Free Shannon by Shara Azod

once tried to change him. When he fought, she simply waited for him to finish. Hell, the woman round-housed Magda Magpie in the mother-fucking face. How could he not fall for her?
    Maybe Fionn was right. It was weird as shit to hear the hardened killer say he read Cosmo , but maybe there was something to it. Looked like he was about to do some communicating. Shit, when the fuck had he ever tried communicating with a woman? Never. This was going to hurt, probably.
    “My brothers and I were raised by a bastard of a man—Danny Boy Sullivan,” he heard himself speak into the otherwise silent car. “He was our…our da’s right hand. A drunk, a sadistic bastard. The man tortured us, starved us, beat the shit out of us, all on Old Man O’Shea’s orders.” Shay didn’t speak, but he knew he had her full attention. He could feel her gaze on his face, but he couldn’t look down. Not until he got it all out. “Da wanted us to be at each other’s throats, to fight for supremacy. Me and Fionn’s ma hasn’t been seen for years. We may never know what happened to her. Kieran and Conall’s ma was driven to an early grave by that bastard. I don’t know which is worse—being his mistress like my mother or being married to Satan himself like Kieran and Conall’s mother.” Shit, that was harder to say out loud than he could’ve ever imagined. He thought all those feelings had long since ceased to move him. “Since we’ve all finished schooling or whatever, we have been gradually taking over his business interests, legit and otherwise. One day soon, we will kill him, the man that was supposed to be our father.”
    “And Danny Boy.”
    It wasn’t a question, it was a statement spoken clearly in a soft, sweet voice.
    That sealed it. She was going nowhere.
    “Shay, baby, I will kill whatever you’re running from, human or not,” he swore to her, lifting her head with a finger, forcing her to meet his fierce gaze. “You belong to me, and I protect what’s mine. As long as I draw breath, I will destroy anything that dares threaten you. But I need to know who you really are, sweetheart.”
    Shay parted those lush lips, perhaps to finally tell him what he needed to know, but Shannon found himself stopping her. “Wait. There is something I want to show you. Then you can decide whether or not you want to tell me.” Shit, he was really doing this. Besides his brothers, only Mickey knew about the place he was taking her to now. It was a vulnerability he couldn’t afford to let the world know about. And he was taking her there. Couldn’t wait for her to see it.
    As the car rolled to a stop in front of a massive brownstone building just inside the Lynn city border, Shannon actually felt his heart leap to his throat. What the fuck was this? He was scared? Of what? For some reason, this mattered. It mattered a hell of a lot more than whether or not he ever made it out of the ring alive, or whether or not someone put a bullet in his dome. Shay’s reaction—shit, that meant everything.
    He was actually shaking as he carried her through the door of the converted former apartment building. Outside the place kinda looked like shit, but inside, Shannon had spared no expense. Everything was top of the line, completely redone. A tall, brutish-looking man rushed forward, his battered face wreathed in smiles.
    “Mr. O’Shea! ’Tis good to see ya. I’m afraid the boys are already in bed.” Eamon McBride had been an up-and-coming boxer from Ireland, until Paddy O’Shea ruined his career. The old man had set Eamon up, planting evidence the man had thrown a sanctioned fight, simply because Eamon had refused to do just that. When Eamon had tried to fight the charges, Paddy had him jumped, causing injuries that ensured Eamon would never get in the ring again.
    But Eamon had a rare gift; street kids listened to him. Maybe it was because of his tough exterior, or maybe it was his never-ending patience, but for some reason, kids who lived