Page 6 of Sweet Vengeance (Sins of the Father #2)

Cillian

“Why in the fuck is Ollie calling me so late? We’ve only ever texted.” Dean stares at his phone before answering. “Hello.”

He frowns, and Tiernan sits up straighter as if he can read Dean’s expression and knows something’s wrong.

“Ollie?” he says, then, “What the fuck is going on? Answer me.”

“What is it?” I ask, nerves making my skin prickle uncomfortably.

Tiernan tries to take the phone from him, but Dean doesn’t let him. He holds it out and hits the speaker, the sounds on the other end very fucking familiar.

Someone is being hurt. When Ollie’s familiar voice cries out, red flashes in my eyes, my whole body tensing.

“Who the fuck is there? Don’t you fucking touch him. I’ll kill you if you touch him,” Dean seethes into the phone, his rage sharp enough to slice through me.

The sounds of flesh on flesh are clear, gasping and pain coming from Ollie. I shove to my feet as if that will change anything.

“Where is he?” I ask, my voice tight. I open and close my hands into fists, dying to get my hands on whoever is hurting him.

“How the fuck should I know?” Dean barks at me.

“Fucking find him,” I snap. That’s what he does. He knows how to do that shit.

“Hey. Watch your mouth when you’re talking to him,” Tiernan warns.

“Fuck you.” It’s not often I say shit like that to Tiernan, but what are we supposed to do? Sit here and listen to whoever this is kill Ollie? He’s too good for this, for us, and all I can think is, maybe this is happening because of his friendship with Dean. Maybe this is our fault.

“Hey! Stop that! What are you doing?” breaks through the phone, and all of us still.

There’s a lot of yelling, feet hitting pavement, the sound of a car starting, then screeching tires as it peels away.

“Oh shit. Hang on, buddy,” a guy’s voice says.

“Where are you? What’s going on?” I shout, hoping that whoever is there can hear me. If he can, he doesn’t say anything. The sound of his voice gets farther away and harder to make out, but there’s mumbling in the background.

He must be getting closer to the phone because I hear, “I called 911. They’re on the way.”

Dean pulls away from me. “Pick up the fucking phone!” he shouts, sounding like he’s hardly holding on to control.

There’s a rustling sound, then, “Hello?”

“That’s my friend. He called before he was attacked. Where are you?” Dean asks.

“At the pharmacy on Eastman,” the guy says.

“Is he conscious?” Dean asks while putting on his shoes.

“He seems to be coming around.”

“Tell him Dean is on his way, okay? His name is Ollie. Tell him I’m coming.”

I shift uncomfortably, though I’m not sure why.

“What about the other guy?” he asks.

“There’s another guy?” Dean asks in unison with my, “Who the fuck was he with?”

I feel Rory’s stare on me, and Christ, for a moment, I’d forgotten he was even in the room with us.

Tiernan frowns at me as the guy continues talking through speakerphone. Just as I hear sirens in the background, he adds, “The ambulance is almost here. You probably should meet us at the hospital. I’ll give them his phone.”

“Okay, just…don’t fucking leave him,” Dean orders. Dean doesn’t have anyone in his life other than us—well, and Ollie, and it’s clear how much his friend means to him. Still, it tugs at a loose string inside making me unravel.

“Let’s go,” I say as soon as Dean ends the call, already heading for the door.

Everyone grabs their shit. We take Tiernan’s car, my cousin behind the wheel, Dean beside him.

“No one would do this because he’s close to us, right?” Rory asks, echoing my thoughts.

“No one knows he’s friends with Dean,” Tiernan replies. I hope he’s right, but what if he’s not?

“I just…who would want to hurt our little bunny?” Rory reaches over and places his hand on my thigh. I didn’t realize my leg was bouncing until he did that. Usually he’s the one who can’t stay still.

“We’ll find whoever did this and kill them,” Dean says.

“We’re not doing anything until we know what’s going on,” Tiernan counters.

“No,” I argue. “I’m with Dean. Fuck that. We’ll do it with or without you, T.”

In my periphery, I can see Rory looking at me, but I don’t turn to him, just find the rearview mirror because I know Tiernan’s gaze will find mine.

He’s probably wondering why I care so much, and honestly, I am too.

A lot of fucking people in my life have been hurt.

I’ve seen and done a lot of shit, but I feel all twisted up inside, angry and dying for revenge over Ollie.

I don’t get what’s different about him. Maybe because he’s Dean’s friend, because it’s clear he’s fucking good and wants to do right by people.

Last year, he was willing to go toe-to-toe with Tiernan because he worried he might be hurting Dean.

