13. Chapter 13
Eamon
Fuck.
Today sucked ass. Nothing was going right with his business, and nothing made sense. Why were all these things happening? Something was up, and he hated that he couldn’t figure it out. None of the supply issues made any sense at all.
He was in the kitchen getting a drink when Kiera came barreling in, screaming. He looked at her, his eyes going wide as he took her in. Blood covered her from head to toe. She was shaking, screaming, seemingly lost.
Grabbing a cold towel, he came over and kneeled in front of her.
“Hey, hey. You’re ok now. You’re safe. Shhh.” He cleaned her face as her screams quieted and turned to gut-wrenching sobs.
“D-Daddy was s-shot and, and Connor and Ryan. So much blood. D-Daphne is g-gone. Everyone is gone. I’m all alone.”
“Shhhh. You’re safe now. We will figure out what happened.”
“Daddy!” she wailed.
“Hey there, Little Bit. I’m here.”
Liam stood there before him, his shirt soaked through. Kiera ran to him and launched herself into his arms, sobbing loudly.
“Daddy! I thought you were dead! There was so much blood.” She cried as he rocked her gently in his arms.
“You’re ok, it’s all going to be ok. I was shot, but I was shot in my shoulder. So we called Dr. Dan and he’s going to come and patch me up. Do you remember Genevieve getting us and bringing us up here?”
“N-no. I just ‘member there being so much blood and then I was here, and I needed to get to Uncle Eamon cause he would fix things. I was so scared.”
By this point, everyone was in the kitchen: Freya, Genevieve, Kellan, Finnean, Rory, and every guard they had on the estate.
Dr. Daniel ran in, taking a quick survey of the room before helping Liam to his office.
Kiera followed closely behind, her sobs echoing in the halls.
Poor girl was going to need therapy. He would make sure he found the best of the best to help her through this.
Someone who understood the lifestyle and was trauma informed.
“Ok. Ok.” He sat on one of the stools at the kitchen island. “Who is dead?”
“Connor and Ryan were the two highest-ranking soldiers. There were four others under them: Liam, Matt, Mike, and Roy. No civilians were injured. It was an attack just on us.” Finnean held up his hand as he got a call and put it on speaker. “You’re on speaker with pretty much everyone. Report. Now.”
“Boss. Six dead. All ours. I pulled surveillance, and it looks like a blonde woman I don’t know approached her first. When she ran to the street, she was pushed into a van that was driven by Callum.
The good news is that it appears she is still alive and her tracker that we put in her ponytail tie has not been discovered and is working.
We are tracking her now. I have a whole team of men following.
We will try to intercept if it is safe. We will take who we can alive, but, with your permission, Daphne is our priority. ”
“Yes. Try to keep everyone alive, but your priority is Daphne. If you cannot intercept, figure out where they are going, pull back, and we will come up with a plan to get her out. But hear me clearly, I want Daphne alive. And Callum, too, if at all possible. Just remember we don’t harm women or children unless absolutely necessary. ”
“Even the blonde?”
“Even the blonde. I will figure out who she is and make her pay in other areas. I may not physically harm her, but that doesn’t mean I won’t make her life miserable for fucking with what is mine.”
“Got it, boss. I’ll call back with an update ASAP.”
Eamon stood up and paced the kitchen, running his hands through his hair.
He couldn’t think clearly but he knew he had a team of men who would stop at nothing to bring Daphne home to him.
People were going to die and it would be slow and very fucking painful.
First, he had to make sure Liam and Kiera were taken care of.
“Freya, would you please go check on Kiera and stick close to her today. If I need you to, please take her to the safe room.”
“Of course, Eamon.” Pausing at the door, she turned to him. “Please bring Daphne home to us.”
“I will. I promise I will.”
Turning to everyone else, he said “Send out an alert to everyone on property. Tell everyone to hunker down where they are. Nobody leaves until I give the clear.”
