Killian the ofarrell bro.., p.1
Killian: The O’Farrell brothers, page 1
KILLIAN
THE O’FARRELL BROTHERS
BOOK 2
KATE BONHAM
© 2023 Midnight Dreary Publishing
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, real people, and real places are purely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. This book is intended for the purchaser of this book only. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author. All songs, song titles and lyrics contained in this book are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.
ISBN (Print): 978-0-6456537-7-9
Cover Design by Wingfield Designs
Editing by Ravenna Poe Edits
CONTENTS
Playlist
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
ABOUT KATE
OTHER BOOKS BY KATE
PLAYLIST
It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over - Lenny Kravitz
Million Reasons - Lady Gaga
Nothing Breaks Like a Heart - Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus
The Unforgiven - Metallica
Until I Found You - Stephen Sanchez
Say Something - A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
PROLOGUE
KILLIAN
The tears in her eyes told me it wasn’t going to go my way today. I’d noticed her pulling away for weeks now. The more I got involved with my father’s business, the more she became silent. She wasn’t built for this world.
She wasn’t on board with the criminal aspect that came with being part of the O’Farrell family. I had no choice but she did.
“Sloane…”
“Killian, I…I can’t be this woman. I’m not strong like your mum.”
“Babe,” I tried to pull her to me but she pulled away, her arm twisting out of my grip. The simple loss of her skin on mine made my chest pull in a weird way. We’d been together for two years. We may only be eighteen but I had known from the day I met her that I’d wanted to marry her. She was too kind for this world.
Too beautiful, too lovely.
She deserved more.
“I understand,” I said, my voice breaking with emotion. “You have to do what you need to do.”
“Don’t be like that,” she said, coming into my arms. I rested my hands on her hips, loving how they fit perfectly over her. She’d always felt so comforted by them being there. It sucked this would probably be the last time I could feel her this way.
“What way should I be, Sloane?” I asked her. “You’re breaking my fucking heart here.”
She laid her lips on mine, tears running down her beautiful cheeks. I pushed harder against her mouth, tasting her tongue on mine. I moaned into her mouth, my hand twisting in her hair as our kissing became more intense. My cock was pushing against my jeans, hard, wanting to be freed and to be inside of her immediately.
I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
This was goodbye. I could feel it. I pulled back on my own tears and made sure she knew what she was giving up. Sloane wrapped her arms around my neck as I pulled her down into the backset of the car. She straddled my legs as she devoured my mouth with hers.
Until she stopped.
Sloane rested her head against mine, our breaths heavy and mingled. She pushed up off me, and got out of the car, turning her back to me. She put one hand on her waist and looked out at the sea below. I willed my cock to calm the fuck down before I pulled out of the car and slammed the back door shut out of frustration. I opened the car door and got in behind the wheel before I slammed the door shut.
Sloane turned around, her eyes were red and full of tears as she moved closer to the car but she made no attempt to get in.
“Can you really see me being your wife someday, Kill?”
“You know what?” I spat back at her as I turned the ignition. “I did.”
I sped off, leaving her standing on top of the cliff, too angry to return for her. She knew her way home from there. It was the cruelest thing I could think to do to her that wouldn’t break my heart even more than it already was.
She’d destroyed me.
She didn’t want to fight for me like I would for her.
I sped toward the estate, our family home, and parked in the usual spot. Stomping up the stairs, I quickly avoided my brothers and my father and slammed my door shut. The tears poured freely now, as I looked at the bag I’d packed earlier today. The note I’d written to say my goodbyes to the family still sat on the dresser, unread.
I’d chosen Sloane.
I had chosen to leave Ireland to be with her by skipping out on being an O’Farrell…for her.
But she’d not given me the chance to tell her.
She’d made up her mind.
And I had to accept that.
I put my clothes away and tossed my empty bag into the bottom of my cupboard. Grabbing the note, I pulled a lighter from my back pocket out and I lit the corner of the note, watching it burn. I tossed it into my bin as I saw the flames climb, erasing my letter and my intentions.
I was an O’Farrell and for the rest of my life, I’d never love again.
CHAPTER ONE
KILLIAN
FIFTEEN YEARS LATER
The mundane thumping of the DJ’s insipid music was drilling through my head as the club pumped. I could think of nothing worse than this drivel they pumped through the club with no lyrics or the same lyrics played over and over and calling it a song but it was popular with the young ones that came here on weeknights and kept my club from falling in the red. I checked my phone again but I hadn’t heard from the one person I’d wanted to hear from. Message after message from women all around town wanting me to end the night in their bed.
