Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
“I don’t pay you enough.”
“You’re welcome to give me a raise.”
He snorted. “Consider it done.” There was no point in waiting to contact MacNamara. If Sloan was back in Boston, he doubted the man was far behind her. They wouldn’t have extracted themselves from Teague’s grasp just to go their separate ways.
He dialed, half expecting the man not to answer. Instead, a gruff voice came onto the line. “Who the fuck is this?”
No point in beating around the bush. “Aiden O’Malley.”
“Jesus Christ, you O’Malley men are like cockroaches. How’d you get this number?” Jude cursed. “Scratch that. I don’t give a fuck. What do you want?”
“Tell me why you’re in Boston.”
“Or what?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. Aiden had known it would come down to this.
Sloan had left of her own free will, even if she’d had Teague’s help.
Aiden wasn’t Teague. He didn’t see the best in people, and he sure as fuck didn’t have a white knight complex.
Which is why he believed his sister when she said she chose Jude MacNamara.
Sloan might be sheltered, she might be as innocent as one of their family could get, but she’d sounded alive for the first time since Devlin died.
He had a feeling this man’s presence in her life had something to do with that. “My sister chose you.”
A hesitation. “You tapped Teague’s phone.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
Jude snorted. “I would have whupped his ass for going behind my back and stealing my sister.”
He should have. But then, Aiden’s life would be a lot simpler if that was all Teague had done. “Answer the question.”
“You didn’t ask a question. But yeah, your sister chose me. I’m not letting her go without a fight, and I’m willing to bring that to your front door if you fall in with your idiot brother.”
He wasn’t who Aiden would have chosen for Sloan. But he’d done his homework. Hit man or not, Jude MacNamara had an honorable streak. “They say you never kill someone who doesn’t have it coming.”
“You seem to know a whole hell of a lot for someone I’ve never had a fucking conversation with.” The background noise seemed to indicate he was in a city, which only supported Aiden’s suspicion that Jude had followed Sloan back to Boston. They’re planning something.
The question remained what .
Before he could ask again, Jude spoke. “If your sister told you that she chooses me—that she wants to leave the life she had with your family behind—and that she’s happy with me, would you believe her?”
His first instinct was to react the exact same way Teague had—instant denial.
But Aiden took a step back and tried to think beyond his instinctive desire to protect Sloan.
She’d come back to Boston on her own. She was outside this man’s influence, and even if he didn’t see eye to eye with Carrigan and James, Aiden had no doubt they were more than capable of protecting Sloan if the situation called for it.
“If she tells me face-to-face that she chooses you, I’ll believe her.
” He’d read the truth on her face, one way or another.
“Then you better leave pretty fucking fast. She’ll be at the Sheridan house within thirty minutes. If you let her walk, then we’ll talk.”
Aiden hung up and stood. “Get four men. We’re going to the Sheridans’, and we’re going now.”
It was time to get his house in order.
***
The Sheridans had a decent perimeter set up and regular patrols who mostly managed not to look like patrols, but Jude had been casing the territory for years.
He knew how to get in and get out without being seen.
The house whose window he watched from had been earned with the blood of his first hit.
He hadn’t visited it more than a handful of times over the years, not wanting to risk drawing attention to himself.
A car pulled up to the front of the Sheridan house, expelling a nervous-looking Sloan.
Oh, she looked calm on the outside, but he could recognize the set of her spine and the way she clenched her hands.
She was scared shitless, but hell if she’d let them see.
Pride warred with fear, one wanting to kiss her, and the other wanting to charge down the street and scoop her up, taking her anywhere but here.
She trusted him to do the job and not get killed.
She’d asked him to trust her to get in and out of Sheridan hands without issue.
He was going to respect that.
But he was also going to follow through on his threat if he thought for a second that one of those bastards she called brothers so much as touched her.
Aiden, at least, sounded like he was willing to hear her out, and wasn’t that a strange turn of events?
Jude hadn’t expected a call from the oldest O’Malley brother.
He knew the man was perceptive from his reputation, but apparently he’d underestimated him.
