hated himself for putting his hands on Aoibheann because he did care about her. But she had forgiven him. She even stayed over last night, after she told him what her father said at the dinner party.
Ben hung up the phone and looked to Chon. "Looks like Brookes coming over and she's bringing Aoibheann." He let Chon know.
"Good." Chon said. He needed to talk to them both.
.
.
.
.
Brooke was panicking. What was Ryan going to do to Chon? She needed to calm down – she needed to be rational. Ryan wouldn't do anything to Chon, they were business partners. They needed each other. What would Liam do when he found out? He had pulled the trigger so easily when it came to her father when he found out he was hurting her – would it be so easy for him to kill Chon as well.
Maybe they needed to leave town. Ben, Chon, and Ophelia. Go off the grid for a while until things calmed down with Liam and Ryan. Hell, she didn't even know if Liam knew about what Chon did to Aoibheann. Would he be cross at her for not telling him what happened? Would he be pissed that even now she was thinking up way to protect Chon?
"You've forgive Chon, clearly." Brooke thought of the t-shirt Aoibheann had been wearing earlier that morning. "You have to talk to Ryan!" She rushed out. "Make him understand that it wasn't Chons fault, that he didn't know what he was doing – that it was the PTSD. He's got to understand that, right?" She finally breathed. They pulled up to Ben and Chons place. Brooke stopped the car and looked to Aoibheann. She was visibly scared, and if it wasn't obvious to anyone before – it was clear now that Brooke cared a lot more about Chon than she'd like to admit. That she loved him.
Aoibheann took a deep breath, before she told Brooke, "Look, when Ryan called me, he was letting me know in his own way that he had talked to Chon and if anything went down... I would be getting a call from my brother – your boyfriend." It was easy to see that the younger girl was ticked off, by the way Brooke was acting. She knew it wasn't Brooke's fault, the poor girl still had no idea how the drug business ran or how her family ran.
Walking into the house, Aoibheann found Ben and Chon sitting in the living talking to one another. Knowing it was about the meeting with her brothers, the young Irish walked over to Chon and sat down on his lap. Chon quickly kissed her on the lips and wrapped his arms around her, as he listened to Ben.
"Ryan called me." Aoibheann mumbled.
"I bet he did." Chon chuckled a little. "We almost got into and it looked like Liam was ready to join him. Not to worry though, Liam kept his cool and talked Ryan out of it." Aoibheann nodded her head.
"Brian and Anna are in town, oh you should have seen it! I punched Irene in the face, breaking her nose." Aoibheann couldn't stop smiling after she told Chon that. She hated Irene so much, not only did Irene break Liam's heart, but she also fucked with his head.
-8-
"Why didn't you let me kill him?" Ryan roared as he slammed the front door shut. "He hurt her! What is it okay, for men to hurt our little sister?! I guess we should let father start hitting her again!"
"Enough!" Liam growled as he slammed Ryan into the nearest wall. His hands wrapped around Ryan's neck, which only made the younger brother laugh. "Do not mistake me as someone who does not care. He and Ben are part of our business now."
"Ha, so you're just going to let it slide then?" Ryan said as his anger started to get the best of him.
"Do I ever let anything slide?!" Liam yelled back at his little brother, dropping his hands to his side as he started to pace back and forth. "Father's time will come and so will Chon, but since Aoibheann is still with him… do not touch him."
Ryan smirked. "And when Brooke leaves you for him? You know she loves hi –"At that moment Liam's cell phone started to go off like crazy.
"What?" Liam started to take slow deep breaths as he listened to one of his men. His face went pale, his hands started to shake. "Got it." Liam said right before he hung up and looked over at Ryan.
"Go get Aoibheann now!" Ryan nodded his head and ran out of the house towards his Ferrari 458 Italia. He knew not to question his older brother when it came to the safety of their family.
Brooke didn't stay with Chon, Aoibheann and Ben, instead she quickly ducked out of the room before anyone could notice her and headed upstairs to where Ophelia was waiting for her. When she saw her blonde friend sitting on her bed she quickly ran to her and hugged her tight. She was overcome with emotions. She knew she stepped over the line with Aoibheann, she made it pretty clear. Brooke needed to focus on Liam. Just Liam. And by doing that she needed to re-think some things in her life. Liam had been talking about going to Ireland for quite some time, asking her to come with him. Perhaps a vacation with Liam after Anna and Brian's wedding would do her some good.