But I only wanted one.
Since Sloane had found her way back into my life through her best friend Teeghan, I couldn’t get her off my mind. It was messing with my stamina, and my libido. I got off the chair and leaned on the railing, looking down at the party below. I should be happy my club was doing so well, but it did mean I was here most nights, making sure no one tried anything. After the shoot out at this place months ago, I had been trying desperately to show that this place was a safe haven. I’d tightened security and had more cameras added. Slowly, the people came back. It had only been a matter of time anyway, this was the only club in town worth going to.
I was about to make my way back to my office when I saw a woman sitting at the bar, sipping at her drink. I hadn’t seen her in months and was more than a little surprised she was back here. I made my way down the stairs, pushing through the throng of people to get to the bar. Sidling up to her, I motioned for the bartender to slide a drink my way.
“Amity.”
She turned to look at me, those piercing blue eyes looking straight through me. The last time I’d seen her, she had been crying into my shirt over her dead husband. Whereas hours before I’d given her the grim news, she’d been bouncing up and down on my cock behind his back. Now, it looked like she wanted to murder me.
“Killian.”
“You haven’t been around lately. What brings you by tonight?” I asked her as I sipped at my bourbon.
“I have to have a reason to visit a club?” she asked me as she downed the rest of her cocktail.
“You’ve never been one to come here,” I responded. “You always told me you’d never come here just to see my tight ass.”
She smirked, but it held no humor behind it. Rather, it felt like she had ice running through her veins. It was clear she was still grieving.
“Perhaps I came here to tell you something,” she said, swiveling around to face me. Her dress was low cut, a deep v showed that ample cleavage I knew she had, and the split went all the way up to her pantyline. She came here with a purpose.
I just knew I wasn’t going to like it though.
“And that is?”
She slid off the bar stool and leaned in close. Close enough I could smell her expensive Chanel perfume.
“I’ve come back for revenge,” she said in my ear. “And first up is your little brother Conor. He’s the one who killed my husband. He’s in love now, isn’t he?”
She bit my earlobe and drew her teeth across it before she winked at me and walked away. I was too stunned to move.
A threat on the family is a threat on all of us.
She’d just fired her first shot and now I had to protect my little brother.
Again.
God fucking damn it.
I downed the rest of my drink and moved out of the club and toward the back door. I pulled my phone out and dialed Lorcan.
“What?” he responded, half asleep. I checked my clock and saw it read it was just past 1 in the morning.
Fuck.
“We got a huge fucking problem. I’m coming to the estate.”
“Do you need Conor?” he asked, already sounding more alert than he did two seconds ago.
“No, leave him. We’ll bring him in soon enough.”
Lorcan was already at the table when I arrived. I sat down next to him and put my phone face down to save on distractions. I already knew how Lorcan was going to react, with a stern face rub and a pinch on the bridge of his nose.
“What’s so urgent?” Lorcan asked me.
“I bumped into Amity at the club.”
“And?”
He was unconcerned because he knew of our past, but I could already feel the tension rising in this room.
“And she may or may not have subtly warned me she’s going to get her revenge on our little brother.”
Lorcan rubbed his hand over his face just like our father did when he was dealt troubling news. Our father had never had to worry about his brothers like we did. I thought I’d always be the troublesome middle child but turns out our baby bro was getting a reputation enough for all of us.
“How serious do you think she is?”
The memory of her biting my earlobe and whispering the threat was enough to make me want to wince. “I’d say she’s serious.”
“Do you think she’d have the contacts to pull off whatever she’s planning?”
“Lor, she disappeared after his death. No one had seen her for months, and now she turns up and has a stare that could slice you in two.”
“Got it,” he said. “Call in the boys, have her followed.”
I nodded. “What do you want to tell Conor?”
“You were right not to tell him yet,” Lorcan said. “Let’s see if we can contain this threat before it lands at his feet. He and Teeghan deserve a little bit of peace.”
I nodded. Lorcan and Teeghan had become best friends since she and Conor had become a thing. I’d never seen Lorcan trust anyone without the O’Farrell name but she somehow had him opening up about the wounds of his past. I was glad for it. The man needed to stop acting like a wounded soldier and get himself some puss. Maybe then, he wouldn’t always be such a grouch.
I didn’t mind Teeghan either. She had a killer sense of humor and she loved to play pranks on Conor. It was hilarious to watch as he slowly lost his shit only to realize it hadn’t been one of us, but his woman instead.
