Chapter Seventeen
Cian
Hearing her say the words I’d wanted to hear from her lips was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I’d had a good childhood for a kid who grew up in the Mob. None of us had what could be described as a normal childhood.
But my parents loved me. I was an only child, despite their trying for more. I heard I love you often from both my mother and my father. Maddie had told me she loved me often. More now she knew I was her father.
But hearing the words from Caity, the woman I’d pined for, the woman I’d obsessed over, was like Christmas and my birthday rolled into one.
“I love you, Caity. With everything inside me, I’ve loved you from the first moment I met you.”
I leaned down and kissed her. Her hands cradled my face as she kissed me back. Never again would I watch her from across the room. Scheming, devising a plan just to be near her. To brush against her innocently with the need to touch her for the briefest moment.
No, now she was mine, and I would never stop touching her, tasting her, fucking her.
“Scoot up on the bed.”
She pushed up on her hands and scooted back, watching me to see what I would do. I gave her a feral grin, because that was how I felt right now. Fucking feral. My need for her had grown over the years, but I kept it tamped down knowing I couldn’t have her again.
Only, now I could.
I climbed over her, dipping my head and taking her nipple between my teeth. She cried out, and I let go, blowing cool air over it and lapping it with my tongue.
I moved to the other side and did the same. Then traveled up to her collarbone, kissing and sucking at her skin.
“Ci, please.”
“Please what, baby? What do you want, Caity? Tell me and it’s yours.”
I looked into her eyes, letting her see the truth in my words. I would give her whatever she asked for. I would spend my last breath giving her the life we should have had.
“What do you want, banphrionsa?”
Her breath hitched at the nickname. Princess. It was who she was. There was no denying her lineage, but that wasn’t why I wanted her.
“Tell me,” I commanded, as I positioned my body over hers, the head of my dick nestled against her warm pussy.
“You,” she whispered. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted. You, Ci.”
I pushed into her and her eyes closed as her head dug into the mattress, while her mouth hung open from my intrusion. She was so fucking tight I almost lost it as soon as her wet pussy engulfed me.
She wrapped her legs around my waist, her heels digging into my ass, pulling me tighter against her.
“Fuck me, Cian.”
I pulled back until only the tip remained and slammed into her again. She opened her eyes and looked into mine as I pulled back and pushed in again. She held me captive as we connected, not only our bodies. Two souls kept apart for a lifetime finally able to fuse together.
I brushed the hair away from her face as I made love to her. I dipped down and took her mouth in a searing kiss, meant to show her my claim. To reiterate that she was mine, and I was never letting her go.
I set a fast pace as I thrust inside her. Her whimpers became louder, soon transforming into moans of ecstasy.
“Yes, Ci. Yes.”
I moved faster. “Come for me, Caity. Let go and let me have you. Let me love you.”
Tears sprung from her eyes as her body stiffened beneath me and her pussy clamped down on my cock.
“Yes, baby, that’s it. Let me have it,” I whispered against her neck as I continued to drive into her. Her scream as she came pushed me over the edge, and I came a second after she did.
Our bodies, slick with sweat, crushed together in a moment of pure bliss. I rolled over, taking her with me as my now soft dick slipped out of her.
With her head on my chest and our breathing in sync, I held her in my arms, knowing this was where she’d always belonged. Where she would always be from now on.
“Don’t let me go, Ci.” Her soft words brushed over my chest. Barely noticeable. “Don’t ever let me go.”
“I promise.”
I woke up in bed alone. My hand reached out for Caity and found the sheets cold. I sat up quickly, listening for the shower. Hearing nothing, I started to panic. I grabbed my discarded pants and pulled them on, buttoning them as I left the room in search of the infuriating woman.
“Caity!” I yelled as I hit the end of the hall.
“What?” she replied innocently.
“Why the fuck did I wake up alone?”
A soft gasp made me turn my head, and I found my daughter sitting at the table, her hand over her mouth. My chin dropped to my chest, and I barely held in my groan.
“Because we have company,” Caity said with a smile. “Why don’t you go get dressed so we can have breakfast with our daughter?”
I grabbed the back of her neck, ignoring my daughter’s presence, and sealed my lips to hers, whispering, “Next time, fuckin’ wake me up.” I smacked her ass as I walked by to go back to my room.
Caity’s gasp was covered by Maddie’s laughter. At least I hadn’t scarred my daughter for life. And by the sound of it, she was okay with her mother sleeping in my bed.
I quickly showered and got dressed for the day. We had a lot to talk to Maddie about. I only hoped she’d be willing to share everything with us.
By the time I returned to the kitchen, Caity had breakfast spread out on the table. I kissed the side of her head before moving to my daughter and doing the same.
“Morning, Maddie.”
“Morning, Dad,” she said with a smirk.
I shook my head at her and sat down with the two most important people in my life.
The room was quiet as we ate, no one wanting to be the first to mention the change in events. I took a deep breath and broke the silence.
“Maddie?”
