Dateless: Collins Brothers, #1

PROLOGUE

Ina

One week ago …

Breathe, Ina. Just breathe.

I repeated the consoling thought as I carefully counted the wad of cash notes in my hand one more time. Three thousand, seven hundred and ninety euros. It was all here. Every single euro I had secretly and meticulously saved over the past five years under the watchful, soulless eyes of both my father and soon-to-be ex-boyfriend. It wasn’t much, not by a long shot, but every cent represented my new beginning, my chance at a new life that included nobody but myself.

With trembling hands, I removed fifteen euros for my train fare from Kildavin, Carlow, to Connolly Station in Dublin’s City Centre before I tucked the rest safely into my purse. I knew the price without giving it a second thought. I had already researched the ticket price online multiple times over the past few weeks as I chose the best departure time window. I couldn’t prepay for my fare with a credit or debit card because I didn’t have either. I had nothing to call my own, bar some clothing, but I knew that was part of the ownership Daddy wielded over me.

He only gave me what I needed to survive, which clearly didn’t amount to much in his mind.

Over the years, it had deeply hurt me how he had never doted on me like a father should with his only daughter, his only child. I had cried myself to sleep many nights because he treated me like nothing more than a house slave, but now that I was so close to ridding myself of my father and the constricting life that I had with him, I found that I was glad he gave me the bare minimum in everything from physical possessions to love and emotional support. It solidified in my mind that the plan I had created to leave was the right one. The only person who could look after me was me. I didn’t want to start another year of my life stuck in the same hole I was wallowing in, so I decided that today, my twenty-seventh birthday, was the day I would start over. I was done leading a life where I merely existed for someone else.

I wanted my independence. I wanted to be my own person, and I was making it happen tonight.

The last train to Dublin left at half past seven, and I planned to be on that train no matter what. I had gone about my day as usual. I woke up before the sun rose, cleaned the house from top to bottom, did a few loads of washing, prepared breakfast, and lunch for my father, hung the washing out on the line, and then worked in the office until it was time to prepare dinner and take the washing in to be folded and put away. I crushed two of Daddy’s sleeping tablets and mixed them into his evening drink. He suspected nothing as he downed his whiskey while he wordlessly ate his dinner. He moved from the kitchen to his parlour.

Within ten minutes, he was sleeping in his recliner with a football match on television.

Hearing Daddy snore was my green light to leg it. Knowing that Finn Baxter, my now ex-boyfriend, would be out with his other girlfriend, the one he had been fucking behind my back for almost a year, the very one he thought I knew nothing about, gave me peace of mind that my getaway would be a clean one. I placed a detailed letter I had written that morning on the kitchen counter next to Daddy’s bottle of whiskey.

In it, I stated I was leaving to start my life over and didn’t want him or Finn to come after me. I outlined that my life with him had been controlling and utterly miserable for as long as I could remember. I underlined that he would never see me again, and this was goodbye. There was no room left for doubt. Daddy would know that I would never come back and that he would be alone in his life and business from this day forth.

I grabbed the handle of my suitcase, tucked strands of my raven black hair behind my ears, then left the house I had grown up in without looking back. It wasn’t until much later, when I disembarked the train at Connolly Station in Dublin’s City Centre, that I realised I was smiling. I felt like I was breathing easily for the first time in my life. I was all on my own, but I wasn’t one bit scared. I was excited.

I was free.

CHAPTER ONE

Date

Present day …

"Date! Ye no good, big-headed, cock nose, fuckin’ eejit! Get up, lad!"

I blindly jumped up from my bed, and the action caused me to tangle my flailing limbs up in my duvet. With nowhere else to go but down, I promptly fell from my soft haven to the hardwood floor with a loud thud.

That bloody hurt. Burning pain flooded my shoulder, hip, and thigh. Christ, it feels like I’ve been shot.

I imagined the throbbing pain I felt was something similar to a bullet cutting through flesh.

Good, the familiar voice of my eldest brother hissed. I’m glad it did because it saves me the hassle of kickin’ your pathetic arse from here down to me truck.

Big brother was pissed.

