Aideen (Slater Brothers) (11 page)

Alannah clenched one of her hands in a fist and said, “Drop it, Nico.”

He did, but wasn’t pleased to do so.

“Hi Alannah,” Damien suddenly said.

She refused to look at him as she grumbled, “I wish we were social media accounts. Preferably Twitter.”

Damien furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Uh, why?”

“So I could un-follow you in real life and have zero interaction with you. I want it so you would never be able to think or freely speak of last night’s... events.”

“You could still do that,” Damien grinned, “but it would be called first degree murder.”

I snorted, but looked away when Alannah shot me a glare with her still bloodshot eyes.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

Gavin draped his arm over my shoulder. “I’m enjoying it,” he murmured. “She was so quiet in school, I wouldn’t believe what she did if you hadn’t shown me that video.”

Damien snapped his neck in our direction.

“Aideen!” he bellowed.

Fuck.

“They made me delete it... besides, it not like it was zoomed in on their bits.”

Gavin snorted. “Still a quality video without seein’ them... I didn’t know you could twerk, Alannah.”

She couldn’t, he was slagging her.

Nico lowly chuckled, but looked away when Damien pinned him with a glare.

“I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole.” Alannah sniffled. “This is the second most embarrassin’ thing ever to happen to me.”

“What’s the first?” Gavin asked.

I elbowed him, and he grabbed at the point of pain on his body and hissed at me through clenched teeth.

“Arsehole!”

I grinned, but Damien only worked his jaw before looking at Alannah who had her face in her hands. “Look, Aideen deleted the video. No one else will see it, and I’ll warn everyone else not to bring it up again, okay?”

Alannah was silent for a moment then she looked up. “Why do you want to help me?” she asked Damien.

He blinked. “Because I want to be your friend, Alannah.”

“Little late for that, don’t you think?”

Damien was silent. “Look, I’m very sorry for what I did—”

“Stop, Damien,” Alannah whispered. “Not here, not now.”

Damien closed his mouth and gave a firm nod.

Things got awkward then.

“I’m goin’ to go home and die in the peace of me own apartment,” Alannah rumbled.

“I’ll drive you home,” Kane’s voice suddenly stated.

We all looked at the doorway and saw Kane standing behind Damien, fully dressed. He winked at me in greeting, earning a smile from me.

Alannah nodded her head without looking at him. She moved over to me, hugged me and kissed my cheek. “Call me if you go into labour, otherwise let me die with this hangover in peace.”

I saluted her. “Aye, boss.”

She lightly smiled at me before she hugged Gavin and pinched his arm, which had him hissing and calling her an arsehole like he did me. She grinned at him before standing upright.

“Thanks for helpin’ me last night,” she muttered to Damien then walked out of the apartment. Kane grabbed his car keys and jogged out after her.

Damien slumped down onto the sofa after the door to the apartment clicked shut. “She hates me.”

I got up and moved over to the sofa, and sat next to him.

“She doesn’t hate you, Dame... she’s still hurt, and just confused. This is hard for her too. You’ve been gone for so long.”

He was silent then and I looked at Bronagh and Nico who were frowning at him. I caught Nico’s attention and jerked my head giving him the signal to leave with Bronagh. He nodded once then made up an excuse that had him and Bronagh saying their goodbyes and exiting my apartment.

I looked at Damien.

“Talk to me.”

He was silent for so long that I thought he wasn’t going to open up, but he shocked me when he started speaking.

“I left for her.”

I blinked at the sudden admission and Gavin stood up when Damien spoke.

“I’ll go make tea while you both talk,” he said and left the room, closing the door behind him.

I looked back to Damien and said, “Explain that.”

He didn’t look at me as he said, “I’m sure you’ve heard what a prick I used to be to girls when I was a kid?”

I wasn’t going to lie so I nodded my head.

“I behaved the way I did because it was the only connection with other people that I could control. After my parents died... I was a wreck. My brothers have shielded me from all the shit as we grew up, so I didn’t hate my parents like they did. I had a girlfriend... I didn’t know it at the time but she was pregnant. She was killed when the shit storm with Trent started.”

I listened as Damien spoke, my throat sealed with emotion. I hurt badly for him. I cried my eyes out when Kane went into detail a few months ago about the things Damien went through.

“I wanted to go back to New York to make peace with her, and in my own way, I did.”

“Did you find her?” I whispered.

He nodded. “She was buried in a grave marked for Trent, Marco Miles’ nephew. I had the headstone removed and replaced with the correct information. I... I had an angel poem put on it, too, for our baby. I don’t know if a heartbeat even developed when Nala was killed, but it was a baby that was part of me. It was mine, you know?”

I absentmindedly placed my hand on my stomach.

“I wasn’t ready to be a dad, I’m still not, but I would have stepped up if Nala wasn’t killed and had the baby. I wouldn’t have left New York, I would have stayed and taken care of them.”

Tears spilled over the brim of my eyes.

“Of course you would have, honey,” I assured him. “No matter the things you have done, it doesn’t change that you are a good person. You left your family just so Alannah wouldn’t have to be hurt when she saw you. I know you also left to make things right for Nala, but you had Alannah’s best interest at heart, too.”

Damien licked his lips. “I didn’t just leave for Alannah. I left for me, too. I needed to figure shit out for myself, without my brothers helping me in some way like they have always done. I needed to fix me on my own.”

I pushed my hair out of my face. “And did you figure out what you needed to?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’ve made peace that I can’t change the past, but I can shape my future. I can be a good person and not use my exterior to manipulate people like I’ve done in the past. I’m in control, no one else.”

I reached over and pressed my lips to his cheek.

“You’re a good man, Damien.”

He looked at me and smiled. “Why did Kane have to meet you before I did?”

