IRISH: a Bad Boy Fighter Romance (13 page)

I felt a searing pain in my thigh where the bullet grazed me and I rolled behind the huge wheel well of the jet.

I clutched at myself and realized I had left my gun on the plane under the seat. I hadn’t wanted to frighten Lennon by pulling it out in front of her.

How the fek had I gotten us into the shite and how the fek was I gonna get us out of it?

Chapter Thirty

Lennon

“Get down,” Jake ordered and pushed me in a space behind the bar at the back of the jet.

“What’s going on? Was that a gun?” I yelped as he shoved me harder. “Knox!”

“Stay quiet,” Jake said and reached under his black leather jacket for a gun. “I’m going to see what happened.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have come here,” I said to myself more than Jake. I huddled behind the bar with uncertainty racing through my veins. I could feel my pulse throbbing in my temples and I wondered how the hell my life had turned upside down in such a short time.

I didn’t know if I was cut out for this kind of life, the ups and downs and dangers were making my anxiety pulse through my body in an almost incontrollable fashion.

I forced myself to breathe slowly, focused on my heartbeat and tried to listen to the outside of the plane for any more gunshots.

I heard somebody on the stairs to the plane and I ducked down even lower. I crawled towards the chair Knox and I had been sitting in, hoping to find my phone or something I could use to help me.

I reached around the chair, but a dark figure blocked out the doorway and Sabrina’s voice said, “Kitten, ain’t that what he calls ye? Where are ye? Here kitty, kitty.”

I crouched lower and pushed my hand under the seat looking for a weapon of any kind. My hand struck cool metal and I wrapped my hands around it.

A gun! I pulled it towards me and looked at it.

I didn’t have the first idea of what I was supposed to do with it, but I felt stronger for having it in my hands.

I vaguely remembered things I’d seen on movies and TV and looked for the safety switch.

I assumed I’d found it and slid it up, put my finger on the trigger and waited, holding my breath.

The blood pumping through my body felt like ocean waves crashing on the shore. I could hear it in my head, rushing and throbbing until I felt like I would go blind from the pressure and stress of the situation.

“Kitty kitty,” Sabrina said in a sarcastic tone. “Where are ye?”

She was right in front of the chair, I knew she was about to find me and there was nothing I could do about it.

I felt her hand grip my ankle and pull. I kicked and flipped over, facing her at last.

“There ye are!” she shrieked triumphantly.

“Here I am,” I said, holding the gun up and pointing it right at her face.

She laughed at me as if this whole thing was a fucking game.

“You don’t know what yer doin,” she crowed.

I steadied my hand, took every ounce of my control to stop the shaking, and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Sabrina grabbed for it and I crab crawled backwards across the floor of the jet. “Fuck off,” I yelled. “Get bent, you fucking whore!”

I slid the safety clip the opposite direction but Sabrina was on me before I could take aim.

She tried to wrestle the gun out of my hands, punching and kicking and even biting to get me to loosen my grip but I didn’t give in.

“Get your hands off me,” I spat and heard the crack of a weapon going off. I heard a scream and fell backwards.

Sabrina rolled off me holding her abdomen, blood swelled out from between her fingers and she started to convulse.

I jumped to my feet, held the gun in front of me and rushed to the plane’s door. It was hanging open, the stairs still attached, and I could see nothing on the tarmac.

I gingerly stepped down the steps and looked around carefully for Knox.

A tall man with dark hair and a lithe, athletic body stepped out from behind a stack of containers and said, “Ye must be the blushing bride. Pleased to meet ye, I’m sorry I had to kill her groom.”

“Knox?” I whispered and blanched as the blood drained from my face.

“Aye, sorry, he’s dead,” the man said and I felt my knees give way as I fell down the remaining stairs to the runway.

I hit the pavement hard and my breath was knocked out of me with a deep grunt.

I didn’t lose consciousness, but I felt darkness along the edges of my vision. A movement at the corner caught my attention and I turned my head just in time to see Knox leap out and jump on the man who had claimed he’d killed him.

“Knox,” I croaked as he wrapped his hands around the man’s head and twisted brutally. I heard a discernable crack and the man collapsed in front of Knox.

