Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Killian
He watched as father and daughter reunited, Aria rushing into Braden’s arms with a choking sob that tugged at Killian’s heart. Convinced as he was that he’d done the right thing, he still hated to see a woman cry.
Well, unless those tears were from a well-deserved spanking or because he’d pushed her past her limits in bed. Those tears he savored, tokens of a job well done in either case.
“Are you all right? Are you hurt?” Pulling back from his daughter, but still keeping her locked in his embrace, Braden ran his gaze over her. “Did he hurt you, Aria?”
Insult pricked at his chest. He supposed he couldn’t blame Braden for asking under the circumstances, but hearing his supposed best friend question his integrity on that front stung more than he cared to admit.
Aria shook her head. “No, no he didn’t hurt me.” A delightful pink blush stole across her cheeks, and he wondered if she was remembering being over his knee, stubbornly refusing to so much as whimper as he’d reddened her bare bottom.
If she was, she kept that information to herself, which amused him. Even now, kidnapped and held hostage by a literal mob boss, she was too embarrassed to admit she’d been spanked.
Adorable, really.
Rising from his chair, Killian rounded the table and gestured to the deep leather couch pressed up against the wall of his office. “Please, have a seat, both of you. Lunch should be here shortly.”
Fury burned hot in Braden’s pale eyes as he moved, shoving Aria behind him, his lip curling up in a snarl. “We’re leaving.”
“You’re welcome to try. But you won’t get very far.”
Some of the color leached from Braden’s cheeks. “You can’t keep us here, Killian.”
“I think you’ll find I absolutely could if I wanted to.
” Settling in the plush armchair he preferred over the couch, he let the smile come, slow and easy.
“There are more than a dozen guards stationed around my home. And while they currently have strict orders to ensure no harm comes to either you or your daughter, one word from me and that all changes. Try and take her from me, and I will give them that word.”
There were times in a negotiation where it was vital to push, hard, to force the person on the other side of the table to admit defeat. And then there were times when patience was indeed a virtue, when waiting someone out was the most effective strategy.
This moment was the latter, no matter what it cost him.
And letting that silence stretch, knowing that Braden’s mind would be playing through all the possible consequences his defiance might inspire, cost Killian a great deal indeed. It was an ache in his chest, knowing he was sacrificing one of the few true friendships he had to keep his woman safe.
But he was rewarded for his patience, and his sacrifice, when Braden moved to perch stiffly on the couch.
Shifting his attention away from the man he’d once considered a brother, he met Aria’s gaze and raised a single brow.
Your move, princess.
Like her father, she moved to the couch and sat, her back poker-straight.
It was a bit eerie, seeing them side by side like that, looking so fucking similar he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t seen the resemblance before he’d bedded her.
Their lives would all certainly be much less complicated now if he had.
But he couldn’t bring himself to regret a single moment of that night, even if it had led them here.
“Thank you.” Just because he’d used some rather unconventional means to get them to heed him didn’t mean manners had to go out the window.
“Braden, as I explained on the phone, I gave you and Aria both what I felt was ample time for you to come to terms with the seriousness of our situation. Not only has she refused to quit working for a dangerous man, neither of you have taken any precautions to protect her. For nearly a week now, I have observed her leaving her apartment building and walking a mile to work, completely open and vulnerable to attack. Which I demonstrated today by having my cousins pluck her off the street without so much as breaking a sweat.”
Anger still simmered in his veins at the thought of how careless they’d both been, but he kept his voice calm without letting a hint of that emotion show.
The same could not be said for his friend.
“The only thing you’ve demonstrated to me is that I should have listened to my brothers when they told me to keep you away from the club. After years of defending you to them, to everyone, this is how you repay me? Fuck you, Killian.”
“I’m repaying you by keeping your daughter safe.”
“I am more than capable—”
“You aren’t. If you were, I never would have gotten to her.”
A muscle in Braden’s jaw jumped, a sure sign he was fighting back his own temper. “An oversight that won’t happen again. Aria is moving back to Oregon.”
Absolutely the fuck not.
“No, I’m not!” Anger turned the blue of her eyes to snapping sapphire as Aria stared her father down, her chin tilted up in defiance. “I’m not going to run and hide just because the father of my child is a psycho.”