Maybe he’s perceptive enough to be an ally instead of an enemy .
There was only one way to tell for sure.
A grand total of ninety seconds later, two cars slammed to a stop in front of the house, immediately expelling Aiden and five of his men.
He paused and looked up and down the street, which only went to show he had good instincts.
Jude wouldn’t let himself be seen, but it said something that Aiden sensed his presence at all.
His phone rang as the O’Malley group walked into the Sheridan house, and he answered without taking his gaze from the door they’d disappeared through. “What?”
“You’ve traveled to Boston earlier than we discussed.”
He silently cursed. “Aw, Romanov, did you miss me? It’s only been a week. You should have said something. I would have come back sooner.” No reason to let him know that the plan changed .
“Charming.” A careful pause. “I truly hope you’re not planning on double-crossing me, Jude.”
“And let Colm walk? Not likely.” He clenched his jaw, determined not to say more. In order for this to work, Romanov couldn’t know his intentions, which meant playing along.
“Perhaps you should add some of the O’Malleys to that list you have of dead men walking.”
Even though he knew better than to get drawn into a conversation with this man, he said, “And do your dirty work for you? I don’t think so. You can’t afford me.”
“All evidence points to the contrary. I’m paying you to remove Colm Sheridan—something you’d do well to remember.”
“I have certain criteria. The O’Malley men don’t meet it.”
Romanov chuckled. “Not yet. But when they decide to keep your precious Sloan from you? They will. She’s the sweet little sister and you’re a vicious killer. In what world would an O’Malley give their blessing?”
“Funny, but Carrigan gave her blessing. She says ‘hi’ by the way.”
Silence for a beat, and then two. “You’re a clever one, aren’t you?”
He moved to the window and looked out, but nothing had changed. “I like to think so.”
“Then tell me what the O’Malley men will do when they find out Sloan’s carrying your child.” He’d recovered from the Carrigan jab far too quickly, regaining his unruffled tone. “They’ll keep her from you, and they’ll remove the child. You know it’s the truth.”
Jude gripped the phone so tightly, the case creaked.
“You’re a motherfucker, aren’t you?” They might not push her to have an abortion—bastard or no, he didn’t think Teague would go to those lengths—but they would keep her under lock and key and then push her to give the baby up for adoption. No. I won’t allow it .
“As you said, you’re a smart man. Which is why you will be in that apartment with your finger on the trigger in an hour, won’t you?”
“I’ll be there.” Jude was already moving, hustling down the stairs and onto the street.
He could get to the apartment across from the restaurant in twenty.
As much as he wanted to stay here and ensure Sloan got out okay, he didn’t trust Romanov’s timetable any more than he trusted the man himself.
Guess I’m going to get to find out the hard way if Aiden was serious about taking Sloan’s word for it.
“Don’t get any funny ideas, Dmitri. You fuck with me and I’ll kill you.
” Jude disconnected before Dmitri could respond.
Sloan’s brothers wouldn’t hurt her, not in any permanent way. But Teague was already convinced that Jude had brainwashed her, twisting her will into his own. She was outmanned and outgunned, and she would be helpless if the tide of her family turned against her.
A slow burning started in his gut, working outward, scorching away every tendril of humanity Sloan had worked so fucking hard to bring out in him.
He wouldn’t let them take her away from him.
Wouldn’t let them decide the fate of his baby.
He’d already lost too much. He wouldn’t lose her— them —too.
Every instinct he had demanded he turn around and rush back to defend them, the Sheridans be damned.
Up until a week ago, he’d been planning on killing Colm.
What did they matter when weighed against the life of the woman he loved and their child?
I promised Sloan.
That he wouldn’t hurt Callista—or let her be hurt. That he’d stop Romanov. That he’d trust her to do what she needed to do. If he went back now, he’d be breaking her trust and potentially doing irreparable harm to their relationship.
Jude hesitated, torn, and then gritted his teeth and charged forward. He would keep his promise.
But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t weigh things a bit in his favor in the meantime.