IRISH: a Bad Boy Fighter Romance (18 page)

I chuckled to myself and knew she would try to escape the first chance she got. I’d do what I could to keep her here, but if she wanted to go, she would go. Little did she know that I would keep coming after her. I would never let her keep doing what she’d been doing now that I knew she was alive.

Until then, Lennon and I were takin on a big project. Getting through the thick O’Connor skull to get her to drop her guard and let us all be family.

And I knew what a task that was gonna be, I had the thickest skull of all.

Chapter Forty Three

Lennon

I watched Katie with growing fascination. She was like a tall, thin, female version of her brother and it was amazing to watch.

The two of them were different sides of the same coin, they’d butt heads constantly and over the smallest things. How hot the cocoa should be, the name of their dog when they were children, what music we should listen to after Katie had eaten another serving of eggs and toast.

She drove Knox crazy, but the love pouring off him for her was crazy too. He’d always looked at me with love, but it was a smoldering passionate kind of love.

The love he gave to Katie was the same love he’d give a child. Pure and innocent…it just was.

“You know,” I said when we were sitting in the elegantly furnished living room around two in the morning, “you’ve already changed him.”

“How do ye mean?” she asked, looking over at her brother with an almost guilty expression.

“Knox always carried a darkness around with him, I assumed it was from some of the bad deeds he’d done in his younger years but now I realize it was you. You were too great a pain for him to even share with me, he kept it to himself. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of you for what he’d done, it was that his hurt was still too raw and he was afraid it would hurt me too if he tried to unburden himself of it.”

Katie looked at Knox right in the eyes finally. She looked him up and down, over to me, and back to him. “Is she right, yeah?” she asked.

“Aye, she’s correct,” Knox replied slowly. “It’s been almost too much te think about, Katie. Sabrina told me ye were dead and I left the IRA after she married me.”

“You married that whore?” Katie blurted, then pulled her hand up to cover her mouth as if shocked. “Don’t tell her I said that.”

“Ah, now I know Sabrina must be pulling yer string now,” Knox said. “Who else?”

“Her fella, Duncan,” Katie replied, looking down filled with shame. “Nobody else, they’re the two biggest players in Belfast now.”

“Duncan’s dead,” Knox growled, “And Sabrina’s been shot. I only wish Lennon had hit her in the heart so she was dead too.”

“You shot her?” Katie asked incredulously.

“I did,” I said, “I’m not proud of it though.”

We talked like that for hours, I learned more about Knox’s time in the IRA and found out he’d killed men but had never blown up schools or nuns or anything as horrific as Sabrina had hinted at.

Not that killing was acceptable at all, but I could see a different side to Know after he and Katie talked about their home life. Their parents had been killed in a car accident early on and that’s how they’d ended up in the system.

The sun came up and we all looked at each other as Katie’s phone began to rumble, indicating that Brendan wanted his property back. Katie would have stood with us had she not been an addict, I was certain of it.

As it was, she twitched and jumped every time the phone went off, and in spite of our insistence that she stay behind with us, when we woke in the later afternoon from a restless sleep, she was gone.

“I’ll get her back,” Knox said, smashing his fist into the wall by the head of her bed. He left a knuckle shaped indentation in the plaster and I clung to him, dragging him away to calm him down.

“
We
will get her back,” I told him and kissed his face as he slowed his breathing and pulled me into his strong arms.

I didn’t know where to start looking, but as it turned out they found us.

Around midnight Knox received a text. He read it, ran his hand through his shaggy hair and tugged on his beard.

“What did it say?” I asked, standing by his side.

“It was Brendan. I can get my sister back,” he said with a grim look on his face.

“Excellent news, how? When?”

“Day after tomorrow. I hafta fight for her.”

“Fight?”

“A cage match against him. Winner takes Katie.”

“Are you going to do it?” I asked, but I already knew the answer. You couldn’t dangle a challenge like that in front of a man like Knox and not expect an answer.

