The entire family had been showing up as the day progressed into the evening, and Pa had been calling different members of his family in to discuss the various arms of all his businesses throughout the day. Between discussions, we moved to different rooms and each time he summoned or dismissed my brothers, sister, nieces and nephews, cousins, uncle and the like, gathering different groups for each subject. Everyone had been cut out of at least one of those meetings if not more. Everyone aside from me that was.
I knew what he was doing. The game he was playing by sitting me at his right hand throughout the day no matter the subject. I was in on talks I had no business or interest in while he cut out people who mighta had something more to add to them. He wanted them all to think he was leaning towards me as his successor. He wanted them riled up and aiming their jealousy at me. But I was yet to fully figure out why.
The simplest explanation could of course have been that he really was considering me the front runner at this point. When I compared myself to my siblings, I could hardly blame him on that front. But Liam O’Brien just wasn’t a simple man. So I had to think he was up to something far more conniving than that.
I probably shoulda been trying to figure it out with a bit more determination, but the thing was, I just didn’t give a fuck. So far as I was concerned, this moment in time was just a place holder pre-empting my escape from this life. I had my donkey ready and waiting at home, his head full of all the information I needed to make a clean escape and just as soon as I’d cracked his skull open and peeled all the secrets outa it, I’d be off. Gone with the wind and travelling on a breeze. They’d never catch up to me. And if by some miracle any of them did, I’d just kill them and keep on floating once their blood was wetting my flesh. It was simple. Easy. And yet entirely too difficult all at once.
“Hamster got your cock, Ronan?” I shot back at him.
“What?”
“Well, I assumed you musta done a trade with the little fella for yours. That would explain that tiny pecker you‘ve got resting on your balls like a worm sunbathing on a beanbag.”
Pa chuckled and Dermot joined in like some kind of echo, always ready to team up against one of his siblings no matter which of us that meant he had to side with. Connor just glared at me from the foot of the table, his hand all tucked up in a cast and his hair now fully shaved off after he’d spent the majority of the afternoon getting bandaged up following on from our play date this morning. I preferred his hard-boiled egg look to his ponytail days anyway. Mostly because it felt like I had a bongo ready to go at all times while he was near, just in case I wanted to drop a beat and break into song.
“You think you’re so funny, don’t ya Niall?” Ronan growled and I just smiled because, yeah, I was pretty funny when I wanted to be. Like right now, as I looked between Ronan and Dermot and I thought about the way I’d paid to get a hooker into their beds with our daddy’s money and the way the two of them constantly professed their love to her, spilling all of their sordid little secrets and affairs into her listening ears while rutting their cocks between her thighs, and never once realising who paid for her moans or who was laughing at them behind their backs.
I considered telling them right now. Just so that I could see the looks on their faces when they realised they’d been played by me and their mistress for years now. Dermot had bought her a fucking house. It was hilarious. And Ronan had gifted her so many diamonds and rubies and the like that she was legitimately able to employ a guard for them and set herself up like the queen with her crown jewels. I mean, I was pretty certain she just pawned them all, but it was totally an option she could have gone for.
“It’s been a long day,” Pa interrupted, maybe sensing how thin of a line I was treading right now and thinking to save two more of his sons from a trip to the hospital or maybe just not in the mood for violence before dinner. Blood and gore tended to get my appetite up, but it had the opposite effect for some.
“That it has,” I agreed, pushing to my feet and almost knocking my chair over in my haste to be gone from this place. I’d been asked some kind of question towards the end of this latest meeting, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember it now. Nor did I care to. All I wanted was to get the fuck out of here and head home to my Spider and my house and my bed. I’d hardly even touched the liquor throughout this most tedious of days because I didn’t want to be unable to drive home late and get stuck here over night.
“Don’t forget you have dinner with your fiancée tonight,” Pa said and I could feel his eyes pinning themselves to me as I fell still there, my jacket halfway onto one arm and my jaw ticking with fury because I absolutely had forgotten that.
“It’s been a long day,” I said in a low rumble, tossing his words back at him and seeing my brothers all bob up and down in their seats like a row of ducks hearing the rustle of a bread bag. “I’m sure she would understand if I rearranged.”
“I’m sure she would,” Pa replied, his tone unyielding. “But an O’Brien never breaks his word. And I made it clear that you would be in attendance. Her father owns a hotel downtown and he has gotten the staff in despite the pandemic so that they can be open exclusively for the two of you. You will be there Niall.”
The threat in those last words were all too clear for everyone in the room and Connor practically preened, his bald head shining in the light from the chandelier above him.
I considered my options, taking a great deal of pleasure in the one that involved patricide, fratricide, sororicide, nepoticide – there were a hell of a lot of fancy names involved when you started killing your family members that was for sure – but once again, one look around the room made it clear that the fuckers had all come armed to this tea party.
“Fine,” I barked with all the petulance of a three-year-old who had been told what for. “But one of these days, you cowardly bastards should try threatening me with fists instead of gunfire. I like my odds against the entire family if no one is cheating with a gun in hand. Hell, I’d even let you all have knives and I’d still put money on an unarmed me.”
My brothers glowered at me while Pa chuckled in a way that said he not only agreed but liked the fact a whole hell of a lot.
“Your opinion of yourself is too high, little Niall,” Dermot sneered, his jealousy making his pug face all scrunch up.
I finished pulling my jacket on and stepped towards him as I adjusted the deep blue fabric of it.
“Is that so?” I asked, nice and slow, prowling closer. “Would you like to put your money where your mouth is there, Dermot? We could play a little game of cat and mouse if you like? I’ll be the cat who comes creeping into your home while you’re sleeping, and I’ll even let you run all about the place while I hunt ya. Fair warning though – this cat always finishes his meal once he’s done playing with his food.”
Dermot swallowed thickly, trying to scoff and sneer at that suggestion, but I could see the fear in his eyes. I could see it and taste it and I was licking my lips in hunger for a whole lot more of it.
“Don’t forget,” I breathed, placing my hands on the arms of his chair and leaning right down so that we were nose to nose. Dermot pressed his pistol to my chest in a clear threat, but we all knew he wouldn’t pull the trigger without Pa’s permission, whipped little bitch that he was. “I know where you live,” I purred.
The tension snapped like an elastic band as our father barked a laugh behind us and I straightened, finding my other brothers and my sister also openly aiming their guns at me. Pathetic little arseholes.
I took a cigarette from my pocket and sparked it up, placing it between my lips as I opened my arms wide and laughed like a heathen, waiting for one of them to grow the balls to do it.