What’d I do, JJ? I asked with a groan as I pushed myself to my feet, catching my falling duvet by cupping my bollocks and holding it against me. It was a feeble attempt at modesty because I was naked as the day I was born. It caused James Collins—aka JJ, my eldest brother—to shake his head in annoyance. He didn’t look a bit surprised to find me in such a state of undress, only irritated if his intense scowl was anything to go by.

"You’re two hours late for work, dickhead."

JJ wasn’t just my eldest brother; he was my manager at work too.

I was the middle child in a family of five children. I had two older brothers—JJ was thirty-five, and Harley was thirty-three—then there was my younger sister, Aideen, who was thirty-one. Last but not least came the baby of the family, Gavin, who was twenty-six. We were a close-knit group, and apart from Aideen, who was happily married with children, we were all single and partial to overindulging in women when the mood struck.

My brothers and I were mechanics in our family-owned garage, Collins Auto Repair, which had the clever abbreviation of C.A.R. Our father had opened the place in ’86, and all of my brothers worked there. I started my apprenticeship under my father at the garage when I was sixteen and became a fully qualified mechanic when I was twenty. Between my time as an apprentice and working as a qualified mechanic, I was running on sixteen years at the place.

I blinked dumbly at my brother. I am?

D’ye think I’d be here if ye weren’t? The corners of JJ’s mouth turned downwards as he frowned. I came by to make sure ye weren’t dead in your bed. I told meself if you were okay, I was gonna deck ye.

I promptly took a step backwards.

Please, don’t, I implored. I’m fragile this mornin’.

JJ rolled his eyes skyward but didn’t make good on his promise to punch me, much to my relief. I glanced at the clock on the wall behind my brother, and when I saw the time was ten past eleven, I winced. I looked back at JJ and hoped I looked as sincere as I felt when I said, Mate, I’m sorry. I slept through me alarm.

That baffled me because my alarm was on the highest volume setting on my phone and was sure to wake the dead when it went off. With that in mind, I looked around for the smart device and grabbed it from my nightstand when I spotted it. I frowned when I saw it was switched off. My nightly—and morning—adventures came rushing back to me in that instant as I thought about the blonde woman I had pulled down at the local pub last night.

The blonde, I thought out loud. The woman I brought home last night. She must’ve silenced it this mornin’, then switched it off before I woke up and noticed.

My brother folded his arms across his chest. I hope ridin’ her was worth it.

I thought about my wake-up call with the voluptuous temptress and how after I tongued her clit and made her come, she sucked my cock like a black hole, then rode me like a cowgirl until I came so hard I saw stars.

"So worth it, man. I pumped my brows. She woke me up with her fanny directly on me mouth and—"

Date. JJ held up one hand. "I really don’t need to know a play-by-play of how ye fucked another poor soul this mornin’. Please, spare me how ye tongued yet another pub crawler."

I smirked at the nickname he had imprinted on me.

When I was sixteen, he jokingly called me Date instead of Dante in front of my school friends because I was with a different girl just about every night of the week, and it rapidly caught on and stuck. I thought it was a fitting nickname. It meant I was the man with the ladies, and who wouldn’t want to be the man? At thirty-two, I was still a free agent and fucking beautiful women whenever it saw me fit. I had a wild life, and I loved every second of it.

I’m sorry, I repeated to my brother. I’ll shower, get dressed, and be good to go in ten minutes.

"Sound. You’re pullin’ overtime without pay for this."

That was fair.

With that said, JJ left my bedroom and ventured down the hallway. I dropped my duvet from my body, switched on my phone, and put it on charge before heading into my bathroom.

"Jaysus, Date. I don’t need to see that much of ye."

JJ was leaving the kitchen with a protein bar in his hand, and he pointedly looked at the floor as he went into the sitting room, which caused me to snort. Sorry.

Seeing me in all my naked glory was the risk of coming into my apartment, much to my brother’s displeasure.

I hated wearing clothes, and everyone knew it. Most of the time, I got away with wearing just trousers or my boxer briefs when I was around my family. As of late, I stuck to always wearing trousers around my nephews because they’d slap or punch my dick when they were sitting on my lap. They were little lads, but they didn’t understand the importance of having a cock yet, and since they played with their own all the time, they figured every other man’s was free game, too.

I was hell-bent on changing that view as they grew older.