"I miss you!" O giggled as she hugged Brooke back. She let go of the brunette. "Come, help me pick out a dress."
They talked for a few minutes after picking out Ophelia's dress, mostly about how O was coping with everything she witnessed. Ben was helping her so Brooke felt better about leaving O. "I mean, it was really fucked up, Brooke. How are you ok with this?"
Brooke sighed. "After years of my father sneaking in my room at night – it was kind of a relief when Liam pulled the trigger. I felt so … unclean for so long. Liam made that go away. I never told anyone about what my father did to me – him, doing things to me. Because I was scared of how people would look at me if they found out. All a girl really wants is to have a relationship with her dad, O. I thought maybe he'd change, that maybe all of it could be erased if he just stopped and started being my dad. But here we are … Liam took away one of my demons. My biggest demon." Brooke took in a deep breath. "The night I overdosed … my father had snuck in to my room the night before. And I wanted something to escape that."
"-Why didn't you tell us?" A voice said from the door.
It was Ben. He, Chon and Aoibheann were all standing in Ophelia's doorway. Brooke looked to them all, the look on their faces was the one thing she wanted to avoid. "Because I couldn't stand to have you all look at me like this." She stood up from where she sat on O's bed. "Pity. I don't need to be pitied."
"We don't pity you, Brooke." Chon spoke up. But Brooke wouldn't meet his eyes.
Before any of them could say anything else, they heard a banging on the door downstairs. AOIBHEANN! Ryan roared from outside. Come on we got to go!
Not waiting any longer, Ryan ran into the house, gun in his hand. He needed to get his little sister home now. "AOIBHEANN NOW!" Ryan yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Ryan, what the hell?" Aoibheann jogged down the stairs and over to her brother, with the rest of the group right behind her. The young Irish looked at the gun in her brother's hand, then at his face, he looked so clam, but she could tell that he was thinking of a backup plan, just in case things went south.
"We need to leave now!" Ryan reach to the back of his jeans and tossed his extra gun to his little sister. "Brooke, stay here. They don't know that you are dating Liam." Brooke just nodded her head, she was too scared to ask who they were. "If we took you with us and if you got hurt, Liam would kill me."
"What the hell is going on?" Chon finally asked in a pissed off voice.
Rubbing his temple and counting to ten, Ryan knew that he didn't have enough time to clarify everything. Not saying a word, he grabbed Aoibheann arm and lead her outside, gun pointing to the street. "They blew up one of our warehouses. We're at war now." As Ryan opened his car door, he didn't see the black car slowing down. The only thing on his mind was keeping his sister, his family safe. He also didn't notice the car windows creeping down and the guns pointing towards him and Aoibheann.
"DOWN!" Aoibheann cried as she shoved her older brother out of the way, taking the bullet for him, that would have hit him in the chest.
"AOIBHEANN!" Ryan yelled as he watched his little sister fall to the ground. Rage took over Ryan's body, as he sprinted down the street and started shooting at the car, every bullet hitting the target. A smile creped on his face as he watched the black car drive into a tree, he knew that every single person who was in that car was dead now.
"Aoibheann!" Brooke screeched as she ran forward. Bens hand found Brooke's waist and pulled her back, pushing her down to the ground in fear that something might happen to her. Luckily Ophelia was still inside. Chon had rushed to Aoibheann side, pressing down on her wound.
"Mother shitfuck" Brooke could hear Aiobheann curse. She yanked out of Bens hold and ran to where Chon was hovering over Aoibheann. "Is she going to be OK?" Brooke asked in a panicked tone. She looked down at Aoibheann, grabbing the young woman's hand in her own, letting her squeeze on to it.
Chon didn't answer Brooke, he simply continued to focus on stopping the bleeding.
"RYAN!" Brooke screamed for him. He came rushing over, "we need to get her to a hospital!"
"Well this is just fucking great." The young Irish girl mumbled, as she squeeze Brooke's hand. "Did it go through?" She asked Chon as she watched her brother pull out his cellphone and dialed Liam's number, she guessed.
"Hospital!" Brooke yelled again. She couldn't figure out why Ryan was taking his sweet time, while his sister was laying on the ground, bleeding.
"Are you fucking stupid? We can't take her to a fucking hospital. Hospital means cops and cops mean questions." Ryan shouted back at Brooke, like she was a child.
"Babe, the bullet went through. No real damage." Chon told Aoibheann as he softly laid the upper part of her body back on the ground.
