K I E R O N

Chapter |10| Letting It All Out

K I E R O N ' S P. O. V

This used to be so easy. Raise the gun, take the shot, deal with the body.

Most times it was the easiest part of my f*****g day and I'm now I'm sat in this car, leg jostling with a million f*****g nerves at the thought of killing someone tonight.

Even if they deserve it, even though they're the worst f*****g scum on Earth.

Still.

"Just take a breath okay. Have some water, I don't need you puking in my car." Kai reaches back, one hand on the wheel, to grab a bottle of water that's been in this car for god knows how long.

"I'm fine." I gulp back the bile and the nerves.

"He's changing you, I mean I get that. After Emery found out...fuck, I never wanted to look at another gun again, never mind pull the trigger."

"It just doesn't feel right. I used to do it and it was over and I was fine, but now...I just think of how Jacob would feel if he saw me. f**k, he deserves better."

"Hey, no-one is more worthy of love than you. He'll understand, I know he will. Look at me and Em. I thought I lost her for good, but now...pull the dashboard open."

Frowning, I yank the drawer forward. My hand dives in, pulling out a velvet box. I flip it open, revealing a ring glittering with the largest emerald I've ever seen.

"Holy crap," Kai is grinning like a Cheshire Cat which just confirms my suspicions. "You're gonna ask her to marry you?"

Already I feel myself struggling to hold back tears, threatening to slosh over the lid. "See, that right there is hope. She forgave me, and Jacob will do the same."

I clap his back, safely tucking the ring away in the dashboard and closing it up again. "I'm happy for you brother. Really, I can't wait for Emery to be part of the family, but it's different for me."

"What do you mean?"

"Jacob has Ripley to think about, and I know what I would do if I was him. Run a million f*****g miles away from me."

My heart already burns, knowing that prolonging the inevitable won't stop it from coming true.

"f**k, we're here." Kai pulls up just behind the white van, presumably belonging to those assholes.

"How many of those kids did they kill?" I'm already setting into that state of numbness but it's proving more difficult than normal.

Every time I try, I see Jacob, clouding my conscience with his charming smile and words of love that I don't deserve.

"Three."

I growl, grabbing my gun and stuffing it into my waist and. "Just making sure I know how many fingers to take before I slit their throats."

Kiara wanted to do this more than any of us, but petty kills like this aren't for the Don to fulfil. The men used to be hers, and sold drugs in their neighbouring communities to any pothead that wanted them.

Until a group of ten year olds reported to the police what they saw. We don't kill kids, it's a known fact among our mafia but these bastards didn't listen and beat three of them to death.

Barely 13. Lives wasted.

"There are five in there, or should be. Boss says kill anyone who gets in the way. She wants it over tonight."

I nod, and we fall into a ominous silence as we approach. Rounding the left, I sneak in through the open window. Idiots. Then proceed to walk in.

The place is barely lit, a few stray candles dotted around but the flames are flickering out. I follow the murmur of voices coming from downstairs and f*****g hope the stairs don't creak.

Kai is right behind me. "Upstairs clear." He murmurs, voice barely carried by the wind. I gesture down and take the first step.

The voices don't cease so I take another, and another. Kai mirrors my footpath, stepping where I do in canon...creak.

I turn to glare back at him. His foot a mere inch from the lift of where I placed mine.

"Fuck." I hear the voices stutter. This either goes one of two ways now, they run or... "Mikey get the guns!"

Shit. I sprint down, already c*****g my gun when I round the corner. There's one of them right in front of me.

It's easier. One bullet to the head and he's gone.

I wanted them to suffer, I wanted to do this slowly, take my time but now it's kill or be killed.

My fingers pull the trigger, hitting the mousy one square in the chest. Then Kai aims for another but misses, narrowly. The bastard turns, a shotgun ripe in his arms and he doesn't hesitate.

I lunge behind the metal table, strewn cards and beer cans falling to the floor as I kick it over for protection. "Kai!"

Heavy grunts echo behind the shot fires. I carefully glance over the side, catching a glimpse of Kai attempting to subdue the other, his gun fallen to the floor.

Another shot fires at me. It hits the wall, falling deftly to the ground.

Then I wait, counting the seconds until the next reload. Seven. Seven seconds before he can fire again.

I taunt him this time, taking the chance to shoot before he aims for me again and pressed the trigger.

Then I pick up the table, gritting my teeth as I drive it forward straight for him. He doesn't have time to react, the metal jamming into his throat hard enough that he chokes on his own blood.

I shove it again and again and again.

"f**k," I yell out, as something tackles me from the side.

The figure slams his fist into my face, compromising my vision over and over until my nose gives out and breaks. I fumble for my gun, finding nothing.

"Too slow old man." He cackles, kicking my bruised ribs one more time before scurrying out, ignoring his friend who calls out for help as Kai finally gains the upper hand.

Shoving his gun into the bastards mouth, he doesn't hesitate to pull the trigger. "Shit." Kai attempts to clean his face of blood. "She's gonna kill me."

"You? How am I gonna explain this?" I gesture to my nose, broken and possibly crooked now.

"There was six. Why the f**k was there six?"

"Who knows? Might have been a friend, a brother of one of them, a cousin or maybe Kiara's intel was wrong?"

He manages to laugh. "Jesus don't tell her that."

I offer up a half smile, taking his offering of a hand up. "At least we don't have to dump them."

If the bodies are ever found, the police likely won't care. Probably be thankful.