Rapidly, I followed my triple S procedure. Shite, shave, and shower. I patted my skin with a towel, brushed my teeth, and slapped on some lotion and deodorant before returning to my bedroom and getting dressed.

JJ, I hollered as I eyed my work jumper. Is it warm out?

It was early June. Summer was fast approaching in Ireland, and already it had been unusually warm for our fair island.

Yeah, he answered. I took off me jumper when I pulled into the car park. I was sweatin’ buckets. It’s twenty-five degrees out. Fuckin’ boilin’.

What was mild weather for other countries was hell on earth for us Irish folk. After lacing my boots and straightening my work T-shirt, I slid my phone into my back pocket.

JJ! I shouted, ruffling my hair. I’m good to go, bud.

Ye haven’t even eaten yet. He walked out of my sitting room looking like my aul fella’s twin when he frowned. Ye’ll be starvin’ in an hour.

I shrugged. I’ll get somethin’ from the deli in the village durin’ lunch.

If Aideen was here, she’d be convinced ye were starvin’ yourself.

Tell me about it.

My sister meant well, but she could be a lot to deal with. She became a mother hen to my brothers and me when she was just a baby herself. Our mother passed away because of childbirth complications when Gavin was born, and Aideen took on her role as she grew up. Taking care of all of us was part of who she was. I truly believed she’d have a breakdown if that was taken away from her.

JJ and I left my apartment and pulled up to the garage fifteen minutes later.

The building was huge. Initially, it was a simple garage with a service and overhaul area that could fit three cars at a time, then my father bought the bigger lot next door and expanded our business. Construction had only finished last year. Our holdings for vehicles inside the garage had more than tripled, and the garage floor was one huge space we called the hangar. A large back room off the hangar kept most of the smaller inventory. The back wall of the hangar had floor-to-ceiling racks stocked with dozens of different tyre brands and sizes. There were now ten service bays in total, and each bay had its own double-wide entrance and a four-post car lift at its centre.

The reception area was no longer a small room with a line of cramped seating against the wall. It was an elegant foyer that looked like it belonged in the lobby of a fancy company. The reception was decked out with a ten-seated waiting area. A fifty-inch plasma screen was mounted on the wall and listed the customers’ names and vehicle status, so those who hung around to wait could see the stage of their repair and the estimated completion time. There were both male and female toilets, and a long hallway that led to the staff room, a second storage room, an employee toilet, and my father’s office.

I saw Harley in the pit of bay one, working on the underside of a raised truck while my baby brother, Gavin, was glaring at me from across the hangar while holding a flex-head ratchet awfully tight in his hand. He looked like JJ when he was mad. We all looked like JJ, who looked like our father, but Gavin was really my eldest brother’s double.

Why d’ye look like you’re about to lob that at me, little brother?

Gavin grinned menacingly. ’Cause I’m thinkin’ ’bout it real hard, cum drop.

I locked my eyes on his and silently dared him to throw the tool because he knew well how that altercation would go down. He would only get one chance to hit me with that ratchet, then I’d have all the time in the world to shove my foot up his arse, and he knew it. Gavin’s left eye twitched as he sighed and placed the tool on a trolley next to him, making me snort. Gavin was a lot of things, but a fighter wasn’t one of them … or at least he wasn’t when it came to fighting me.

What’d I do to piss ye off? I quizzed. "I literally just got here."

That’s the fuckin’ problem, dumbarse. Gavin rolled his eyes. "Ye were supposed to help me clear yesterday’s backlog, but I had to do it meself because ye were … what were ye doin’ that caused ye to be so late?"

I beamed a smile in response, and Gavin couldn’t help but laugh.

Ye were with a woman. He shook his head. I should’ve feckin’ known.

He really should have.

She turned off me phone, so I missed me alarm.

Why’d she go and do that?

My grin deepened. I told her last night that I had to be out of me apartment at twenty to nine to make it to work at nine, and she obviously didn’t want that to happen, so she turned me phone off and woke me up with sex. I fell asleep again after she left without checkin’ me phone, and I didn’t stir until JJ woke me.

"As far as excuses go, it’s not terrible."

I leaned against a post of the nearest lift.

I couldn’t make this shite up if I tried, fella.

I flinched when I heard a sudden wail come from the reception.

