Chapter Twelve
Caity
I stepped out my front door and swore I could feel eyes on me. I peered down the street in both directions, looking for cars that didn’t seem familiar, and wondered at what point I had started to think of it as my home and not my father’s.
I looked over my shoulder at the front door and smiled. Despite what was happening right now, who I was meeting, I was starting to believe that I could live a happy life.
I’d spoken to Maddie, and it went better than I’d expected. We still had a lot to work out, but it was a start. I took a deep breath of the crisp spring air before I walked down the steps and climbed into my car.
If I could just get through this dinner, then maybe I would be headed in the right direction.
I pulled up to the restaurant and handed my keys to the valet.
Leave it to the arrogant bastard to pick the most expensive place in Boston. He was all about appearances. He always had been.
Even when Maddie and Dante were little, Sinclair had to have everything just right. Perception was paramount, he’d say; meanwhile, neither of our children cared at eight years old if there was caviar, they wanted pizza.
I shook my head as I thought about Dante. He had a daughter now. Sinclair had a granddaughter he was allowed to hold and cuddle. I didn’t even get to see mine from a distance.
Not anymore.
I gave my name at the hostess stand and followed her to the back of the restaurant. For a man who was focused on how things looked, he also preferred privacy.
“Mrs. Kelley.” Sinclair stood and took my hand, kissing the back of it.
“It’s O’Malley,” I corrected.
“Oh? I hadn’t realized missing husbands meant a woman reverted back to her maiden name.”
“Asshole,” I muttered at his sly grin.
I slid into the booth, followed by Sinclair. “Why am I here, Sinclair?”
“You are here, Miss O’Malley, because I need answers.”
“And I told you I didn’t have any answers for you.”
“And I believe you are lying,” he said easily, as if we were old friends. Sinclair didn’t have friends. He had minions. He had people who did his bidding, but I wasn’t one of them.
“I have no control over what you choose to believe. I have been through everything in my father’s office, and there is no mention of you or Dante.”
“And Rowen?” he asked.
I looked up at him and smiled. “My father had no information about a Rowen Shay.” It wasn’t a lie.
The name Rowen Shay was never mentioned.
What I didn’t tell Sinclair was that I knew Rowen’s real name.
I knew who he was, and when the truth came out, not even Sinclair had the power to prevent Rowen’s father from tearing the world apart.
“And Silas?”
I looked down at my hands. If I gave him something, maybe he would back off. “Only that he had nightmares. And those nightmares will always haunt him.”
Sinclair watched me. His eyes flitted over my face, looking for deception. I’d spent my whole life living a lie that, except for Nolan, no one had guessed.
Not even my father.
But someone knew!
I stared back at the man sitting across from me. “You sent it, didn’t you?”
“Sent what, my dear?”
I took a deep breath, trying to control my temper. Sinclair had a way of bringing out the worst in people. There was a time when our children were young that I thought he might be someone I could confide in.
That notion was quickly dispelled when I found him in Nolan’s office, the two of them discussing something I never asked about. I never trusted him again after that, and now I knew why.
“How long have you known?”
The waitress appeared to refresh our drinks, and Sinclair never pulled his eyes from mine as we waited for her to disappear once more.
“There is very little I don’t know, Caitlin.”
“Are you the one who told him?” I held my purse in my lap; I wouldn’t be staying for dinner. I needed to get out of here as soon as I could. I needed to tell Sal everything.
“I was not. I would never hurt Madigan that way.”
“But if not for her, you would have hurt me?”
“If not for her, there would be nothing to hurt you with. I don’t care that you cheated on your husband, Caitlin. He was, well, he wasn’t worth much. What I cared about was my son’s friend not being hurt.”
“And yet you sent those pictures and that recording. She opened that envelope, Sinclair.” I lowered my voice and leaned in. “She listened to the recording of the man she believed was her father being shot after she found out who her father really was.”
Something flashed in Sinclair’s eyes. Something I couldn’t quite name, but something that terrified me to my core.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Kelley. You have a phone call.”
I looked up at the waitress. Had she heard what I said? Without looking back at Sinclair, I nodded and stood. “Excuse me, Sinclair.”
I followed the waitress, my hands gripping my purse tightly. No one knew I was here. No one should be calling me. When I reached the kitchen, a hand reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me into the shadows.
“Liam? What are you doing?”
“We need to go, Caity. Now.”
Liam dragged me through the back of the restaurant and toward his car. He helped me into the passenger seat and rushed to the other side, climbing in.
“What the fuck is going on, Liam?”
“I don’t know. I was told to follow you and see who you were meeting.” Liam glanced in my direction. “Cian’s gonna be pissed when he finds out.”
“Cian has no say over my life and who I have dinner with.”
Liam snorted as he pulled into traffic. He wove through the lanes, and I thought he was taking me home. When we passed the turnoff to my house, I asked, “Where are you taking me?”
Liam’s silence was deafening. Sal had left town abruptly. He was in Nebraska again. He’d gone alone this time. He never went anywhere alone. Someone was always with him to protect him. But with him gone, there was only one other option.
