“Please, Kane,” I whispered. “I’m... I’m scared, okay?”
Kane remained silent for a long moment. “Fine. I won’t tell anyone we fucked, but I want you to go home and take a pregnancy test today and then come back and tell me the results. Do you understand me, Aideen? If you’re pregnant, that’s my kid in there too and I will have a say in what happens. Understood?”
I was frozen to my seat as Kane spoke. I had never heard him use that tone of voice before. It was cold and threatening and not at all the Kane I knew.
“You seem pretty confident that if I was pregnant the baby would be yours,” I began, “I want to know why you’d just assume it’s yours? I could have been with someone else around the same time.”
I wasn’t with another man before I fell into stupidity and slept with Kane. I would normally never lie like that, but his arrogance and controlling demeanour both scared and pissed me off.
“Were you with someone else?” Kane snarled, his hands balling into fists.
I kept my head down so he couldn’t see the truth in my eyes. “It’s not relevant unless I turn out to be pregnant. I’ll keep you posted.”
Kane sat up in the bed and I heard how laboured his breathing was.
“Aideen.”
One word and I was shitting myself.
“I understand you, okay? I’ll do as you asked and take a test, then let you know the results. Jesus.”
“Good,” he quipped.
I didn’t know what to do then. I was surprised with how I felt in his presence. I was uncomfortable being alone with him. There was no room for jokes or insults between us right at this moment, it was just a dark space filled with nothing. He wasn’t the same person I was so used to being around, and I could tell all this from the tone of his voice.
“I’m going to go now,” I said, my voice low.
I slowly eased myself up from the chair but halted when Kane said, “No... just stay awhile, okay?” He sighed and like the click of my fingers, he was changed back to the Kane I knew. “I’m sorry... you just... made me a little angry.”
That tone was him when he was a little angry?
Damn.
I was so screwed if I ever really pissed him off.
“Will you look at me?” he whispered.
It took me a minute but I lifted my head and brought my gaze to his.
“There she is,” he murmured.
Oh, God.
His mouth was in a frown and he was still a little pale, but fuck, he was gorgeous.
Scars and all.
I hated with everything in me that I found him attractive. Hating somebody and still finding them stunning in appearance was torture. Utter torture.
“Things are so fucked up,” I breathed and sat back in the chair. “One of us girls might be pregnant, you’re ill, Keela’s head is turnin’ against her, Nico is workin’ for Brandon Daley and so is me little brother. What fuckin’ else can happen to us?”
The room was silent for a few moments.
“We’ll figure it out. All of us will figure it out,” Kane said. “We always do.”
I blinked. “Yeah, but still, this is a lot of shite to deal with.”
His lip quirked a little. “We’ve been through worse things, babydoll.”
I widened my eyes to the point of pain. “We discussed you never callin’ me that again.”
Kane grinned. “You only get one pass. Either I keep quiet about us fucking, or I don’t call you babydoll. You choose which one you want, but if I was you, I’d hurry because time’s a wasting.”
I hated him.
I hated every fibre in the sick bastard’s body.
“The stupid sex,” I growled. “Keep that to yourself.”
Kane winked. “You got it, babydoll.”
What. A. Prick.
“If you weren’t so ill, I’d kill you meself,” I angrily snapped.
I jumped with fright when laughter sounded from my right.
“He must be okay if she’s threatening to kill him,” Alec’s voice sang with laughter.
I looked up and playfully rolled my eyes as the brothers and girls filed into Kane’s room.
“Good to see you awake, you bastard,” Alec said and leaned in to hug Kane. “You frightened the shit out of us.”
Kane made jokes as each of his brothers hugged him, followed by the girls. After Bronagh hugged him, she walked over, closed the door of the room, and leaned against it. Nico tried to get her to move over to the seat near the window so she could sit on his lap, but she was having none of it.
“I told you no,” Bronagh snapped. “Kane is awake now and I’m not blinded with fear for his safety anymore, so I can remember perfectly fuckin’ well the deal you struck with Brandon fucking Daley. I was serious when I said I’m done with you, Dominic. I want no part of that poxy life, and if you insist on being part of it then I’m sorry to say fuckface, but I’m cuttin’ you loose.”
Oh, bollocks.
They were breaking up?
“Cutting me loose, huh?” Nico said, his voice cool and calm. “Like I’m some snot-faced little boy you sunk your claws into?”
Bronagh glared at him. “Somethin’ like that.”
Nico moved so fast that none of us had time to react. He got Bronagh backed into the corner of the room and blocked her from our view with his body.
I looked at Kane who shook his head at me. “Let them hash it out,” he murmured.