Blackness Takes Over & Blackness Awaits (7 page)

“I don’t mean to be a jerk. I’m stuck in this fuckin’ hospital with nothin’ to do. Makes my mood shitty.”

“I know you hate it there. I hate that you’re there. You want me to come home? I’ll do it tomorrow if you need me to.”

“Don’t start Shannon. We’ve talked about this. You need to be in school and I need to be in this God forsaken place. I’ll be fine. How’s school goin’?”

“Good. I’ve actually made some friends if you can believe that!”

“Really? Tell me about ’em.”

“Get this. It’s three guys,” I declare.

“Uh huh. Not a good way to start out and you know it.” I sigh steeling myself for his reaction.

“I met them my first day of class. They’re all the same major as me and want to go to law school too. We hit it off.” He huffs into phone, but doesn’t comment.

“It’s not like that, Uncle Mick. We’re just friends. It’s like they’re my long lost brothers or somethin’. You’ll like them. They actually took care of me when I was sick. I stayed at their place off campus. They have a guest room so it worked out well. They got me all my work and helped me not to fall behind. They kept me safe.” There’s a waver in my voice at the end that I try my damnedest to cover. I can’t tell him the truth.

“I’m glad you’ve made friends. You’ve always been more like a boy than a girl and I blame myself for that. I raised you the only way I knew. It’s not a surprise you made friends with guys. You keepin’ your gun on you?”

“Yes.”

“Any of those boys tries anything with you that you don’t want, you know what to do. Don’t take any chances. Keep your emotions in check Shannon, they’ll only get you in trouble. Remember what I taught you. I trust you. I know you’ll make me proud.” My heart sinks. I’m nothing but a letdown. He just doesn’t know it. I swear to myself that I’ll spend the rest of my life making him proud.

“I always keep your lessons close to heart. You’ve trained me well and I know how to keep myself safe. These guys aren’t a threat. They’re like extensions of you watching over me. I promise.”

“You get them on a plane and I’ll decide that for myself,” he decrees.

“I have something else to tell you.”

“You better not be pregnant!”

“Jesus, fuck no, I’m not!”

He laughs a deep belly chuckle. “Good!”

“I’m moving in with the guys.” He doesn’t respond. I just wait, allowing the information to sink in.

“Shannon…you just turned seventeen. We’re in a precarious position here. I’m not sure you movin’ in with adults is a good idea.”

“They know how old I am. I told them. This is a good move for me. The dorms aren’t working out and I feel safer here with them.” I play the safety card.

“I can’t tell you what to do. I can only tell you I’m concerned. If you feel safe, that’s what’s most important. I want these guys on a plane this weekend, Shannon. If I don’t like what I see, you and I come up with a new option to make you feel safe.”

“I’ll see if they can come this weekend. It may be a couple weeks though, Uncle Mick. Okay?” I can’t go to Kansas City looking like this. He’ll know what Liam did before I start to lie. I have to be healed first.

“First chance you get.”

“Okay.”

“I love you, Shannon. You call me when you and these boys get a plan together.”

“I will. I love you too.”

“Talk to you soon,” he says softly.

“Bye,” I coo in return.

“I know you three are standing there,” I say over my shoulder from my new bed, in my new bedroom.

“How’d that go?” Cally asks plopping down next to me.

“Fine. He wants us on a plane this weekend. He wants to size you perverts up.”

“Kid, I don’t think that’s a great idea. You’re still in rough shape. Can’t you put it off a few weeks?” Sully asks flopping down on my other side.

“I know I can’t go home looking like this. I lied to him. I told him I was sick and that’s why I hadn’t called. I can’t tell him about the attack.”

“We get it,” Kavy assures me as he climbs on my bed behind me pulling my back to his front. My bed creaks under our weight.

“I don’t think this bed is meant to hold the four of us,” I tease.

“I had three girls in here with me last month,” Sully states.

“Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind for my future exploits,” I snark and slap his chest.

“If you’re in here with three chicks, I better be invited,” Sully says without a hint of humor.

“Oh you will be,” I say matter-of-factly. “You guys think we could fly down to Kansas City in a couple weeks? I know I’ve done nothing but impose on you for the last two weeks, but if this is what Uncle Mick needs I have to give it to him.” I lean into Kavy’s chest a little more for comfort. I can’t believe how close I feel to these guys. I meant what I said about them being like my long lost brothers to Uncle Mick. I know it’s weird, but I feel like I’ve known them my whole life.

“Stop with that shit,” Cally chides. “You’re not an imposition. Say it again and you and I are gonna fight.” I’ve never heard him be that stern before. I take notice and nod.

“We’ll go wherever you need us to go, whenever,” Kavy informs me. “Where you go, we go.”

And with that our future together is settled. Where one goes, we all go.

That’s how undergrad went, the four of us together all the time. During volleyball season one of them always picked me up from, and took me to, practice. They were at every game, screaming for me like wild men. Kavy played rugby and we went to all of the games. I dated one of his teammates for a few weeks during sophomore year. It wasn’t meant to be anything more than friendship, so that fizzled. Sully was a boxer (my first night assumption turned out to be right) and had a few fights a year. I went to all of them and cheered him on like my life depended on it. He was a good fighter and never lost a match that I watched. Then there was Cally and me. We were study and workout buddies. Cally had been a basketball player, but a knee injury ended that; he still worked out like an athlete. With our personalities we just worked really well together, he could tell when I was frustrated and I could push him to his limit without pushing him over the edge.

