THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series (72 page)

She smiled and her face seemed to brighten as she focused on me. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to meet you the other day at Killian’s. I was overseeing my father’s move from an assisted living center to a nursing home.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

She shrugged her delicate shoulders. “It’s for the best. He’s had a couple of heart attacks, so he needs twenty-four seven nursing care.”

I glanced through the doors into the living room and caught sight of my father, quite loudly entertaining a group of his buddies. If the bullet that tore through his gut had been just an inch or two higher or lower, he might not be standing there tonight. Knock on wood, I could be right where Amelia was today.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you now.”

Amelia smiled, but she was distracted by Kyle. He was leaning past her to whisper something to Ian. I wasn’t sure what it was he said, but I could feel the tension suddenly move through Ian in the pressure in his fingers as he held my hand. He glanced at me, but my father stepped out onto the porch at that moment and beckoned us inside.

“Come. It’s time for the toast!”

“Good luck,” Seraphina said with a smile.

Aldo laughed.

Someone pushed a glass of champagne into my hand as we stepped through the door. Daddy moved us into the center of the room where we were surrounded by family and friends. My mom stood with her arm through Daddy’s, and Brian stood beside her, a big smile on his face. Killian and Stacy stood beside Carmine Jr. and his wife. Kyle and Amelia came in, and so did Seraphina and Aldo. We were trapped in a bubble of family, and they all seemed so happy for us. It should have been odd, and it should have felt surreal. But when I looked up at Ian and he smiled at me, it felt just like I’d imagined this moment would feel. Perfect.

“To Mia and Ian,” my father said in his booming voice. “May you have a long, happy life together!”

Cheers went up around us as we held up our glasses.

“May you never go to bed angry!” Brian said.

Again, cheers and laughter.

“May your lives be filled with laughter!” Carmine Jr. said.

And it went round and round, everyone throwing out well wishes for us despite the cruel words we’d heard some of Daddy’s men say. I’d never felt so self-conscious; I had never been the center of attention in this way. But Ian’s arm was around my waist, the length of his body a sense of security against me. It was a stupid thought because we barely knew each other, and we were essentially playing a role in some silly play, but I was convinced that as long as Ian was by my side everything would be okay.

The party wound down an hour or two later. I walked with Ian out to his car as the last of the guests left. He leaned back against the driver’s side door and pulled me against his chest.

“It was a lovely night.”

I giggled. “It was chaotic and loud, just like every party my father ever threw.”

“True. But it was much more fun than I thought it would be.” He ran his finger down the length of my cheek. “Your family is a lot of fun.”

“They are.”

I ran my hand over his chest, watching the crisp material of his shirt wrinkle and smooth out under my touch. He lifted my chin and we kissed, slowly. He slid his hand over my cheek, pressing his fingers into my hair. He drew me closer to him, deepening the kiss for a moment. But then he pulled away.

“I should go.”

I nodded where I’d pressed my forehead to his chest. “When will I see you again?”

“I’ll call you in the morning.”

“Okay.”

I stepped back and watched him get into his car. He waved as he pulled away, disappearing around the corner a second later. I sighed as I went into the house, running the tip of my tongue over my bottom lip, the taste of him lingering.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this engagement was real from the way you were swapping spit with him.”

Carmine Jr. was sitting on the bottom step of the stairs, a drink between his hands.

“It is a real engagement.”

“Daddy might have told you that you had to marry that fool, but he didn’t tell you that you had to be a good, loyal wife.”

“What’s your problem, Junior?”

He stood up and blocked my access to the stairs. “Don’t let that pretty boy convince you that this isn’t a business arrangement. You’re doing this so that we can get in on the gun trade. The moment we get what we want, we’re taking the Irish down. That includes your husband-to-be.”

“Yeah? Is that what Daddy told you?”

“Daddy didn’t have to tell me, Mia. That’s the way of the business.”

“Then you’re missing the whole point of all this. Daddy wants peace.”

“Fuck peace! I’d just as soon take that asshole out than watch him touch my little sister again!”

“Get out of my way, Junior.”

I started to move around him, but he grabbed my arm and jerked me back.

“Just watch yourself, Mia. Make sure you don’t get caught in the crossfire.”

Ian

I leaned back in my chair, my arms crossed over my chest. I was watching Kyle pace in front of Pops’ desk, about as agitated as I’d seen him in a long time.

“I just think you’re setting her up.”

“She’s going to be my wife in ten days.”

“But you don’t love her.”

“That’s none of your fucking business.” I got up, nearly knocking the chair over. “You have a lot of nerve lecturing me about my relationships when you’re the one that married some cocktail waitress in Vegas.”

Kyle rushed me, his fist balled and raised. “You don’t talk about Amelia!”

“Are you going to hit me, brother?”

Kyle stared at me for a long minute, but then he backed off, dropping his fist.

“I just saw the way she was looking at you when you came back from the garden last night. If you’re not serious about her, you’re going to break her heart.”

“Since when do you care about a Rossi?”