"Who was that?"

Jax, Gavin answered. "He’s bein’ a little shite today, and Aideen’s just about had it up to here with him. Locke is so chill. He just stares at them like they’re a pair of spanners. I don’t know how Kane copes. I’m losin’ the run of it, and I don’t even live with them."

I stared at him blankly.

"That’s not very comfortin’, considerin’ you are gonna be the first Collins’ daddy."

Gavin was twenty-six, the pampered baby of my family, and he was about to become a father for the first time. He had gotten a woman pregnant when they had a fling a few months ago, and now he would have to deal with the responsibility of having unprotected sex. I figured it was better him than me because I could never imagine myself with kids. The idea seemed too far-fetched.

I was thirty-two, and my longest relationship wasn’t even a relationship. I was a fuck buddy to a woman who I thought I could have a future with, but I wasn’t the man she was supposed to end up with. She had him, he had her, and I had endless one-night stands, which was fine. It wasn’t like I even wanted a real relationship, anyway. I didn’t have the time for any of that rubbish.

Keep telling yourself that.

Gavin raised an eyebrow. I swung by your gaf last night but left before even knockin’ ’cause I thought I heard a woman screamin’ daddy". So it looks like I’m not the first daddy in our family, after all."

I burst into laughter, and my brother followed suit. He was taking the piss because our apartments were close to soundproof, and he knew it. That was the benefit of living in a top-of-the-line apartment building owned by your brother-in-law.

"I can handle me own kid, Gavin continued. I love our nephews, God knows I do, but Jax is a little torment. I swear he bullies me, too. He’s like the Slater twins, a loose fuckin’ cannon."

I snickered at the mention of our nephew’s other uncles as I shoved my brother away and jogged to the reception. I entered the foyer and lingered by the doorway for a moment. I watched my little sister—she was only a year younger than me, but she was still little—with her husband, Kane Slater, and felt my lips curve upward when I saw how she gazed up at him. She always had that same sappy love-drunk expression on her pretty face whenever she saw the man, and I was always amused by it. I wondered if I looked the same way at cars—scratch that; I knew I looked the same way at vehicles. Engines were my one true love, and everyone knew it.

Every. One.

It’d take some woman to take that spot … a hell of a woman.

CHAPTER TWO

Date

Date.

I jumped when Kane suddenly said my name, making him snort. Aideen put Jax down, and he instantly took off at a run down the hallway that led towards the office. My sister all but sprinted after him. The tiny terror fell over and let out a wail. I heard my father soothing him, but all the boy wanted was his ma. Kane crossed the room to me and shook my hand in greeting.

What’s happening, man? he asked. D’you think you’ll figure out what’s wrong with the car today?

Kane Slater, my mind pondered. Where did I start when it came to him?

I had known him for a few years. He knocked my little sister up, then dated and eventually married her. I knew him before he and my sister got involved, too. He was a big man who looked menacing. Scars, both thick and thin, marred his face, neck, and even his hands and arms. When he wasn’t smiling, he looked like he was furious at the world.

I’d admit, even after years of knowing him, I still caught myself staring at him longer than what was deemed polite every so often, but it was only because he had so many nasty scars that sometimes I wondered how he survived receiving them. I’d once asked Aideen how he had received them, and she told me it was in his past, and since then, I had never mentioned it again.

It was clearly a sticky subject.

Intimidating looks aside, he was a good man. He made my sister happier than I had ever seen her, and he was a hell of a father to my nephews, Jax and Locke. I got on well with him, but that wasn’t always the case. When I first met the Slater brothers, I thought they were a bunch of cocky sons of bitches because they carried on like they were God’s gift to women. I still thought that, but past fighting between us aside, I got on well with all of them, bar one.

Damien Slater.

I couldn’t stand the wank stain.

A little bit of me hated him because he was going out with Alannah Ryan. I had a four-month fling with her a while back. It was the longest I had ever spent fucking one woman on the regular. It was never anything that serious—we were both up front that it was just casual sex—but in a way, I caught a few feelings as it was the only not-really-a-relationship kind of relationship that I had ever had.

