Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cian
A month had passed since I told Caity to move back home. Sal wasn’t speaking to me at all. He was angrier now than when he found out I’d slept with his sister and fathered her child.
At least then he’d hit me.
Now, he wouldn’t even look at me. If he needed something, he sent Duncan or Mac to get it.
Then there was Maddie. She was still talking to me at least. Though she made it clear she wasn’t happy with my decision.
It didn’t matter. I did what I had to do to keep her safe. Keep them both safe.
Caity sold her father’s house and had recently moved in with Sal. I didn’t see that lasting very long, which meant she would get a place of her own. She was also working with the family.
She’d taken over Tyran’s office, but unlike her brother, she did come to me when she needed something. I suspected she was doing it to torture me. Every fucking day she walked into my office for one thing or another.
Her tight pencil skirt rode up as she walked, exposing more thigh than anyone but me had a right to see.
Her heels were impossibly high, making the muscles in her calves more defined. It took everything in me to wait until she left before I adjusted my dick in my pants.
It didn’t help that the files from Eamon’s office were in mine. We didn’t want just anyone to have access to them, and I was slowly going through all of them, cross-referencing the names with the ones Navigator had sent me. Also connecting members of the family who had worked with Eamon.
So far, I’d found files on ten families. Our soldiers were doing the heavy lifting to find out how involved they were, and whether or not it was voluntary.
I’d also found quite a bit of information on Tyran in those files. Information we weren’t sure what to do with. Information that could possibly be used to find out where he was, or a way to trap him into coming out of hiding.
“Afternoon, Cian,” Caity said with a chipper smile. “Just need to grab a couple of files.”
She strutted over to the row of filing cabinets, bent over to the second one from the bottom, and wiggled her ass in my direction. I tried, unsuccessfully, to hide my groan.
Caity popped up and turned to me. “Are you okay? Are you sick?”
“No,” I grumbled, looking back at my screens.
She waltzed over to my desk, leaning forward to the point I could see down her blouse, and placed her hand on my forehead. I pulled my head back, not wanting her to touch me. Her hands on any part of my body would sever what little control I had right now.
“Let me make sure you don’t have a fever.”
“I don’t have a fuckin’ fever. I’m fine.”
Caity straightened up and glared at me. “Well, excuse me for caring.”
She spun around and went back to the file cabinet, grabbing what she needed before stomping out the door.
“Caity,” I called out, wanting to apologize, but she held up her hand, her middle finger prominently giving me my answer.
Mac walked in after Caity left, chuckling. He sat on the couch and stared at me.
“Shut up, Mac.”
“I didn’t say a word.” He shrugged.
“You didn’t have to; your face says everything.”
“You know she’s doing it on purpose,” he said, and I glared at him.
“I know,” I admitted as I typed at my keyboard. I was currently doing a deep dive on Vito Bianchi. I’d found out after kicking Caity out of my house that my daughter had gone to Crispin Sinclair for a favor.
He’d given her an extensive file on Valentino Valentinetti. According to Maddie, he hadn’t asked for anything in return, but I didn’t trust the son of a bitch. He hadn’t asked yet, but Sinclair always collected on his debts.
When I was done with this, I had four Russian names to dig into. Constantine Baranov, the former Pakhan. Boris Petrovich, Maxim Fedorov’s older brother. And Timofey and Jascha Mikhaylov.
There was scant information on the last two names. Their files were thin. They were brothers who’d broken out in the underground fighting circuit but disappeared shortly after Eamon was killed.
Either he was trying to make money off them, or he wanted to recruit them to work for the Society. Either way, I needed to find whatever information I could.
I heard the elevator bell ring and looked out into the hall when I heard, “Mmm mmm, momma, you are fucking gorgeous.”
Oh fuck no.
Mac and I both stood quickly and moved into the hall where I found a biker leering at my woman. And she was fucking smiling. Make no mistake, I might have walked away temporarily, but Caity was still fucking mine.
He was slightly shorter than me, maybe six foot two or three. But where I was lean, his arms were bulked with muscles.
“Can I help you?”
The biker took his time pulling his eyes away from Caity, and when he did, he grinned at me.
“She yours?” he asked, tipping his head in Caity’s direction.
“Yes,” I growled at the same time Caity vehemently said, “No!”
He held out his hand. “Name’s Dread. Need to speak to the boss.”
“Why?”
“Sorry, can’t tell you. Client confidentiality and all.”
“Who the fuck are you? ’Cause you ain’t no lawyer,” I said, looking him over. His cut said President, with a 1% patch below it, and Twisted Dragons MC on the other side.
“Nah, our lawyer is Mischief. I’m the prez. Need to see O’Malley. His son asked me to speak to him.”
“His son?” Caity asked, stepping forward and moving closer to Dread, putting her hand on his arm. He looked down at it and smiled at her again. “I’m King’s aunt; is there something I can help you with?”
“Fuck no,” I growled.
Caity turned her eyes on me, and they weren’t smiling and filled with laughter like they were for Dread.
“You lost the right to say anything about what I do,” she snapped.
