Page 13 of Bittersweet Revenge (Sins of the Father #1)

Tiernan

I ’m halfway to my house before I realize I’m smiling. Tonight was hot, and Dean really does it for me, but I have a million things I should be focusing on rather than busting a nut with my little fighter.

School, business, Hal fucking Winters. My father. And most importantly, what could have happened to Aislin tonight.

There’s absolutely no reason to be smiling.

And yet because of that little fucker, I am.

My phone rings, and despite it being nearly four in the morning, I have no choice but to speak with my father. When Sloan O’Shea calls, you answer, or you’re punished—especially me.

We have check-in calls every Sunday, so the fact that he’s calling now, and so late at night—or early in the morning, I guess—means something bad happened or he’s pissed at me.

He couldn’t have found out what happened tonight, could he? Ash wouldn’t tell him, and though Cil and Rory probably should, they won’t. They’re loyal and keep my secrets. I know how lucky I am to have them.

A weight lands in my chest as I pull my cell from my pocket and answer the call. “Hello?”

“Why am I not getting as much money from you as I should?”

I roll my eyes. Of course that would be what this is about. “Sales have been slow. School just started. We’re working on some ideas, have some parties planned. It’ll pick up.”

“It better. If school is no use to me, you won’t be there.”

I tense at the threat because I know he’ll follow through. I’m supposed to be able to have this time. I still have my duties, and I take care of them, but I’m going for law, which is what he wants because it will benefit the family.

Every family works differently, but this is how the O’Sheas operate, how they always have, but when my grandfather was killed, my dad stopped keeping up with the traditions he doesn’t like.

“I’ll fuckin’ fix it. Jesus, it’s only been a few weeks.”

He’s always been hard on me, but I don’t care about that, not really. It’s made me who I am. What I fucking hate are the mind games, the power moves, the threats.

When nothing but silence greets me, I know I’ve pissed him off and I’m teetering on the edge here. “I’m sorry. I just have a lot on my mind.”

“If you can’t handle it—”

“I can handle it.”

“You better be able to. I must be able to trust you, Tiernan, to believe in you. This family is supposed to belong to you one day. If I can’t depend on you, what use are you to me?”

I don’t even flinch at the threat. I’ve heard too many of them too many times.

He pretends to love me, but he doesn’t love me the way a father is supposed to love a son—not even in our world.

Family is everything to everyone I know except for Sloan O’Shea.

He plays the part well, shows others what they want to see, but I know the truth. Mom and Aislin know the truth.

I bite my tongue not to tell him he’s creating a problem where there isn’t one just to harass me and hold my education over my head. He wants me to say something like that so he can take something away from me, but I won’t fall into his trap.

“We’ll work harder. A lot of our regulars graduated, but I’ll do what needs to be done.”

“You better.” He ends the call without another word. That was…useless and so like my father. He just wants to throw around his weight, and he did. The smile I’d been wearing is gone, not that I have any right to be happy right now anyway. There’s always shit to be done, so I text Rory.

Me: Find anything out?

Rory: His dorm, his roommate, and his name. Michael Jensen. I’ll follow him through the weekend, or until we decide what to do.

Me: Good. Thanks. Cil can relieve you tomorrow.

Rory: You good?

Shit. Rory, Aislin, and Cillian know me better than almost anyone. Mom too. Still, I’m surprised he can tell just from my messages that I’m pissed, but then, I’m always pissed, so I guess that’s nothing new.

Me: Just want him fucking gone.

Which is true but not all that’s going on.

Rory: It’ll be done. Your boy…that was a good catch.

Yeah, it was.

Me: He’s not my fuckin’ boy.

My cell almost falls to the ground before I can get it pushed into my pocket. My head is filled with Michael fucking Jensen’s face, which sometimes morphs into my father’s as I walk to our place.

As expected, Cillian is still up when I get there.

“You with the new kid?” he asks, handing me a joint.

I take a drag, hold the smoke in my lungs, then exhale and hand it back. “Yeah.”

“He’s different…pays attention.”

“He’s nothing.” It’s not the first time I’ve lied about Dean, and it won’t be the last. He is different and pays attention. He has a sixth sense and no fucking fear in this way I can’t work out.

“Still…we should be careful. We don’t know him.”

“Fuck off, Cillian. I don’t need you to tell me that.”

He sighs. “How’s Ash?”

“Sleeping, I hope. I’m gonna check on her, but tomorrow we need to talk about how to push more product.”

“Yeah, I had a feeling that was coming. We got this.”

I nod, bump fists with him, then head upstairs.

The room is quiet, my sister still asleep in my bed.

I change into a pair of shorts, then get into bed with her.

She immediately cuddles close the way she used to do when she was a kid.

If our parents were fighting, she had a nightmare, or Dad came home bloody, she would sneak into my bed like she always knew I would do anything to protect her.

And now, though she’s strong as shit and doesn’t want to need me, there are still moments like this where she lets go.

“I’ll fucking kill him for trying to hurt you.”

“No,” she whispers sleepily. “I will.”

As much as I don’t want that for her, as much as I want to keep her hands clean and want her to have choices I didn’t, I won’t be able to deny her the revenge she deserves.

*

I sit in the living room of the suite in New York, my hands balled into fists. I can hear what they’re doing in the next room. I can hear her shouting his name, can hear the bed creaking, and all the names he calls her as he takes her.

And I’m standing here doing nothing.

We came to the city for business. Dad’s getting a shipment of guns. I’d been so excited because this was the first time Dad brought me. That has to mean he trusts me, right? That he believes in me and thinks I’m worthy of being his son.