During our time together, she was the only woman I fucked, which wasn’t like me. I’d be the first to admit that I was a bit, or a lot, of a slut. My only interest in women was sex, but Alannah was different. I liked her, and I often thought I would have eventually tried to have a real relationship with her if she permitted it, but it didn’t get that far.

Damien was the man she was always meant to be with, but because I had sex with her, it obviously meant Damien hated my guts when he found out. We were matched when we fought the day he confronted me about it at work six or so months ago. We beat the fucking shite out of one another in the garage hangar, and it quickly ended my sexcapades with Alannah because nothing was worth dealing with a pissed-off Slater brother.

Not even a sweet beauty like her could save me from that headache.

Date!

I jumped. Again.

What?

"Bro, you completely spaced out. Kane’s lips twitched. Am I that boring to talk to?"

Yeah. I cocked my head to the side. Ye should work on that.

You’re a huge dick.

"No. I have a huge dick. Learn the difference."

If you really want to know what a huge cock looks like, just ask your sister. She deals with mine every single ni— Kane cut himself off as he scrambled away from me, his laughter low and rumbling, when I grabbed a wrenched from the nearest tool trolley. Shit. You were really gonna hit me with that, weren’t you?

I shrugged. Still thinkin’ ’bout doin’ it, to be honest.

Kane held both of his hands up in surrender. I’m bowing out. It’s been over a year since I’ve been in a fight, and I’m not ruining that streak now.

Ye rotten liar, I scowled. Ye punched me in the face a few months ago.

Kane lowered his arms. I gave you a little love tap.

A little love tap, my bollocks. I practically saw stars when he hit me.

Ye lyin’ sack of shite. Ye full force clocked me in the jaw.

"You were beating on my baby brother right in front of me. What was I supposed to do?"

I rolled my eyes. Let him square away his own shite, maybe?

Kane scratched his neck. It’s hard when it comes to Damien, he said. We’re all very protective of him, but we’re learning boundaries now.

I snapped my fingers. "That’s exactly why I fought him the very first night we met at the club. Ryder hit JJ, and boom, brothers to the rescue."

That was my first introduction to the Slater brothers. Years ago, in a club called Darkness, we got into a fight with them. It was before they all settled down, got married, and started having babies. It was still a sore topic because we rarely agreed on why the fight started. FYI, it was because of a fucking Slater.

Kane rubbed his jaw. I can still feel the solid Harley landed on me that night.

It was brutal. JJ got the better of Ryder, you had one up on Harley, I flattened Damien, Nico downed me, and Gavin got the shite kicked out of him by Alec. It’s why none of us would back down. Aideen says our egos were too big to allow it.

"I’m so glad I didn’t know her then. Kane shivered with fear. She’d have whooped my ass up and down the country after what Ry caused."

Aha! I shouted, pointing the wrench in my hand at him. "So, ye admit it was your brother who started it?"

Of course. Kane shrugged. It was because of Gavin and Dominic fightin’ over Bronagh when they were all in school. It started out calm until JJ forced Ry’s hand, though.

How?

By being a huge dick.

I can’t argue with ye there.

We both laughed.

Ye said somethin’ was wrong with your car? I inquired. I just got here, so fill me in.

Kane glanced at the huge custom clock over the reception my father had made with our business logo at the centre. It was made from a black car tyre. In place of numbers were different miniature car models, and the hands of the clock were wrenches.

It’s a bit late to be clocking in, isn’t it?

I had … an appointment this mornin’.

"What kind of appointment?"

"The five-foot-eleven, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, big tits, big arse, big everythin’ kind."

Ah, a pussy appointment. Kane waved a hand. I’m a married man. The only tits and ass I need is—

"Kane, she’s your wife, but she will always be me little sister. Never talk about her breasts or bum in a sexual manner, or any manner, in me presence, are we clear?"

Clearing his throat to cover up an obvious chuckle, he said, We’re clear.

I clapped my hand on his shoulder, then we went into the hangar so I could assess his car that was parked in bay two. Kane filled me in on the problems he’d been having, and I had an idea of what could be the issue.

Date, what’re ye doin’? JJ hollered from across the hangar when I popped the bonnet of Kane’s car. That’s not on your log.

I’m just havin’ a look to see what the problem is.

Kane folded his arms across his chest. "I still can’t believe your nickname is Date."

Neither can I since I never go on them.

