Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Aria
Ten. Fucking. Hours.
That was how long she’d been sitting in a room barely big enough for her to breathe in, waiting to talk to someone. Oh, they’d been in and out, offering her food and drink and taking her to the bathroom when she’d asked. But otherwise, they’d left her to sit and stew.
And stew, she had. Without her lawyer, despite asking for her several times. Which told her they didn’t give a fuck about building a case against Killian, but only about harassing them.
It was eye-opening, seeing the other, uglier side of the law. And she didn’t like what she saw one fucking bit.
Finally, the door opened, and Detective Gibson stepped into the room, an apologetic smile on his face she didn’t buy for a second. Her temper spiked, but she willed it back, swallowing it down as she pinned him with a cool glare.
“Am I free to go?”
They’re going to try and intimidate you. Some might try to make nice. Whatever they do, whatever they say, just keep asking if you’re free to go and to speak to your lawyer.
Killian’s advice rolled through her mind for what felt like the millionth time since they’d first put her in the back of a squad car.
It wasn’t so much that she didn’t know the words by heart, but hearing his voice in her head was as close as she could get to him at the moment, so she kept replaying that conversation over and over.
Dropping down hard into the chair across from her, Detective Gibson raised both his brows in clear surprise. “Are we keeping you from something important, Aria?”
She let her smile turn sharp, and was pleased when the faux surprise turned real. “Just wondering when you’re planning to stop stomping all over my Constitutional rights and let me leave.”
“Now, Aria, you know—”
“I know I was dragged from my home in the middle of the night for no goddamn reason. So if you aren’t going to let me go, I suggest you let me talk to my lawyer.”
“Look, Aria.” Putting on sympathy the way some men put on socks in the morning—easy, practiced, without any actual thought—Gibson leaned forward, his arms resting on the table between them.
“There’s no reason to make this any more difficult than it needs to be.
Just tell us the truth and you’ll be free to go. ”
“I’ll be happy to tell you everything. With my lawyer present.”
“Aria.” His voice and face both hardened. “We already know the truth. Your father and your uncles are all worried sick about you. If you could just—”
“So they are behind this.” Sickness coated her stomach. Even after everything that had gone down, she’d held out some hope…
But then Gibson hesitated, and it was as though someone had pulled a shutter down over his eyes, cutting her off completely from his emotions.
And she had her answer.
“I want my lawyer,” she repeated, though her voice sounded far more hollow than it had originally. Because hollow was exactly how she felt.
They went round and round for what felt like another hour before Gibson gave up and left her alone again. She wasn’t sure what magic Killian’s lawyers worked in the meantime, but she didn’t see anyone again until they came to tell her she was, indeed, free to go.
Sean was waiting outside for her, his expression twisted up into concerned lines as he opened the back door so she could slide inside. “Are you okay, Aria?”
“I’m fine.” It was only partially a lie. She was unharmed, but her adrenaline high had long since faded and exhaustion was dragging her down. But she still had things to do.
People to terrorize.
“Take me to my father’s house, please. I can give you the address.”
Sean’s worried gaze met hers in the rearview. “I have strict orders to take you straight home.”
“Don’t worry about Killian. I’ll deal with whatever fallout there is from our little detour.”
“I don’t know…”
“Sean.” She spoke his name softly, yet firmly. “I need to speak with my father. If you take me home, I’m just going to find a way to sneak out again, and then Killian really will have both our hides.”
“What if something happens to you?”
It shocked her to realize she could still feel anything approaching amusement after the last… Jesus, thirteen hours. And yet she felt her lips twitch at his question. “What great evil do you think might befall me in my father’s house, Sean?”
Red tinged his cheeks, and not for the first time she was struck by how fucking young he was. “None, I guess.”
“Then please take me there. I’ll deal with Killian.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Rolling her eyes, she tapped her dad’s address into the phone Sean handed her. “And for the hundredth time, don’t call me Ma’am. I’m only what, three years older than you? Four?”
“I’ll be eighteen next month,” he provided, and her heart twisted in her chest. Maybe it was the pregnancy, or maybe it was just having her entire worldview shattered in the space of a few short weeks, but even those few years felt like a lifetime.
“What do you want to do with your life, Sean?” she asked as they drove, both to distract herself from the nerves churning in her stomach with every passing mile and because she did actually want to know.
“Not sure, yet.” He jerked a shoulder in a shrug that was clearly meant to be nonchalant but came off defiant and a bit sulky instead. Because he was still a teenager, trying to find his place in a world that didn’t make a bit of goddamn sense.
“College?”
“Killian wants me to go. But there’s nothing I’m really that interested in studying.”