Her eyes snapped to mine and she placed her fork on the table, then looked at her mother. “I guess you told him.”
“Told me what?” I asked, looking between Caity and our daughter.
“Not exactly,” Caity said, placing her napkin on the table.
“Told. Me. What?” I asked again, quickly losing my patience.
“I told you about the envelope I received, with the pictures and the recording, and that Maddie had opened it.”
Caity got quiet as she glanced at Maddie. “And?” I asked. Caity startled at the impatient tone in my voice.
“I thought Sinclair sent the photos.” Maddie gasped, and Caity added, “Well, someone who works for him.”
“That’s why you met with him?”
“No.”
Maddie stood and moved to the full-length windows that looked out over the river. She stood with her arms wrapped around her waist.
“Sinclair wants information that is in the files, about his family.”
“Sinclair doesn’t have family,” I stated, my eyes glancing at Maddie briefly before turning back to Caity.
“Rowen, Silas, Gideon, and Dante are his family, Cian. Everyone knows that. He’ll do anything to protect them.
” Caity inhaled deep and blew out the breath before she continued, “He wanted to meet me for dinner because he knows I was lying about not finding the files. When we were talking... I don’t know, something made me ask him about the pictures. ”
“He sent them?” I asked.
Caity looked over at Maddie who hadn’t moved from the window. She hadn’t said a word since Caity mentioned Sinclair.
“I thought so. But when I told him Maddie opened it, something flashed in his eyes.” She looked at me and lowered her voice. “Something terrifying.”
“He wasn’t behind the pictures being taken; he was still at the Trick Pony then. But I thought maybe he’d gotten ahold of them somehow and sent them. But after seeing that look on his face...”
“What was the recording?”
Caity swallowed hard and glanced at Maddie again. “It was a voice recording from the night Nolan died. When he revealed you were Maddie’s father, and then a gunshot.”
I stood up quickly, my chair falling on the floor. “What the fuck, Caity?! It’s been months—why are you just saying something now?”
“I didn’t know until a few days ago. Maddie was so angry, and I wanted to give her time and space.”
“Maddie, sweetheart.” I walked over to my daughter and settled my hands on her shoulders. I looked at her reflection in the window and tears streamed down her face. “Talk to us, Maddie.”
She shook her head as she tightened her arms around her waist. I turned her to face me, wiping the tears from her cheeks, then pulled her against my chest.
“I need that recording, Caity.”
“It’s in my purse, inside the lining.” I didn’t tell him that the files Sinclair wanted—the ones I’d kept separate—were also in there inside the lining on the opposite side.
“Dammit, Caity.”
I ushered my daughter over to the table and sat her down next to her mother, who wrapped her arms around her, holding her as she cried, before grabbing Caity’s purse from the counter. I ripped open the lining and found the small flash drive.
“I’ll be right back.”
I left them in the kitchen and rushed down to my office. I grabbed a laptop from the closet, one that was used only for situations like this. You couldn’t be too careful with a flash drive, not knowing what was on it.
I slipped it into the slot and clicked on the only file. Immediately, the room was filled with Kelley’s voice. When I heard the gunshot, I pulled the drive from the computer. I’d have to dissect it later and see if I could pull anything from it that would lead us to who had recorded it.
I would have to do another dive into every man who was there that night. Starting with McCoy. Freyja had a bad feeling about the man, and if we’d learned one thing from Freyja, it was to listen to her fucking feelings.
I picked up my phone and called Sal.
“What did you learn?”
“Not much yet, but we have a problem,” I said, twirling the flash drive between my fingers.
“What kind of problem?”
“Someone made an audio recording of the night in Louisiana.”
“Which night?” he growled into the phone.
“The night we found out about Maddie.” He would know what I was talking about. We didn’t use phones on a network, but we also couldn’t be completely sure we weren’t overheard.
“How much of the conversation?” he asked.
“All the important parts,” I answered, letting him know without saying it that Kelley’s death had been recorded.
“Fuck.”
“I’ll dig into it, but it means I’ll have to split my focus with the files,” I told him. I chose not to mention Sinclair. I didn’t need Sal going off the rails just yet.
“Who sent it?”
“Yet to be determined.”
“Call my son; get his man to help,” Sal ordered.
“That’s not a good idea.”
“Why the fuck not?”
I rubbed a hand over my face as I groaned. So much for not telling him about Sinclair.
“Because Sinclair is asking about the files your father had. I don’t want his son-in-law hearing about this and telling him.”
Sal was quiet on the other end of the line, and I waited to see what he would say. When a minute went by without a word from him, I looked at the phone. “Sal?” I asked when I saw we were still connected.
“How the fuck does Sinclair know about the files?” he asked.
“I’m guessing he doesn’t, not for sure. But he grew up at the Trick Pony, Sal. He was there for seventeen years. He probably knew your father. I’m guessing Sinclair probably knows everything. All the players and their roles.”
“Find out,” he ordered, then the phone disconnected.