“Everything taken care of?” Liam asks.
Shane grunts as he starts to pace the small room.
“Yeah,” Conor says, winking at me before his eyes drift to his older brother and he frowns slightly. Shane seems super pissed about something.
“Probably better that we stay in here for the rest of the night though, Red,” Mikey adds with a grin.
“Fine by me. But will we ever have a night out here in The Peacock Club and not have some trouble?” I say with a sigh as I rest my head against Liam’s chest, recalling the incident at the Christmas Eve masked ball when an ex-boyfriend of mine tried to assault me. “At least it wasn’t me who caused it this time.”
“You didn’t cause it last time either,” Conor says, walking over and pressing a soft kiss on my forehead.
“This is he life we live, Red. Trouble kind of finds us wherever we go,” Mikey adds.
“I know, and I’ve kind of been thinking about that,” I say and suddenly I feel all of their eyes on me.
Crap! Why did I have to bring that up right now?
Liam’s muscles tense as his arms wrap around my waist protectively and his three brothers stand staring at me expectantly as they wait for me to finish my thought.
I take a deep breath and go on, trying to explain what I mean without causing a drama. “Especially now we have our babies to think of, and if you guys want more…” I chew on my lip, aware that I still haven’t given them an answer to their suggestion on Christmas Day that we have some more children.
Shane frowns at me. “Just what exactly have you been thinking, Jessie?” he barks, speaking for the first time since he entered the room.
“I was thinking about our future and whether this is it for us. Is this the kind of life we want for our children?”
“Are you suggesting that you’re thinking of leaving? Taking our kids away?” Shane snarls and the venom in his voice catches me off guard. “You really think we’d let you walk out with our babies in search of a different life?”
I blink at him, my cheeks flushing red. That’s not what I meant at all. How can he think for even a second that it was?
“That’s not what she said, Shane,” Conor says with a sigh.
“Sure fucking sounded like that’s where she was headed,” he snaps.
I open my mouth to tell him how wrong he is, but Liam speaks first. “I kind of agree with Jessie. If we have more kids then maybe New York City isn’t the best place to raise them.”
Shane’s face almost turns purple with rage as he turns his attention on his youngest brother. “Are you fucking shitting me?” he snarls. “You have any idea how hard I worked to get us where we are? How many people I had to step on? How much blood is on my hands?”
“It’s on all of our hands, Shane,” Conor says, his eyes narrowed as he searches his brother’s face for a clue as to what’s causing this outburst.
“You all think it’s so easy just to up and walk away from all this. You think if I could, I would have fucking done it before now?” he barks.
“Shane?” I say, jumping off Liam’s lap and reaching for his hand.
He shrugs me off. “Ungrateful bastards,” he mutters under his breath before turning on his heel and marching out of the room, slamming the door behind him so hard that it rattles the walls, and leaving the four of us standing staring after him and wondering what the hell has just happened.
“What the fuck?” Mikey mumbles.
“I’ll go after him,” Conor says.
I put my hand on his arm. “No. Let me. Please?”
“He’s super pissed, angel.”
“Yeah, I kinda got that. I can handle him. Let me go speak to him.”
“Fine,” Conor agrees. “If you’re not back here in ten minutes I’m coming to get you myself.”
I lean onto my tiptoes and kiss his cheek softly. “I’ll be back soon.”