It felt good to be free.
Thirty-Eight
Savannah
"You’re fucking weird, do you know that?"
I ignored Brennan as I watched the biker who’d pulled up twenty minutes ago with a few other brothers from his MC—all of them making up a cavalry of hogs with a pick-up truck trundling along behind them—being shown the battle scene by Declan.
I wasn’t sure why he needed a guided tour, but Declan kicked over a few bodies, exposing lifeless faces and gesturing at them all the while.
"You morbid or something?"
Folding my arms across my chest, I asked, "Why? Is it an issue if I am?"
Brennan grunted. "Not if you make Aidan happy. Conor’s right about that."
Tilting my head to look up at him, I admitted, "We haven’t been together long enough to know that. Not really. But I want to make him happy if that gives you any peace."
"Women aren’t peacebringers," he disregarded, his focus on the scene ahead. "You’re warmongers."
I snorted. "White male privilege talking there. AKA, bullshit."
He smirked. "You stick around this family and you’ll realize it’s the women who are the troublemakers. We men are just humble servants, doing business and keeping a roof over your heads."
"If you say so," I mocked, but my lips twitched a little because I realized Brennan was joking.
Actually joking.
What the hell?
"Surprised you’re not out there, asking questions."
"Declan told me to stay here." I pouted.
"He got a read on you fast, huh?" Brennan scoffed. "What’s with the morbid curiosity, anyway? You know I’ll have to slice your head off if you dare publish anything about the family?"
"Do you know how many times I’ve been threatened with that?"
"Decapitation?"
"No," I complained, "with retribution if I publish anything about the O’Donnellys. It’s already happened three times today, and I’m getting pretty sick of it."
"Once a journalist, always a journalist."
I nodded. "You’re right, and I’m not ashamed of that."
"Why not?"
I stared at him, dumbfounded by his lack of awareness. "Don’t you know how important the free press is?"
"I vote Republican, Savannah," was his dry retort, "what do you think?"
I made a puking sound. "Did you seriously vote for Hewett in the last election? His head was so far up his own ass you could see it when he was talking."
"You do know who my father is, don’t you?"
Despite myself, I had to grin. "I haven’t met him, but I can imagine."
Brennan murmured, "I vote red for the tax breaks."
"Of course you do."
When I rolled my eyes, he snorted. "Yeah, I really feel bad Ms. Trust Fund Baby. I’m sure your job at TVGM paid for that twenty-million dollar apartment you live in."
I really wanted to flip him the bird but instead, I said, "Dad wanted to know I was safe."
"You can do that without spending twenty million dollars."
"True, but I’m his favorite," I mocked, prompting him to grunt.
"Of course you are."
Outside, they started gathering the bodies together, dragging them over to a little cavalcade of golf carts which they were using to transport the corpses only God knew where on the property.
"How will they dispose of them?"
"Sure you want to know?"
"Wouldn’t have asked otherwise. Do you have pigs nearby?"
He laughed. "We do, actually. Two towns over. But for a job like this, we need a deep clean."
My stomach churned. "I don’t need to see that."
"You sure?" he asked dryly. "I mean, you like to watch, don’t you?"
This time, I really did flip him the bird.
"Aidan’s going to kill you when he finds out you didn’t go to the safe room." He smirked. "I hope observing was worth it."
"Seeing as Dead To Me did most of the work, I’m not sure if I was ever in danger," I sniped, then I hummed, Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves.
He dipped down and whispered, "You’re showing your age."
Then he swept away, leaving me to glower at his back.
"My age? How old am I? An antique?" Huffing under my breath, I stayed where I was, watching, learning.
I had no intention of doing anything with the information, but breaking the habit of a lifetime was next to impossible. I had an infinite amount of curiosity, and in my world, asking questions was the way forward. In this, I’d already seen how the women didn’t even bother formulating the thoughts required to make a question, never mind actually verbalizing it.
That wasn’t to say they didn’t have opinions, didn’t have feelings about a certain situation, but they just knew that the answers weren’t something they wanted to hear.
Was ignorance really bliss? I didn’t think so. I’d have preferred to have been shot today while knowing what was going on, than being tucked inside a safe room, unsure about what was happening.
Maybe that was just me.
After the bodies disappeared from the driveway, leaving behind blood stains that reminded me of Grand Theft Auto when I played it with my brother and sisters, one of the MC brothers sloshed something on the ground which began to eat into the substance.
As far as I knew, getting rid of bloodstains was very difficult, and more often than not, there were always trace amounts left behind. From the heavy duty gas mask the guy wore, I got the feeling these chemicals made bleach look like drinking water.
When that guy disappeared too, the bustling around the house died down. I knew the brothers had left to do God knew what, with only Conor staying behind.
"When will you let them out of the safe room?" I questioned.
"The guys will make that decision when they know they’ve got the all clear."
I traipsed over to the sofa. "Will you get fined for this?"
He scowled up at me. "No." His answer was belligerent. "My fences stopped them. My explosives stunned them. And if Dead To Me hadn’t shown up, I had three more rounds of physical defense. Da can go fuck himself if he’s gonna try to fine me—"
I raised my hands. "Hey! I didn’t mean to piss you off. I was just curious."
His cheeks were burning with color and he grunted at me. "Sorry. I didn’t mean to blow your head off."
"Thank God you didn’t," I told him with a smile. "I like it attached."
An alert sounded on his computer, and he murmured, "They’re coming back."
"Who are?" I jerked upright. "The Sparrows?"
"No," he said wryly. "It’s Da’s town car. It just came through the gates. I’m guessing Finn and Aidan are with him."
I said nothing, just walked over to the window and saw a car that was too short to be a limo, but too large to be an average sedan driving along land that had recently seen bloodshed.
As it pulled up, I waited, peering out to see who exactly it was that was climbing out... then I saw him, and I felt like a whoopee cushion someone had just sat on.