Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
“I believe you,” I said, finally. “I’m going to come inside now. You will greet me unarmed. You will have a duffel bag ready with your bare necessities. I’m going to drive you to a rehab center in Connecticut. And I’m not going to discharge your arse until you’re as sober as a nun for one whole bleeding year. After which you’re moving to Ireland, and I’m never seeing you again. Am I clear?”
“Y-yes,” he spluttered, breaking into a sob. “Thank you, brother. Thank you so much. I won’t let you dow—”
I killed the call and got out of my car before waltzing toward the front door. Fintan’s sports car was the only one parked in front. Shame he wouldn’t have time to say goodbye to Da or Maggie.
I unlocked the front door and stepped inside. A few minutes later, Fintan took the stairs down, holding a duffel in his hand. He stopped when he reached the last step.
We stood in front of each other, somber and subdued.
He looked like hell. Face splotchy and swollen, eyes bloodshot, hair a tangled mess.
I forced myself to push aside the thought of him touching my wife, prying her sweet, delicate thighs open, pushing into her virginal cunt, snatching her virtue, spilling his seed inside her, hitting her, splitting her lip, her temples, her cheeks…
My nostrils flared.
You’re alive because of him.
Remember that.
I opened my arms, palms up, my expression tranquil, my posture casual.
“You are absolved. Come and get your forgiveness, brother.”
His breath picked up, the tension between us brewing like a cyclone that started in the very foyer we stood at. “Just like that?”
“You saved me when I wanted to kill myself,” I said. “I’ll spare your life this one time. There won’t be a second.”
His entire posture deflated. His resolve broke, and he hurried into my embrace, throwing his arms around me, weeping into my neck. “Oh, God. Tiernan. God. Keeping this secret to myself all these months…it ate me alive. I couldn’t bear it.”
His duffel fell to the floor. I held him for a moment, breathing in his familiar scent, of alcohol and leather and his favorite cologne.
Placed a soothing palm on the back of his head with my left hand.
Pressed my lips to his ear.
Used my right hand to draw my gun.
“You’ve always been a stupid cunt, Fin. But for you to think I’d let you get away with what you did to my wife, you’ve really outdone yourself.”
I put a bullet in his spine. He dropped to his knees before me. I stepped back, watching him tremble and convulse, holding his back with shaky fingers as he stared in horror at the scarlet liquid pouring out of him.
The surprise and disappointment in his face were exactly why I’d lied to him. Why I gave him futile, foolish hope.
“B-brother…” he stammered weakly.
“You’re not my brother. Alex is. Always was. Not you.” I rounded his limp figure on the floor. “Now I’ll ask questions, and you’ll answer them. I’ll kill you anyway. If you say the truth, I’ll take minutes. If you lie—hours. Am I understood?”
He nodded quickly. Hysterically.
“Why did you do it? Remember. The truth.”
“I swear I did it because of what they did to you,” he groaned, losing blood. I was lying. He was going to die in the next fifteen minutes or so. I would still make it painful, though.
“But also…she was so fucking beautiful, Tiernan. It was almost painful to watch.”
“Did you plan this all along?”
He shook his head.
“Words, fucker.” I stopped my pacing to grab his ear and rip it from his head.
He arched, howling in pain. “N-no,” he cried out, heaving. “Th-there wasn’t a plan. She was just there. Gorgeous. All alone. Nobody paid attention to her. Nobody but me.”
“You followed her into the woods?” I prompted.
He gave me a hesitant look, probably knowing I was going to rip something else from him soon. He wasn’t wrong about that.
“Answer me,” I said.
“Y-yes,” he chattered. “She went outside, and I followed her. At first, I thought I’d corner her in one of the rooms, cop a feel, n-nothing more. But then she surprised me by leaving the property through the cellar and heading to the shore.”
“Was she upset?” I kneeled down and undid his trousers. Touching my own brother’s knob was not on my to-do list in this lifetime. Poetic justice required it, though.
Fintan winced, knowing where it was going.
“Sh-she…was beside herself.”
“Did she fight you?” I took my dull knife out of my pocket. He stared at it in horror.
“Did she?” I roared.
“Yes,” he admitted. “She fought tooth and nail. Managed to get in a few blows. Cracked my rib.”
I grabbed his limp knob in my fist and slashed his balls off. Blood sprayed everywhere.
His scream put another hole in the ozone layer. Fucking weakling.
“I tried to finish her off in the hospital room when you were in Vegas,” Fintan spat out blood, staring at me with wild hatred in his eyes. “But your asshole brother-in-law, Enzo, had the foresight to loiter there. He wouldn’t fucking leave. Even when he wasn’t in the room, he was just beyond the door.”