Chapter Four
Cian
“Have you talked to her?” Mac asked from the doorway to my office. I looked up from my computer and scowled at him. Although he and Duncan were two of my best friends, I wished they’d mind their own fucking business. Sal, on the other hand, barely spoke to me, and I wasn’t sure which was worse.
“No,” I responded, looking back at my screens.
After we came back from Mardi Gras and rescued Freyja, we’d learned of a few more names of men Tyran had convinced to betray us. So now my task was to do a deep dive into every member of the family.
“It’s been over a week.”
“I know how fuckin’ long it’s been, Mac.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorjamb. I exhaled my frustration and leaned back in my chair. Swiveling around to face him, I asked, “What?”
“Don’t you want to know why she didn’t tell you?”
“I know why. Kelley would have killed her. And if he hadn’t, Eamon would have killed me. I have to believe that her not wanting me to die a horrible death means she has some feelings toward me.”
“Of course she has fuckin’ feelings. But what about after Eamon was dead? Sal would have protected her from Kelley.”
“I would have fuckin’ protected her against Kelley,” I growled. “But I know Caity; she wouldn’t go against the church and get divorced.”
Mac shrugged. “There are other ways of ending an unwanted marriage.”
I shook my head and smirked. Ways I had dreamed about for years. And if I hadn’t been a fucking pussy and gone to Sal, well, I wanted to believe he’d sanction the hit. But Caity wouldn’t.
For years I’d been damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. But now Kelley was gone. And she couldn’t blame it on me. I was biding my time. Like I told Mac, I knew Caity. I couldn’t just expect her to forget her husband of thirty years all because I wanted her.
Caity cared about how the others saw her. She felt that as Eamon’s daughter, she was held to a higher standard, and she wasn’t completely wrong, but everyone knew the bullshit Kelley had done. No one would condemn her for moving on.
I wouldn’t fucking let them.
“He still hasn’t talked to her?” Duncan asked as he slipped past Mac and sat on the couch against the wall.
“Nope, he’s bein’ a pussy.”
“I am not bein’ a fuckin’ pussy.” Yes, yes, I was. “Caity is fragile right now.”
“Don’t let my sister hear you call her fuckin’ fragile,” Sal barked as he pushed past Mac. “And stay the fuck away from her,” he ordered, pointing his finger at me.
“Fuck you, Sal.” I ignored the look on my boss’ face. He knew I wouldn’t stay away from her. He just didn’t want to think about his sister being with anyone. He’d hated Kelley as much as the rest of us. He’d even had his own ideas about how to get rid of him years ago.
Maybe if we had, Maddie would still have her husband, and I would have a grandson.
Fuck!
“I have a grandson,” I whispered to no one.
“No, you fuckin’ don’t!” Sal snarled. “Maddie made her choice, and you agreed to respect it.”
“That was before I knew he was mine!” I argued.
Sal shook his head. “We aren’t going to war with the fuckin’ Bratva and the Italians. Now, have you found that cocksucker yet?”
The subject was closed as far as Sal was concerned. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Henry. My grandson.
“No, he knows how to hide. But I do have a few more names that have red flags. I’ll send Liam and Oscar to question them.”
“Someone outside the family is helping him. It’s the only way he’s eluded us. Tyran isn’t that fuckin’ smart,” Duncan said.
“Could be Stone,” Mac offered.
“Montana?” Sal asked, confusion on his face. Montana Stone wasn’t stupid either; he just had no fucking filter and said whatever the fuck popped into his head.
“No, Dakota. He was there when Moreno’s woman was taken. He got away while Moreno was beating the life out of Steele,” Mac explained.
It was possible Dakota was helping Tyran. Though I didn’t know how they’d have met. It would have had to have been something outside the organization. We didn’t work with bikers. Well, except the Silver Shadows, whose president was Sal’s son. He’d do anything for him.
“Ci, look into Dakota. I want everything you can find on the son of a bitch.”
I nodded, and Sal stormed out. Duncan sighed. “I hope she’s worth it.”
“Is Freyja worth dealing with the Sons of Hell?”
“I don’t have to deal with them. They aren’t in my fuckin’ backyard. Sal’s not going anywhere. He’ll get over it eventually, but it’s gonna take time.”
“I know.”
Duncan and Mac left, letting me get back to work, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what Duncan had asked. Was Caity worth a wedge between me and one of my best friends?
Sal and I didn’t grow up together. My family was part of the organization, but my mother did her best to keep me separate from it.
Duncan brought me in when I was twenty years old.
He knew I was smart, and Sal had been working to put together his own crew to prove to his father he could take over from him one day.
Tyran had tried to push me out on more than one occasion. But I’d made myself invaluable to Sal, showing him time and time again that brains were what he needed more than brawn.
Muscle was the old way of doing things. Intelligence was the wave of the future. Intimidation didn’t earn you trust; knowledge did.
Caity had only been seventeen then, but I knew she was mine. I’d waited too long trying to prove myself worthy of her. Kelley had swooped in and stolen her away from me.
