Chapter 38 Flynn
FLYNN
The days following Kaia waking up pass in a calm bliss that has never touched the Gallagher estate until now.
I give her time with her doctor to explain the extent of her injuries, including the scar tissue around her throat, which has added a subtle sexy rasp to her voice, the slow recovery of her hand, and the surgery she had while unconscious that dealt with resetting her fingers and fixing what they could.
Given the extent of the damage, the real truth about her hand comes when the bandages are removed and she’s able to tell the doctor exactly what she’s feeling.
Unfortunately, she loses all sensation in her index and middle fingers, and I hold her tightly through the tears that come under the weight of the news.
Thankfully, she retains full mobility and sensation in the rest of her hand, and all other injuries, including the lacerations across her body and the gunshot wound to her leg, have healed well.
For the first week since she came back to us, nightmares plague her and somehow, without any discussion, Kaia ends up spending one night in my bed while I soothe her back to sleep and then she never leaves, not that I have any complaints about that.
Frank watches over her, and the twins are careful in managing their excitement when Kaia’s back up and around and joining us for meals and more.
But as sweet as watching them together is, there’s still a cloud hanging over us that I need to deal with, so one warm evening after the twins have been put to bed, I find Kaia out on the patio resting on a lounger and staring out over the gardens toward the lake.
“Kaia?” I voice my arrival so as not to startle her.
She lowers her sunglasses and peeks up at me. “Hi.”
“You okay?”
“Mhm. I’m just…I dunno. Enjoying feeling the sun on me as it sets and listening to the noise from the lake. I think someone’s having a party. I can hear music.”
“Doesn’t surprise me.” Sitting on the sun lounger next to her, I rest my elbows atop my knees and clasp my hands together. “Kaia… There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
Her sunglasses, halfway back to covering her eyes, are removed completely and she slowly folds them as she watches me. “Is it bad?”
I nod slowly. “It could be seen that way.”
“Am I in trouble?”
My brows lift. “No! Not at all, not at all. I’m sorry, I should have led with that.”
She puffs her cheeks slightly but doesn’t look entirely convinced. “Okay.”
“It’s about your brother.”
Kaia’s expression darkens instantly and she slowly sits up. “Oh.”
“You…haven’t asked about him.”
“I didn’t really want to think about him,” she admits. “Has he done something?”
There’s no easy way to say it, so I just come out with it.
“I killed him.” The words drift in the air between us.
“As soon as Eva came home, actually. I was…angry. And scared for you and I was sick of him being here so I…I killed him.” My stomach churns slightly as I brace for whatever reaction she brings my way.
He was still her brother, regardless of anything else.
“Good,” Kaia says softly. “I’m glad.”
Our eyes meet. “Really?”
She nods. “He doesn’t deserve to be called my brother any more than that monster deserved to be called uncle. I hoped you’d left him to rot down there, but I was also too scared to ask because I didn’t want to have to deal with him if he was alive.”
“He’s definitely not alive. I poisoned him and watched him die a slow, painful death.
His remains have been buried with Antov’s underneath the rubble of his estate, and we’re working with a conservationist to turn the area into a nature park of some kind.
I’m a little loose on the details, but the idea is to turn it into something good for the birds and the animals. Frank is handling it.”
Kaia’s eyes dip down to her hands and she remains silent for a long few moments, tracing the deep scars across the back of her hand.
“I also…” I continue softly. “I want to clear up two things. The first is that I know you still harbor hatred for me because of what happened to your aunt. We were able to tie her directly to the slavery ring your Un—Antov—was working with, but despite that it wasn’t us who killed her.”
Her eyes dart up. “It wasn’t?”
I shake my head and quickly pull up Frank’s report on my phone then hand it to her. “She was shot but not by one of our guns. I can’t say who it was but in any case, I wanted to find out so I could apologize if it was one of my men who took her life.”
She studies the file in silence and then her lips press together.
“It must have been Vic. I had a gun that night and he took it. I thought it was to protect himself but maybe…maybe he was killing witnesses to Eva or something. I don’t know.
” Her brows dip. “I’m glad she’s dead. I’m glad they all are.
” Yet, as she speaks, there’s a glimmer of sadness in her eyes.
“Your friend…Anya.”
Kaia tenses. “Vic said he set off the explosions.”
“I’m sorry, Kaia. I never intended for any innocents to get harmed when I chased him down. I was angry that night, blinded by…so much. If it wasn’t for me, Vic would never have set off the explosions, and I take responsibility for that because she was innocent.”
Tears glitter in Kaia’s eyes, but I’m not done with the bad news yet.
“Mostly innocent.” I pause, watching Kaia’s shoulders drop.
“I had my people delve deep into her background. Anya was hired by Vic, yes, but she had no criminal ties outside your family, had no involvement in any of the family businesses. It seems she really was hired to keep you company, perhaps distracted but…she was good. Decent.”
Kaia’s hand moves to her mouth as her lower lip wobbles. “She…she was my best friend.”
“I know,” I murmur. “I’m truly, truly sorry that she lost her life that night, that your family ruined another thing that is supposed to be good. With your blessing, we were going to name the nature park after her so that she will always be remembered.”
Kaia sits up properly and turns to face me. “That’s so sweet.”
“Do you want us to do that?”
She nods quickly. “That’s…that’s kind of funny actually,” she says with a soft laugh, wiping her eyes. “Anya ending up on top while my family rots in the ground and nurtures nature above. Kind of poetic, really.”
“I’m sorry, Kaia. If I could go back—.”