Once they all left, he steadied himself to make a phone call he didn’t want to make. He took a moment to steady his beating heart, preparing for the impossible conversation ahead. He had to call Damian.
“Hey, Eamon, my sister giving you more gray hairs?”
“I wish it was just that, Damian,” He said in a tight, low voice.
“Tell me.” His voice took a dark edge to it.
“She’s missing. They were in town and six of my men died trying to protect her, but Callum got her.
We put a tracker on her and it’s still working, so we are following.
I have all of my men on it. We will find her.
” There was only silence on the other end of the phone.
Deafening silence. Then Ferris, his husband, was on the line.
“Dude, what the fuck is wrong? Damian looks like he’s going into shock,” Ferris demanded.
“I’m sorry. Daphne is missing. Her ex found her and took her.
We put a tracker in her hair that we are monitoring.
We know where she is going and we are devising a plan to get her back safely.
We will find her. And we will end Callum.
” It was a promise. A vow. He would devote every waking moment to ensuring her safe return. She would come home.
“Fuck. FUCK!” Ferris screamed.
Damian came back on the phone. “Send your plane. I am coming out there.”
“I need you to stay put in case anything comes your way. I promise I will keep you posted. Every update I get, you will get. I will not sleep until she is safe and home. But I need you out there in case they send any sort of ransom to you. We cannot miss anything.”
“You better bring her home. You had better tell me every fucking detail of what is happening, and as soon as you find him, I want to end him.”
“I promise, Damian. I promise I will bring her home.” The line went dead, and that was fine. He knew Damian needed time to process. He wouldn’t let Damian kill Callum for so many reasons; that was his job and his job alone. He would make him suffer.
Rory came in with a folder. “We think we found the girl. Do you think Damian can verify?”
He quickly texted Damian a photo and asked for verification about the girl and if she would have any reason to hurt Daphne. Instead of a response, his phone rang.
“I have Emma here, and she has some information for you.”
“Hey, Emma. Any information you can give us will be super helpful.”
“Hey, Eamon. I hope to meet you soon when you bring Daphne home. But the girl in the photo is Diana. She is a bitch and a cunt and a horrible person. And saying all of that is worth eating soap. I don’t care. I said what I said.”
“Your vocabulary choices are fine, Emma, and I agree with your assessment.” He couldn’t help but smile at her word choice and willingness to accept the consequences.
“She used to be friends with Diana and two other girls, Kayleigh and Rae Lynn. She found out they had a separate group chat where they talked shit about her. Apparently, Diana hated her and wanted Callum. and she was willing to do just about anything to get him. She told me she basically told them all to fuck off, and that’s when Callum got mad and started hitting her.
She didn’t want to tell anyone because she didn’t want anyone going to jail.
He apparently raped her, and she got pregnant, and then he beat her so bad she had a miscarriage.
I promised I would keep her secret, but now I’m thinking that was a terrible mistake. I’m so s-sorry.”
“Hey, Emma. You’re ok. Nobody is mad at you. You were protecting your friend, and that is admirable. Do you know when this happened?”
“It was when she came there. She called me while I was at the ranch and told me what happened and that she was leaving. I told Damian that, but just didn’t tell him everything. I’m sorry, Zaddy.”
He heard Damian talking to her while he tried to figure out what the fuck he was going to do.
Making his way to his office, he finished the conversation.
“Damian, I will let you get to your Little girl. I need to check on Liam and Kiera while my men are tracking her and getting more information. I will call you with any additional information.”
“Thanks, Eamon.” With that, the line went dead.
An eerie silence descended upon them.
It was too quiet.
He missed her laughter that had filled the house. He missed her giggle and sassy attitude. He missed her face. He needed her back safe more than he needed oxygen. At that moment, Finnean walked in.
“Any updates from your men?” he asked Finnean.
“They have tracked her to a warehouse in Whitescar. They have drones up trying to detect heat signatures, but it looks like this is where he is keeping all the girls he has been trafficking.” He pulled up the drone footage on the screens in his office.