That wouldn’t happen again. My plan was to steal her first before anyone had a chance to even try.
I sat in my car staring at her front door. Eamon’s front door. It wasn’t the home she had grown up in. No, she’d lived with her mother, just as Sal lived with his. Her father had no use for a wife; he didn’t want one. The fact that he’d only had three children that we knew of was astounding.
We’d all expected children to come out of the woodwork once he’d died, but either there weren’t any others, or they just didn’t know he was their father.
I’d only been in the house a few times, and not at all since she’d moved home.
Even now, the thought of knocking on her door terrified me.
I was over fifty fucking years old and I sat in my car, palms sweaty, heart racing like a teenager at the prospect of being rejected by the only woman who’d ever meant anything to me.
The ringing of my phone pulled me out of my head. I hit the button and said, “Hello.”
“Where are you?” Mac asked.
“Why?”
He sighed heavily. “Grow a pair of fuckin’ balls.”
“Fuck you, Mac. What do you want?” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. He knew where I was. The same place I’d been every night since we’d come home from Louisiana.
“Liam checked out the names you gave him. Two were clean; three weren’t.”
“Any of them survive?” I asked, sitting up as Caity stepped through her front door.
“No,” Mac sighed. “Oscar is good at what he does, but the kid needs to learn when to pull back.”
“He’ll get there. For now, set up the wives of the other two. Make sure they have everything they need. Give the other three a severance.” I started my car and pulled out behind Caity.
“She’s gonna know you’re following her.”
“She’ll know she’s being followed, but she won’t know it’s me,” I argued. I wasn’t in my car; I was in something flashy, something I would never normally drive, not wanting to bring attention to myself.
“Just fuckin’ talk to her.”
“I can’t, asshole.” I turned left, staying two cars behind her. If I knew where she was going, I could take a different route, but for now this was what I had to work with.
“You’re such a pussy,” he chastised. “You’ve never been afraid of her before.”
“Yeah, well, before she could reject me because of her husband and the church. Her only excuse now is that she doesn’t want me, and I’m not ready to accept that.”
I wouldn’t fucking accept that ever. I knew she wanted me.
Sal took her to the station in New York to report Kelley as a missing person.
We had to bide our time for three years, making an effort to find the dead son of a bitch, before we could have him declared dead, and then Caity would be free to marry me.
And she would fucking marry me.
I wasn’t really worried about her rejecting me; I wouldn’t give her the choice. I knew she loved me. Just as much as I loved her. It was convincing her to be with me that was the problem.
“Have you talked to Maddie?”
“Yeah. She’s staying at Colleen’s apartment. She wanted to live on her own. Talking stupid shit about getting a job.”
“That’s good.”
“She doesn’t need a fuckin’ job,” I growled, pulling to the side of the road as Caity parked in front of a restaurant. It wasn’t like her to eat out alone, which meant she was meeting someone. But who?
“She needs a life, Ci. She’s been living in a shell for years. Henry is what... almost eight years old? Maddie is twenty-eight, and she hasn’t done anything.”
“I should have fuckin’ known,” I said quietly. “I should have known she was mine.”
“Caity lied, man.”
I growled at my best friend. I didn’t want to hear him talk about Caity like that. I knew it was true, but she had her reasons. It was hard to stay angry with her.
I said goodbye to Mac and watched as a blacked-out sedan pulled up in front of the restaurant and a man climbed out of the backseat. A man I fucking recognized. What the fuck was he doing here?
If Sal knew he was in town, he’d blow a gasket. He might be Caity’s family, but this secret meeting was suspect. I grabbed the door handle, ready to storm into the restaurant and get answers to the questions running through my head, when my phone rang and my daughter’s name lit up the screen.
My daughter!
“Hello, iníon,” I greeted with a smile. I’d always had a special relationship with Maddie. She was Caity’s daughter, and somewhere inside me she’d always felt like mine for that reason alone. Now I knew it was more than that.
“Can you come over?” Her voice trembled through the phone.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I just... never mind. I’m fine.”
“I’m on my way,” I assured her. “Have you eaten?”
“Yeah.”
As I started the car, I said, “Then I’ll stop and grab dessert.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Maddie. I’m always available for you. No matter what I’m doing, I will always drop everything for you.”
I heard her sniffle, and I looked toward the restaurant. Caity would have to wait. My daughter needed me. I said goodbye to Maddie and pulled away from the curb, stopping at the bakery I knew she loved.
Armed with a dozen of my Maddie’s favorite pastries, I drove to the apartment building Duncan owned. He’d bought it when Colleen had talked about moving out of her parents’ house. He’d wanted her to find her independence, but he’d also wanted her safe.
With Colleen in Nebraska, her apartment sat empty. Duncan had called her and asked if Maddie could stay there. Colleen had quickly agreed. The girls were only a few years apart, but they’d grown up together and were close.
I knocked on the door, and when Maddie answered, the first thing I noticed was the red ring around her eyes. I pulled her against my chest, and the tears started.