“Fek, yes,” he told me and pulled me close. He held me in his arms in front of the big glass window overlooking the all of Belfast and kissed the top of my head gently.

“You’ll win, you’ll destroy him…he’s no fighter. Not like you,” I said, looking out into the night, past our reflections in the glass to the distant lights stretching out like stars on the velvet surface of the sky.

“Aye, I know,” he replied and kissed me again.

“It’s worth it,” I told him and felt his arms tighten around me and his love flow from his body to mine and back again.

Chapter Forty Four

Knox

The warehouse was packed from wall to wall and the buzzing energy leant a certain power to the vibrations in my feet.

When I was ready to fight, my feet vibrated. I couldna explain it, and had never tried.

All I knew was I fed off the energy of the crowd and tonight it was a feast of excitement, aggression and desperation as money changed hands and the odds were called out from bookie to bookie.

“You’re going to kill him,” Lennon said from behind me, rubbing me shoulder and sounding like a tough little lioness. “I mean not kill kill him, but win this fight.”

She added that hastily and I had to smile. She was such a good girl and torn between wanting to be my fierce little queen, feared by all and wanting to be a nice person.

In this case being fierce would be to our advantage, we needed to defeat these people in order to win me sister’s freedom.

I looked across the warehouse past the cage that was set up in the center and spotted Katie on Brendan’s side.

Her eyes looked glazed over and the smile she gave me was half hearted as if from a hundred miles away.

“She looks drugged,” Lennon said, slipping under my arm as we walked towards the cage.

“She’s high,” I replied. “We’ll fix that when we get this shite finished once and for all.”

The crowd settled down as the ring MC announced the fighter’s, I heard my name and put my fists up to the intermixed boos and cheers from people pushing towards the cage.

It was a good sign, this wasn’t an IRA loyal crowd, they were here for a fight more than anything else.

Lennon looked distressed, so I lifted her into my arms, kissed her, set her down in my corner and jumped up the steps to the cage.

I left her standing in front of the body guard I’d brought along to keep her safe. I didn’t trust anyone in Belfast, and I couldn’t leave my most precious love alone while I fought.

“Let the fight begin!” the MC yelled into the microphone after we shook hands.

I wasted no time, I wanted this fight to be quick and savage, no sense playing by the strict rules of the UFC, this was war.

I dodged Brendan’s slow punches and ran past him. He turned, tried to follow my trajectory, but I hit the side of the cage, ran up it, pushed myself off, twisted in mid flight and delivered a resounding kick to the side of his face.

The crowd went wild and I heard Lennon gasp from the side of the cage.

I sauntered towards her, blew her a kiss, whirled around and punched Brendan in the head five or six times in a row until he collapsed to the ground in front of me.

I turned and stuck my fists up, got the crowd riled and screaming in support and in anger, and blew Lennon another kiss.

“Knox!” she screamed and pointed towards me. I was one step ahead of her though, I’d noticed Brendan’s shadow coming at me on the floor of the cage. I whirled, jumped, spun and delivered a kick to his midsection.

I heard him grunt when he doubled over. I danced around him, taking pokes here and there, riling up his supporters and working mine up to a frothing frenzy of screaming.

I fekking loved this about fighting. The energy of the crowd, getting a thousand people worked up into screaming so hard they were hoarse, having them hang on yer every move.

It was addictive.

Brendan struggled to his feet and came at me, he swung his long arm with massive fist towards me head, but I was already six inches to the side and he connected with the air.

He lost his balance slightly, wobbled and took a step back to steady himself.

Time slowed down for me and I saw him flinch, expecting a blow from me. He put his hands up to block his face, but he wasn’t fast enough.

I swung my right, a wicked hook and connected on his cheek. I pushed all my weight through the blow and felt something break under my hand.

Blood gushed from his mouth, he spit out a couple teeth, stood stock still for half a heartbeat, then his eyelids fluttered and he fell backwards.

I roared in victory, wiped the bloody spittle off the front of me and strode around the cage screaming at the people on my side and against me. I felt a surge of power roll through me almost like sex and I was high on the feeling of decimating an enemy.

