She walked out of my garden and left us looking after her.
“You aren't going after her?” Alec murmured.
Nico shook his head. “I will only upset her more if I do. She needs to cool off. When she is calm I'll explain why this is no different than the arranged fights I take part in every so often.”
I humourlessly laughed. “You're so fuckin' stupid, you don't see what she does.”
Nico looked at me. “Which is what?”
“Me uncle, in her eyes, is Marco. You've gone back to a world she hates… and you made Darkness part of the deal… do you even realise what that place does to her? What it does to me?”
Nico didn't speak. He didn't do anything.
I turned from him and Alec and walked into my house, not looking back when both of them called for me.
“I'm goin' to kill Gavin,” Aideen said for the tenth time in the last twenty minutes.
I sighed. “I'll help you.”
My attempt at humour was lost on her.
“I can't believe he would do this. I can't believe he would join your uncle's circle. Me brothers will kill him!” she swore.
I sat in silence but then looked to Branna when she called my name. She was sat to my right on my sofa with Alannah, Kane, Alec, and Nico spread out on it too. All of them were looking over at Aideen and myself.
“Yeah?” I replied.
She gave me a stern look. “You have to go to the shops… remember?”
I was about to ask for what, but widened my eyes when I remembered.
The pregnancy tests.
“Fuck,” I murmured. “I'll go now.”
Branna nodded, but didn't look at the brothers when they looked at her.
“Go to the shop for what?” Aideen asked me.
I looked at her. “You know for what.”
She shook her head.
Oh, for God's sakes.
“The bathroom,” I said, staring at her as I drilled the answer into her mind with my eyes.
She gasped when it hit her.
“The pregnancy tests!” she shouted.
I face-palmed myself.
“Pregnancy tests?” male voices shouted in unison.
“Well done,” I growled to Aideen who had her hand over her mouth.
I looked to the brothers who were all on their feet. “Yeah, pregnancy tests.”
“Who is pregnant?” Alec asked and stared at me.
I shook my head. “Not me.”
He visibly relaxed. “Thank God. I mean, I want babies with you, but we just talked about—”
“It’s okay, I know.” I snorted and shook my head again.
“If not you, then who?” Ryder asked.
I looked to Branna and he almost fell over.
“Bran?” he asked.
She winced. “It might be me. Might be.”
Ryder looked like he was about to puke.
Kane scratched his head. “I don't understand what's going on. So Branna might be pregnant?”
Aideen nodded her head. “Or Bronagh.”
“What?” Nico screamed.
I jumped with fright at the pitch of it.
“Why are you screamin'? You and Bronagh are tryin' for a baby.”
Nico fell back onto the sofa. “We are but… still. Fuck.”
“Relax honey,” Branna said to Nico. “It might not be Bronagh either.”
“Who else could it be then?” Alec asked.
Both Branna and I looked at Aideen.
She hissed. “Thanks very much!”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Should have kept your big mouth shut.”
“Aideen?” Kane’s voice snapped. “You might be pregnant? By fucking who?”
That was a good question.
Aideen lifted her hand to her head. “We're not doin' this. We aren't agruin' when we have no idea who is pregnant.”
“Then let's fucking find out,” Kane growled.
I blinked at him.
He was furious.
I spoke softly. “I'll go get some in Tesco—”
“I'll go with you,” Kane cut me off then stormed out of the sitting room, and then out of the house.
“Fuck,” Aideen hissed.
She stormed off up the stairs, and Branna and Alannah quickly followed her. I sighed and looked back to the remaining brothers. “I'll be back.”
Ryder and Nico nodded at me, but they were both in a world of their own.
I moved over to Alec and leaned up to kiss him.
“I love you,” he whispered.
I smiled. “Why are you whisperin'?” I asked.
“Because they're all in deep shit with their ladies, and I'm cool with you. I don't want to pour salt in their wounds by shoving it in their faces.”
“Then learn to whisper, you prick,” Nico growled making me smile.
I kissed Alec again.
“I love you, Kitten,” he repeated. “I really do.”
I relished in hearing that.
“And I love you, Playboy. To Neptune and back.”
“Good, now go and get those pregnancy tests before me and my brothers lose our minds. I want to know if it's one of the sisters. I hope so, I want to be an Uncle,” Alec said, chuckling.
Ryder and Nico dove for Alec as I ran out of the house giggling to myself. I stopped smiling and making sounds when I climbed into Alec's SUV and looked to Kane in the driver's seat.
“You okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “Fine.”
He took off driving then and I took his hint of wanting silence loud and clear. We got to Tesco a few minutes later and exited the car. We walked side by side into the shop and Kane trailed me as I headed for the hygiene aisle.
“Fuck me,” Kane whistled. “That's a lot of different brands.”
I nodded my head. “Yep. There is a lot to choose from.”
Kane lifted his hand to his head. “Can't we just pick any box? I want to get out of here.”
I snickered.
“Feelin' uncomfortable being in the women's aisle?” I teased.
He shook his head then stumbled a little to the side.
“I just... I just want to leave,” he said, his voice low.
I dropped my smile and stepped toward him. “Kane... are you okay?” I asked.
“I don't... I don't know. I don't feel good,” he said.
The next few seconds passed by in slow motion. Kane turned to face me, but he lost his footing. He grabbed at thin air as he fell to the ground looking for something to stop his fall, but found nothing. I heard myself scream when his body hit the floor and his eyes closed and didn't re-open.
“KANE!” I cried and dropped to my knees next to him.
I placed my hands on his face and shook him. “Wake up!” I screamed.
Nothing.
He was breathing, I could tell that from his chest movements, but he was unconscious and not responding to me. That frightened the life out of me. I shook him a few times and shouted his name hoping to get his attention, but he didn't wake up. He didn't move, or flinch.
He just laid there.
He gets ill now and then, but he has never collapsed... he hasn't even mentioned lately that he wasn't feeling good.
Something was very wrong.
I looked up and down the aisle and was surprised when I found nobody at either end. I could hear multiple fast paced footsteps though, and people calling all different things out to me to see which aisle I was on. I placed my hands on Kane's chest and screamed.
“Somebody help me!”
I had a headache.
A pounding headache.
My stomach was queasy too, and I felt a little dizzy.
I felt like shite.
I felt like this because I was scared.
I was so damn scared… and all because of a damn plastic stick!
I tried not to look at the stick that would decide my fate as I sat in the main bathroom of the Slater brothers’ house. I focused on the tiled floor, and the grout that cemented them in place to avoid looking up. I counted the tiles, and each time I only got to ten or eleven before my head automatically turned to look at the counter.