Chapter 35 Kellin
Kellin
What the hell was that for?
No way did she haul me into an empty room to blow me and then bust my nose. Though she is a mafia kingpin’s daughter. Maybe I don’t know her at all.
Any other woman, at any other time… I’d have them in a vice grip while demanding answers. My little boxer wannabe’s lucky I didn’t swing back out of pure instinct.
I swipe beneath my nose, streaking blood down my shirt when I use it to clean my hand. The suit and shoes survived one hell of a day. Too bad my night is only just beginning.
“Maeve…” I shove my dick back in my briefs and zip up as fast as I can, staring at her with wild eyes the whole time.
She’s ashen, and her knuckles are clenching her phone so tightly, they’re practically shining in the dim light.
Her right hand must be bloody as hell, bruising and swelling or even broken.
But it’s dangling by her side, hidden in the shadows.
I’ve still got one eye on it, watching for any sudden movements.
“That was one hell of a right hook.” I wipe my nose again and cringe at the metallic taste of blood. “What the actual fuck?” I blink a few times, attempting to mute the pain.
Damn, my girl can punch.
“Care to help me understand what’s happening here?”
Maeve sucks in a breath. “I’m… I…” She drifts backward as she struggles to form a sentence.
I lurch in her direction and reach out. “Maeve—”
She recoils and stumbles back, arms windmilling.
I catch her by an elbow, but as soon as she regains balance, she shakes my hand off.
I release her immediately. I’d prefer to skip a second assault on my nose.
“Everything’s wrong. Everything!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Everything about you…about us…was a lie. I know who you really are.”
The ground drops out from beneath my feet.
I couldn’t hear what Brody whispered on the phone.
Dumbass me, I assumed he kept his voice down because of whoever hovered within earshot of him.
It never crossed my mind that his conversation involved me.
Exactly zero blood pumped to my brain at that point.
Desperation claws at my chest. “Whatever he said, I can explain. Just give me a chance. Maeve, I lo—”
Shit, I almost told her I love her. Get a fucking grip.
“You.” She points at my right shoulder. “That’s a gunshot wound. I can recognize scars like that, Kellin. I know who you work for.”
Silence stretches out between us as I grapple with how to fix this—fix us—and still accomplish my mission.
My mind blanks. My nose throbs. My lungs constrict. Or maybe that’s my heart cramping with a damn charley horse.
I press a hand to my sternum. I’ve never experienced this kind of…pain. The gunshot wound, the multiple broken ribs, the stab injuries… None of them compare. Words and images crash inside my head, tumbling over one another, until one really insanely ridiculous phrase wins out.
“You weren’t honest with me either.”
In the dangerous quiet that follows, I wonder if I should beg her to hit me with her other hand.
“At least I didn’t impersonate someone I’m not or fabricate a job just to get to your family member. I didn’t pretend to be attracted to you!”
The crack in her voice knifes open my already bleeding internal wound.
She can’t possibly believe that. “You must know that’s bullshit. I never once feigned my attraction to you. Truthfully, I’m falling—”
“At least I didn’t drug you!” Hate- and hurt-fueled tears stream from her eyes. Flooding her beautiful face and dripping off her chin.
She slaps away the hand I lift to dry her cheeks.
Okay. I earned that rejection.
I just can’t imagine not touching this woman when she’s this close.
I’m being tortured by my own actions, past and present. By the mission before me and the repercussions I’ll suffer at the hands of Finn Gallagher for this colossal fuck-up.
And still, I ache to caress her face. Wipe her tears away. Swallow her pain with a kiss.
I don’t deserve love. I’m not worthy of the dark-haired beauty in front of me.
But I want her. She’s mine, as far as I’m concerned. Right now, my only job is to keep it that way. I’ll deal with Finn later. “Maeve, please, listen—”
“To what? More lies? Brody’s men searched your room. They found the bottle in the trash. They have people, you know. They’re the mafia, Kellin. Just like you. But you already know all this. They performed a rapid-test. You roofied me.”
If I had a choice, I’d rather someone shoved a giant sword between my ribs than force me to hear the pain wrecking her voice and twisting her features. “You have to understand—”
“It has flu-like aftereffects!” Maeve lunges at me, grabbing my shirt. She pins me against the back wall, her eyes still glistening with tears. “Did you rape me?”
Every last cell in my body freezes to ice.
Agony plows through my chest. “What the hell? No!” Yanking free of her grip, I punch the wall, ramming my fist through the plaster.
“Believe whatever else about me but know that I would never, ever do that to you or any other woman. I deserve your anger, but don’t ever accuse me of that shit again. ”
I shake out my hand from the wall, actually relishing how the physical pain at least helps temporarily distract from other agonies.
