To Love A Wild Irishman

Chapter twenty

Chapter Twenty

"I believe it would be, 'you've got a hell of a lot of nerve,' but grammar never was your best talent was it?" Finnegan questioned as he turned to face a man who had sworn he would kill Finnegan if he ever saw him again.

Ezekiel Thompson.

Shite.

It would seem that Ezekiel was just as big, ugly and nasty as Finnegan had remembered. The man stood nearly seven feet tall and had enough layers of muscle and fat on his damn body to hibernate through an arctic winter and still wake up big enough to eat small children. And his face, with all those pock marks and bumps would be what those children's nightmares would have been made of.

"You getting smart with me, you little Irish bastard?" Ezekiel growled.

"No o'course not," Finnegan shook his head and grinned as he grabbed a toothpick from the counter and stuck it between his teeth. "I wouldn't rub your lack of intelligence in your face, Pretty Zeke." Finnegan winked. "Tell me, where is your dear sister these days?"

"How dare you even think about her!" Ezekiel bellowed and he lunged at Finnegan, who easily sidestepped the bigger man. Ezekiel turned and raised his fist but suddenly Cassandra was between the two of them.

Finnegan's eyes widened when Ezekiel went for the punch anyhow and Finnegan grabbed Cassandra, shoving her sideways and taking the hit square on the jaw.

It was as if a bolt of lightning had exploded inside his head. The room blasted with light and stars as he weaved on his feet and fell back, barely managing to grab the bar and hold himself up.

"You nearly hit me, you great oaf!" Cassandra's voice snapped somewhere around him. Finnegan blinked hard, hoping to clear the spots from his vision. He reached for Cassandra, or at least the blurry image he suspected was Cassandra, and she wrapped her arm around him to help him stand straight.

"It would have been your own fault for jumping in between two men fighting!" Ezekiel countered.

Finnegan saw red and lunged at the bigger man. If that punch had hit his Little Cass it very likely could have killed her. Ezekiel had always been an idiot but he was certainly going to pay for that mistake.

Finnegan leapt upon him and punched for all he was worth but if the oak tree of a man felt it then it didn't show. Finnegan swallowed hard as he felt himself caught up in Ezekiel's arms and then he was flying through the air.

"Shite!!" Finnegan yelled just before he crashed into a table, which shattered beneath him and he was sent slamming into the ground.

The air left his lungs in a rush and he could hear chaos around him as the fancy crowd panicked, cried out and took off away from the fight. He could also hear Cassandra calling his name and then he became aware of her crouching over him. "Finn?" her sweet voice whispered. "Finn, are you okay?"

"Never better," Finnegan whispered. He winced at the pain he felt upon taking a breath. Perhaps breathing wasn't quite so important and he could get by without it.

"Good, because they are coming to kick us out as we speak and I am going to kill you myself just as soon as we get outside for getting us thrown out of here!" Cassandra warned.

"Such lovin' words ya speak to me, Little Cass. How is a man to control himself?"

"I'm gonna kill you, Finnegan Callahan!" Ezekiel warned as he strode toward them.

"I'm hearin' a lot of that tonight," Finnegan mumbled. He pushed himself into a sitting position and guarded Cassandra with his arm and shoulder.