CHAPTER 171

CAIN POV

I feel like an absolute prize fucking asshole as we head into Sassy’s. Brian might be putting a thoroughly gracious front on it, but my confession has him reeling and I know it.

That’s the thing with Brian – he’s always trying to be the reasonable one. Always trying to do the right thing, for everyone. Not least for me.

 And certainly not least for Moona Avii.

If he was a lesser man, I’m sure he would’ve fucked the girl already. If he was a lesser man, I’m sure he’d have told me to fuck off with my stupid fucking confession after one paltry week of knowing her.

 But he’s a better man than I’ll ever be, and in my gut that’s why I know he should be the one to make a move on Moona, even if I’m the one in danger of recklessness.

Even if I’m the one who’s seen her pretty little tits.

 The thought crosses my mind that maybe the little minx is playing both of us for a fool, but I doubt it. If Moona Avii is playing a game, she’s playing a good one. She seems too sharp to risk pitting the two of us against each other, not least because she seems awfully settled at my place.

      It’s like she belongs there already.

 I wave to Brian’s colleagues as we step inside the pub, cringing as one of his Co workers Alice jumps from her seat and grabs Brian by the elbow. I think she’s always had a thing for him, even if he’s always been oblivious.

 I have to stifle a laugh as she presses her mouth to his ear, as though I’m about to witness another confession of devotion that will leave his brain spinning even faster than it is already.

  Alice’s whisper is ragged and harsh and nothing like I was expecting. It’s loud enough that I hear it over the chatter from the leaving party table.

      “Moona Avii is here!”

      My eyes widened as his too did.

 “Moona is here?” he asks and she nods.

 “Smoking out the front with Raul Elf. They just came in and got tequila. I’d have stopped the barman if she wasn’t legal.” She pulls her phone from her handbag. “We should call Amie and Nick, or maybe the police.”

I’d leap into action myself, but he’s already on it. His hand lands on hers, stopping her as she scrolls through her contacts list.

 “No need,” he says. “I’ll handle this.”

 “But they’ll want to know…” she counters.

Brian shakes his head but doesn’t elaborate, and it’s the look she gives him, bewildered speculation that has me jumping in to save him the unwanted scrutiny.

 “She’s staying with me,” I tell her, just like that.

      Both of them stare. Alice takes a minute to find her words.

      “Moona Avii is staying with you?!”

 “She’s doing some work on my land,” I elaborate. “She’s good with fencing.”

      “Fencing?”

      I nod. “Fencing.”

 “Fencing,” Brian confirms with a grimace.

I don’t hang around any longer, praising Brian from Alice’s grip and asking him for his assistance outside.

We leave her open-mouthed as we march our way through the packed pub. I hope for some reason Alice’s losing her fucking marbles and Moona is safe back at home where I left her, but I hear her wild laughter before we’re even out through the door.

She’s had more than one tequila, that much is certain. She sways outside the window with a cigarette in her hand, laughing along with Raul fucking Elf as he recounts some idiot fucking story that he probably made up on the spot.

His eyes are all over her, his tongue practically lolling as she braces herself against him for balance.

I have the strange urge to rip the bastard’s head off, but I think Brian is gunning for him even more than I am.

 “What’s fucking going on here?” he asks, heading right between them to break the contact.

 “Having fun,” Moona sneers and laughs right through it. “You guys were long-gone, why should I stay home alone on a Friday fucking night?!”

 Raul is a stupid cunt, I see his challenged brain slowly turning as he registers the implication.

    “You’re staying with these guys?”

 She slaps his arm as she cackles. “Yeah, they’re my new fucking foster daddies. Daddy Cain and Daddy Brian.”

I reach a new personal low when my cock twitches.

      A really low fucking personal low.

Daddy Cain and daddy fucking Brian. 

The gleam in her eyes tells me she’s not entirely joking either.

 There are no words for the clusterfuck she’s bringing into our once quiet country life.

“You’re coming with us,” I told her.

She shakes her head. “I’m fucking not, Daddy Cain. Go fuck yourself.”

I grit my teeth and take a step forward, shunting Raul out of the way as Brian takes hold of her arm. “You’re coming with us,” I repeat. “Right fucking now.”

“She’s my girl tonight,” Raul protests, and this time it’s Brian that loses his fucking cool.

 “You’re done here,” he says to the kid. 

“Take your drink and get back inside that fucking pub, before I tell the police you’re dealing again.”

“You fucking wouldn’t…” Raul says, and if I wasn’t so pissed that Moona was trashed on tequila in his company, I’d be amused at how Brian’s changing in front of my eyes.

Once upon a time he’d have defended Raul to the ends of the earth, just as he defends all those kids whose paperwork lands on his desk.

      But not anymore.

      Not now with Moona Avii is involved.

“Get back inside,” Brian repeats and Raul does.

  He stubs out his cigarette and shrugs his shoulders at Moona, and then he’s gone.

 Good fucking riddance.

Moona struggles in my grip.

 “Get the fuck off me,” she screeches. 

“You’ve no fucking right to order me about!”

      But I don’t. I don’t get off her and I don’t pander to her kicking and screaming either. I take one elbow, and Brian must have finally heeded my bastard advice about discipline, because he takes the other and together we drag her back to my car and bundle her into the backseat, be damned who sees the spectacle.

      She tries to climb back out no sooner as I’ve shut her in, but I raise a finger and my voice with it.

      “Don’t even fucking think about it,” I tell her, and she backs away.

      I climb into the driver’s seat and check out her expression in the rearview mirror. She’s scowling, her arms folded across her chest as her foot taps furiously.

      Difficult. Little. Bitch.

      It’s about time this little cow learned some manners.

      And I’m about to fucking teach her.