Stolen: A Bad Boy Romance (12 page)

Janson

I clutched Kathryn's shoulder tightly, making sure she was secure against me. I didn't want her sliding all over the car, and what's more, I wanted to feel her as close to me as possible.

I know she didn’t mean to fall asleep against me in the backseat of the luxury car we were riding in, but damn, it was sexy. I didn’t want to wake her up now. She was so gorgeous and peaceful, her head against my shoulder with my arms wrapped around her. I'd never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life.

I caressed her face with my free hand, the tip of my finger gliding across her delicate chin as I felt her smooth and silky skin against the weathered tips of my own. She was completely vulnerable this way. That's when it hit me.

She trusted me.

Even though she shouldn’t.

And it made me want her even more. I’d fuck her anywhere I could get her, but in this very moment, the last thing I wanted to do was wake her up. She was so comfortable and cozy.

That was when I realized it, yet another revelation that I was too afraid to voice. Too afraid to even believe. But it was staring me right in the face.

I loved her.

I loved her.

I pulled her tighter into me.

“Where would you like me to go, sir?” Fredrick asked from the front seat.

“Home, Fred. But take the long way around.” I wanted to watch her sleep just a little bit longer.

I grabbed the vibrating cellphone from my pocket and prayed that it didn’t wake Kathryn up.

She barely stirred.

“I need you to meet me in twenty. Drop my sister off with my wife, they both need a careful eye on them.”

“Why?” I asked. Greyson sounded pretty urgent on the phone.

“We have a lead. A couple of my lookouts saw David going into El Gato night club over in Canton. Been in there for the last five minutes. Got a tail on him, too. Just in case he leaves.”

Shit. It was that serious.

“I’ll be right over.”

Chapter Thirteen

Kathryn

“What’s happening?” I asked as I stirred. The first thing I felt was his flesh, the muscles solid and hard, but his skin was soft. It was like a fantasy being there, up against him. It was so warm next to him that I didn’t want to wake up. The second thing I felt was the vinyl seat of the car, but we were no longer moving.

Plus the dream I was having was so delicious I just couldn't help but want to stay in it. I was blindfolded, and my legs were spread with his mouth between them.  Maybe it was half dream and half prediction, but it was all mine.

It was almost too sinful. I was blushing, still half in the dream.

“I have to work, hon." His voice was rigid, not at all the way I expected it to be. I'd hoped to convince him to reenact that particular fantasy with me. “You need to get up, too. We have duties. I have to meet Greyson, so I have to leave you with Joanna. Someone has to watch her in case she goes into labor.”

“Don’t they have people for that?” I asked, my head foggy with only the desire to be snuggled back in bed, just the two of us. Surely she had the same kind of guards I did, watching her every move. I was feeling greedy, and I just wanted Janson all to myself. Maybe I could convince him, I thought, just to stay with me a little longer.

“They do. But Greyson wants you. Joanna wants you,” Janson explained. “She’s been lonely for female companionship since she left school.”

It was enough to get me moving. Joanna was absolutely miserable the past couple of days, and even though her due date was re-evaluated for two weeks from now, she still wasn’t having any of it. I felt so bad for her, and as the reality of what was happening sunk in, I changed my attitude.

“Okay,” I said slowly as I got up. “Are we there?” I looked around. I couldn't see anything. The tinted windows and dark sky gave me absolutely no clues. Hell, I could barely tell we were stopped.

Janson just nodded.

I pulled myself up and reached for the door handle of the car, but not before Janson grabbed my arm and tugged me into him. His kiss was long and lingering and sweet and not like him at all.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, my mouth turning down in a little frown. I was so disoriented that I was having trouble reading the situation.

“It’ll be fine,” he said. “Just might be a little tricky.”

There it was, the hitch.

"Tricky?" I asked. It wasn’t a word I was used to hearing when it came to this line of work. Either it was dangerous or it wasn’t. “I need the truth, Janson.”

"Nothing for you to worry about. I’ll be fine, but I can’t say the same for the people around us, you got it?” He watched as my face fell and I crinkled my brow. “I don't want to be the monster that I am."

I grabbed him and kissed him softly. "You are not a monster. Not one bit. You do what you need to do in order to protect us." I believed it, too.

