Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Wait, what?
He wanted me to… And both of them? He’d said them. I wasn’t hitting a fucking kid.
I swallowed hard, and my ears started ringing.
Time to see if you’re with us…
The bullshit promise I’d made West came back to haunt me, about my not hurting anyone, and I scratched the side of my head.
I could hurt Tony. In fact, he was fucking idiot for not showing his gratitude. If he’d fucked up that much, it meant he’d put operations in jeopardy, and Finn had already shown mercy.
I caught Kellan’s stare, and he extended the baseball bat.
Fuck me, so this was happening.
I swallowed again, and I closed the distance to grab the bat.
Once upon a time, I’d actually considered studying medicine. It’d been a stupid, naïve idea, not to mention outrageously expensive, and one look into how long it took to become a doctor had made me back down. I wasn’t studying for fucking years to become anything. But even so… Kellan had come to my dorm one night, and he’d chuckled at the books on anatomy I’d kept on my shelf.
I’d found it interesting to read about our skeleton, the tissue, all the muscles and the millions of nerves…
I cleared my throat and tightened my grip on the bat, and I switched places with Finn.
You dumb son of a bitch, you should’ve apologized.
“Pick a rib,” I told Tony.
He spat blood on the floor. Maybe he’d bitten his tongue or something. Maybe the cat got it.
“Are you seriously this goddamn stupid?” I couldn’t help it; I laughed and shook my head. Because if my ass was on the line, I’d beg for forgiveness. I’d beg for my life. It was worth it.
The best things in life were worth swallowing your pride and begging for.
“Fine. I’ll choose for you,” I said.
I didn’t drag things out further. I eased back and raised the bat before I rammed it into his side with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs.
He screamed out a hoarse cry, and he choked when he tried to catch his breath.
“For fuck’s sake, Tony!” Colby yelled. “Say you’re sorry and thank O’Shea for sparing you!”
I beat Tony again, in the same spot, fairly confident I’d fractured at least two ribs.
The pain seemed to change Tony’s mind a little.
“Won’t happen again,” he wheezed out. “Fuck—I c-can’t…”
“You can’t what?” I swung the bat once more and hoped with every fiber of my being that it was the last.
He choked out the pain, and Colm let him fall to the floor in a heap.
I squatted down in front of Tony. “Use your last two remaining brain cells and beg the boss for mercy.”
As I stared down at this bloody fucking mess, literally, I felt completely detached from my own body. I felt nothing. My mind was…maybe a little frazzled—thoughts and images flashed like static, but that was it. My pulse was barely elevated. The ringing in my ears—okay, that was still there.
I swallowed dryly. My heart wasn’t pounding. I wasn’t nervous.
“I’m sorry,” Tony whimpered.
I scratched my nose and peered back at the boss and Kellan.
Finn lit up a new smoke and took a deep drag. Then he tilted his head a fraction toward Kellan. “He ain’t worth keeping alive. I’ll give him one month with the Caldwells in Dublin. If he hasn’t turned shit around and made enough money to put a smile on my face, he’s gone.”
Kellan nodded in understanding. “I’ll give Shan a call. He can make sure the shit’s ready to hop on a plane in the next two days.”
Well, nothing screamed comfort like sitting in a plane for eight hours with fractured ribs.
At least he was alive.
But part of me wondered if Finn was right. What if Tony took this time to become a rat? Regardless of how clean our hands were on paper—and sure, he’d have no proof—he could make the cops look into things. It would be another sheet in the already thick case file for the O’Sheas.
Finn blew out some smoke and faced me. “Now the other one.”
What?
I rose to my feet and glanced at Colby, and all my apathy flew out the fucking window. No—I refused. The kid was shaking, and at some point during the assault on his brother, he’d pissed himself.
Discomfort settled like a rock in my stomach, and I clenched my jaw.
Not fucking happening. You had to be another level of twisted to push him down further.
I walked over to Finn, ready to plead my case, and I dropped the bat on the floor. It clanked with a muted thud before rolling over to Kellan’s feet.
Colm returned to his spot by the door.
Finn lifted a brow at me.
“It’s enough, boss,” I said quietly. “He’s a kid.”
“He’s doin’ grown-up shit,” he told me. “If you do that, you better take the grown-up heat for it too.”