Her wide eyes cling to my knuckles for a moment. “Right. I’m a willing participant. Why in the world would you drug me to rape me?” She starts to pace while thinking out loud. “That doesn’t make any sense. Especially after you saved me from the rapist in the stairwell.”
“I needed to search your room without you knowing. That was the safest option for us both.”
A fresh round of tears shimmer in Maeve’s eyes. “Don’t act like you did that for me.”
I hate myself so much.
“Please let me explain. You have to understand the position I’m in.” I risk curving my hands over hers, which returned to my shirt to once again clench two fistfuls of my bloody button-down.
She doesn’t inch away from me, just gapes at my hands covering hers while catching her breath.
This gives my system a second to catch up too.
“You stood up for me with my father.” Her voice is soft as she searches my face for the man she thought she knew. “No one’s ever done that before.”
“And I’d do it again. I meant every word.”
I yearn to kiss her. To beg for her forgiveness. I’d drop to my knees and plead right here, but I’m afraid she’d kick me in the face.
She rests her head on my hands. “For a minute, I thought…” She glances up at me again with steely eyes. “You know what? It doesn’t matter.”
Her hands slide out from mine and go slack at her sides.
I love you, Maeve.
The words won’t form on my tongue, but I still dare to caress her hair.
I’m a coward in all the ways that count.
“I hid my family ties because I hate that my father’s business is part of my life. I’m desperate to free myself of him, and I didn’t want to put you at risk by dragging you into my mess. I didn’t deliberately scheme or plan to deceive you.”
“I know.” I just want to hold her. Kiss her.
“Are you… I know you’re with the Irish Kings in New York, but is there any chance you also work for Zenith? Was any of this…” She trails off and drops her head on my chest again, settling her hands on both sides of my waist.
She’s exhausted, not that I blame her. I just thank the fucking heavens she’s touching me and hasn’t run from the room.
We’re not over yet.
Though my next revelation won’t work in my favor.
“I’m friends with the people who own the investment group, but no, I don’t work for them.”
Maeve laughs bitterly. “So what? You slept with me to extract information for some distant cousin? What exactly are you after?”
“I want to tell you everything, I promise.”
“I’m listening.”
I don’t know where to begin.
In the subsequent five seconds of silence, I watch her exhale a shaky breath and give up on me. “You’re no better than my father.”
Her barb burns, and her visible devastation guts me.
“I’m not your father, and I planned to confess everything. Still plan to. I just need a little more time.”
“Well, take all the time you need, Kellin, because I never want to see you again.” She shoves off me and marches toward the door.
I reach out, grab her, and pull her against my chest. She struggles, but I refuse to let her go. I’m an animal, marking her with my scent, claiming what’s mine.
“Maeve.” I growl when she squirms. “Be as furious as you want with me, because again, I deserve it, but you should know that I won’t let you cut me off.”
She struggles a little more before her body relaxes and her arms encircle me.
A sob breaks loose against my chest. Her pain slices through me like a hatchet as her tears mix with the blood from my nose.
“Darlin’.”
She tips her head back to meet my gaze.
I swear, I can see my whole life in those soulful, tear-filled brown eyes.
Our life. Together. And we will fucking have one, even if I need to abduct and imprison her until she agrees.
I kiss her, bloody broken nose and all.
And she succumbs to me completely, our tongues starved for each other.
But after a minute—after I’m literally erect again and ready to take her—she wakes up to our twisted reality and breaks free from our embrace.
The fresh wave of devastation racking her expression flays my gut with razor blades.
She’s disgusted with me and with herself. My blood paints her face, smearing pink across those freckles. And all I can think about is how I’ve marked her for the whole world to see.
She. Is. Mine. And nothing will change that.
Not even her.
Maeve darts for the door.
I’m close behind her. “Run if you want, but I will hunt you down. You’re mine, just as I’m yours.”
“Fuck you, Kellin.” She opens the door and refuses to glance back. “I hate you.”
I flinch. Another direct hit. That’s okay. I’ll endure as many as she needs to dole out. Whatever she requires to free her body of some of that anger and hurt so we can come back together.
Male voices travel into the chair room from the hall.
“Where is he?”
Brody. And he’s not alone. Heavy footsteps smack the floor behind him.
Maeve’s answer cuts through. “I don’t know.”
Hope warms my bones. Even through all this, she’s still trying to protect me. Definitely a good sign.
Then she commits the fatal mistake of shooting me a quick glance before entering the hallway and shutting the door.
Brody’s not blind. He caught her tell.
“Are you…bleeding, Maeve?” Anger seethes from him.
Shit, and there’s that.
Stifling a groan, I resign myself to getting this over with.
I grab the doorknob to reveal myself right as Brody kicks it open.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” His eyes gleam with icy fury when they lock on mine. He jerks his chin at his men. “Seize him.”