But we haven’t done any business yet. All he did was call her, and they’ve been in the room for hours, fucking each other’s brains out while my mom sits at home.

Pain shoots through my jaw as I grind my teeth together.

A while later, the woman comes out completely naked, followed by my father, who’s wearing a robe. They’re both sweaty and disheveled. He clearly doesn’t care if I see her or know that he’s cheating on my mom.

“Aren’t you cute?” The naked woman pinches my cheek, and I jerk away from her.

“Fuck you,” I tell her. “He’s married.”

“Sweetie…I know.” She winks at me, and my dad laughs. My face flames with both embarrassment and anger. “You get a couple of years older, and you can have your turn.”

My stomach twists, and it takes everything in me not to lunge at her, not to hurt her for embarrassing me and betraying my mother, but like always, I don’t do anything. I can’t. Not against my father.

He orders room service, and the two of them eat at a small table, the woman still naked. He did get me food, but the thought of swallowing any of it down makes me want to vomit.

When they’re done, she goes back into the room and gets dressed. When she’s in the living room again, she approaches me first. “See you later, sugar. You’ll understand one day.”

“That my father likes sticking his dick in dirty whores?” In reality, I know it’s not her fault. I know he’s the one who owes my mom his loyalty, and she’s either just doing her job if he’s paying her, or maybe she thinks they actually have a future together.

She gives me a sad smile and walks over to my father, the two of them kissing, tongues in each other’s mouths as I seethe.

The second the door closes behind her, my father is standing in front of me. I don’t have time to realize what’s happening before he backhands me across the face. I stumble with the power of his hit and fall onto the coffee table, hitting the floor along with a plate and cup from earlier.

“You’re cheating on Mom,” I shout defiantly.

“Your mother lives in a beautiful home and has more money than she knows what to do with. She knows better than to complain where I stick my dick.” He grabs the front of my shirt and jerks me to my feet.

“She knows how to stay important to me. She runs my home and raises my kids. She does what I tell her because if she doesn’t, she’s worthless to me.

You should learn a lesson or two from her.

This world”—he hits his chest—“I fucking own it. You’re only allowed to stay in it if I want you to. The sooner you learn that, the better.”

There’s no doubt in my mind he would kill her if he wanted to…that he would kill me. And then who would Aislin have?

I hate what he’s doing to Mom, to us. It makes me sick, but he’s right. This is how this world works. Did I think he really loves Mom? Loves me?

This time when he smacks my aching cheek, he does it lightly, playfully. “Now clean this mess up while I get dressed. You’re going to get to see what happens to someone who doesn’t do as I say. Let Conan and your uncle Rian in when they get here.” Without another word, he walks out of the room.

Learn what happens when someone doesn’t listen to him? I thought we were here for guns. But I guess it could be both.

I hate him, but God, I want his power.

What does that say about me?

I clean up the mess, and just as I finish, there’s a knock at the door. I look through the peephole to see my uncle Rian with a huge smile. Conan stands beside him, saying something to my uncle.

“Hey,” I say, opening the door.

“What happened to you?” Rian comes in and holds my face gingerly.

I know better than to tell him the truth. We are a lot of things, but we have a code, and both Rian and Conan aren’t the kind of men who would like my father hitting me. Would they do anything about it? No, but it would embarrass my father.

“This fucker at school. He was picking on someone, but don’t worry, I beat his ass.”

“You used the moves I showed you?” Conan begins bouncing on his toes, pretending to box. He’s always been a good fighter, both with brute strength and skill. He’s studied martial arts too.

Rian pretends to fight him, the two of them going at it for a moment, and not for the first time in my life, I wish my father were one of them. But then, even though Uncle Rian isn’t abusive to Cillian the way my dad is to me, he’s not a good father either.

“You two going to stop fucking around so we can get some work done?” My father comes into the room.

“My nephew makes me proud.” Rian squeezes my shoulders. “He said he took care of some kid at school who was picking on someone else.”

My father doesn’t miss a beat, will never tell me he appreciates my lie.

“He has a lot to learn,” is all he says, and my eyes find the ground. I feel Conan’s gaze on me as Rian tells my father to lighten up, before he’s put in his place too.

The four of us sit down and discuss the plan for the day. It’s a business deal gone wrong, and my father wanted me here to see how we take care of situations like this.

I throw up while I watch them torture the man.

It’s Conan who brings me out of the room. “You’ll get used to it,” he says, and I nod, wiping tears from my eyes. “Who hit you?” he asks, making my heart race and my head jerk up. There’s nothing he could do about it anyway. All that would happen is he would die.

“I already told you what happened. Don’t fucking baby me.”

I push past him and go back into the room with Dad and Rian. The coppery scent of blood fills my nostrils.

And when I ask if I can cut him too, Dad smiles and hands me the knife.

All I can think is, despite everything, I crave making him proud.

My eyes jerk open, the dream feeling like it just happened rather than being years ago. My chest hurts, heaving with heavy breaths. I turn for Aislin, not wanting her to see me like this, only to realize the bed is empty.

Worry immediately assaults me, as if something would really happen to her here. I scramble out of bed. “Aislin!” I call out, running down the stairs. The second I turn into the kitchen, I see her sitting at the table with Cillian.

“What’s wrong?” She leaps up and comes over to me, but I shake off her concern.

“Nothing. I just…nothing.” I’m freaking the fuck out for no reason. My head is a mess lately. I need to get my shit together before someone gets hurt.