Chapter 24
Colton
Psychopath. Ronan and his family are psychopaths.
Everything I have ever heard about people like them has been terrible.
They are supposed to be cold. Violent. The people who become serial killers on true crime shows.
No empathy. No remorse. No real feelings.
That is what the world says people like them are.
But Ronan and his family are nothing like that.
They have been welcoming from the second I met them.
Protective in a way I have never experienced before. Especially when it comes to Ollie.
Alessia treats him like he is already her grandson.
Kieran lights up whenever Ollie babbles at him.
Even Ronan’s brothers, as chaotic as they are, seem to care about him.
And Ronan… Ronan is the opposite of everything I thought a psychopath would be.
He remembers what I need before I say it.
He makes me sleep. Makes me eat. Makes me feel safe.
He looks at Ollie like he matters. So why am I still scared?
Because what if everything I know about people like them is true?
What if I let Ollie get attached and one day regret it?
But then I think about the way Ronan held him when he cried. The way he got up with him in the morning so I could sleep. The way Ollie reaches for him without fear. And deep down, I think I already know the answer. Ollie is safer with Ronan than he has ever been with anyone else.
“I don’t understand, Ronan.”
“Mom is really better at explaining this stuff,” he says as he places his hand on my cheek. It’s warm and gentle, not at all what I have in my head about a psycho.
He continues. “I will never hurt you or Ollie. I will give my life to protect you and remove anyone who threatens you.”
“So when you say things like that, you aren’t speaking metaphorically?”
“No, we only hurt those who deserve it, like the cult. They hurt the innocent and think they can get away with it. We make sure they can’t hurt anyone else. The justice system doesn’t always work.”
“But you just said you’re a psycho. How can you be sure that Ollie is safe here?” I stand from his lap, and thankfully, he lets me go. I straighten my clothes, and he does the same. It just seems wrong to have this conversation with our dicks hanging out.
“Wrong,” he states firmly as he buckles his belt.
“We aren’t crazy, and that’s what psycho means.
People use that word to describe us. We aren’t unfeeling monsters.
Understanding emotions, in ourselves or others, doesn’t come easily to us.
But we learn, and we adapt. You gave me rules to adapt to you, and I’ll follow those. I’ll learn and adjust.”
Shaking my head, I try to clear my thoughts so I can concentrate on what he just said.
“But you do kill people? That’s what you mean by hurting and removing people, right?” I’m stuck on that point. He and his family are murderers.
“Yes.”
That one word hangs between us. One word that he says as an explanation and justification. Then I remember my own rules.
“Explain it to me. Explain how I’m supposed to accept this. How am I to just blindly accept that Ollie is safe?”
“The guilty members of The Children of the Fallen are evil. But everything that we are gathering points to their guilt. Yet the ones at the head of it all are so well insulated that even if you took all the evidence to the police, they won’t be prosecuted.
The blame and punishment will be for those they’ve designated to take the fall.
They will be free to set up shop somewhere else and do it all over again.
Is it wrong to stop them even with lethal means? ”
What he is saying makes sense, and my brain is trying to reconcile the killer with the protector standing in front of me.
“So, everyone that you kill is guilty?”
“Yes.” One word again.
“How can you be sure?”
“Mom. She gives us the cases and the targets. We do extensive research to verify everything. My cousins and I don’t have the capacity to empathize with the victims, but Mom does. She’s the moral compass.”
Alessia Murphy is the moral compass for a group of psychopathic killers.
Everything that she’s done for me and Ollie pops into my thoughts, the way she gently rocks Ollie when he’s tired, or how she feeds him with that soft smile.
She’s genuine and caring. But she’s also in command.
When the fight broke out in Ronan’s office, she dealt with it with precision, and they listened.
I look up at Ronan. His stance is tense. He opens his mouth and then shuts it, his jaw clamping tight.
“What?” I ask.
“If you are going to leave and take Ollie, please wait until we handle this. Don’t take him where I can’t protect you both.”
I study his features. He says he can’t do or understand emotions, but he’s wrong. The man in front of me is doing just that. He may not understand them, but they are there. In his stance, in his words, and in his expression.