"Tell that to my tank top." Aoibheann wined as she tried to sit up but failed. "I think I'll just stay on this dirty ass driveway." She said with a laugh. As Chon carefully picked Aoibheann up, he looked at Ryan and asked, "Liam's?" Ryan nodded his head, knowing that Liam could stich their sister up in no time. As he watched his little sister hiss in pain, his stomach dropped, to Ryan, this was all his fault. If only he had gotten to her sooner, she wouldn't have taken the bullet for him.
"Great I still have a broken wrist and now I got shot in the bloody shoulder."
"Stop the bitching." Ryan told her with a soft smile and a thick Irish drawl, as he started up his car.
"Chon, the cops will be here soon for the mess down the street. It will be wise if you four follow me to Liam's." Not waiting for an answer, Ryan turned on his Ferrari 458 Italia and sped down the road.
Brooke listened to Ryan, grabbing O by the hand and getting her inside the car. Ben got in to Brooke's car as well. Brooke looked to Chon who was watching Ryan speed off. "Come on, Chon!" She shouted. "We need to go!"
Chon nodded his head and hurried to Brooke's car, getting inside it quickly. "Ryan said we need to get to Liam's house."
"Ok," Brooke said as she started the car before pulling out of the driveway and speeding down the road. In her rear view mirror Brooke could see the black car that had shot at Aoibheann. She then looked to O. "Don't worry, O. Aoibheann will be fine. Chon said it was just a flesh wound." She didn't know if she was using the correct terminology. She felt bad for O. She was just starting to get over seeing Brooke's father being killed now she had to deal with this?
Brooke's phone began to ring. "Hello?" She said, not looking at the screen. She sighed in relief when she heard Liam's voice on the other line.
"Are you alright?" He asked her. Ryan hadn't given him any information on Brooke. Just that their sister had been shot.
"I'm fine." She assured him.
"You weren't hurt?"
"No, I'm fine. I'm on my way to the house." Brooke told Liam. "I'll see you in a few minutes."
"I love you, Brooke." He told her.
Brooke looked back at Chon for a quick second before responding to Liam. "I love you too, Liam." She said, no longer looking at Chon. "Be safe." She told him before hanging up the phone.
-8-
"It doesn't look like anyone is home." Ophelia said out loud as they pulled into the drive, the front grates quickly shut behind Brooke's car.
"They probably hide all the cars," Chon said as the group walked into the house. What the group saw next, looked like something out of a movie. The house was on locked down, and every important member of the IRA that was in Laguna were standing around in the main room, waiting for Liam.
"Let's move this into my office," Liam told the group as he glanced over at Chon and Ben. Before Liam walked down the hallway to his office, he said "Kitchen." Knowing that they would figure out that is where Ryan and the rest of them are at.
As Brooke led the three into the kitchen, she could her Ryan yelling and cursing at someone.
"Brother, clam down. I can stich her up. Liam is having a meeting with the IRA to figure out what to do about the Mexican gang." Brian told his brother as he took off his suit jacket and placed it over one of the bar stools. "You should go join them."
Ryan rubbed the back of his neck as he watched Brooke, Chon and O walk into the kitchen. "I'm sorry." He whispered as to his little sister as left the room to go join Liam.
"Now." Brian neatly rolled up his sleeves. "Darling, could you take those two to the library on the east side."
Anna nodded her head as she finished making herbal tea. She knew that they were going to need something to drink to calm down their nervous and alcohol was not the answer this time around. "Ben, Ophelia, if y'all would follow me."
Once Anna, Ben and O were far enough away, Brian turned to Brooke and Chon. "Brooke I am going to need you to grab towels, alcohol –"
"Whiskey" Aoibheann cut it.
"Fine, grab towels, whiskey, and the first aid kit." Brian then looked at Chon. "I need you to wash up, I may need your help."
Once Brooke came back with everything, she walked over to Aoibheann and handed her the bottle. Knowing that the young Irish would want to take a few drinks of it. Brooke then took a big drink herself. Causing Chon to raise an eyebrow at her. Brooke just shrugged her shoulder.
"This may hurt." Brian mumbled to his sister right before he stuck a pair of tweezers in the bullet hole. As Aoibheann hissed in pain and mumbled a few Irish slang, Brain added. "There's a small part of the bullet stuck in there."