“So,” Dread purred, taking her hand in his. “You’re available, say, for dinner?”
“I would love to have dinner with you.” She smiled at the smarmy bastard.
“Caity, he’s at least a decade younger than you. He’s probably closer to Maddie’s age than yours.”
“Older women make beautiful lovers,” the lech sang. Then followed it with, “I ain’t never killed a cat, but I’ve choked a few cougars.” Then he winked.
He fucking winked at my woman, and she was eating up his ridiculous fucking lines. Mac snorted, and I glared at him.
I took a step toward the biker, and someone grabbed my arm. I looked over my shoulder and found Sal, his eyes brimming with hate, maybe even more than mine.
“Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck do you want?” he barked loudly, causing Duncan to come out of his office.
“Name’s Dread. President of the Twisted Dragons MC in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I got a call from King, asking me to find his mother’s grave. Said I should talk to you.”
“Why?” Duncan asked.
Dread looked at Duncan. “You’re the brother, right?” Duncan nodded. “Then I’d like to talk with both of you.”
Sal nodded and walked to his office. Dread turned to Caity and said, “After I’m done here, how about lunch?”
“I’d love to.” She pointed across the hall. “My office is right there. Come find me when you’re done.”
“You can count on it,” he said as his eyes trailed down her body.
I couldn’t control the growl that rumbled up out of my chest. Duncan shoved Dread toward Sal’s office, and I stomped after Caity as she walked into hers.
I slammed the door behind me and watched her jump before she turned around and sneered at me, “What the fuck is your problem?”
“You are not leaving with that asshole!”
She folded her arms over her chest, pushing her tits up, and my eyes dropped to them. She cleared her throat and smirked at me.
“You didn’t want me, Ci. I promised Maddie I would live my life.
Find what makes me happy. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.
If that means having lunch with a biker, a decade younger than me, and letting him fuck me in the bathroom of the restaurant, that’s my fuckin’ choice, and you can’t say a damn thing about it. Now get the fuck out of my office!”
“Caity,” I warned, taking a step forward.
“I mean it. Get. Out. Now.”
She turned her back on me and walked to her own file cabinet. I knew she was pretending to look for something. Trying to ignore me until I left. I pulled the chair out and sat my ass in it.
Her shoulders slumped when she realized I wasn’t leaving.
“You don’t get to act jealous when you told me to leave,” she said without looking at me. “You can’t let me go and stop me from moving on.”
“Caity, I didn’t want to let you go.”
She slammed the drawer closed and yelled, “But you did, Ci. You let me go. Now you have to actually let me go.”
We stared at each other for what felt like forever before a knock on the door startled us both. Dread poked his head in and looked between us. “You ready to go, Gorgeous?”
“Yes, I am.” Caity smiled at him and grabbed her purse and jacket. I jumped up from the chair and clasped her elbow.
“Caity.”
“What, Ci? What could you possibly say that will stop me from having lunch with Dread?”
Her eyes bored into mine, and I knew exactly what I needed to say. I just couldn’t do it. Not yet. Not until I found Sylvia St. James, or confirmed she was dead.
“That’s what I thought.” She wrenched her arm from my grasp and walked out of her office with Dread. I stood in the doorway as they entered the elevator. Caity never took her eyes off me. She silently pleaded with me to stop her, and I couldn’t do it.
Because she was right.
I’d given up my right to say anything when I walked away from her. I’d given up any claim I had when I kicked her out of my home.
As the elevator doors slid closed, Dread saluted me with two fingers. His fucking smirk spreading across his face as he moved closer to Caity.
My Caity.
The woman I’d waited a lifetime for and still couldn’t have.
“You’re a stupid fuck, you know that?”
I looked over my shoulder. “Now you’re talking to me?”
“Why are you torturing yourself? And her? And us for fuck’s sake!”
I shook my head. I couldn’t tell him why. Everyone assumed Sylvia St. James was dead. Until I could verify that, I wouldn’t put any of them at risk. Sylvia was a wild card.
I’d read about everything she’d done, including trying to kill my cousin Donatella, who was married to Lorenzo Valentinetti, and Sylvia’s own niece.
Family meant nothing to that woman.
Maddie would never be safe until I knew for sure Sylvia St. James was good and truly dead.
Ignoring Sal’s question, I went into my office and grabbed my jacket, heading for the elevator.
“Where are you going?”
“Out,” I said, pushing the button for the lobby.
“Leave Caity alone until you get your head out of your ass!” Sal called out as the elevator doors closed. I made my way outside and looked down the street in both directions.
I had no idea where Dread had taken Caity for lunch, but if I had to, I’d check every fucking restaurant in the city. My mind was distracted by her words. About fucking the biker in the bathroom of the restaurant.
I never saw it coming.
The sudden yank on my arm caused me to stumble as someone dragged me into the narrow alley between two buildings.
A thunderous blow to the back of my head had me disoriented enough that my fight-or-flight instincts didn’t kick in.
My last thoughts, as the second blow drove me into darkness, were of Caity and Maddie.