Duncan wouldn’t have me kidnapped off the street, and neither would Mac. Which meant Liam was following Cian’s orders. That theory proved correct when we pulled into the garage beneath Cian’s building.
“Why am I here?” I asked as Liam helped me out of the car. I dug my heels in, stalling for an answer, but Liam was big and strong. If he wanted to, he could throw me over his shoulder and carry me upstairs. I didn’t doubt for a second that he would do exactly that.
Instead, he held my arm in his grasp and dragged me into the elevator.
“Why am I here?” I asked again, but Liam was my brother’s most loyal soldier. He was loyal to all of us, but I guess I fell to the bottom of the list of people he gave his loyalty to.
The elevator doors slid open, and I growled, “Liam McGuire, I swear to Christ if you don’t let go of my arm right now...” My threat fell flat when I saw Cian staring at me. Bolstering what little courage I had left, I asked, “Cian, what the fuck is going on?”
He moved toward me, his eyes full of love, but the tension in his shoulders told me how angry he was. When he stood in front of me, he snarled, “Why don’t you fuckin’ tell me?!”
“I don’t know what’s going on. I was having dinner with a friend when Liam showed up and dragged me out.”
Cian looked at Liam. “Who?”
“Crispin Sinclair.”
“Son of a bitch!” Cian cursed. He turned his back on me and walked to the window on the other side of the room.
I didn’t dare move. Cian didn’t get angry often; he was pretty laid-back.
He wasn’t muscle like Ty and Mac. He was the brains.
He knew computers, and he knew how to stay levelheaded.
He didn’t do anything without thinking it through first.
At least I’d always thought so.
But watching him now, with his hands splayed against the glass. His shoulders shook with fury. He balled up his fist and punched the window. When he turned around, he ignored me and said to Liam, “Not a soul knows she’s here. Not even Sal.”
Liam nodded and left.
Cian paced his penthouse, mumbling about stupid women getting involved in things that didn’t include them, and the more he mumbled, the angrier I got.
“Fuck you, Ci!”
He spun around and glared at me. He walked to the island in the kitchen, and that was when I saw the files. My gasp was louder than I’d expected. “Where did you get those?”
“Where do you think I got them?”
I dropped my purse on the floor as I rushed over and started piling up the papers; I could sort them out later. Cian grabbed my hands and pulled me away.
“What the fuck is this, Caity?”
“It doesn’t concern you.” I struggled to get out of his grasp, but he pulled me against his chest and banded his arms around me.
“The fuck it doesn’t.”
“Please let me go.”
“Not a fuckin’ chance.” He held me tighter, and when his hands rubbed my back, I instantly felt the anger and fear melt away.
I wanted to burrow inside him and stay there.
Safe, protected. But I couldn’t. This didn’t involve him.
It didn’t involve me either, except that I was Eamon O’Malley’s daughter.
“How did you know?” I asked, my resolve softening.
When Cian didn’t answer, I looked up at him and saw the guilty look in his eyes. “What did you do?”
“Caity—”
“What the fuck did you do, Ci?”
“I promised I wouldn’t search your phone.”
I took a step back. He rubbed the back of his neck, and I knew it was bad. Whatever he’d done to violate my privacy, he was afraid to tell me. Afraid of admitting he’d overstepped.
“I want you to listen to me before you lose your mind.”
“What. Did. You. Do?”
“I love you, Caity. I’ve loved you since we were kids. I’d finally worked up the courage to talk to Sal about you when your father announced you were to marry Kelley.”
I stared at him. He’d finally said the words I’d waited a lifetime to hear. Words I’d never heard from Nolan. Words I’d only ever wanted to hear from him, and he said them in defense of a line he’d knowingly crossed.
“I promised you I wouldn’t look into your calls, but I knew you were involved in something, and I wanted to protect you.”
I took another step back, shaking my head. “Tell me you didn’t.”
“Caity,” he pleaded.
“Tell me you didn’t invade my privacy, Cian.” He took a step toward me, and I held my hand up, stopping him. “Tell me you didn’t,” I begged. My heart was breaking. The one person I thought I could always trust. The one person I thought I could believe in.
“I put cameras throughout the house.”
I rolled my lips between my teeth trying to fight back tears that threatened to fall. The betrayal of what he just said hit me harder than all the times Nolan cheated on me.
“You spied on me?” I whispered.
“I was worried about you, Caity. I wanted to protect you, but you wouldn’t let me in.”
“So this is my fault? You crossed a line!” I shouted.
“I know, and I won’t apologize for it.” He grabbed a tablet from the table and clicked the screen a few times before turning it in my direction. I stared down at the video of my home. Grabbing the tablet, I pulled it closer. There on the screen were four men destroying my father’s office.
“They showed up right after you left. They knew where you were and planned to follow you home from the restaurant. That was why I sent Liam.”
I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. Had Sinclair sent men into my home? What if Maddie had been there? I shook my head as I bit my lip. That son of a bitch. I threw the tablet at the wall and glared at Cian.
“You’re no better than my father.”
I turned away when he called my name. I knew he wouldn’t let me leave, but I didn’t have to stay here with him. I stormed down the hall toward the bedrooms, picking the first one I came to, and slammed the door shut, locking him on the other side.