“I don’t. But you’re my brother and I’d rather not watch you get yourself wrapped up in some emotional meltdown with a woman because you were too stupid to see what you were getting yourself into.” Kyle crossed his arms and studied me a second. “You and I aren’t that different, Ian. I just want to save you from the mistake I almost made with Amelia.”

I just shook my head. I wasn’t interested in discussing my romantic life with Kyle. He was right when he said we were a lot alike. We both had a dark and sketchy childhood. We both struggled when we first came to live with the Callahans. But that didn’t mean that he could offer me any advice that would make a difference.

“Last time I checked…you were my little brother. I’m supposed to give advice to you, not the other way around.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been where you are. And I’m telling you, a girl like Mia doesn’t understand the difference between sexual attraction and love. So watch yourself, brother.”

I might have knocked him out if Pops hadn’t picked that moment to come into the room. Telling me how to act with my fiancée! I wasn’t an idiot. I just…I was going to be married to Mia for at least a year, probably longer. I might as well enjoy myself.

“We’ve heard from the bank,” Pops announced. “There hasn’t been any activity on any of Kevin’s accounts since he disappeared the night of the shootings.”

“I told you,” I said, crossing my arms again as I fell into another chair.

“I know you did, son, but we had to make it official.”

“He must be getting money from somewhere,” Kyle said.

“My accountant thinks he might have siphoned money off of his trust fund for years, little bits of money he snuck under the guise of paying his bills while he was in Paris. He figures that it amounts to nearly fifteen thousand.”

I shook my head. “That won’t last long, not the way Kevin spends money.”

“And when it runs out, he’ll come out of the woodwork.”

“One would hope so.” I leaned forward and balanced myself on my knees, studying Pops’ face. “And what happens when he does?”

Pops shook his head, looking everywhere but at Kyle and me.

“Pops…”

“I think what Ian’s trying to say is that we’re going to have to deal with this the way we would deal with anyone who represented a threat to us,” Kyle helpfully explained.

“I’m aware.” Pops straightened, tugging at the front of his shirt like his collar was suddenly too tight. “He put us all in danger, and he nearly got Killian killed. I’m not oblivious to that.”

“You don’t have to be a part of it if you don’t want to be.”

Pops shot me a hard look. “Don’t patronize me, Ian. I know what needs to be done and I’ll do it.”

But even as he said it, I could see the hurt in his eyes and hear the pain in his voice. Kevin was his favorite. To have it be Kevin who’d so completely turned on us was overwhelming for me and Kyle and Sean and Killian. But for Pops…I couldn’t even imagine what it was like for him.

I drove to Killian’s when I left Pops’ office, not to see Killian, but to hang out with my sister. Stacy smiled this knowing smile when she opened the door, holding open her arms to me.

“How are you?”

There was real concern in her voice that made me wonder what she saw when she looked at me. I held her close for a long time, reveling in the feel of the familiar, of someone who wouldn’t judge no matter what I said or did.

She led the way into the living room, and we curled up on the couch, sparkling water in glasses on the table.

“You seemed good last night. Better than I expected.”

“It was fun.”

She smiled. “Were we at the same party?”

I laughed a little. “It was…I like Mia. I like spending time with her.”

“That’s good considering she’s about to be your wife.”

I turned away from her, stretching out with my feet on the coffee table. “I don’t know what it is. I feel comfortable around her.”

“You don’t normally feel comfortable around pretty girls?”

I shot her a dirty look. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t, actually.”

“She’s not my type. She’s not the kind of girl I like to pursue, but I find myself laughing when I’m around her. She’s quick and smart and…”

“Uh, oh,” Stacy said, reaching over to punch my shoulder lightly. “You better watch out.”

I shook my head. “Don’t say that you think I’m falling for her because I don’t honestly think I’m even capable of it.”

Stacy was quiet for a long minute. “Why not?” she finally asked.

I glanced at her. “You and Kyle and Kevin and I, we all come from the same sort of background. Abused and neglected and tossed away. You of all people should understand.”

“Yet I managed to fall in love with Killian.”

“With your brother. Could you possibly have found anyone safer?”

I expected to be punched in the shoulder again, but she simply drew quiet, crossing her arms over her chest as she seemed to try to draw herself up inside of this shell of protection. I knew the tactic. I’d seen her do it a million times when we were younger, whenever she felt challenged or unsafe. She rarely did it to me anymore, but if anyone could push her buttons, I suppose I was one of those people.

“I didn’t choose Killian because he was safe. If anything, he was the most dangerous person I could have made myself vulnerable with because he had every reason to turn me down.” She reached up and scratched the side of her face thoughtfully. “And I was convinced that he’d killed Davis, so falling for him was incredibly stupid, really. But you can’t help who you fall in love with.”

“But there was this other woman,” I said, glancing at her, not missing the surprise in her eyes. “I know you guys all think I’ve been something of a monk this last year or so, but I haven’t. There was this girl in New York—”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I really liked her and I wanted to keep her to myself for a while.”

“Yeah? So why aren’t you still with her?”