“I’m not leaving. I’m going to trust you. I need Ollie to be safe. I think the safest place is with you.” I walk to him, place my arms around his waist, and hug him. No emotions, my ass. He hugs me back tightly.
“Let’s get back to work on gathering the information. I need this over with,” I say. Right now, he wants us to stay. He’ll protect us. But I need to know that he’ll still want that when all of this is over. I’ll wait to make my final decision then.
We get to work. Opening the new file Ronan is working on, I begin to read.
My blood goes cold, and I start to shake.
The records show everything I feared and tried to tell myself wasn’t true.
How could they do this? Not only were they selling children, but the placements were to groom them at an early age.
These monsters had request forms for the buyers to fill out.
It reads like they are picking a dog from a kennel.
Physical features, age, and gender—the questionnaire lists them all.
Anger builds inside me. Then I get to Ollie’s profile.
My parents were paid $50,000 to have him and to market him. There is already a buyer listed.
“Ronan,” I call out. There is a shift inside of me. Understanding slots into place, and I know in my heart I’m making the right decision.
“Yes.”
“They all die. Promise me they all will die, painfully if possible. The buyer for Ollie, my parents, and the leaders of the cult all die.”
“I promise you they will. I already plan on handling the ones involved with Ollie myself.”
I hear what he isn’t saying. My parents.
Or the people who were supposed to be my parents.
I should feel something for them, but I don’t.
They were indifferent to me most of my life, but they had Ollie for a purpose.
Money paid for a life. I hate them with every fiber of my being.
Ronan is willing to handle it for me, to stand as Ollie’s guardian.
“I want to be there when you handle my parents. I want to talk to them before they die,” I tell him.
“I’ll give you anything you need or want,” he says. He understands me more than he thinks he does.
I go back to the files and, after getting caught up, I work on the buyer’s background information. The piece of shit has been arrested and investigated, but never charged. The arrests were sealed, but with Ronan’s help, I’m able to get into them.
“We have a problem.” I turn to Kieran, who walks into the office.
“What is it?” Ronan asks.
“Colton’s parents filed a missing person’s report right after he left.
It was being held by the local police department.
They wanted it on record, and with the members of the force, it should have been easy.
We already knew that part, but an overeager rookie sent the report to the FBI yesterday.
The officer thought it was an oversight.
Now the FBI has turned it into a kidnapping case.
My contact called me just a few minutes ago.
He’s working to get the case assigned to him, but it’ll take time.
We need to move operations to either our house or the compound. ”
“Ollie will do better at the house.” Ronan stands and starts packing up his laptop. I move to do the same. Everyone is moving fast.
“We knew this was a possibility.”
“One more thing,” Kieran says. “I spoke to Finn. He can’t locate the parents or Moses. We are looking for travel plans now.”
I freeze. I thought I had been careful enough. I did everything I could think of to stay hidden, but now I’m not sure that it was enough. What if they know where we are? I’m starting to spiral when I feel a hand on the back of my neck. Ronan. He gives me a gentle squeeze.
“It’s going to be fine, a stór. They won’t get to either of you.” He finishes packing up my stuff and slings my bag over his shoulder.
“We are using the private garage,” Kieran says as he walks us to the playroom.
Alessia is already coming out of the room.
She has a smiling Ollie in her arms and his diaper bag on her shoulder.
I reach for Ollie, needing to feel him against me.
He comes willingly. How can anyone want to hurt someone so innocent?
We ride the private elevator down to a sublevel of the garage. Two black SUVs are parked only steps from the elevator doors.
“Car seat is in the second vehicle.” A man I don’t recognize says as he escorts us to the one he points out. Ronan seems comfortable with him, and I trust him.
“Kenji, this is Colton and Ollie. They’re the priority,” Ronan says.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Murphy explained it to me.”
“I’m explaining it again. I won’t be as understanding as Declan if we have another Kenneth incident.”
“Understood, sir.”
I have no idea what the Kenneth incident is, and by the tight set of each man’s jaw, I probably don’t want to know.