They watched as the drone flew high, zooming in to take pictures of the entire building.
“Are there any ways to infiltrate?”
“There are three doors, but they are heavily guarded. We need to be smart about how we go in. We can send a team and take out all the guards simultaneously, but if we just enter from one, they will know before we ever breach the building,” Kellan spoke up.
“Fuck! I wish Colin was here. He’s our tactical expert. I’m going to need him to fucking retire already.”
“I know. He is our expert, but we can do this. I wish we could get someone inside,” Finnean said.
“Pull the permits on the building. See if we can get a layout.”
“I want a viable plan to get her out of there within the hour.” He stood and put his jacket on, adjusting the sleeves. This was his armor, the thing that made him feel as dangerous as he was. Cold and calculating, ruthless when it was called for. “I am going to check on Liam and Kiera.”
Eamon went to the basement to check on Liam.
One of his closest friends was hurt, and he would never forgive himself for that.
The terrified look in Kiera’s eyes would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Standing outside the door, his breathing grew rapid.
He was the Don of the Irish Mafia; he had to pull himself together for everyone.
“Hey, Kiera,” he said softly as he kneeled before her. “How are you doing?”
“Daddy hurt,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes again. He reached up and gently wiped them away. Her eyes were red and puffy, her face shattering his heart.
“I know he is hurt, and I am so sorry he got hurt and that you had to witness that, sweet girl. I am so sorry.” As her tears came faster, he wrapped her in his arms and sat on the bench next to Freya.
“Any updates?” he asked her.
“The bullet was a through and through, so he is just mending the wound. He will be just fine. He will need lots of rest to recover, but he will be fine.”
“You hear that? Your Daddy is going to be just fine, babygirl, just fine.” He was rocking her, repeating the mantra just as much for him as for her. Dr. Dan came in at that moment and pulled up a chair to sit in front of her.
“Are you ready to be the best nurse ever, Kiera?” he asked, smiling at her.
“Uh-huh. I think so. What do I gotta do?”
“Well, he is going to need lots of rest and cuddles and kisses. You can help make sure he always has some fresh water and watch movies with him. Think you can do that?”
“I can do that. Is he really gonna be ok?” Her fear was palpable.
“He is. I was able to patch him up and he will be feeling better in no time. Would you like to see him?”
She nodded, and they all went in the other room where Liam was lying on a bed. His shoulder was wrapped, but he was awake and alert. Kiera went to him and snuggled up in his good arm, crying into his shoulder.
“Liam. I am so sorry, man. So sorry. I had no idea they would do this. I am so sorry I put your Little girl in danger, and you, and all my men. I’m just…I’m sorry.” He hung his head, shame washing over him as he thought of the six men who lost their lives protecting the girls.
“What is the update on Daphne?” Liam didn’t seem to care about himself, just Daphne and his own Little girl.
“We are tracking her. It was smart to put those trackers in the hair ties. We are coming up with a plan to get her, but I want you to focus on your girl and recovering until Dr. Dan gives you the all clear. And then you will take your rightful place in the organization, capo.”
They shook hands, and Eamon left to talk to his men.
He pulled up the footage from town to see what went down. Watching his girl be taken fueled his rage, and he vowed to end Cullen once and for all. This Diana chick…well, he didn’t harm women, but that didn’t mean she would have a comfortable life after all this.
He sat there for a long time going over every detail.
When it got to be too much, he moved to oversee her clothes being moved to his room.
She didn’t know it yet, but after all of this, there wasn’t going to be a choice.
She would be his. It was close to two in the morning when the door to his room busted open.
Rory, Finnean, Kellan, and all the Mason brothers came in.
“We have to go now. The blizzard is going to make it hard for her to survive, and her tracker has her going in the woods. We had the drone up, but we can no longer see her. We have to move. Now.”
Grabbing his gun and jacket, he looked at his men. “Let’s go get my girl.”