Page 35 of The Apprentice

I shot forward and grabbed Daire’s wrist. “Let him go. He’s right. I wanted him to kiss me.”

“Stay out of this, Fionn.” Daire kept his deadly stare on Michele. “I should kill you for even thinking about laying your dirty hands on him.”

“He’s an adult. That’s something for him to decide,” Michele said, smirking. “Not you.”

Behind Daire, the stranger laughed. He stepped forward, snatched the beer out of my hand, and chugged it. When he was done, he passed the empty to a random guy walking past, and the guy glared, muttering something. The stranger then clapped his hands together. “This is so much fun.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “Who the hell are you?”

The crowd in our vicinity had stopped to gawk, and when my cheeks heated this time, it was from shame. If Sloan found out about this, I would never live it down. Everyone knew Daire and I—we represented the Company at all times. Sloan would punish us severely for embarrassing the Company name tonight.

The stranger offered me a wide grin. He bowed dramatically. “You can call me Aodhan Reardon.”

Michele frowned. “Aren’t you banned from the city by Killough?”

“He is?” My attention danced between the three of them, complete confusion toying with my brain as I wrestled with what was happening. “Wait. Reardon?”

“He’s my older brother,” Daire grunted out, though he hadn’t let go of Michele yet. “It doesn’t matter.”

Aodhan grabbed my hand, laying a kiss on the back. “Aren’t you a cute kitty?”

“What?” My nose scrunched.

“Aodhan.” Daire shot his brother a glare. “Stop it.”

Aodhan merely shrugged and winked at me. “He’s a grumpy teddy bear, isn’t he? I blame our parents. They putsomuch pressure on him to make them proud in the Company.”

Daire let go of Michele and spun toward his brother. “I said stop it.” The way his voice went deeper than usual in anger had my stomach tumbling, a weird lust slamming into me and making me lose my breath.

Aodhan raised his hands, cackling. “See, kitten? Grumpy.”

Daire went to take a step forward, but Aodhan pointed a finger at him, a simple gesture that had Daire tensing and coming to a stop. I didn’t know what was happening between them, but the air around us thickened with tension.

All I could do was watch as the brothers battled each other in a staring contest.

Michele shifted closer to me. “How about we get out of here?”

Daire’s glare shot to him. “He’s not going anywhere, especially not with you.”

Anger exploded inside me, and I shoved between them to stand in front of Daire. All the years of wanting this man—who’d never wanted me in return—welled to the surface like a dormant volcano that had finally awakened. My head spun from my fury, and every ounce of me wanted to punch Daire, but I kept myself in check. It was one thing to give Daire the tongue lashing that was coming, but another thing to punch Sloan’s second-in-command. It couldn’t happen.

“You have no right to tell me where I can and can’t go, Daire.” I got in close to him, keeping my voice calm, even as rage blasted through my veins. Sloan would’ve been proud. “I am in charge ofyou, not the other way around. You’ve made it clear. I can fuck who I want.”

Even though the club was loud and the music blaring, silence fell between us. Daire stared with a deadly glare I would expect from an enemy. The look was a reminder that, like Sloan, he had killed men. Back in his younger years, he was known for his murder methods. They’d called him the Company Butcher, though the men rarely mentioned it these days because Daire gave the orders on behalf of Sloan now.

“Be careful, boy,” he murmured, but I still heard him because every atom inside me was tuned to him.

“Or what?” I snapped, feeling powerful. Not only had someone shown interest in me tonight, but I was out on my own, living it up in a way I never had. My confidence soared.

What I didn’t expect, though, was for Daire to grab me and throw me over his shoulder as if I weighed nothing. I let out an embarrassing sound, but he didn’t acknowledge it as he stalked toward the front door with his hand on my ass, holding me in place. I struggled, but I had no chance against him.

I looked up to see Michele moving to follow us, but Aodhan grabbed him and yanked him back. That was the last thing I saw before Daire carried me out of the club like a damsel in distress.

I was going tokillDaire Reardon.

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DAIRE