I stopped at my corner, opened the little door and jumped off the edge in front of Lennon.

She looked terrified and proud. “That was insane,” she exhaled. “I’ve seen you on TV but to be here…my god.”

I swept her up in me arms and kissed her, shared my victory with her, felt her body melt against mine and radiate a heat that made me certain she wanted me cock inside her the moment we were alone.

“I want you to fuck me like you fight,” she whispered in my ear and my cock swelled painfully pressing against my tight shorts.

“I’m gonna fek ye until I destroy ye,” I told her back, watched her eyes grow wide in surprise and added, “and then I’m gonna make love te ye, because I fekking love ye, kitten. I love ye more than I love to fight.”

“I love you too,” she replied and clung to me.

I picked her up over my shoulder, not giving a shit who saw or who was in front of me. I motioned to the body guard and said, “That’s me sister Katie, you remember her?” He looked across the ring and nodded. “Collect her and meet us at the front. I have business to attend.”

Lennon squealed and wiggled when I smacked her ass and pushed through the throngs of people, ignoring their pleas for autographs and photos.

Chapter Forty Five

Lennon

He dragged me through the people holding me over his shoulder like a caveman. I was so turned on I didn’t care, I just wanted him alone.

At first the fighting had disgusted me. I couldn’t handle the raw viciousness of the attacks.

Knox was the clear winner from the get go. Brendan didn’t even get a chance to hit him, it wasn’t a fair fight but it wasn’t one of Knox’s choosing so he couldn’t be blamed for the savagery.

He was like a glorious god when he fought though. My lover, my man, my husband…the longer I watched him, the hotter I got for him. The power behind his thrusts and pivots, the way he could jump and twist in mid air made him almost suspended in space and time.

He was otherworldly and I knew I would be safe with him, he would protect me forever.

He kicked open the door to the dressing room he’d been provided. It wasn’t anything more than an old office along the side of the warehouse, but it had sofa and a desk and a lock on the door.

He slammed the door shut, locked it and slid me off his shoulder.

“I need te get inside ye,” he breathed. He was covered in sweat and smelled deeply masculine, a musk that overpowered me and rendered me almost speechless.

His hands moved down my body, yanked my skirt up and tore the panties off me. I ran my hands over his muscled chest and abdomen, his muscles well defined after his exertion. “I need you,” I whimpered and grabbed hold of his bulging arms to lift myself towards him.

He pulled his short down and his huge cock popped out, hard and ready to go.

“Fek, kitten,” Knox growled and lifted me against the door. He braced me and guided me down onto his cock. I wrapped my legs around him and gasped as I glided down his throbbing shaft.

My own body responded immediately by fluttering and clenching against him. “Oh god,” I moaned and tilted my hips, rocking towards him, taking all of him deep inside of me.

“I love ye, kitten,” he groaned and thrust up inside of me. “Seein ye there watching me made me fight harder. It was for ye, kitten.”

“Fuck me, Knox, fuck me hard,” I sighed and he thrust harder and faster, his temp picking up speed, knocking me against the door with a loud bang each time, but we were so far involved in our own sex that we didn’t notice.

He tensed up and pinned me on his cock, his hands wrapped around my hips, holding me there.

I felt him explode, his hot cum filling me, completing me as I reached my own peak.

I roared my own victory as we finished together, our bodies rolling against each other, desperate and savage in their own way. We clashed and joined, our mouths and flesh seeking each other for victory and comfort, lust and love.

When we came down, he gently set me down and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll never lose a fight if this is the reward, kitten,” he said with a smile.

“I’ll reward your every victory,” I laughed and steadied myself against him.

We had a quick shower, he got into his street clothes and I threw his fighting clothes and my ruined panties into a duffle.

I opened the door to find a few people milling about, one guy said, “Nice after fight performance!” while a bunch of other’s clapped and laughed raucously.

I realized they must have heard us having sex, ducked my head in embarrassment and tugged at Knox’s arm as he high fived a bunch of them.