"Is she going to be okay?" Brooke asked as she watched Brain grab the tweezers again, knowing that he was going to try take the bullet out.
"Chon grab Aoibheann's shoulders and make she does not move." Chon nodded his head as he placed both his hands on each of her shoulders. Once Brain got the piece of bullet out of his little sister's shoulder, he had Brooke clean up her shoulder, as he and Chon washed the blood off their hands.
"How are you feeling?" Brooke asked Aoibheann, cleaning the shoulder as gently as she could. She was used to hiding bruises and cuts – not cleaning out bullet wounds. Aoibheann groaned in response. "Did the whiskey help?" Brooke asked next causing Aoibheann to smirk.
"It helped me a bit." She spoke honestly. "Not too much – but a little." Aoibheann laughed only to groan. Brooke herself winced when she saw the look in Aoibheann's eyes. She was in pain.
"I'll be right back." She told Aoibheann. She walked over to where Chon and Brian were standing washing the blood off their hands in the kitchen sink.
"She's going to need something strong. But knowing Aoibheann, she's not going to want to be knocked out." She told the two men. Brian nodded his head in agreement. He knew his little sister well. Brooke then looked to Chon. "Do you have any of the new batch you and Ben have been working on?" She asked. All O could talk about when they were upstairs was this miracle batch of weed that Ben and Chon had come up with. How it made her entire body numb.
"Not on me." Chon said with a groan. He wished he had. "I don't think Ben had any on him either." They had left the house in such a rush, no one had grabbed anything. Ophelia didn't even have any shoes on, he was sure that she didn't have time to grab some of the miracle weed.
Brooke had to think a moment, she couldn't just sit around while Aoibheann was in pain. "I'll go get some."
"No." Both Brian and Chon told her.
"Ryan said it himself; no one knows who I am or that I'm anyone important to the IRA." Brooke reminded Chon of the conversation Ryan and they had before Aoibheann got shot. That was before everything changed. "I won't go back to the house; I'll go to Spins house. I'm sure he has some." She knew that Chon and Ben would give him some before anyone else.
"It's not an option, Brooke." Chon said in an angry tone.
"It's the only option!" Brooke argued.
"No, it's not. Aoibheann is a strong girl." Brian spoke up, breaking up Chon and Brookes fight. "She's had worse done to her, trust me." He looked to his little sister. "Anna might have a few pain pills on her from the hospital, we'll do fine with that."
"I just want to help." Brooke said softly. Brian smiled down at her, placing his hand on her shoulder.
"You are helping." He told her.
But Brooke knew that wasn't enough. "I'll go find Anna and see if she has any meds on her." Brooke said, walking away from Chon and Brian. She walked over to Aoibheann who had her eyes closed. I'm about to do something stupid. I wish you were well enough to do it with me. She whispered to the passed out girl. Because she knew that if Anna had any pain pills she would have given Aoibheann some by now. Jesus, for a house full of drug dealers they sure didn't have a shit worth of drugs.
Brooke walked down the hall and saw Ben, Ophelia, and Anna in the study drinking. They were all talking quietly to one another. She heard Anna go on about how Irene was in the hospital getting her nose worked on after what Aoibheann had done to her. Brooke couldn't help but smile at that.
She walked past the study and down the hall until she was at the front door. As soon as she began to turn the knob, a hand was placed over her own. She turned around to see Chon looking down at her. Brooke should have known he would follow her.
"I'm going to see if I have anything in my car for Aoibheann." Brooke lied.
"Liar."
Brooke glared. "Well then come outside with me and watch me look in my car." Brooke said. That was risky. What was she going to do when she made it outside? Make a run for it? Chon was faster than her.
"It's not safe to go outside." Chon said flatly. "The Mexicans are dangerous, Brooke." He told her. "Brian said they blew up one of their factories. There were hundreds of people inside." He said, trying to make her see how serious the situation was. "They shot Aoibheann. They're out for war. What do you think they'd do to you once they find out how important you are to Liam?" He told her, hoping bringing up Liam might wake up Brooke a bit. "They'd torture you just to get to him, send bits of you to him – rape you!" He grew angry now, thinking of the vile things they'd do to Brooke. But she had to hear it. "You need to stay put, Brooke. "
"He's right." Ryan said as he walked in to the room.
….
