Tori and Resa jumped up and followed her.
“They’re just emotional right now at the thought of you taking Olivia away from here.” Felix looked genuinely sorry for me. “Don’t take it personally. If it were me in your shoes, I’d have grabbed them and run already.”
Killian looked like he was going to be sick but kept oddly quiet.
“Trust me, I’d have loved nothing more, but I still have a job to do.”
“Don’t try and go all noble on us.” Killian finally broke his silence. “You don’t care about my father at all. If you did, you’d never have touched her to begin with.”
“Don’t say that, Kill. If he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have Macie,” Felix pointed out.
Killian groaned and ran his hand through his hair.
“Look, I screwed up, okay. I should have waited until she came of age. But be honest, Killian, would it have made any difference to you? You had made it very painfully clear that no one would ever be good enough for her, not even your supposed-to-be best friend in the entire world. I love her man. I’ve always loved her for as long as I can remember. You thought because I was your brother and I agreed to watch after her and always take care of her, that I felt exactly like you, but she was never my sister, Kill. I never looked at O and thought little sister. I agreed to watch after her and always take care of her because I loved her. Still do. Always will. I’m sorry if that freaks you out, but she’s my mate, my true mate. You can’t do anything about it this time.”
“Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I feel like a complete piece of shit for what I did? I was blindsided and I freaked. You were too old for her and I knew you, man. I knew you better than anyone. Why her? Why my sister? You were like a brother to me, Baine and you betrayed me in the worst possible way.”
“What do you want me to do, Killian? What do you want me to say? You took everything from me. Everything,” I yelled. From the corner of my eye, I saw Macie come out of her room. Her wide eyes ebbed my temper, but only a little.
“We should take this outside,” Felix said.
Killian and I both rose and headed for the door. Olivia was standing in the kitchen doorway looking pissed and upset. The anger in me immediately fled. I walked over and kissed her. “It’s fine. We all knew it was going to come to a head eventually.”
“Don’t hurt him, okay. He was wrong, but it’s in the past and if we’re going to move forward, we’ve got to let it go.”
I nodded. “I promise, I won’t hurt him, too badly.”
“Baine, I’m serious. He’s not like you. He hasn’t been training for this the last three years.”
I sighed. I knew she was right. “I promise. Here,” I said emptying my pockets of the small grenades I had taken to carrying everywhere. I also removed my concealed carry from my waist. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head as I passed it to her. Next, I lifted my leg and unstrapped the three knives I always carried, plus my second carry gun holstered to my left ankle. It was probably a good thing that I’d left the stick of dynamite I always had on me, back at the Inn.
Tori’s mouth dropped open.
Resa looked confused. “How is that even possible? Like I saw you remove them, but how? We had no idea you were packing, well at least not like that.”
Tori nudged her as they both snickered. I just winked at them and then kissed Olivia once more.
“Completely unarmed,” I said with a smirk.
“Cool,” Macie said running over to check out my toys.
“Not cool,” her mother protested.
“No touching, short stuff. We’ll have a safety class later. First, I’m going to kick your uncle’s ass.”
“Language,” Tori warned.
“No permanent damage, though. You heard Mom.”
“You got it, kiddo.” I fluffed her hair as I walked by and she groaned in protest.
Killian was already outside and pumped for a fight having missed the entire scene. Felix shook his head.
“Eight years brewing, Kill, what are you going to do now?”
I was cocky, too cocky. I didn’t even notice the sharp right hook until I felt my jaw crack. I swayed but recovered quickly. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh?”
“Shut up and fight, Baine.”
Killian and I had sparred for years, but we had never actually fought. I knew I had the upper advantage, but I also knew he needed to settle a score with me so I let him get a few punches in. When he went for my groin on a low blow while screaming something about doing his baby sister a favor, my instincts kicked in and I blocked him.
He came at me again, and this time, I didn’t hesitate. When his knee came up, I grabbed it and forced it into the air knocking him off balance and sending him to the ground on his back with a loud thud. It knocked the wind out of him. While he coughed and sputtered on the ground, Silas walked up the driveway with Kano.
“What the hell are you doing?” he ordered.
“Just settling things,” I said.
“Watch your six,” Tarron yelled.
I turned just in time to see Killian on his knees lunging for me. He wrapped me up around the legs and I went down hard. Fists and feet were flying in my direction. I could take the blows, but could he? I swung back blindly, thanks to the dirt he was kicking up as we rolled around beating the shit out of each other, until Killian’s anger finally fizzled.
Kano shook his head. “Just ignore them. It was bound to happen.”
With the fear of being blacklisted once again gone, I hauled back and punched Killian in the eye.
“Oh shit, that’s gonna be a shiner,” he said, but he sat up and started laughing as he covered his newest injury.
As I sat up next to him. I could taste blood. He had definitely split my lip. Olivia wasn’t going to be happy about this.
Tarron shook his head. “That was the most pathetic fighting I’ve ever seen from you. Silas is going to have your ass for that piss poor show.”
I shrugged. “Promised my girl I wouldn’t actually harm him.”
“What do you call this?” Killian whined pointed to his already blackening eye.
I smirked. “Collateral damage. Are we good?”
He hesitated but slowly nodded.
“Can you ever forgive me?”
I sighed and looked up at Tarron as he extended his arm. I took it and he hoisted my ass up off of the ground. “Not a word of this to the guys.”
He laughed. “Do you really think I didn’t already run full perimeter monitoring on your family? You know the rest of the team is back there watching this live. Wave to the camera, Baine.”
I groaned, and moved to take him down, but I was sorer than I was willing to admit from a few good blows that Killian had delivered on me, and besides that, Tarron was always fast on his feet.
He turned and waved up to a tree. I couldn’t see it, but then that’s why he was so great at his job. Instead of waving I flipped them the bird before turning back to Killian and offering him my hand.
“I know things will never be the same between us, but for whatever reason, your sister loves you despite it all. I’ll forgive you for her sake, and Macie’s. That kid adores you.”
He frowned. “I don’t deserve it.”