"Saves me a few hours this evening. Hey, you good?"

I nod, gripping my nose as blood leaks furiously. "Just need some ice."

As we head back to the car, I reach into my pocket that feels lighter than before. "Damn it."

"What?"

"The fucker took my wallet. It has my cards and shit."

"f**k. You better cancel them now. That crackhead is probably gonna have a field day with it." I do that first, before texting Jacob that I'm coming back home.

He thinks I was out with Kai for a bro's night out. Beers and darts. If only.

"What you gonna tell him?" I stare out at the blank night sky. No stars to gaze up at today but only endless darkness.

"What else is there but the truth?"

***

J A C O B ' S P. O. V

"Rip, come on it's almost midnight you're gonna be tired for school tomorrow." The kid pretending to be a Labrador, jumps over my lap, barking again and again.

"Ripley," I use my stern dad voice but even that has lost his authority when Ripley only wants to see Kieron.

It's even worse when I understand his desire to do so, and I admit to being a bit of hypocrite since I'm probably going to stay up all night until he comes home safe.

"But daddy," He pouts, a classic move that always works on Kieron but not on me.

Okay not all the time, but it's not working right now because I need Ripley asleep so when my boyfriend comes home I can give him the welcome home I've been fantasying about all day.

"Bed now, otherwise tomorrow you won't be able to go to nursery and play with Henry."

Yes I'm that kind of father but it's an effective method.

"Fine." He jumps into bed, yanking the covers high enough so they graze his nose causing it to itch.

I gently tug it down, earning the angry glare he's been mimicking from Kieron, and tuck him in the way he loved. This time he doesn't struggle and I stay there for a few minutes until his eyelids begin to flutter close, sleep hitting him already.

"Love you bud." Sweeping his forehead with my lips, I carefully climb out of the bed and leave the room.

I contemplate texting Kieron, but don't want to seem that annoying crazy boyfriend. Also I don't want Kai to think that of me either.

His family's opinion of me is something I value highly, especially since there are so many of them. For me, it's only ever been my mum and Ripley, and both love him.

Emery invited me out for lunch on Friday, which Kai jokingly suggested is a get together to talk s**t about them all. It's not, more of an initiation, a banding together since we're the non Romano's within the family.

The door suddenly opens, which brings a smile to my face. Every time he uses that key, I find myself grinning. It reminds me that this is real, we're living together in harmonious f*****g peace.

The type of happily ever after I never thought I would find.

"So how was it?" My smile drops as he turns. Blood smeared all over his face, a tissue stuffed up his nose as if trying to stop the flood that is gushing out.

"Jesus what happened?" I'm already forcing his head back, grabbing a handful of new tissues and apply enough pressure to cause him to wince.

"It's...a story." Sighing, he drops onto the couch and I kneel next to him, still clutching his nose.

"Okay, so tell me."

Kieron does that thing where he avoids eye contact, his breaths shallow and he becomes a shell of himself. It sets a kind of fear inside of me that I can't simply ease with the knowledge that he loves me.

"I've been...I've been lying to you." I wait, breath caught in my lungs. The only possible reason I can think of him acting this way is because he cheated me.

And just the thought already destroys me.

"My family is, I'm...we're criminals. We're the mafia, and tonight I wasn't out with Kai drinking at a bar, we were out killing people on our sister's hit list because she's the Don."

I digest his words, letting them sink into the core of my brain and then laugh.

Kieron watches me, hawk eyed, nose beginning to purple. "I'm being serious, Charming."

My chest hurts from laughing so much that I force myself to stop, letting oxygen make its way back into me. Only when I find the words, do I look at him again and smile.

"Kieron, I know."

"What? How?"

Rolling my eyes, I pull out my phone, searching the vast amount of articles claiming the Romano dynasty is built on crime, more specifically drugs.

"But this is..."

"Rumours and speculation aren't created without a hint of truth. It's always been there, at the back of my mind and when I was researching your family back in England, I knew that no business that successful wasn't built without blood."

"You never asked me? You wanted to date me? And you knew?" Weirdly, he sounds the one peeved and a little concerned.

"I knew I liked you and I wanted you. I've done my fair share of shady deals, I've come to terms that to be successful in this world I need to get my hands dirty."

He makes a strange noise, almost one of disbelief and walks over to the kitchen, grabbing the vodka I keep hidden on the top shelf.

Swinging from the bottle, I grab it off him and do the same. He watches, as though the harsh burn of the liquid will somehow spring me back into sanity.

"Kieron," I set the bottle aside, moving forward until a bare inch of space separates us. "I love you for who you are, every part of you. Even the parts you think you want to keep hidden."

"I killed tonight. Men. I shot them and I would do it again."

I should be scared. This is the part where I grab Ripley and run, but I know there is nowhere on Earth I feel safer than with him.

"What did they do?" I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of the mafia, but I know Kieron would never hurt an innocent.

He sighs heavily, and reaches the vodka again, as if trying to burn the knowledge from his memory. "They killed three boys."

Then another swing. I wrench it from his lips, the liquid dribbling down his chin which stings my tongue as I lick it off.

Slowly making my way to his mouth. I kiss him with all the strength I have, pouring every ounce of love to make him remember that he's mine as much as I'm his.

Moving back, I murmur, "I would have killed them too."

Kieron smiles, stroking my cheek with his gentle touch. "You really are my perfect match."

"I never claimed to be anything less."

________________________________

A/N: What do you think of Kieron and Jacob right now?