Chapter 2
Two
KAELEN
Sweat slicked off my brow, clinging to my bare chest as I tossed the barbells onto the mat with a dull thud.
Bass thumped from the speakers, shaking the mirrored walls in my private gym.
It’d been two hours, and I still wasn’t finished.
I wouldn’t stop until the lingering rage faded, refusing to give in to the caged animal trapped inside me.
If I hadn’t worked out the last of my aggression, I would have done something rash. And acting on instinct wasn’t a luxury I was afforded. As the head of my family, I couldn’t lash out. Every action needed to be meticulously crafted with the ramifications accounted for.
Fuck.
The last thing I wanted right now was to be logical. I wanted to paint the pavement outside the Rossi mansion with blood.
Outside my brothers, Torin was my most loyal man.
Family was everything. And Torin was family in everything but blood.
I never doubted that he would take a bullet for me, and now that he proved that. I wanted to throttle the bastard. Fucking idiot, jumping in front of me like that. The kid who shot at me had poor aim; it would have grazed my arm at best.
Torin was still alive, but in critical condition in the ICU.
I needed to blow off some steam before I did something stupid.
The Italians were really pushing my buttons.
If Vittorio Rossi didn’t get a handle on his trigger-happy younglings, I was going to do something far more dangerous than sending the head of the guy who shot Torin to his front step in a box.
I grabbed a towel, wiping sweat from my face as I walked toward my bedroom in the opposite wing. After one more set, I accepted that retribution was enough for now. We were on the brink of war with the Italians, and I didn’t want to push us over the edge.
Not yet anyway.
The house was quiet. Most of my men were at our pubs or casinos for the night. Aileen puttered away in the kitchen, cooking a meal that almost made me forgo a shower if I thought she wouldn’t scold my arse. My housekeeper was sterner than my Ma had been, and that woman could make a grown man cry.
I paused, leaning into the cool granite on the island, trying to peek at what she was cooking. The tiny woman spun, her gray-streaked, braided hair falling over her slender frame. Flames from the stove reflected in her hazel eyes as she narrowed them at me, her lips pursed.
“Kaelen, take a shower. You smell like the pigs after a rain.” She scowled, shaking a wooden spoon at me.
Aileen didn’t put up with my bullshite. She was the only one who could talk to me like that, and she knew it. Give her a gun, and I’d take her at my side over most of my men.
“Yes, ma’am,” I relented, running a hand over my beard.
“Once you wash up, I’ll bring supper up to your office. You want something sweet?” she asked, her voice warmer and more matronly.
Even as a kid, I always had a sweet tooth, and I was weak for Aileen’s apple cake. At least a few nights a week, I took a slice with my whisky. Before I could respond, she waved me away, returning her attention to the pot on the stove.
“I’ll bring the cake,” she said, and I relaxed for the first time in days.
After my shower, I slipped into a white button-down, rolling the cuffs.
I checked my cell as I sat in the leather chair behind my desk, looking for an update on Torin.
My brother Liam was at the hospital with him, protecting his room in case the Italians acted out after they received the head of their man.
What I did was just in our world, and if Vittorio Rossi were smart, he would leave it alone. Based on Liam’s latest message, Torin was stable and expected to make a full recovery. I sent off a quick email to the CEO at Boston General, ensuring that all of Torin’s expenses would be covered by me.
I poured myself an overfull glass of whisky.
A knock echoed across the room, and I grumbled, surprised to see my other brother, Aidan, standing there instead of Aileen with my supper. His hazel eyes looked like Mum’s.
Sometimes, I swore her ghost visited us whenever I looked at him.
My brothers were both younger than me, Aidan sandwiched between me and Liam. Aidan was the steady one who always thought through every scenario. The calm to Liam’s storm.
Regardless, they were loyal and put family first, determined to solidify the Finnegan name in Boston. I trusted them with my life.
Aidan and Liam lived with me, staying in the other wing of our family estate. A few of my men also had residences on the premises—some of the single, most trustworthy ones, who handled protection details on the grounds if they wanted them.
When our Da passed away three years ago, I took over all operations for the Finnegan name at only thirty. We owned a string of legitimate pubs throughout Boston. They bolstered our more questionable line of underground casinos. After Ma passed, his alpha didn’t want to be without his mate.