“Don’t.” Kaia sniffles and hands my phone back to me, but as I take it she catches my wrist and uses that grip to hold my arm wide enough for her to slide into my lap and press me back into the sun lounger.
“I won’t pretend that I don’t miss Anya every day and it hurts that she’s gone, but you didn’t murder her.
She didn’t die by your hand because you wanted her dead.
It was Vic’s fault. He’s the coward who brought that mess to our home that night. I don’t blame you. I don’t hate you.”
Pocketing my phone, I rest both my hands on Kaia’s hips and stroke the fabric of her long, loose skirt as it bunches around her thighs. “I’m still sorry. I never, ever want to be the cause of your pain.”
“My pain?” Kaia leans down and captures my lips in a sweet, soft kiss that’s slightly damp from the few tears that managed to escape.
“The fact that you’re here, telling me this?
That you’ve already got a plan to honor Anya?
You’ve spent more time listening to me and caring for me than anyone else in my life or my family.
” Each sentence gets punctuated by a soft, slow kiss.
“Should we discuss the few of your family businesses we didn’t burn down?” I ask between the kisses. “I kept a handful in case you wanted to salvage anything.”
“Burn them,” Kaia murmurs against my lips, kissing me slowly. “I don’t want anything to do with them.”
“All of them?”
“Mhm. Nothing survives.” Her kisses gradually grow deeper and longer with both her hands resting lightly on my chest. “The rats in my family strove to be powerful gods. I want them forgotten.”
“Your wish is my command.” She can ask anything of me and I’ll grant it.
There’s nothing in the world I won’t give her.
If she wants to start her own business, then I’ll help her.
If she wants to get her hands dirty on the criminal side of things, then I will be by her side.
If she wants to do nothing but live in safety and luxury, then I will grant that too.
Over the years, people have commented on my unwillingness to compromise and my unrelenting focus on my daughters.
Adding Kaia to the mix just makes me even more determined to secure the Gallagher name as unshakeable.
All of that melts away as Kaia’s kisses grow more and more insistent, and my heart begins to race.
The extent of her trauma and recovery made me rule out every getting close to her again, but now she’s in my lap with her fingers lazily stroking my chest and her tongue’s sneaking past her lips to lick across the seam of my mouth.
I can’t ignore the heat it ignites within me.
“Kaia,” I warn softly. “Not that I’m not enjoying every second of this, but I have to warn you, if you keep going then I’m going to get turned on.”
Kaia leans up at me and pouts softly. “You mean you’re not already?”
Oh.
Oh.
With her intentions blatantly clear, the next kiss is deeper from both of us, but I follow Kaia’s movements and let her maintain control.
Whatever she’s comfortable with, I’ll give her, but there’s no denying the heat surging through my veins or the near-instant rise of my cock when her hips roll down against me.
“You know,” Kaia whispers against my lips as her good fingers move down my shirt and pop open the buttons. “I think I might love you too.”
“You think?” I gasp as she slides her hands over my bare chest.
“Still working it out,” she murmurs, kissing me so hard that our noses smush together. “I’ll let you know.”
“Please do,” are the last coherent words past my lips because everything dissolves into utter desire for the gorgeous woman in my lap.
I caress her body and slip my fingers under her blouse, tracking her movements as I lovingly stroke and touch every inch that I can reach. Kaia continues to rock down on me, teasing my already aching cock.
From the smirk that mingles into our kiss, I know she can feel how hard she makes me.
It’s her goal, it seems, because soon her hand abandons the patterns she’s tracing on my chest, and she rises up onto her knees that are placed on either side of my hips.
She reaches under her skirt and blinds me by peppering light kisses all over my throat and forcing my head back into the lounger’s cushions.
I track her movements in my mind’s eye. Her hands on my belt and tugging at the zipper.
The warmth of her touch slipping into my boxers and pushing them down far enough to grasp my cock.
She gasps against my lips as she wraps one hand around my length and my hips punch up with a mind of their own, drawing a giggle from Kaia’s throat.
Then she’s shifting over me and suddenly the slick, wet kiss of her pussy against the tip of my cock gives me the only warning to her plan.
A sexy, hot, wet plan that sinks down around my cock with such a teasing pace it’s a wonder I don’t cum there and then.
By the time Kaia’s fully seated on my cock, I’m panting harshly and my heart’s pounding wildly in my chest.
My hands caress her waist and her thighs, stroking back and forth as Kaia adjusts her position and clenches around me.
“Comfy?” I groan out as more of a sound than a word.
Kaia laughs and cups my face with both her hands. “Amazingly so.”
She rises me slowly, maintaining complete control over the pace and power of her hips. Behind her, the sun sets low over the lake and turns the sky copper while giving Kaia the most alluring backdrop I’ve ever seen in my life.
With the sunset behind her, she places one hand on the middle of my chest and throws her head back, letting her soft moans carry in the wind.
She’s glowing, utterly glowing, and her beauty takes my breath away.
Her green eyes are the most vibrant I’ve ever seen them, her smile is the most free and she rides me without a care in the world.
I never want this moment to end.
I ache to capture it in my mind’s eye forever and replay it over and over so I never forget how beautiful she looks and how fucking good she makes me feel.
As my orgasm crests, Kaia leans into my chest and kisses me hard, sliding one arm around my neck to pull me close while moaning sweetly into my mouth.
This moment will never end, and love surges in my heart as I draw her tightly against me and hold her through the quakes of pleasure that consume her.
In this moment, and every moment after, I’m the richest man alive.