As Ryan walked down the hallway towards Liam's office, he couldn't help but to think what his family's life would be better if they weren't part of the IRA. Running both of his hands through his short brunette hair, he thought 'shit is about to hit the fan.' He then smiled as he sneaked into Liam's office, knowing he would get a few dirty looks for being late, but Ryan didn't care. Hell why would he? After he was done with college, Ryan was going to be Liam's right hand man.
"We shouldn't go to war with them, Liam," One of the older members of the IRA said as he glanced over at Ruari who was studying Liam. For Liam this was major since this was the first major event that has happened since he took over for his grandfather.
"And what?" Ryan took out his knife and started to toss it up in the air and catching as he spoke. "Just act like they didn't blow up one of our warehouse and shot my innocent sister?"
"Son, your sister is as much part of this than anyone else. She has executed many people for the IRA. She knows what could happened and she's far from innocent."
"You think my sister likes doing the dirty work for you motherfuckers!?" Ryan yelled. "She hates it!"
Liam just stood back and watched as the two got into an argument. He knew it was better for Ryan to voice his thoughts then to act on them.
"Your sister is weak, just like your mother." Ryan's father spoke with a smirk on his face, knowing that it would push the young boy over the edge. He loved to push Ryan's buttons, it was like a sick game he liked to play. He wanted to see how far his son would go to stick up for their family.
As those words left his father's lips, Ryan had enough. Aoibheann was the strongest person he had ever met, she had been through so much shit, but she still put a smile on her face and did what she was told, for her family. 'They call me crazy… why not prove to them how much.' The young Irish man thought to himself as he smiled. He knew what he was going to next was going to funny as hell (well to him) and it was going to show people not to mess with him or his little sister.
Ryan glanced at his father then down at his knife right before he threw his knife at his father as fast as he could. As the knife hit its target, every member of the IRA went dead silent. The knife was an inch away from his father's head.
"You missed" His father roared with a laugh.
Moving back and forth on the balls of his feet, with a wicked smile plaster on his face Ryan spoke the sentence with such a clam voice, it even made Liam second guess his own brother's action. "I thought a saw a fly." With that being said Ryan left the room and head towards the front door, he need some fresh air.
As he got closer, he could over hear Brooke and Chon arguing, rolling his eyes Ryan enter the room.
"He's right."
Brooke looked at Ryan then at Chon, she knew she was going to lose this argument, but she wanted to help them. Aoibheann had become a close friend, Brooke couldn't just stand around and do nothing.
"Why do you want to leave, anyways?" Ryan leaned against the wall, as he studied Brooke. He could tell why his older brother was in love with the girl standing in front of him, but there was something about Brooke that Ryan didn't like.
"Weed, or any kind of drug to help your sister." Chon told Ryan.
Ryan's eyes soften a little when he heard Chon say that. He was glad that someone besides himself was looking for out for Aoibheann. "Well sweetheart, my sister is very iffy about the drugs she takes." He pushed himself off the wall and head towards the staircase. "I have some pain killers, in my room. I keep them for a rainy day."
Right as Chon opened his mouth to speak, his voice was lost over the sound of men arguing, then Liam yelling at them to shut up.
"Ms. Davis, Chon." Brian said as he walked down the hallway towards the two. "Aoibheann is awake, the kitchen is clean and we will be having dinner in the next hour."
"How is she?" Brooke asked.
"She- ". Brian paused as he chose his words carefully. "My sister has been though a lot worst, this is nothing for her, or for our family." With that being said the three walked back into the kitchen to find Anna, O and Ben making dinner. Brooke looked around the kitchen to find that Aoibheann had disappeared.
"After Ryan gave her the pain killers, she went to Liam's office." Anna told Brooke as she started to make homemade chicken pot pies with some help from Brian. Brooke couldn't help but to smile at that as she thought, 'yep, she's from the south.'
As Brooke started to help O make the salad, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Chon answer his cell phone and step into the hallway.
"Jake said it is safe to go back." Chon told the group as she stepped back into the kitchen, with Liam and Aoibheann right behind him.
"Who's Jake?" Aoibheann asked as she poured herself a cup of herbal tea.
"One of my navy seal buddies. Brooke, Aoibheann you two could come back with us."
"No." Liam snapped out. "They are safer here. All my windows are bulletproof and not only do I have my best men here I have Ryan and Brian."
Chon looked at Brooke then at Aoibheann, knowing that they could make up their own minds. The look he got from both of them though, was not what he was looking for. They didn't even have to say anything for Chon to see that they picked to stay with Liam. He had lost that battle.