Kavy still crawled in my bed almost every night. I would go to sleep alone and wake up with him wrapped around me. We all dated people, never seriously. Cally can’t get to a fourth date, never has. Sully can’t keep his dick in his pants long enough not to cheat, or “wander” as he puts it. Kavy, well he never bangs the same girl twice. It’s some kind of rule or code he lives by. Neither he nor the girls seem to mind so it works out. I dated some off and on, but nothing ever went anywhere beyond a handful of dates.

Our group grew as their brothers joined our circle. Kavy’s twin brothers, Ryan and Adam were one year behind us. Collin and Hugh, Sully’s brothers, were one and two years behind us respectively. Cally’s brother, Finn, was a year ahead of us and their little brother, Aidan, was the baby of the group, starting his first year during our last. At full strength our group had ten and watch out if we were all together. Trouble didn’t begin to describe!

Three weeks after I told Uncle Mick about the boys we flew to Kansas City. The boys bonded with him almost as quickly as they had bonded with me. I think Uncle Mick felt better with me in Chicago knowing the boys had my back. He also saw that they weren’t trying to get in my pants. He gave them his blessing combined with many lessons and warnings before we went back to school.

Uncle Mick died in November of my sophomore year. I was devastated and the boys, all nine of them, and their parents, got me through it. I spent Thanksgiving in Kansas City that year with Uncle Mick, right before he passed. My boys all came with me to help. He died two days later so I had to stay in Kansas City, plan his funeral and get his affairs in order. He had done most of the leg work, always looking out for me. I sold his land because I don’t hunt or fish, but I kept his house. I love that house. It’s in Mission Hills, a very exclusive neighborhood. Uncle Mick’s family had made a fortune in the stockyard business. He wasn’t affected by the money or lifestyle, but he had put it to good use. His wife and two sons had died in a car accident twelve years before I came to live with him. They were his world and when they were gone, so was he. He told me once, that if it wasn’t for me he would have checked out long before he did. I was special to him and he was special to me, we helped each other live when there was nothing to live for.

The house is huge with six bedrooms, ten bathrooms, home office, gourmet kitchen, formal living and dining rooms, great room and breakfast area off the kitchen. There’s a media room, game room and gym in the basement, with a pool and hot tub in the perfectly manicured backyard. A dream house to most. I couldn’t let it go; it was the only home I knew. My trust fund was now available to me, but I didn’t want to touch that money…it made me sad, so I put it to good use in a local children’s charity in Chicago. Uncle Mick left me everything he had, and it was sizeable…millions. We had talked about me taking the money, to live on and make a life for myself, which I tried endlessly to argue against. Uncle Mick had informed me that not using the money was not an option, he made me promise him I would use it…I never break my word. I was a multimillionaire at eighteen, and I fucking hated it because it came from the loss of my loved ones. I hired a housekeeper to live at the Mission Hills house to care for it while I was away at school. I was used to taking care of myself, but not running a household from a different state.

I came home during the quarterly breaks and the boys were always with me in some combination. With nine of them, and one of me, it wasn’t difficult to have one or some of them with me most of the time. I spent holidays with the boys. I made my rounds to each of their houses. The Callaghans, Kavanaghs, and O’Sullivans all brought me into their families like I was one of their own. I came to love these people and they loved me.

Our group had to break up though at the end of undergrad. By some miracle or maybe some string pulling (more likely) by Kavy’s dad (Mr. Kavanagh is a highly successful attorney with his own firm and a Stanford alumni) the four of us got into Stanford Law. Holy Shit, I know!

Ryan, Adam, Collin, and Hugh all moved into our place and we migrated to the West coast. What a change from the Midwest that was! We worked our asses off for three years. Cally was a contracts genius. Sully and Kavy were in criminal law and amazing at it. I went into family law. We were a harmonious group of legal expertise. During our second year Kavy’s father made us an offer, to start our own branch of his law firm in Kansas City, once we graduated. My boys and I talked about it for a week and agreed it was a good step for us. Mr. Kavanagh would send a few attorneys to help us get on our feet, and then once we were comfortable he would turn us loose.

Once we graduated we moved into my house and Finn came with us. He was a private investigator for the Chicago branch of the firm, so it was a good move for him. Three years later we got rid of our chaperones at the firm. Kavanagh Law was ours to run. And boy did we run.

Enough reminiscing

“Kavy, if I wanted you to stop coming in my room at night I would tell you, and lock the door for good measure,” I scowl at him. What the fuck is his issue right now?

“Why’d you attack me with your icy feet then? You were pissed this morning. You’ve never gone off like that…well maybe not never.” I roll my eyes. “Hey Kid, I know when you’re pissed, and you were pissed at me this morning, why?”

“Kavy, I was at the office until nine. I came home and we all went out until two. Your random keeps me up until three thirty and your ass wakes me up at five forty-five. Why do you think I was pissed?” I give him the stare of “take that”.

“I know this Mia case is takin’ it outta you. I shoulda thought before I rolled in here. The random was fuckin’ obnoxious!! That’s my bad for sure. You sure we’re cool?” I smack his cheek lightly a few times and stick out my bottom lip.

“Ahhhh. My little Kavy is afraid of the Kid. I forgive you big guy.” I wrap my arms around his neck while he constricts his arms around my waist and stands up, carrying me off my feet into the bedroom. We both chortle.