My wife sighed. “You’re right, but we have to speak to ‘er and explain why.”
I was too heated to go anywhere near the kid.
“Unless it’s for school, she’s not leaving this house,” I stated. “She’s fifteen years of age, and she thinks she grown enough to have sex? Hell fucking no.”
“Okay,” Bronagh acquiesced. “If you say she is grounded, then she’s grounded, but just let me go and speak to ‘er before ye’ go up there and raise ten kinds of hell. She’s underage, we know that, but this is ‘er private business bein’ discussed with ‘er father and cousin, and she isn’t down here to defend ‘erself.”
I jerked my head in response, and Bronagh hustled up the stairs. I lifted my hands to my face and resisted the urge to scream. My entire world had been turned upside down, and I was infuriated that it was a Collins boy who caused it.
“How long have they been dating?”
“Indie says a couple of months,” Jax grunted. “It’s been a huge secret because Locke didn’t even know, and he’s always with Indie. I feel stupid for not coppin’ onto them sooner, but I honestly had no clue before yesterday. I never thought me cousins would look at Georgie in that way because they know I’d end them if they hurt ‘er.”
I paced back and forth, feeling like a caged lion.
“I’m fucking furious.”
Jax nodded. “Ye’ look it.”
“Bronagh will kill me if I kill this kid and get arrested.”
Jax nodded. Again. “I’d be more scared of Auntie Bee than prison, if I’m honest.”
I couldn’t even laugh. I felt sick to my stomach.
“She’s fifteen,” I said. “Fifteen and having sex.”
“In ‘er defence, Indie did say he was buyin’ them for their first time. He’s ‘er first boyfriend, so she’s still a virgin as far as I can tell.”
My heart deflated. “Oh, thank Christ in Heaven.”
I felt better but knowing that she was most likely planning on having sex still didn’t sit well with me at all. She was a child. Still a young girl whose mind shouldn’t be on something as grown up as sex. Fear wrapped around me because I realised that so far, I was handling this situation very badly. I reacted with anger, and if I continued to push that anger onto my child, she would rebel, and I’d definitely end up in prison to stop her from seeking out this little Collins bastard and his little dick.
“She has four brothers and twenty male cousins ... you’re all supposed to repel any boy from sniffing in her direction. You’re all doing a terrible job.”
Jax snorted. “Thanks, as if I didn’t already know that.”
I shook my head, then leaned my back against the hallway wall.
“She didn’t mean what she said, you know? She’s just upset.”
“I know.” Jax nodded. “I still want ‘er to take it back, though. Pain sliced across me chest when she said she hated me. She’s never said that to me before.”
I knew it hurt him. Jax adored Georgie; she was his number one girl. She was everyone’s number one girl, and she knew it. She loved her brothers and cousins more than anyone could explain, so I knew that a tearful apology would be given to Jax later when her anger passed, and regret was all that remained.
“She’ll take it back; just give her a second to calm down. She’ll come and find you when she realises what she said.”
Jax only nodded, then turned his neck and looked up the stairs. I spotted a hickey on his exposed flesh, and my lips parted slightly. I knew from experience if kids were taking the times to give each other love bites, they took the time to do other stuff too.
“You better not be having sex either!”
Jax snapped his head in my direction. “What?”
“You have a hickey on your neck. A big one.”
Heat burned its way up said neck.
“I’m not havin’ sex,” he answered, then cleared his throat. Twice. “I swear.”
I glared at him. “You’re sixteen. You aren’t old enough to have sex either, so don’t think because you’re a guy, you won’t get into shit with your parents. You and Georgie are in the same boat here.”
Jax swallowed. “Trust me ... I know.”
He knows?
I raised a brow. “What happened?”
“Earlier today ... me ma and da walked in on .... y’know what? Never mind. I’m sure me da will tell ye’ all about it.”
I was sure he would, and from how Jax’s face was burning red, I knew it was going to be a hell of a story.
“Speakin’ of me parents,” Jax continued. “I was only supposed to come over ‘ere to talk to Georgie. I’m grounded.”
“Does being grounded have anything to do with what your mom and dad walked in on?”
Jax nodded, and I thought back to my conversation on the phone with him earlier in the day. When I called him, I heard him hush a giggling girl, and I put two and two together.
“You were with a girl earlier when I called you ... is that what you parents walked in on?”
Axel came down the stairs at that moment and grabbed Jax’s hand.
“Mammy says I can go to your house to play with Eli if you’ll bring me.”
Jax smiled down at his cousin, “‘Course I’ll bring ye’, cousin.”
When he looked back at me, his smile faded.
“I have to go home but tell Georgie that’s where I’ll be if she’s lookin’ for me. Later, unc.”
Before I could reply, he was out the door with my son without a backwards glance. I knew whatever Kane was going to tell me about what he walked in on was going to be a story that was as rough for him as this situation with Georgie was for me.
“Fucking teenagers, man.”
I walked into the living room and fell into my armchair with a deep sigh. I leaned my head back and wondered if I was ever as nightmare inducing as this generation of Slater kids were, then I laughed to myself because me and my brothers were definitely worse when we were kids. We didn’t live in cosy homes with normal, loving families. No, we lived in a compound where disloyalty or hesitation would get a man killed. Our road to adulthood, and to reach the point we were all at now, was a rough one, and to be honest, I was surprised that the five of us survived it.
God knows there were times were each of us didn’t want to.
CHAPTER THREE
Ten years old ...
“Dominic!”
I jumped about a foot in the air the second my name was bellowed. I scrambled out of bed, stood straight, and waited.
“Yeah?”
My dad flung my bedroom door open, and it cracked against the wall with a thud. My heart pounded against my chest, and muscles all over my body tensed with apprehension. I swallowed as my dad, who physically reminded me so much of my older brother Ryder, glared at me with cool grey eyes. Eyes that my brothers and I inherited from him.
“What did I tell you about attending your lessons?”
I jerked my gaze to the black on the clock and winced. I was two hours late for math class. It was Tuesday, and on Tuesdays, we had a day-long math class to get us up to par so when we started working for Dad and his business partner, Marco, we’d have a foot in the door of understanding how they did business. Numbers meant everything to Dad and Marco, so it was vital to them that my brothers and I were smart and knew all there was to know about them.
I looked back at my dad and felt myself shrink.
“I’m sorry, Dad.” I tensed. “I forgot to set my alarm.”
When he crossed the space between us and backhanded me, my eyes stung with tears, but I refused to let them fall. I stumbled back a few steps but quickly stood upright and tried my best to appear I was okay when all I wanted to do was get back into bed, hide under my covers, and never come out again.
“Get showered, dressed, and get your worthless ass to your lessons. Now.”