I shook my head. “She wanted me to move in with her, but I…the idea of leaving Boston and everyone here made me feel like I was drowning. And when I brought her here, let her walk about my place, my skin crawled every time she touched one of my things, you know?”

“You like your privacy.”

“But the thing is, when Mia walked through my apartment yesterday, dragging her fingers over the furniture, over picture frames and things, it didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I found myself hoping that she liked the place, you know?”

Stacy didn’t say anything, even when I looked over at her.

“Why do you think that is? I mean, I knew Carrie longer and I really liked being with her. I could see myself being with her a month or two down the road; I could see things continuing the way they were. But when I drove up there to tell her that I was getting married, I didn’t feel the way I thought I should.”

“How did you feel?”

I shook my head. “It bothered me to watch her cry. I wanted to take the hurt away from her, to soften the blow.”

“Yeah, but were you tempted to run away with her and leave Mia high and dry?”

“No. In fact, I’m standing there watching Carrie fall apart and I’m wondering in the back of my mind if the maid picked up my suit from the dry cleaners for last night’s party.”

Stacy bit the inside of her cheek, but I could see that she was fighting back a smile.

“What?”

“Don’t you see it, Ian?”

“See what?”

“What’s the first thing you thought about when you woke up this morning?”

I felt the heat burn across my face before I saw the smile that bloomed full force across her face. My thoughts had all been pretty much the same this last week or so—finding Kevin, the wedding preparations, and Mia. And my thoughts about Mia had grown decidedly intense these last few days, especially since that first kiss yesterday afternoon.

“But I’m a guy,” I said. “That’s where my thoughts always are.”

“Did you think about this Carrie that way?”

I shrugged. “When we were together, of course that’s where my thoughts went.”

“But you weren’t with Mia this morning, yet you were still thinking those thoughts.”

“Have you seen Mia?”

Stacy laughed. “She is a pretty girl, but even you admitted that she’s not your type.”

“Maybe my type has shifted.”

She slid closer to me, resting her hand lightly on my shoulder. “I think, dear brother, that if you aren’t falling for your fiancée, you’re in serious lust with her. And that’s not a bad thing.”

“And what if things turn sour after the wedding? What if she becomes some sort of nag, or we just realize we can’t stand living together?”

“That’s what divorce is for.”

“You’re a lot of help.”

She slipped her hand down into mine. “Just the fact that you’re worried about it tells me that she matters more to you than you think. And, Ian, I think you are more than capable of loving someone. Despite everything you went through before Abigail found you, you’ve managed to become a good man, a strong man. A man who might struggle with emotion in a way a guy like Killian doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t love as deep as he does. Maybe you love even deeper because of what you went through.”

I leaned close and kissed her cheek. “Thank you, sis.”

“Any time.”

I leaned forward as if I was about to get up, but then I looked back at her again.

“Hey, I was wondering…I know it’s a little untraditional, but they told me I need to pick soon so that they can do whatever it is they do with this information—”

“What information?”

I studied her familiar face for a long second. “Would you stand up for me at the wedding? Be my best man—or woman, or whatever?”

Tears filled her eyes, but she nodded.

“Of course.”

I leaned close and kissed her cheek again.

“Love you, Stace…”

“See,” she said softly, “you are capable.”

***

I was running a few programs on my computer, searching through everything we already knew about Kevin, every phone we’d found in his bedroom after he disappeared, every program on his hard drive, searching for anything I might have missed that might tell us where he’d gone. There was nothing new and I’d run through these things dozens of times already with all the same results. But it never hurt to look at evidence more than once.

The only thing we had on Kevin right now was the knowledge that he had a soft spot for Brianna. A daughter Pops hadn’t known he had until two years ago, Brianna was the first move Kevin made against the family. He kidnapped her to force her mother, Cassidy, to steal information on Brian and send it to him. I still couldn’t figure out what it was Kevin was fishing for in that whole scheme since he knew about as much about Pops as Cassidy—an outsider who’d known him for maybe six months twenty-eight years prior to all that—but whatever it was, he didn’t get it because Cassidy broke down and told Pops what was really happening. And Pops, in true cowboy fashion, went out to California and saved Brianna, so it all blew up in Kevin’s face.

But there’d been something between them in the time afterward. We didn’t know it was Kevin until about six weeks ago, so he was living in Pops’ house off and on over the last two years, building a relationship with Brianna that was more romantic than sibling based. For that reason, I had all of Brianna’s phones bugged. But Kevin was too smart for that. In fact, it was his program that I was using, a program that he’d infected most our phones with so that he could gather intel on us, on MCorp, on the Irish mob. It was intel he used to ignite the street war between the Italians and us.

If he was talking to her, he was doing it through some other method and she wasn’t talking. But I think Brianna was sufficiently outraged by the shooting last month that she would tell one of us—her mother, at least—if he even tried to contact her.

Exhausted from staring at the computer screen for so long, I pushed back from the computer and ran my hands over my face. The doorbell rang, catching me by surprise. I rarely had visitors I wasn’t expecting ahead of time. And I wasn’t expecting anyone now.