I giggled. “Shut up, I’m a lot older than you.”

He laughed and threw his arm around my shoulder. “It’s probably for the best. I don’t think I could handle you anyway. You’re too experienced for me.”

I was shaking with laughter because we both knew the kid could run circles around me with the amount of partners he has had, while I could count all the men I’ve ever slept with on one hand.

After we chatted about lighter stuff, Gavin came back into the room as Damien flicked through the stations on the television, and together we watched a film. I leaned my head on Damien’s shoulder and he relaxed against me. I understood him more in the last few minutes than I ever did when Kane spoke to me about him, and what I learned caused my heart great pain. Damien was a troubled man, and he was trying to right his wrongs.

I knew the only thing that was keeping him a prisoner to himself was Alannah. Until things were okay with them, I doubted he would be truly happy. I wanted to help in some way, but I knew he needed to do it on his own.

He needed to break away from the protective arms of his brothers and branch out.

The only problem was, I didn’t know if they would let him.

“I’ll be back in a few hours, okay?”

I nodded to Kane as I took a sip of my water. “Okay.”

He kissed my head then turned and left the house, leaving me in the sitting room with Nico, Alec, and Damien while Branna was in the kitchen.

“I bet you fifty euros he hurts himself,” Nico murmured to his brothers.

Damien snorted. “I know he will so I’m not taking that bet.”

“What are you both talkin’ about?”

Nico shrugged. “He hasn’t worked out properly in a while… he has been on edge since you got hurt, so he will go hard with Ryder during their session.”

I blinked. “He’ll know not to overdo it.”

I hoped.

I didn’t want him injuring himself.

“He’ll pull something, I’ve no doubt about it in my mind.”

I grunted. “I’m about two seconds away from followin’ him and makin’ him stay home, and I don’t want to do that because he has hardly left my side over the last few weeks so change the bloody topic.”

“Your leg,” Alec suddenly blurted. “How is your leg?”

I mentally laughed at him, he looked so damn proud of himself for changing the topic so quickly.

“It’s fine,” I said and bent and straightened it out. “It gets a bit stiff sometimes, but it doesn’t hurt or anythin’.”

“And your arm?” Damien asked.

I looked down to my forearm and grimaced at the nasty burn scar that marred it.

“The only thing painful about it now is lookin’ at it.”

“What about your throat?” This came from Nico.

I snorted at the three brothers.

“I’m talkin’ so it’s fine. I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”

They nodded their heads but kept staring at me.

I was about to laugh and question why they were staring at me until something happened.

Something wet and sudden.

I widened my eyes. As quick as I could, I jumped to my feet. I gasped and held under my belly as water gushed from between my thighs.

“Oh, shit,” Nico whispered as he stared at me with wide eyes. “
Please
tell me that’s not what I think it is?”

I couldn’t respond, my throat was clogged up with shock.

“Bro!” Alec hissed at Nico. “She is
pregnant
, don’t make fun of her for pissing herself. The baby is pressing on her bladder, have a heart!”

Alec looked at me then and smiled. “Don’t even worry about it, gorgeous, we’ll help get you cleaned up and—”

“Branna,” I called out, my voice shaking.

Silence.

Damien opened his mouth when he realised what just happened and called her name louder. “
Branna
!”

Alec shook his head. “Why do you three look like you’ve seen a ghost? It’s only piss—ew, why does it smell funny?”

I looked down to the clear liquid that was puddled around my feet. I gasped when more of the liquid flowed down my legs. It was the oddest sensation of not being able to stop it.

“Branna!” I called out again.

I heard the toilet flush from down the hallway. “I’m comin’, just washing me hands, honey.”

I took a few deep breaths then cried out when a sudden sharp cramping pain filled my mid-section. It was so painful and out of the blue that I slipped on the water that I stood in. I almost fell over, but Damien and Alec shot up from the sofa and each quickly grabbed one of my arms. They steadied me and tried to avoid standing in the water that was still dripping from me.

I could feel it.

“Oh, shit,” Alec whispered then turned his head and screamed, “Branna, it’s happening. Get your midwife ass in here!”

I heard an excited squeal come from the hallway, then quick-paced footsteps. Branna entered my sitting room, looked at the brothers on either side of me then to the water on my legs and at my feet.

A wide smile spread across her face. “Your water broke before your contractions started? That is brilliant, sweetheart.”

“I just had a sharp pain right after they broke,” I explained. “It only lasted for a few seconds though, is that bad?”

Branna shook her head. “Nope, usually contractions happen for a few hours, then your waters break, they intensify and bam, you’re a mammy.”

I blinked as fear suddenly filled me. “Why didn’t I get the hours of contractions first? Why did my waters go first?”

Branna chuckled and the brothers moved me out of the puddle I had created to a dry patch of floor. “Every labour is different, babe. You might a have a really quick labour, or you might be in labour until tomorrow or the next day. It all depends on how fast this little one wants to come out.”

“You swear this is normal?” I asked, suddenly shaking. “I still have two weeks to go. Can I not have a home birth anymore, do I have to go to the hospital?”

“Calm down, you don’t need to go anywhere unless I say so.” Branna placed her hands on my cheeks and smiled into my face. “Honey, you and the baby are fine. For about three in one hundred women their waters will break before they’re thirty-seven weeks along, and you’re at the thirty-eight week mark. Like I said, every pregnancy is different; there is no by-the-book way to have a baby. All of what I do is simply checkin’ on you and the baby throughout your labour. I follow the guidelines your body sets. This is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about, I promise you.”

I nodded my head, and took a few breaths to try and calm myself.

“I’m going to switch into midwife mode now, okay?” Branna smiled.

I nodded and found myself smiling when Nico and Alec kissed my head in unison, followed by Damien who kissed my nose.