Game(33)

I punched Cormac’s shoulder. “Hey. Don’t talk about anything, brother. It’s my life. It’s my story.”

“I did what you asked,” Cormac said. “I kept her here. I kept her safe.”

I reached back for the bottle of whiskey and grinned. “Now we drink.”

I’d rather be f*cking drunk than deal with the feelings for my dead girlfriend and the beautiful woman in my life right now.



~



One bottle wasn’t enough for me and Cormac. That wasn’t a shock, and I had a second bottle ready to go for us. I had to give Cormac credit, he could drink anyone under the table. Even me. From the day I met him, he was a wildfire with drinking. He didn’t do it often, but when he did, he made it count.

The first time I met him, he was sleeping at the bar. Next to him was a drop dead gorgeous woman. Blonde hair with a little ginger tint to it. Bright blue eyes that shined in a poorly lit bar. I watched her for an hour. Drinking beer after beer, she raised her eyebrow at any guy that dared to talk to her.

I figured she had to have been with the guy sleeping.

So I figured, f*ck it, you snooze you lose.

So I went after her.

I found out the sleeping guy was her brother - Cormac. When she said his name, his head shot up. His eyes opened. He grabbed for a shot glass and threw it back.

Next thing I knew, me and Cormac were pounding shots and beers, laughing. For the rest of the night, with each drink, I ended up closer and closer to the woman at the bar.

Carrie.

Me and Cormac ended up in a fist fight though. I’m not sure why, but after we each landed a few punches, we laughed, hugged, and declared each other brothers for life.

We were young and stupid.

I took Carrie home that night and vowed to never let her out of my arms for the rest of my life.

As I took another drink, I glanced at Shayna. She was curled up on the couch, listening to me and Cormac tell dumb, drunk stories. She laughed. She spit fire back at Cormac when he deserved it. But most of all, with each passing second, she sliced through my anger and pain like nobody had ever come close to doing before.

See, when it all went wrong, I didn’t just lose Carrie. I lost Cormac for a while too. We ended up at opposite ends of the world… him grieving the death of his sister. Me grieving the death of my girlfriend. And all we wanted was each other.

It was a bad mess. A real bad mess.

I slammed my fist down on the table. “Goddammit, Cormac. You bastard.”

“What?” he asked.

I grabbed his face with my other hand. “I love you, brother.”

“Aye, Christ, Finn. I’d rip my own arm off for ya. You know that.”

He said ‘dat’ … the more he drank, the more an Irish accent slipped out.

Get Cormac drunk enough and he’d become a blubbering fool where nobody could understand what he was saying.

Cormac and I stared each other down for a few seconds. Mentally we were tearing each other apart over Carrie. There wasn’t a thing to say or do about it. I always knew if we sat down and talked about it we’d end up drunk and fighting. The kind of fight we were supposed make millions on.

I finally broke away from Cormac and looked at Shayna. “Tell me about your sister some more.”

“Are you serious?” she asked. “You want to kill the night like that?”

“What’s wrong with her sister? Does she look like you, Shayna?”

“We’re twins,” Shayna said.

“Good Christ,” Cormac said and he stood up. He lost his balance for a second. “Good Christ in hell. Twins?”

“Stop it,” I said. “They’re not identical twins. And her sister is missing, you *.”

“Ah, f*ck,” Cormac said. “My apologies, Shayna.”

“It’s okay,” Shayna said. “Look, I’ve made my peace with it. She’s gone. She has to be dead. Messing around with Zander’s crew… nothing good could ever come of that. She was so far away from the woman I knew. I just have to remember what she did for me growing up.”

“Aye, that’s heavy,” Cormac said.

“You have no idea where she could be?” I asked. I was dead drunk but when I focused on Shayna, everything felt sober. “You have to have something, sweetie.”

“She ran off with his crew,” Shayna said. “When I got close to Zander, he said her name a few times, but I never got any information about it. She was running for him though. I know that. She wasn’t like me.”

“Like you?” Cormac asked.

“She’s engaged to Zander,” I said. “Head of a crew.”

“Holy shit. That’s got to be a bad thing… I mean, Finn, you’re fooling around with some big guy’s fiancee.”

“Yeah, I’m a dead man walking,” I said. Then I smiled. “But it’s goddamn worth it.”

Shayna’s cheeks instantly turned red.

“Aye,” Cormac said. “You two are trouble together.”

“Finn,” Shayna said, “let it go about Sasha. I have to accept she’s gone. And if she’s not really gone, she can’t be in a good place. Right?”

I nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

“What I want is sleep,” she said.