Teeghan was all right in my books, and being best friends with Sloane meant she was an asset to the family if only to keep Sloane in my periphery.
I stood up, and grabbed my phone. “I’ll head out to gather the boys.”
“Do you know where she’s living?”
“I assume it's at her old house but I can go by and check it out. It’s on the way to my apartment.”
Lorcan nodded and went back to whatever the fuck he’d been doing before I came here. I made a quick exit and got in my car.
That was painless, I only prayed Amity wasn’t going to be a real concern and this was all to get me up in a flap. I didn’t want the woman to be killed.
She’d endured enough.
Putting my car into gear, I tore out of the long driveway and headed into town, toward my place with way too many things on my mind for a Tuesday night.
SLOANE
The sea air was refreshing even with this cloudy weather we’d been having. There was just something about being by the sea that made everything become more clear. I had come down here to get away but now all I wanted to do was clear it out so I could sell it.
This has been the home Sean and I had wanted to settle into with a family. I couldn’t do that anymore, and there was no reason to keep it. That dream had died the day he perished.
I wrapped my shawl around me tighter as I sipped at my coffee, with a dash of irish whiskey to wake me up. The waves crashed against the rocks around the shore, and the wind howled around me. Being away from everyone else had been refreshing but it was long past due that I join the living again. I was so close to being done going through all the things Sean had left here, and now I only had some boxes I had been storing here to go through. Memories had been tearing me apart for weeks now, and I’d been doing it alone. Teeghan had been checking in, sure, but I didn’t want her to be pulled down into my misery. She was in a new relationship and she was enjoying the perks that came with that, such as mind blowing sex. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d had sex. Surely, it had been with Sean but I couldn’t tell you how long it had been before his tragic accident.
Fuck.
I needed to get back to living. This was depressing me in more ways than I could fathom. I needed to see Teeghan. She grounded me in ways that I didn’t realize I needed.
I finished my coffee and went back inside, undoing my shawl and tossing it on the couch filled with boxed up memories.
As I opened the top of the box of my past, I looked down at the familiar notebooks and most notably my diary. It was my high school diary. I chuckled out loud even though no one would hear it as I picked it up and started to flip through the pages of childish writing, where I had dotted my i’s with big love hearts. That had been when I’d been in love.
Images of Killian filled my memory as I came to a page in the diary with something on it. The necklace dropped down at my feet as I looked down at it and felt a big lump form in my throat. I remember the day he gave this to me.
Bending down, I picked up the necklace and ran my finger over the fine engravings on the cross. It was his family crest on a cross. An heirloom of their family’s and he had given it to me. I couldn’t believe I still had it.
We’d not been together for fifteen years.
I looked down at the page I had kept it in and saw the love hearts adorning the page and I read the words that broke my heart all over again.
“Today, I ended it with Killian. My heart is breaking into a million pieces and I just don’t know what to do about it. It’s for the best, I know this, but it’s killing me. The way he looked at me, the way he took it and didn’t fight for me. It burns me inside but I know…I just know it’s the only way forward. He’s too dark for me. He wants to be like his da, and I don’t want to end up like his mother. I kept his necklace. I can’t part with it yet. Is that wrong?”
I closed the diary and put it back in the box and looked back down at the necklace. I pulled my phone from my back pocket and looked through my contacts.
His number was under Z Killian, so he didn’t come up until the end of my contacts. It was to stop myself from calling him when I was feeling low. There had been so many times since he’d come back into my life these past few months that I had wanted to see or speak to him. Every time I did see him, my whole world would turn upside down for days. I’d dream about the things I wanted him to do to me, I’d smile at memories of our happier days, and then I would drift into a miserable depression until I could pull myself out.
He was my weakness, he always had been. I loved my husband. I had loved every bit of him and still did, but Killian…there was just something about him I could never stop loving. I didn’t think you could love more than one person at the same time, but I’d proven that you could. Sean had been dead for years now but I still held guilt over never being able to say I no longer loved Killian.
I sat down on the one bit of my lounge and opened the contact I rarely used. Typing a message, I hovered my finger over the send button for a few seconds before I hit it and felt my stomach cave in on itself.
Why did I invite him here?
I should have just gone back to the city and given it back to him there, where I had witnesses, where I wouldn’t be tempted to invite him in and have his cologne invade my senses.
I heard his car pull up outside and my heart did a flutter before my stomach decided to burn whatever acid it had in there. Why did I suddenly need to use the bathroom?
