Chapter Twenty #2
Aiden wasn’t going to hunt down the evidence and call the cops.
He was going to deal with it outside the law.
The same way we’re dealing with Dmitri Romanov.
She took a shuddering breath. Crime statistics aside, she was lying to herself if she said that things were the same here as they were in the rest of the country.
Boston might have law enforcement and lawyers and judges, but none of those people played a part in dealing with enemies on O’Malley territory.
She shivered. Right now was her opportunity to suggest he try something new—like actually calling the cops—but when she opened her mouth, that wasn’t what came out. “Okay.”
“Trust me, bright eyes.” He tipped up her chin and kissed her. “I’ll keep you safe.”
God help her, but she actually believed him.
* * *
Aiden found his father sitting with his mother in the library.
He stopped in the door, struck by the fact that they looked old.
Rationally, he knew they were almost sixty, but there had always been something ageless about both of them.
The events of the last few years would be enough to age anyone.
Even Aiden had new lines around his eyes that had never been there before.
His mother looked up and smiled. “Aiden.” She stood, and he crossed the room to give her a hug.
“Mother.” It was probably better that they were both here for this, because he didn’t doubt that his mother was capable of pulling the same shit Seamus had earlier. “Father.”
Seamus hadn’t stood, and he didn’t do more than nod now. “I trust you’re not going to do something reckless.”
“Reckless like offering my fiancée a million dollars to break off the engagement?”
Aileen turned to Seamus. “A million dollars? Are you serious?”
“She made a tough bargain.”
Aiden’s control snapped at its leash, but he fought back the anger as best he could.
Punching his father in the face might feel satisfying in the moment, but ultimately it would cause more problems than it solved.
So he sat down on the couch across from his parents with a perfectly contained demeanor.
“You haven’t been in Boston for over a year—either of you.
I don’t fault you the need to get away, but the fact remains that I’ve been running the O’Malley enterprises in the meantime.
Though you seem to be under the impression that I’m going to ruin everything, the world hasn’t ended in your absence.
Coming back here to resume control is out of the question.
Meeting with gunrunners behind my back is out of the question.
You’re putting our men in a hard situation, and this push and pull for leadership is going to get our people killed. ”
Seamus lifted a single eyebrow. “Which is why you should step aside immediately.”
Aiden gritted his teeth. “Which is why you will go back to your early retirement in Connecticut.”
“Son, you know damn well that’s not going to happen.
” His father leaned back and crossed his ankles.
“You mishandled the Romanov situation. We’ve dealt with that Russian bastard time and time again, and nothing we’ve done has made the slightest impact on him.
It’s time to face the fact that he’s a bigger fish than we are. ”
The sheer lack of trust in Aiden made him see red. He’d successfully managed Romanov for well over a year, holding him off until things were in place to move. He hadn’t done that by being a fucking coward. “Sacrificing Keira is not the answer.”
His mother touched Seamus’s leg and leaned toward Aiden. “Have you asked your sister what she wants?”
He didn’t have to. Aiden already knew what Keira would say.
He’d seen her face the night Romanov sent his delightful little note with the ultimatum in it.
A year wouldn’t have changed how his sister felt about the entire thing.
“She’ll marry him just to end it.” That was why he’d fought so hard to allow her the ability to choose—truly choose—without the threat of potential war hanging over her head.
“That’s her choice.”
He stared at his mother. “You’ve got to be joking. Her choice? You didn’t give Carrigan a choice when you were going to shove her out the door and down the aisle to that monster. You would have done the same fucking thing to Sloan if she didn’t disappear.”
“If Carrigan had done her duty, none of this would be happening.” Seamus pushed Aileen’s hand away. “Don’t shush me, woman. You know I’m right. Keira’s a good girl, and she’s going to do what her older sisters failed to.”
Aiden shook his head. “Keira is an addict. She sees Romanov as just another form of killing herself, the same way she’s been killing herself since Devlin died.”
“Aiden.”
“It’s the goddamn truth.” He’d already talked to Liam before this meeting and figured out who on the staff would be a problem if it came to forcing his father out.
There were surprisingly few of them. Most of his men had made the transition with him the week Seamus left.
To have his father randomly show up and try to assume control was making everyone edgy.
They might back Aiden if push came to shove, but he wanted to avoid putting them in that situation if at all possible.
Aiden stood and buttoned his suit jacket. “You will abide by my wishes in this, or you will be removed from the house. For now, we’ll move forward with planning the wedding, but it’s ultimately my decision with how that proceeds. Do you understand?”
Seamus’s face turned a mottled red that couldn’t be good for his blood pressure. “Crossing me is a mistake.”
Almost definitely. But the alternative—letting his father ruin the plans that had been over a year in the making—wasn’t much of an alternative at all. So he didn’t let his turmoil show on his face. “Do. You. Understand?”
“Oh, I understand all right.”
“And, Father? Stay the fuck away from Charlie. I’m marrying her, and if you corner her again, I’ll consider you an enemy and move forward appropriately.” He turned away and strode out of the room, leaving his father sputtering behind him.
It brought Aiden no satisfaction, but if he didn’t do something about his father trying to drive off Charlie now, he was afraid that she’d disappear and they’d find her body in the river.
That was the normal escalation of things—a sly payoff, something to scare her into doing what he wanted, and then an untimely death.
I can’t lose her.
He barely allowed himself to articulate the thought.
He was already going to lose her, if not because of their arrangement expiring, then because he seemed to be getting in deeper with Romanov by the minute.
Or maybe I’ll lose her when she figures out that I’m using her to blackmail her father.
He was in a tangled web of his own making, and he hadn’t anticipated it getting so complicated so fast.
It would be easier if he didn’t care about her—if it was just sex.
He could barely be in the same room with her without wanting to drag her off somewhere private and slake their mutual desire.
He admired her strength. She’d been to hell and back, and it hadn’t broken her.
And there was the fact that she slid almost seamlessly into his life here.
She didn’t blink at facing down Romanov or the Eldridges, or even his father.
Her courage scared the shit out of him. But knowing she could take care of herself only heightened his attraction.
And there was the fact that she pushed him to mend fences with his siblings.
Keira actually looked like something resembling healthy since Charlie had moved into the house.
Carrigan had invited them to an event, which was an olive branch if he ever saw one.
Give Charlie another week and she’d have him sitting down to dinner with Teague and doing his damnedest to forgive his middle brother.
He…cared about her.
He wanted to wrap her up and send her away to somewhere safe until this was all over. Fuck, he wanted to keep her safe forever. To stand between her and the world so she never had to be hurt again.
It wasn’t possible, even if she’d let him. He needed her here, and so he’d ride this out to the bitter end and see where all the pieces fell.
He just hoped like hell that they’d both still be standing at the end of it.