"Who is hurting your sister?" I repeated.
He needed to give me something before I jumped to conclusions and kicked his ass.
"Is it those pricks from your school?"
Did they get her for what I did at the bar on Friday?
"Was it them?" I demanded. "Those girls?"
Joey remained silent.
"Is she hurting herself?" I asked.
He continued to stare at me.
"Are you hurting her?"
He arched a brow.
"Lad, you better start talking, because brother or no brother, I will kick your fucking ass."
"You'll need to talk to Shannon," he finally said. "I can't give you the answers you want."
"Yes, you can," I snapped. "Just open your mouth and speak."
"No." He shook his head. "I can't and I won't. If she trusts you enough, she'll tell you. If she doesn't, she doesn’t. Either way, it's not my call."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I demanded, furious. "Not your call?"
"Exactly what it sounds like," Joey countered. "It means it's not my call. But I can assure you that I have never put my hands on my sister," he added, giving me a hard glare. "Or any other woman for that matter."
"I want to know what's going on here, Lynch," I snapped, striving for every piece of control I could muster. "If she's being bullied or some shit like that, then I can help. I can fix this if you tell me."
His brows rose. "You can fix this?"
"For her?" I nodded determinedly. "Absolutely."
"You like her." He arched another brow at me and tilted his head to one side. "Maybe even more than like her."
I didn’t bother denying it.
Not to him.
This wasn’t Gibsie, or one of the lads at school trying to get a rise out of me.
This was her brother.
I knew better than to spew bullshit in this moment.
"I want to know what's happening," was all I replied. "I need to."
"Listen, I'd love to tell you," Joey finally said with a heavy sigh. "I'd have no goddamn problem laying it all out there for you. I have nothing to hide. But she –" he pointed to the door behind me, "won't want me to do that. She would die if she thought anyone knew her business. After all the shit that went down on her at BCS, she wants that clean slate at Tommen. I want that for her, too."
"So she is being bullied?" My heart fucking sank. "Someone at Tommen?" If someone at my school did that to her face then I was going to burn the fucking school down. "Or from her old school?"
I had a hard time believing those creeps from the bar would be stupid enough to pull another stunt with her.
Call me full of myself, but I scared the shit out of them on Friday.
Joey stared hard at me for the longest moment before shaking his head.
"Listen, Kavanagh," he finally said. "If you want to know what goes on inside of that head of hers, then be worth it."
"Be worth it?" I frowned at his words. "Be worth what?"
"You're a smart guy," he shot back. "You'll figure it out."
I shook my head. "I don’t –"
My words were cut off by the sound of Joey's phone as it rang loudly.
Calm as a breeze, he held a finger up and dragged his phone out of his pocket, glanced at the screen, then muttered a string of curses before pressing it to his ear.
"What the fuck do you want?" he snapped.
Jerking off the stool, Joey walked over to the stove and turned his back to me while he spoke in a hushed tone. "No, you were told …there's no back…I don’t give two shits how sorry you are…no…She's where?"
I watched as Joey's entire frame stiffened.
I strained to hear the person on the other line, but it was impossible.
"When did that happen…and the baby…okay….no…what the fuck do you want me to say…why would I be sad…it's a goddamn relief is what it is…fine…yeah, I'll be there…I just said I'd be there, didn’t I?"
Joey glanced behind him and caught me staring.
I arched a brow, not particularly giving a shit that he knew I was eavesdropping.
That's what I was doing.
I wasn’t about to deny it.
"I'll be there," Joey said in a low tone. "I'm on my way."
With that, he ended the call and shoved his phone in his pocket.
"I need to take off," he said in that calm, cool, and collected tone of his.
"Take off?" I gaped at him. "Where?"
"I have somewhere I need to be," was all he replied and then moved for the door.
"Hold the fuck up," I ordered, stepping in his way. "Your sister is in the shower."
"Yeah." He rubbed his jaw and said, "I'm going to need you to hold onto her for me."
"Hold onto her?" I shook my head, struggling to comprehend what the fuck was happening. "You just want me to hold onto your sister?"
"That's what I said, wasn’t it?" Joey shot back tightly.
"You're not saying anything," I snarled. "That's the problem. You're not telling me shit!"
"I did tell you," he snapped. "I told you to ask Shannon."
"So, you're what, just going to leave her here?" I demanded. "For how long?"
"I don’t know," Joey shot back.
"You don’t know?"
"Yeah, I don’t fucking know," he spat. "Is that a problem?"
"It's not a problem that she's here," I growled. "It's a problem that you're leaving her here and I have no goddamn idea of what to tell her."
"Fine," Joey snapped, glaring at me with blazing green eyes. "Tell my sister our father just called. Our mother had a miscarriage on Friday night, and he's on the way home from the hospital with her now."
"Shite," I muttered.
"You have no fucking idea," Joey bit out as he shoved past me and stormed down the hallway.
"Do you want me to bring her straight home?" I asked, having no goddamn clue how to deal with this. I followed after him, feeling at a complete loss. "Or take her to the hospital–"
"I want you to hold fucking onto her," Joey roared. Stopping at the front door, he spun around and glared up at me. "Can you do that, Johnny Kavanagh? Can you look after my sister for me? "
"Yes," I bit out, not liking his tone but knowing he must be feeling some kind of grief. "I can."
"Good," he snapped. "I'll call when I can to sort out picking her up. Just keep her until I call you, okay?"
Sort out picking her up?
The fuck did he think his sister was?
A bleeding package?
Knowing the guy must be going through hell right now, I simply nodded and tapped my number into the phone he held out for me and handed it back to him.
"Gussie!" Joey barked, sliding his phone back into his pocket. "I'm leaving now if you want a spin into town for your car."
Gibsie popped his head out from the living room door.
"Everything okay?" he asked, looking between us in confusion.
"Go on," I told Gibsie, gesturing for him to follow Joey who was stalking down the driveway to his car.
"You sure?"
I nodded stiffly.
Thankfully, Gibsie had the good sense to not ask questions.
Instead, he gave me a quick salute and hurried after Shannon's brother.
Exhaling a ragged breath, I walked over to the door and closed it quietly.
What the fuck was I going to do?
36
Bad news
Shannon
It took me a ridiculous amount of time to get the temperature right in Johnny's shower, because apparently, he liked to incinerate his skin when showering.
When I finally got the temperature down to a bearable heat and felt the power jets wash over my body, I had a hard time getting out.
Seriously, his shower was amazing.
It was a combo – a bath with an overhead shower – and I had to stand in an oval shaped tub with a curtain drawn across, but I swear it only added to the most luxuriating wash of my life.
Using his shampoo and soap felt weirdly inappropriate, like it wasn’t something I should be doing, but I was filthy and definitely smelly, so I lathered my body with samples from every available, fancy-looking bottle on the rack.
When I was finally clean and smelling like boy's body-wash – rather than wet dog – I climbed out, wrapped myself in a fresh towel, and bundled my dirty clothes in a ball.
The smell wafting from my clothes was so gross that I immediately dropped the bundle and had to breathe through my mouth for several moments to stop myself from gagging.
Joey and Gibsie were right.