“Then just study a bit of everything. Half of what you learn in college isn’t even in the classrooms.”
Interest lit his eyes at that. “What do you mean?”
“It’s about the people. Getting to know people from different backgrounds, hearing different opinions. That’s the real magic of higher education.”
“I guess I hadn’t really thought of it that way.”
“Trust me. You won’t regret it. And if you get there and decide it’s really not for you, then you can always come home. There’s nothing that says once you pick a path you have to stick with it forever.”
The truth of her own words settled in her stomach as the car slid silently to a stop at the base of the steps up to her father’s house and Sean rushed to let her out.
If someone had told her three months ago she’d have tossed aside everything she’d thought she believed to fall in love with a mob boss, she wouldn’t have just laughed in their faces, she probably would have slapped them for good measure.
And yet, here she was. About to go face down her father in defense of a man she should, by all rights, despise.
Funny how the world worked sometimes.
She didn’t bother to wait for anyone to open the front door. Shoving her way inside, she headed straight for her father’s office, her heels clicking on the marble floor with every step, an echoing sound that made her feel oddly powerful.
By the time she threw open the office door, she barely even blinked at being met not just by her father, but all three of her uncles, as well.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Three sets of stunned eyes locked on her, while Uncle Damian simply settled back in his chair with a quiet laugh. “Oh, this is gonna be good.”
Ignoring him, she met her father’s gaze and strode straight for his desk. “Call off the dogs, Braden.”
Shock gave way to narrow-eyed annoyance. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Pick up the phone, call whoever you need to call, and tell them to release my husband from jail. Now.”
The phrase “you could have heard a pin drop” was never more accurate than in that moment. Her father’s eyes went round once more, but it wasn’t just with shock this time. In those blue depths so like her own she saw a grief so deep it made her own chest ache with the echo of it.
“Aria. You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t.”
“What choice did you leave me?” Now it was her own grief, bitter with resentment, rising up to choke her. “I told you I would stand with him. You forced my hand. As far as the state of South Carolina is concerned, Killian O’Rourke and I have been married for a little over three weeks.”
Behind her, Uncle Desmond swore loudly, and was almost immediately shushed by Uncle Bastian. She ignored both of them for the time being, focusing instead on the calculation in her father’s eyes.
“You forged paperwork to make it look like this was all an overreaction on my part.” Accusation dripped from every word.
Well aware she was in a room with two ex-cops who would think nothing of dragging her back to the police station to try and force a confession from her, she chose her next words carefully. “I did what I had to do in order to protect my family.”
“We are your family!” The words exploded out of him as he shoved to his feet, desperate fury blazing in his eyes. “You belong here, with me, Aria.”
“I know you think that. And I’m sorry I let you down.” That was the one apology she could issue with all sincerity. The one true regret she had in all of this was that she hadn’t been able to be the daughter either of her parents had wanted.
Something in her words must have finally pierced through his stubborn anger, because his expression immediately softened. “Oh, baby. You aren’t letting me down. I’m just so fucking scared for you.”
“I understand that. But I’ve made my choice. If you want to protect me, then give me my husband back. He will do whatever it takes to keep me safe.”
It took more courage than she’d known she had to stand there, locked in that silent battle of wills with him.
Until, at last, he broke with a single nod. “All right. I’ll make some calls.”
“Thank you, Dad.” Ignoring the way her knees went weak with relief, she turned to face her uncles, pinning Desmond and his partner with a stern glare.
“As for the two of you. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Wielding the privilege you have and the badge you once carried like weapons when you could be using them for good. You’re both rich enough and connected enough to be using that influence to make our city a better, safer place, and instead you use it to terrorize a man doing his damnedest to protect the city you once swore to serve from the worst kind of criminals. ”
Uncle Desmond’s eyes narrowed. “He is the worst kind of criminal, Aria.”
“No, he’s not. You’re just too fucking stubborn and small-minded to realize it.”
Without giving him a chance to respond, she turned to the final member of their party. And though he looked nearly identical to his twin, her Uncle Damian raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Don’t look at me. I told them this was going to blow up in their faces one way or another.”
“Good. At least someone in my family has some goddamn sense. It was good to see you, Uncle Damian.”
“You too, sweetheart. I’ll let Emily know you said hi.”
“Thank you. Once the dust settles from this… unpleasantness, you should come over for dinner. I know Killian is fond of both of you.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
With a final, regal nod, she swept out of the office and toward the front door. Sean was, as expected, still waiting for her, and he nearly tripped over himself to scramble out of the car as she hurried down the stairs to the car.
Sliding into the backseat, she finally gave herself over to the exhaustion that had been dragging at her for hours.
“Take me home, Sean.”