Tiernan wasn’t, of course. He would burn the world to ash for Dean, but Ollie hadn’t known that at the time.

“What’s going on with you?” Tiernan asks, and it’s a good question. I’m not afraid of T, but I don’t normally stand up to him. “You’ve never hurt anyone innocent before?”

He knows the answer to that question, but it was never like this.

Even without knowing exactly what went down, there’s no doubt in my mind Ollie was somehow only trying to do the right thing.

“That’s different. Are you saying you’re gonna let someone hurt a person who should be under our protection? ”

Maybe that’s not the right way to word it. Ollie doesn’t have a real attachment to us outside of being Dean’s friend, but that should be enough.

“No. I’m saying we’re not gonna fucking jump into something until we have all the details. It’s not smart, and when we do something that’s not smart, it’s how people I love get hurt. I like Ollie, but my concern is for the people in this car and Aislin.”

He’s right. As wild as Tiernan is, he’s levelheaded when need be. I usually am too. It’s more Dean or Rory we have to worry about going off half-cocked.

“Fine,” I reply because I don’t want to fight with him, but I will be finding out who hurt Ollie, and I will kill them all, whether Tiernan likes it or not.

The rest of the drive to the hospital is quiet, but Rory’s hand on my thigh never moves. I feel him looking at me every now and again.

I just… Hearing Ollie hurt like that made me feel twitchy, made my vision go cloudy and my muscles feel like they atrophied.

As soon as Tiernan parks in the hospital lot, all four of us jump out of the car and head straight for the emergency department.

There’s probably about twenty filled chairs in the waiting room, a baby crying, someone snoring, all the sounds making my head buzz.

The security guard in the corner—a balding guy with pale skin—stands up straighter when he sees us, like he can tell he needs to watch out for us because none of us will take no for an answer.

“We’re looking for Ollie Gibson,” Dean says to the white woman with her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, sitting at the counter. “He was just brought in by ambulance.”

“Are you family?” she asks.

“Brother,” Dean says, in unison with my, “Boyfriend,” and Rory’s, “Cousin.”

Tiernan curses quietly because yeah, we could have planned that better.

“And who are you?” she asks Tiernan pointedly, obviously not falling for our lies.

“He’s mine.” Tiernan points to Dean. “Not that it’s any of your fucking business. We asked about Ollie.”

“I don’t have any information yet. He was just brought in a few minutes ago.” She turns to Dean. “But since you’re his brother, maybe I can get some information from you about him. He didn’t have an ID.”

Fuuuuuck. This could be an issue. I have no idea how much Dean knows about Ollie.

To my surprise, he rambles off January 3 as his date of birth, then gives his name as next of kin, and our address as Ollie’s.

He makes up some bullshit about being estranged from their parents, and Tiernan pipes in that there’s no medical insurance, but he’ll be covering the bill.

He might not be ready for us to jump into some kind of war over Ollie, but he’s going to take care of him the best he can for Dean.

Once she adds everything to the computer, she says, “I’ll let the doctor know you’re here.”

Tiernan bends over, hands on the desk. The security guard shifts, pushes off the wall, and Rory says, “I’ll be right back,” and walks over to him.

“Angelica,” Tiernan reads the name from her tag.

“It’s very important that they know Dean is Ollie’s brother…

and that we’re updated on his condition as family should be.

It would…let’s just say, benefit everyone involved.

” Tiernan’s voice is cold, deadly, but calm too.

That’s the scariest part about him sometimes.

There’s a warning in his calmness that everyone hears.

“I…I, um…yes. I understand,” she stutters.

“Good. I’m glad we understand each other.” He straightens his button-up shirt. “We’ll be waiting.”

Rory rejoins us, having given the security guard a warning of his own, and we move toward the hallway, leaning against a wall instead of joining everyone else in the waiting room.

“Fuckin’ boyfriend?” Rory asks. “There something you’re not telling us?”

“I said the first thing that came to mind,” I admit.

Tiernan cocks a brow at me.

“He’s our pet,” I say, as if that’s a valid excuse for whatever the fuck is going on with me tonight.

Rory grins. “You want to fuck him.”

I shrug. “Maybe.” No reason to lie. I don’t know if I want to or not, but I’m not against the idea.

“He’s not like that,” Dean snaps.

“If I decide I want to and he’s not into it, then I won’t do it. I won’t fucking force him, but I’m pretty sure he can make his own decisions.”

“Is he queer?” Rory asks.

“No idea.” Dean crosses his arms and almost looks ashamed that he doesn’t know. That must not have come up in his online searches.

“Can we stop talking about him like this?” I say. “It feels a little fucking gross right now. We don’t even know if he’s okay.”