Knox shoved the man to the side and crossed the pavement between us in three long strides.

“Kitten, are ye all right?” he asked in a voice thick with concern.

“I think so,” I replied slowly. “I killed her. Oh my god I killed her.”

“Who?” he asked and drew me up in his arms.

“Sabrina,” I replied looking up at him. Would he hate me for killing a woman he’d once loved?

“Ah, thank god,” he said, “she deserved what was comin to her.”

“You killed him,” I said, looking over at the man’s crumpled body.

“I’ve killed many more than him, kitten,” he replied sadly. “I haven’t been totally honest with ye…I used to be a terrible man. There’s so much I need to tell ye.”

“I don’t care about any of it,” I said, “I just want to get home and get married.”

He helped me up and kissed me as he wrapped his arms around me. “I thought I lost ye,” he said with a groan. “I woulda fekking died if I’d lost ye, kitten.”

“I know, me too,” I said and fought a sob in my throat.

We heard a moan from behind the stacked crates and he said, “Shite, Jake!”

I followed him around and we found his best friend and manager lying on the ground with blood streaming from an open gash in his head.

He wouldn’t open his eyes when we spoke to him and I looked around for something to help him.

There was nothing, we were trapped with a plane load of weapons and drugs, two dead bodies and my man’s best friend possibly dying in our arms.

My chest tightened as I wondered if life would ever settle down long enough for Knox and I to have a normal relationship. In spite of starting it out as business, our hearts had grown together and we needed time to let our love blossom beyond the initial contract.

The question now was would we ever get that time? When was our love going to be given a chance to bloom?

Chapter Thirty One

Lennon

“This looks bad,” I said, crouching down next to Jake. “Was he shot?”

“I don’t know,” Knox replied, dropping to the tarmac on the other side of Jake’s body. “Can ye see an exit wound?”

I gingerly rolled Jake’s head so I could check the back. I saw nothing but the wound on the front. “I don’t think so. He was probably hit which is much better than him being shot but he’s still losing a lot of blood.”

I scanned the area for anything to help us load Jake back into the plane. There wasn’t much, just boxes of who knows what stacked beside us.

“I’m gonna get the pilot,” Knox said, “ye stay here with him.”

I nodded as he stood up and ran towards the plane. I took off my hoodie and pressed it against Jake’s bleeding head. Something was better than nothing I supposed.

Jake moaned as I kept pressure on his head, I felt bad but I was doing my best to keep him from bleeding out. I cursed my lack of first aid training just then.

“Where’s Sabrina?” a voice whispered to me from behind the stack of containers and I jumped and looked around. I recognized the young girl from the plane.

“I’m so sorry…she’s dead,” I replied in a low voice. I tried not to let my guilt consume me just then, I would have time to grieve once we’d made our way back home.

“What do you mean she’s dead?” the girl wailed and walked around the stacked containers. “She promised to get me home.”

“Where is home?” I asked, wishing I could stand up but I didn’t want let up on the hoodie.

“Dublin,” she replied. “I’m not a criminal, ye know. Sabrina’s me cousin and was supposed to take me on a vacation to America.”

“I’m sorry you got caught up in this. Where are your parents? Are they in Dublin or did they come to the US with you?”

“Dublin,” she said. “They would die if they knew what had happened. You can’t tell them…they’ll never let me go anywhere ever again if you do!”

“I won’t,” I smiled. “I promise. What’s your name?”

“Kelly,” she replied. “I hate it.”

“It’s a lovely name,” I said. “I’m Lennon.”

“I know, Sabrina told me. She hates you, but I think yer nice,” Kelly said.

“I think you’re nice too,” I replied and tried to force the image of Sabrina’s death into the back of my head. I couldn’t handle dealing with it right now.

“Lennon!” Knox said as he and the pilot scrambled down the stairs of the plane. “Is Jake still…”

“He’s alive,” I said, “but we have to get him to a hospital.”

“We’ll carry him in,” Knox told me and indicated to the pilot to help him lift Jake. I took the hoodie away as they hauled him up into their arms. The bleeding had slowed considerably. “Take yer jacket and get inside. Sabrina’s bleeding like mad.”

