I hesitated. “Aideen ... I can’t ...”
“Ye’ trust me not to hurt ye’,” she repeated. “Don’t ye’?”
I wanted to scream.
“Yes,” I said. “I know you won’t hurt me.”
She reached out and placed her palm on my cheek. “Then let me help ye’. Let me do this and get it out of the way. It’ll be over before ye’ know it. I won’t ever hurt ye’, Kane. I promise.”
I looked into her eyes and saw no deceit or malice. I only saw the compassion she held for me. We weren’t friends—not even close. We argued and got under one another’s skin, but Aideen wanted to help me, and I knew she was the only person who I wanted to do just that.
I exhaled a shaky breath, and said, “Okay.”
“Okay,” she uttered with a small smile. “We’ve got this, okay? Me and you?”
“Me and you.”
I kept my eyes locked on hers, just so I didn’t have to look at her hands and see what she was doing.
“Give her the damn needle,” Dominic hissed. “He will only let her do it, so give it to her.”
I blocked out everyone but Aideen then. I would lose my nerve if I listened to what was being said. My heart just about stopped when she said, “Close your eyes for me.”
“Aideen, please,” I choked. “Don’t stab me with it.”
She looked like she wanted to hug me, but she didn’t move.
“It’s going to be one little prick in your thigh,” she said. “That’s all.”
One little prick. I could handle that. I hoped.
“You promise?”
“I promise, sweetheart.”
I held her gaze for a moment longer, then I wordlessly put all my trust in her as I closed my eyes. Seconds ticked by, I felt Aideen’s hands on my thigh after the bed covers were pulled back from my body. I focused on her touch and thought back to the night I had experienced more of her than just a simple touch. I thought of how she looked bare before me, how her face twisted in pleasure as I moved inside her body, and how she cuddled against me in her sleep. I thought about that night all the time, and I wondered if she did too.
“All done.”
I opened my eyes when Aideen spoke, and my lips parted with shock.
“I didn’t feel anything.”
She smiled. “Told ye’.”
Gratitude flooded me, and before I realised what I was doing, I reached out and pulled her against me, hugging her tightly.
“I’ll come back later to discuss a check-up appointment date for next week. I’ll also go through everything with ’im, and with you all, about what to expect with his diabetes. We’ll keep ’im overnight again, and if he is respondin’ well to the injections, he can go home tomorrow.”
My brothers replied to the doctor, but I tuned them out once more and focused on Aideen.
“Are you okay?”
I squeezed her. “Yes.”
I rested back against the pillows on my bed, suddenly feeling drained.
“What the hell was that?” Bronagh demanded of Dominic. “I’ve never seen ‘im like that before.”
My little brother looked at his girlfriend, and I saw the moment he knew that he was going to end up in an argument with her because he sighed. “It’s not my place to explain that, Bronagh. It’s up to Kane if he wants to tell you.”
Not fucking likely.
“I don’t want to tell anything because we’re done speaking about that,” I said firmly. “And we’re done discussing injections of any type. I am not doing that shit again. No fucking way.”
The amount of fear that consumed me at the thought was too much for me to bear. I could never do that on a daily basis. I wasn’t strong enough.
“It’s not up for discussion, Kane,” Branna interjected. “Ye’ will be takin’ the injections. I’ll do them for ye’—”
“No!” I cut her off. “Just ... no.”
Ryder stepped towards Branna. “Stop pushing him.”
She turned to him and glared. “One of us has to. Otherwise, he will get sick again. Is that what ye’ want?”
Ryder didn’t respond; he only looked away from her.
“She’s right, Ryder,” Bronagh commented. “He needs to take them. Ye’ can’t baby ‘im.”
Alec’s face became hard as he looked at Bronagh.
“We aren’t babying him, Bronagh. We’re being considerate. He doesn’t like needles. End of fucking story.”
“Hey!” Alannah snapped at Alec. “Don’t talk to ‘er like that!”
“Don’t shout at ‘im, Lana,” Keela sighed, clearly not wanting anyone to argue.
Alannah glared at Keela. “Tell ‘im to back off Bronagh then.”
I wanted to punch a wall.
“It would help if you all stopped talking about me like I’m a fucking invalid. I can hear what you’re all saying, and I can make my own damn decisions when it comes to my body.”
Branna moved to the opposite side of the bed and stared down at me.
“D’ye want to die?” she bluntly asked. “Because that’s what will happen if ye’ don’t take the insulin daily.”
“Branna,” Ryder shouted. “Fucking stop.”
Aideen jumped with fright, and that irked me because it meant Ryder had frightened her, and I didn’t want her to be scared of any of my brothers.
“No!” Branna bellowed right back at him. “I love ‘im! I don’t want ‘im to get sick again!”
Everyone began to talk at once again, couples arguing, and friends snapping at each other.
“Kane?”
I looked at Aideen and tensed. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“What?”
“Kane, you need to take the insulin. You’ll get sick if you don’t,” I mimicked her.
When she smiled, my heart thumped against my chest.
“Yep, that was pretty much it.”
I swallowed. “I don’t do needles, Aideen. I just don’t.”
Ryder suddenly moved past Branna and leaned down to me. “What can we do to get you to take the insulin shots?”
“I. Don’t. Do. Needles,” I repeated.
“You don’t,” Aideen butted in, “but I do.”
The room went silent.
“What?” I balked. “What are you saying?”
Aideen leaned forward, and said, “I’ll give ye’ your injections every day. Ye’ let me do it once; will ye’ let me do it every other time, too?”
Everyone in the room looked at Aideen, then I felt their gazes turn to me as they awaited my answer.
“Why would you want to help me?”
She hated me.
Aideen’s lips twitched. “I enjoy arguin’ with ye’, and I need to keep ye’ around for that, so I guess I’m doin’ this for me own selfish needs. Sue me.”
The tension in the room when people chuckled, and I grinned.
“Aideen,” I said. “Thank you, but I don’t—”
“Hey,” she interrupted with a beaming smile. “Me and you?”
I wondered if she knew just how deeply those words rooted in my heart.
I exhaled a deep breath and said, “Me and you.”
“We got this.”
I stared at her for a long time. Every part of my mind screamed at me that no matter what way I looked at the situation, I was still going to be stabbed with a needle, and that scared the life out of me. I tried to assure myself that when Aideen injected me minutes ago, I felt nothing once I focused on her entirely. I wondered if I kept her in my mind’s eye, then maybe, I could get through daily injections. Once it was her handling the needle, I knew I would be in good hands. This fear was rooted in me because of Big Phil, and it shamed me knowing that he had power over me when I swore long ago I wouldn’t allow him to have it. I focused on Aideen and decided then that through her, I would beat this fear and shatter Big Phil’s control over me once and for all.
“Well,” Aideen pressed. “What d’ye say?”
She had no idea of knowing, but she just intertwined her life with mine, and I intended on keeping things that way.