JJ walked over to us.

"The N should’ve been left off his name at birth because Date suits him better. He has more bedpost notches than me, Harls, and Gav put together, which is sayin’ somethin’ because Gavin and Harley fuck like rabbits. They’re always with women."

Kane raised a brow. And you’re not?

JJ glanced away. The engine is actin’ up?

If Kane noticed the not-so-subtle subject change, he didn’t mention it. Neither did I. I wanted to, though. I couldn’t remember the last time JJ pulled a woman on a night out or when he last bothered to try. God, it’d been ages now that I thought about it. I didn’t understand his self-imposed drought, and I was waiting for the right moment to bring it up, but that obviously wasn’t now.

Kane nodded to JJ’s question. Yeah, Aideen said it took a long time for the engine to get up to speed on the highway, then the check engine light came on. I just want to get it fixed, then I’ll upgrade the car to a new model by trading this one in.

He could do that without blinking because the man was loaded. And not a modest rich, he was rich rich. Wealthy. He was the CEO businessman of Slater Property Development and owned a bunch of hugely successful apartment complexes. Everything about the apartments of The Peak was top of the line. I knew because I lived in one, and so did my brothers. A nice perk of being close to my brother-in-law was we got a state-of-the-art home for slum rent prices.

I’ll switch the car onto his log. JJ jerked his thumb in my direction. He’ll fix it for ye. He can fix anythin’ when it comes to engines.

Kane bumped fists with me. Thanks, bro.

We all turned and looked towards the reception when Aideen’s voice rose an octave.

Jax! she shouted. "Ye don’t put screwdrivers in your mouth. D’ye hear me? They’re dirty. No! Put. Them. Down … Jax! You’re gettin’ on me last nerve today. Ye better wind your neck in, boyo. I said no! Jax Daniel Slater!"

Little nephew just got full named. He was in trouble.

That kid is going to drive her insane, Kane said. He tests her constantly.

I winced. I feel for ye, mate.

Why d’ye feel for him?

I put an innocent smile on my face and turned to face my sister.

Because the car will be out of action for a few hours while I fix it.

Aideen frowned. What’s wrong with it?

Faulty oxygen sensor, I said even though I hadn’t looked at the engine yet. Easily sorted.

Aideen nodded, but an expression of sadness marred her pretty face.

Ado, what’s the matter?

"Everythin’! I was caught off guard when she suddenly burst into tears. One of me kids at school called me smelly, and it’s made me self-conscious all day even though I showered this mornin’ and had on clean clothes. I’m so tired, too. I can’t remember the last time I slept the night through, and me nipples are killin’ me from feedin’ Locke. That child is always hungry, and he never gives me a minute to meself. Jax doesn’t listen to me, and I kicked Kane out of bed this mornin’. Me husband could’ve died. I could’ve killed him."

JJ and I looked at Kane, who was trying his hardest not to smile.

It was an accident, baby doll. I’ve told you that, he soothed. Don’t stress about it. I’m fine. Perfectly perfect.

My sister cried harder when Jax called out for her from our father’s office, where our da had him and his brother in their travel playpen that we kept on-site for when the boys were here. Without a second thought, I stepped forward to gather Aideen up in my arms and held her while she wept. It gutted me when she cried. It was one of the few things in this world that undid me. My sister was the light of my life, and seeing her so out of sorts was harrowing for me.

Here, listen. How about I take Jax and Locke tonight so you and Kane can have a chilled date night? I offered with a teasing grin when I looked down at her. Think of all the sleep—or ridin’—ye can do when they aren’t there.

Yes, Kane blurted. "Think of it, baby doll."

JJ laughed and punched him in the shoulder. My sister looked up at me with her big teary blue eyes. Ye don’t mind lookin’ after them? she quizzed. It’s a Friday.

A night in with me nephews beats the local and sex with a pub crawler. I winked. "Besides, I’ll just pull double duty tomorrow night."

That made everyone chuckle, even my sister.

Thanks, Dante, she said and gave me a tight squeeze. I appreciate it, honey.

She never called me Date, and while I wore the nickname with pride, I liked that she didn’t use it. Dante sounded better when it came from her. It didn’t make me sound like the man, just her big brother instead.

"Pump