"I'm going to be there one day," Johnny stated, tilting his head in the direction of the telly. "One of these days that's going to be me, Shannon."
"I know," I replied, believing every word. Biting down on my lip, I turned to face him and said, "Don’t forget about me when you're a rich and famous rugby player."
"You never know," he said with a smirk. "I might take you with me so you can cheer me on in the stands."
Please do.
Please take me away with you.
"You're very sure of yourself," I said instead.
"You can wear my number and shout 'Johnny, Johnny' from the stands," he chuckled before settling back down to watch the game.
Don’t tempt me…
Sitting on the couch in his parents' living room with a roaring fire crackling and the rain pelting down outside the huge bay window, I felt my body slowly relaxing as I tried to follow the match.
I wasn’t forcing conversation to break uncomfortable silences because there wasn’t any.
In this moment, being here with him was as easy as breathing.
It was an odd reaction to being in such close proximity to Johnny, but there it was.
I was enjoying being with him.
He didn’t push me to talk and I liked that.
He just sat beside me, with a huge cushion between us and Sookie at our feet, as he barked orders at the television set.
When Johnny stretched his legs out on top of the coffee table, I waited for a good ten minutes before attempting to do the same, only to fail epically when my toes barely touched the corner before clattering to the floor.
Chuckling softly, Johnny reached forward and dragged the table closer to the couch.
Embarrassed, I kept my feet firmly on the ground.
Less than a minute later, Johnny reached over, lifted my legs, and placed them on the table.
I turned to look at him, but his attention was back on the screen.
Every once and a while, Johnny would pause the match to put some coal or blocks in the fire before settling back down on the couch.
After the third time he did it, I pulled the cushion out of his way when he sat back down and held it to my chest.
By the end of the match, our shoulders were touching.
I didn’t move away.
He was big and solid and warm and I liked the feel of him beside me.
A little while later, when my eyes began to droop, he lifted his arm, and I didn’t even flinch when it came down around my shoulder.
Instead, I nestled my cheek against his side and closed my eyes, allowing myself to drift off to sleep without an ounce of fear in my heart because it couldn’t exist inside of me, not when this boy had his arm around me.
38
Johnny
It was her birthday.
Today was Shannon's sixteenth birthday.
And she was spending it with me.
I was glad.
How crazy was that?
This girl who before Christmas was a total stranger, and since Christmas, I couldn’t imagine going through a day not thinking about.
I didn’t want to give her back.
Something inside of me told me that if I did, she would return with another bruise.
At least if I kept her with me, she would be safe.
There was something very fucked up about her life.
Something that made me want to snatch her away and take her with me, wherever that may be.
I wasn’t stupid.
I knew someone had put those marks on her face.
And her thighs.
And her arms.
And I was fairly fucking sure that if I stripped the girl bare, I would find plenty more.
I didn’t know what was happening, or who was bullying her, but I would figure it out.
Straight out asking her was out of the question, though.
She was so goddamned guarded that it was almost impossible to penetrate the walls she built up around herself.
I thought I might be doing a good job, but if I pushed too hard too fast then she would retreat back in her shell.
I wanted to smash that fucking shell and the bastards responsible for making her hide there in the first place.
She was lovely.
Fucking lovely.
She didn’t need to be hiding any of her shine behind those bleeding shutters.
Shannon shivered then and the movement distracted me.
It was gone ten at night and she hadn't opened her eyes once since falling asleep earlier this afternoon.
"Shh," I whispered when she whimpered in her sleep.
I didn’t even try and stop myself from stroking her hair.
I was beyond help when it came to her.
I was beyond fucking stopping.
Everything inside of me was shifting, honing in on this tiny girl.
Nuzzling her cheek against my thigh, Shannon nestled closer, curling up in the smallest ball I'd ever seen a person her age contort their body into.
Like the obsessive freak I was, I allowed my gaze to land on her bruised cheekbone for the millionth time tonight.
I knew I shouldn’t look at it.
It made my body thrum with rage.
And still, I couldn’t stop myself.
I stared at the mark on her face until I was sufficiently filled with enough anger to take down an entire village, and then I turned my attention to the bruises on her thighs.
My phone vibrated in my pocket then, and the sensation pulled me from my murderous thoughts.
Pulling my phone out, I stared at the screen, not recognizing the number flashing in front of my eyes.
Careful not to wake Shannon, I slid out from beneath her and waited for her to settle back down.
Pulling off my hoodie, I draped it over her bare legs and then slipped out of the room to take the call.
"Yeah?" I said when I was standing in the hallway.
"How's she doing?" Joey Lynch's voice came down the line.
"She's asleep," I replied, keeping my tone low because if she woke up and asked to go home, I honestly didn’t know what I would do. I couldn’t refuse her, but I certainly didn’t want to. "She's been out all day."
"Good," he replied with a sigh. "She needed it."
"What's going on, Lynch?" Moving for the front door, I yanked it open and stepped into the cold, night air. "The fuck's happening to your sister?"
"I already told you," he snapped. "Ask her."
"I'm asking you," I snarled.
"I'll be at yours in five minutes," was all Joey replied before cutting the call and leaving me as clueless as ever.
Furious and at a complete loss, I paced the hallway, knowing that I needed to get a handle on myself, but not finding the restraint to do so.
Exactly five minutes later, a small knock came from the other side of my front door.
Like the raging lunatic I was, I was standing there waiting for him.
Yanking the door open, I opened my mouth, ready to lose my shit on Joey Lynch, when Shannon's voice came from behind me.
"Joe?" she said in a sleepy voice as she hovered in the living room doorway.
I moved to go to her, to tell her to go to my room and stay there, but her brother intercepted her before I could.
"It's time to go, Shan," Joey announced.
"It is?" Her eyes widened in panic for the briefest moment before switching to resignation. "Okay."
"Yeah." He exhaled a heavy breath. "Mam needs a hand with the kids."
"She can stay," I hurried to say. I looked to Shannon and added, "You can stay."
"No, we need to go," Joey stated as he wrapped a protective arm around Shannon's shoulder and walked her out of my house. "Thanks for your help, Kavanagh."
Agitated, I followed after them both.
"Thanks, Johnny," Shannon whispered, looking back at me with sad eyes as her brother led her outside. "For everything."
"Shannon, you don’t have to –"
"Come on, Shan," Joey interrupted me by saying. "We need to get home."
"Is Mam okay?" Shannon asked when her brother walked her around to the passenger side and pulled open the door.
"She'll be fine," Joey told her. "But we need to go home."
I had no fucking clue why my legs moved me towards the passenger side of the car, but that's what happened.
Feeling helpless, I watched as her brother bundled her into the passenger seat before rounding the car to the driver's side.
"Bye Johnny," Shannon whispered as Joey started the engine.
She moved to close the car door, but my hand snaked out, stopping her from closing it.
She looked up at me with those big, blue eyes.
Stay.
Stay with me, Shannon.