He wanted to make something for our family here in Boston. But without his omega, he faded away, leaving me as the head of our family.
Aidan lowered himself into the chair on the other side of my desk, the gun in his jacket flashing under the sunlight streaming in through the window behind me. His expression was unreadable as he tried to decipher mine.
“What?” I snapped.
“How is Torin?” he asked, unaffected by my tone.
I schooled my features. It was interesting that he still liked to pretend Torin meant so little to him. Liam told me that Aidan hadn’t left his side, until today when the nurse kicked him out.
So be it. I’d play along until they were ready to open up about their relationship.
“Recovering. Expected to pull through,” I said. I swore I aged ten years in one day. “Has our gift been delivered to the Rossi residence?”
A half-smirk pushed against his cheeks as he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his spread thighs.
“One decapitated head and a love note delivered.”
I nodded, swirling the amber liquid in my glass.
Initially, I assumed the reason for Aidan’s visit was that he wanted an update on Torin. Given that his arse was still planted in my chair, I suspected there was more to it. He usually spent his nights at our most popular casino, hidden in the secret tunnels under Fenway.
“What else?” I prodded, narrowing my eyes.
“Senator Sterling is outside, saying he wants to speak with you. Has an offer for you.”
I grumbled, and my lip twitched. Politicians. Slimy and backstabbing, the whole lot of them. At least with someone like Rossi, I knew what to expect. He would attack me from the front. Someone like Senator Sterling made my skin itch. They were brash enough to try something stupid.
Even if I was intrigued about what he wanted, he had some nerve to show up unannounced and expect to speak with me.
“Get rid of him, Aidan. I don’t work on the senator’s time.”
“He’s insistent. Has a pretty, young omega with him.”
That piqued my curiosity. Did he think that by bringing a girl with him, I wouldn’t put a bullet in his head? Messy. All of it. I wasn’t wasteful and wouldn’t take a life unless there was a reason for it. But I was pissed enough after today to do it.
Presumptuous bastard, showing up here. My thumb flicked the condensation from my glass, wondering how I would deal with the aftermath of killing a gubernatorial candidate.
“I can see your mind working,” Aidan said, raising a brow. “You can’t kill him.”
“Piss off. Any inkling of what he wants?”
“Nope. I have some guesses.”
So did I. A career politician like William Sterling didn’t get where he was by playing fair. He was polishing his resume, looking to add governor for a potential presidential run in the next decade.
“Bring them up to my office in thirty minutes.”
An amused look flicked across Aidan’s face as he nodded, leaving the room. I stood, sipping my whisky and looking out the window. My hand drifted to the gun in my desk, tucking it into the waistband of my trousers.
I didn’t trust the fucker.
After exactly thirty minutes had passed, there was a knock.
As the door to my office groaned open, the sweetest, most fragrant scent greeted me. It smelled like wildflowers, honey, and summer rain, reminding me of the rolling hills in Ireland where I grew up. My dick twitched, a possessiveness stirring within me.
My alpha begged to be let loose.
Aidan showed the senator and the girl into my office as he stood out of the way, leaning against a far wall.
I squinted, recognizing the young omega from the charity event last week. My hand clasped the tumbler in my grip, almost shattering it before I lowered it onto my desk.
Those pretty blue eyes had haunted my dreams since Saturday. The cute omega disappeared before I could introduce myself.
The Fates must have been pleased to deliver her to me.
Enclosed in my office, all I smelled was her, and I was close to losing it. Aidan had the audacity to smirk at me, his alpha apparently not as affected as mine was.
I prided myself on my control. Omegas didn’t affect me, not like other alphas. I didn’t lose my mind when they entered the room.
When I presented, my father taught me to control my instincts.
An omega-drunk alpha couldn’t be the head of the most prominent Irish family in the country.
For the first time since I turned eighteen, I was close to succumbing to the sweetest-smelling omega I had ever met, giving in to a primal desire to woo her, to get on my knees and worship her.
I’ve fucked plenty of omegas and betas. There had even been one female alpha who had been as tough as my men. Despite that, I never once lost my composure.
But now, there was this captivating omega, smelling like sin with sapphire eyes that twinkled like crystals, making my dick harder than stone. One look at her, and my alpha roared, ready to throw everything I had worked for my entire life away.