Chapter 4
Chapter Four
KEANE
“Mind sharing that?”
My attention travels in Liam’s direction, and I hand him my joint. He takes a long pull and closes his eyes, then blows the smoke out slowly. The wispy tendrils float around his head before disappearing completely.
“Thanks.”
“No problem,” I reply, taking it back.
I didn’t know if Declan had a policy about smoking of any kind inside the building like Max did at the house, so as soon as we returned from Spanks, I came out to the back alley of Falcon Tower. Jax and I aren’t in a good head space right now, and we both needed some downtime after what happened at the club. Amazing the damage a stapler can do in Jax’s skillful hands. Andie’s been through enough and doesn’t need to deal with knowing that shit right now.
“Rafe tell you yet who he called?”
I offer him a negative shake of the head just to get him off my case. Jax wasn’t able to trace the call, so we don’t know who was on the other end. The only information Rafe let slip was to inform us that Julio is back in Mexico, sans his oldest offspring. And that makes me very curious as to why. It also makes him even more dangerous to Andie. Without Julio to pull his leash and keep him in check, Alejandro has become a wild card capable of anything. The guy is a full-blown psycho.
A ruckus of noise echoes down the alley just as a group of women drunkenly stumbles past, giggling and clinging to one another. There’s a bar a block away and a couple of luxury hotels, which creates a steady flow of foot traffic along the sidewalk that passes by the alley. Liam and I quietly watch the women, oblivious to the two killers in the midst.
I finish my smoke and toss it into a murky puddle next to the dumpster. “You need something, or you just enjoy my company all of a sudden?”
It’s no secret that Liam and I don’t like one another very much. He’s an unexpected problem that got thrown in my path that I have no fucking clue how to handle. To be honest, I’m kind of struggling with everything at the moment. For fuck’s sake, I’m the new don of the Rossi syndicate, and I’m only twenty-five years old. How is that possible? Then there’s what to do about the Riccis and Barones after we cleaned house in New York. Should I let those houses die? Make Dante and Enzo capos and rebuild? Or just walk away from it all and follow Rafe’s dream of living a normal life with a wife and kids.
Blowing out a ragged breath, I muss my hands through my sweat-slicked hair. I need a shower.
Liam leans back against the wall, kicking at a piece of plastic trash that tumbles over his Doc Martens. “I wanted to talk to you about Andie.”
Immediately, my hackles, along with my distrust, rise. Who Liam Connelly is to Andie is a complex puzzle I’m trying to figure out. Like, how did he and Andie really meet? Because I know damn well it wasn’t by accident. Nothing this man does is happenstance. His reputation in the business is what it is for a reason. He’s also obsessed with Andie, and I don’t like it one damn bit. Then again, I have no leg to stand on in that area. Jax, Rafe, and I have pretty much been obsessed with her as well since we were kids.
Liam rolls his head my way, his eyes shining like silver under the yellow and red exit lights above the door next to him.
“The stuff that went down at the house last week. What happened to her there?”
He doesn’t have to explain what stuff. He saw what was in the room downstairs and her reaction to all of it. Andie practically destroyed the house. Then the fuck-fest. She had two decades’ worth of demons to exorcise.
“She hasn’t told you?”
He shakes his head.
I haven’t slept well since the night Andie took the jaws of life to her chest, ripped it wide open, and confessed to me, Jax, and Rafe what Max did to her. All the years he raped her, beat her. Locked her in the cage in the basement we used for torturing people. The baby of Max’s she lost when she was only thirteen fucking years old. And none of us, other than Kellan, knew. That night I learned to hate my dead best friend. Kellan should have done something. He should have told us. Fuck that. I should have known. I should have seen what was happening right in front of me.
“If Andie wants to tell you, that’s up to her. But I think you can put two and two together and figure it out on your own.”
Liam clenches the back of his neck.
“Alejandro locked her in a fucking cage.”
Liam breathes out a quiet, “Fuck.”
Out of every possible punishment Alejandro could have given her, he chose the one that had the greatest potential of breaking her. But it didn’t. Because Alexandria Donatella McCarthy is the fiercest, strongest, most resilient woman I have ever known.
“I can’t get that cage at the house out of my head. And knowing Alejandro put her in one—” He stops talking and thunks his head back against the concrete.
Jax and I have reserved a special place in hell for the oldest son of Julio Ortiz. His day of reckoning can’t come soon enough.
After our little visit with Michael, Jax and I went downstairs to where he said the private rooms were located. The room Andie was held in was hard to take in. The smell alone, blood and death, was overwhelming. We didn’t find any bodies, so Michael must have disposed of Rita before we got there. There were other bloodstains on the floor near the stairs belonging to who the hell knows.
Fierce pride fills me, knowing my woman escaped. She held her own against Alejandro and didn’t let him break her. Andie had already told us he had killed Rita, and I meant what I said. Good fucking riddance. But it was seeing the cage that almost undid me. It was too similar to the one Max would lock Andie in when she was a kid. Near the broken cage, there were also chains on the floor and a big hole in the ceiling above it. After a meticulous search of the rest of the private rooms, we came up empty. Alejandro was long gone, and there was no sign of Julio.
“Do you think he ra?—”
I grip his collar and violently slam him against the wall. “Shut the fuck up,” I snarl.
I can’t even go there. Not after finding out what Max did to her. And if Alejandro hurt her the same way—my stomach lurches, and I hold back the vomit that wants to come.
“What do you really want with her?”
Liam’s spine stiffens, his face full of righteous indignation. “Not a damn thing.”
“Bullshit.”
He shoves me away and jabs a finger in my face. “I’m not the one forcing her to marry me just so I can play king to a crumbling dynasty.”
“That’s not what?—”
He cuts me off, and we round on each other. Two apex predators ready to battle it out, and Andie is the prize.
“Save your breath. If you truly cared about her, you, Jax, and Rafael would leave her the hell alone. Let her be happy. Give her a chance to know her father. She belongs here with Declan.”
My laugh is unrepentant. “And with you?”
He shrugs. “If that’s what she wants.”
Unbelievable. This narcissistic bastard.
Never one to back down, I push into his space. “Not fucking happening.”
The muscle in his jaw tics, and I know he’s just dying to get a punch in. Bring it, asshole.
Liam will have to put a bullet in my head before I’ll give Andie up. Not now. Not after I finally got to taste her sweet lips, and my cock got a taste of her sweeter pussy. Not after wanting her for more years than I can remember. That woman is the air I breathe.
I take a step back. I came out here to get a minute of peace and quiet, and Liam fucking Connelly had to ruin it.
Of course, my damn phone starts ringing, adding to my irritation. It’s Dante. I left him in charge while Jax and I handled business here.
Answering his call, I snap, “Let me call you back.”
Liam scowls at me. “This conversation isn’t over, Agosti.” He says my last name like a curse.
Tempering my anger because Andie is my first priority—and she would probably stab both of us if we were to get into a fight right now—I reply, “Have a good fucking evening.”
Shoving past him, I fling the door open and walk inside. Taking the stairs, I hit the button on my phone to call Dante back.
Liam is right about one thing. It’s not over.