“Lochlan is the psychopath of the family. Or perhaps a sociopath. I can never remember. Either way, I’m afraid I can’t claim that dubious honor for myself.”
The pair stared at him, clearly not appreciating his humor, before Braden turned to his daughter. “Aria. Be reasonable. The only thing that was keeping you in Charleston was the job with Richard, and since working for him is no longer an option there’s no reason for you to stay.”
“There’s you. And Lottie.”
“We’ll come visit you, as often as we can. But you can’t stay in Charleston, it’s not safe.”
“Well, I can’t go back to Oregon, so we’ll just have to find a way to make it safe.”
“Aria—”
“Mom is going to hate me.” The words seemed to burst out of her, and to Killian’s shock, tears filled her eyes. “She’s going to be so pissed, Dad. I can’t… I can’t stay there. Please, don’t make me go back to Oregon.”
“Oh, baby.” Everything about Braden softened as he pulled his daughter into his arms. “Your mother could never hate you.”
Clearing his throat, Killian waited for them to refocus on him. “Forgive me, Braden, but you seem to be forgetting one key piece of the puzzle.”
“Oh?” Venom dripped from that single syllable. “And what might that be?”
“I have no intention of letting Aria, or my child, out of my sight.”
“Even if it could save her life?”
There was a logic there he couldn’t really refute. Sending Aria away would indeed be the best way to guarantee her safety.
But the thought of her being out of his sight for even a moment, never mind on the other side of the fucking country, awakened the beast inside him, clawing and roaring that she was his.
Fighting back the urge to snarl, he kept his voice as even and calm as possible.
“She’s perfectly safe here with me. Which is where she will stay, for the foreseeable future. ”
“Absolutely not. Out of the question.”
“It’s already done, Braden. She’s here, and if anyone tries to remove her from the premises, they will be met with swift and deadly force.”
He watched the threat land, watched a man he loved like his own family pale, horror filling his eyes as he realized, truly realized the kind of man Killian O’Rourke really was.
“You wouldn’t.”
Leaning forward, Killian braced his elbows on his knees, his hands steepled together as he locked gazes with his child’s only living grandfather.
“Aria is mine. Whether we are… together or not, is completely irrelevant as far as I’m concerned.
She’s carrying my child, which makes her family.
And you, as well as anyone, should know that the O’Rourkes do whatever is necessary to protect our own.
I don’t want to kill you, Braden. I’ve grown rather fond of you over the years, but more importantly, it would distress Aria, and I have no desire to put her through any undue duress. ”
He risked a glance at Aria, at the hatred burning in her eyes. And he knew then and there she would never forgive him for what he’d just done.
No matter. Let her hate him. Let them both hate him. As long as she was safe.
A soft clanging caught his attention, and he turned to find one of his staff members pushing a serving cart through the side door of his office.
Turning back to his guests, he flashed a bright smile. “Lunch is ready. I hope you both like chicken salad.”
Aria
Lying in bed that night, Aria played the events of the morning over and over in her mind.
She’d had to convince her father that she would be fine here with Killian, which had taken a strength she hadn’t known she possessed. Everything in her had been screaming at her to run, to let her father try and fight his way past Killian’s guards to rescue her and bring her home.
But she loved her father, more than anything, and in the end that love had been the deciding factor. She wouldn’t risk him, so she put on a brave face and told him she was safe here. That she would find a way to convince the dragon at the gate to release her soon.
She’d only ever seen her father cry once before, the day he’d married Lottie. And she swore then and there she would never forgive Killian O’Rourke for being the reason she’d seen him cry a second time in her life.
Not that she’d told Killian that. The second her father’s car disappeared from view, she’d turned and headed back up to her bedroom, where she’d stayed the rest of the day and into the night.
She’d refused to take dinner with the family, so he’d had food sent up to her.
Which she’d eaten, only because she knew she needed to keep her strength up for the baby.
Of course, she’d only kept about half of it down, but at least she’d tried.
Several sleepless hours later, though, she was hungry all over again. There was probably some way for her to ask for someone to bring her food, but after an entire afternoon tucked away in her bedroom, she was ready to gnaw at the bars of her enclosure.