ChapterSix
Walking back to his truck, Chloe’s words echoed in his head. Just fuck me. As if Chloe McCarthy had ever been a girl who just wanted to fuck. It didn’t stop his imagination though. His entire ride back home was filled with thoughts of Chloe naked and screaming his name. If a simple kiss had that effect on him, there was no way he could sleep with her. She could be mad or disappointed, but she wouldn’t have regrets. He, however, might.
He crawled into bed with her taste in his mouth and his hand on his dick.
The following morning, he made the call he’d been avoiding, but Brendan was his best bet.
“Hello.” The dude sounded wide awake and freshly pressed even early on a Sunday morning.
“Hey, Brendan. It’s Ronan.”
“I know. We have this fancy thing called caller ID.”
“Wasn’t sure you had my number.” Ronan had figured Brendan didn’t have it since he avoided Ronan at all costs. “Are you free today to meet up and talk?”
“About what?”
“Cahill and Dad.”
“Stay out of it.”
His choice of words sent suspicion creeping into Ronan’s thoughts. He wasn’t talking about declaring Dad dead.
“I can’t. You know that. Besides, I’m working for Cahill and they just promoted me, which puts me even closer to them.”
“Fuck. Why can’t you ever listen?”
He’d known Brendan wouldn’t like his plan, but he was on a timeline. “I didn’t like what you were saying. Will you meet me or not?”
Brendan’s irritated sigh cut through the phone. “I promised Mom I’d stop by, so give me an hour and I’ll see you at Super Cup.”
Super Cup was the neighborhood diner that was a couple of blocks from their childhood home. The food wasn’t great, but the coffee was pretty good. Ronan took a shower and did his best to scrub Chloe McCarthy from his mind.
If he planned to do whatever necessary to get close to Danny Cahill, he’d be spending more time at the Rose, which meant their paths would cross again. He couldn’t deal with having a hard-on every time he saw her. He would just have to convince her that she didn’t want to have anything to do with him.
An hour later, Ronan was sitting in a corner booth at Super Cup waiting for his older brother. He’d shown up a few minutes early and Brendan strode through the door exactly on time. The diner wasn’t packed because the after-church crowd hadn’t yet hit, but the early morning regulars were sprinkled throughout the place. Ronan didn’t bother to wave because he knew Brendan would’ve chosen this same booth—one in the corner with a full vantage point of the exits to watch who came and went.
Brendan saw him and joined him at the table. The waitress immediately hustled over, filled Brendan’s cup, and topped off Ronan’s.
“Would you like to see a menu?” she asked.
“I’m good,” Ronan answered.
“Coffee’s fine,” Brendan followed. When she stepped away, Brendan looked at him. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Why does Alan Cahill think that you’re trouble? And why does he want Danny to watch me?”
Brendan sat back in his seat and turned his coffee cup slowly with his left hand. “Where did you get that information?”
“Does it matter?”
“Maybe.”
Ronan studied his brother. “Chloe McCarthy.”
Brendan hadn’t been expecting that. There wasn’t much of a response, but Ronan knew his brother. He sat a little straighter and tightened his grip on the cup. A reaction, but Ronan didn’t know why.
“How?”
“She’s manager of the Rose. She waits on them and after I met with Danny about my promotion the other night, she said Alan was there and their conversation was heated.”
Brendan sat with that a moment, and Ronan’s irritation notched up. He’d come for answers, but as usual, his brother wasn’t very forthcoming.
Finally, he leaned forward, his arms on the table. “What do you hope to get?”
“From you? A reason why Cahill thinks you’re trouble. More than me. Chloe got a good chuckle over that.”
Brendan smiled. “Could be because the summer after dad went missing, I went to see Alan Cahill. I’d talked to the guys on Dad’s crew and I knew Cahill knew something.”
It was Ronan’s turn to be surprised. He’d almost forgotten that Brendan had worked for the Cahills. “You never told me that.”
“Well, I was pretty hot-headed back then. Caused a scene. Lost my job. It didn’t help.” He drank his coffee.
“You’ve always acted like I was crazy for thinking they knew something.”
“I just wanted you to drop it. If I had told you my suspicions, especially back then, you would’ve done something really stupid and landed your ass in jail.”
Ronan didn’t have words. All this time, all these years. “I haven’t been a kid for a long time. Why not tell me?”
“Because it doesn’t matter. No one talked. No one gave me any information to continue that line of thinking.” He looked over his shoulder out the window. “They made me think it was all in my head.”
“So you did the same to me.”