“Sabrina?” I gasped. “I thought I killed her!”

“Ye almost did, kitten,” Knox replied with a grim look. “But she’s alive. She’s been gut shot. She needs a hospital too.”

I ran up the stairs ahead of them with Kelly right on my heels. I dropped to the floor next to Sabrina’s prone body and saw that her shirt had been lifted, exposing a massive wound to her abdomen.

A flash of jealousy exploded inside of me and I wondered if Knox had tried to undress her, if he’d cared for her. Did he still care for her?”

I pressed the bloody hoodie against her stomach and her eyes fluttered open. She gave me a weak smile and said, “Coming te finish the job?”

“If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead,” I said but we both knew I was bluffing. I thought I’d killed her, and part of me was relieved that I wasn’t a murderer…but a little voice said in the back of my head that it would have been so much easier to handle the annulment if Sabrina had just died.

“Is she gonna live?” Kelly asked, joining me on the other side of her cousin.

“I’m gonna live,” Sabrina said in her weak voice. “Where’s Duncan.”

“He’s dead,” Kelly said, “Knox did it. I saw everything.”

“Knox fucking O’Connor,” Sabrina said bitterly. “If only you knew what ye were getting into, Lennon. He is not a good man…not a good man at all. Just think of the blood on his hands every time he touches ye. Think of the women who have cried because of him, the kids who have no parents because Knox thinks he’s Judge, Jury and Executioner.”

“I know what kind of man he is,” I spat and pressed harder on her stomach. She grunted in pain and I felt a little satisfaction.

But not enough to erase the concern I had. Did I actually know what kind of man Knox was? Had I agreed to marry a cold-blooded killer?

Chapter Thirty Two

Knox

I’d been so relieved to find Sabrina still alive.

Not because I gave a single shite about the fekking little snake.

Only because I didn’t want Lennon to know what it felt like to kill a person, not if she didn’t have to. And in this case I doubted Sabrina would have actually harmed Lennon. I think she was letting her jealousy get to her, but going so far as to murder me girl? Sabrina wasn’t that fekking stupid.

We managed to haul Jake’s ass onto the plane and by the time we got him settled in, he had opened his eyes.

“Did you see the truck that hit me?” he asked groggily.

“I think a hit and run would have left less damage,” I said. “What te fek happened to ye?”

“Some guy clocked me with the butt of his gun,” Jake said. “I feel like such a fool, I didn’t even see it coming.”

“Hang tight, we’re gonna get ye back to the states and into a hospital in a matter of a few hours. Think ye’ll live that long?”

“I’ll try,” he replied and leaned back into the reclining leather chair and closed his eyes.

It probably wasn’t the wisest thing, letting him sleep with such a bad head injury, but we didn’t have much choice. Me and Pete had to unload the cargo in case we were questioned heading back over the border. We could lie and say it had been a miscalculation on Pete’s part or something.

It didn’t take long, we had a dolly and loaded wooden boxes of drugs and guns onto the runway. It was strange though, leaving hundreds of thousands worth of illegal contraband right next to Duncan’s body.

I’d checked, given the fact that Sabrina had survived, but Duncan weren’t so lucky. I knew what I was doing and I’d ended his life so he couldn’t harm me girl, Lennon.

It had all been for Lennon, I hoped she could see that and not think of me as a cruel monster now.

Or once she found out about me past, growing up on the streets of Belfast.

I had to take the chance though, she needed to know all of me, not just the man she knew now.

We finished in no time, got back on the plane and Pete headed to the cockpit to take us home.

I sat next to Lennon who was on the floor holding her sweatshirt over Sabrina’s middle.

“How’s it look?” I asked, nodding towards Sabrina.

“She’ll definitely live,” Lennon replied with a grim set to her lips.

“That’s good,” I replied. “It will be a lot easier to get her to sign the annulment papers than trying to have her declared dead.” I reached down and pulled Lennon up to my lap. Sabrina glared at me from the floor. “You, help her,” I said to the girl who reminded me of Katie.

A little shard of pain pierced my side and I knew I’d have to open up and share that part of my past with Lennon too. There would be no more secrets. Even the ones that still hurt like they’d happened yesterday.