I'd never really thought much of it before, but at that moment, I knew the truth of it. The man was the only thing that kept me safe at night. My father put us all at risk, and he and Greyson were working so hard to make sure that it ended well.

I trusted him. I trusted my brother.

I may have run away before, but I was seeing things clearly now. I understood the stakes.

Why did it sound like they were putting themselves in harm’s way?

I got out of the car and looked up at the big, tall building. They were all the way at the top. All I wanted was a nice long nap. I was exhausted from the show.

I swung the door open and looked back at Janson before I stepped out of it.

“So, what do I have to do?” I asked.

“Just go to bed in their guest bedroom. Someone will get you if you are needed.” It was Greyson’s voice that pulled me out of my stupor.

“Greyson?” I asked, looking around. He was hidden in the shadows. My adrenaline spiked. Did he see that kiss?

I pulled myself from the car and stood up, looking around.

He stepped into the lamplight from my right and almost gave me a goddamn heart attack.

I remembered the car door being closed. The tint of the windows hiding us from any prying eyes. There was no way he saw me, he couldn't have.

Relief flooded over me.

No, he couldn’t have.

Kathryn

“Kat?” Joanna’s voice was so light I didn’t hear it at first, but as soon as I realized what it was, I popped right up out of bed. I’d only been asleep for a few hours and my body needed more, but that didn’t matter. Not when it came to this.

“What do you need, Jo?” I asked. I knew it had to be serious if she was waking me up in the middle of the night. I was in pajamas, but they were more than my usual get-up. Since moving in with Janson, I’d taken to sleeping in one of his t-shirts. But I had a full outfit on, one of Joanna’s.

“I, um. I need you to take me to the hospital.” She swallowed hard. “I’m having contractions and they are not the Braxton Hicks kind.

“What? Are you sure?” I didn’t expect this to happen. My job was to be here as a precaution. It was unlikely this would even happen. At least, that’s what Greyson told me. So of course, it had to happen.

“I’ve had them both. I am very sure,” she explained.

Of course, I had to be the only one here.

“What do you need me to do?” I asked. “I’ve never done this before.”

“Me either,” Joanna admitted. “Call for a taxi. I already have my bags packed.”

She put her hand on her belly and hissed, leaning against the door jamb. “Another contraction,” she explained.

“Are you okay? Is there anything else I can do?” I was already feeling around for my phone. I dialed the taxi service after a quick search and ordered one. I felt helpless watching her go through this.

“No, just get the car.” Joanna leaned against the wall and gritted her teeth. “Another contraction,” she said in between the breaths.

“It’ll be here in a few minutes. But now you need to breathe,” I told her as I rubbed her back. “They’re coming, hon. They’ll be here.”

“Okay, good. I already tried to call Greyson, but it just went to voicemail. I’d imagine he was in the middle of something. I’ll keep trying to call and hopefully he’ll meet us there,” she explained. “He has our driver, so I need a taxi.”

“I’ll text Janson just to be sure that they get the message,” I said as I pulled out my phone and started my message. I didn’t even really need to look at my phone, I knew the placement of the letters so well. It was good, because I could focus on what mattered. I could focus on Joanna.

Baby is coming. Need you both. Now.

Joanna wandered into the living room while I dressed quickly. I ran down the list of all the things that needed to be done. I’d already contacted the boys and she had her bags packed and by the door, she said, so I didn’t need to pack them.  What she really needed was someone to be there by her side.

“Kat?” Joanna called for me from out in the living room. I hurried out to see her sitting on the couch clutching a bag and her purse as she looked up at me. She was scared.

“What do you need?” I asked. I would do anything I could to make it better, but this next part was all up to her. I couldn’t help with what she needed, but if I could, I would take away the pain.

“Just, thank you.” She had tears in her eyes as she said it. She was in pain, but she was thanking me.

“For what, hon?” I asked, confused.

“Being here. I needed you tonight. I had a feeling it was going to happen. I had a feeling-”

I wrapped my arm around her and hugged her. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get you where you need to go and the boys will come to us. They are always there for us when we need them.” It felt like a falsehood even as I was saying it, and I flinched. I wanted them to be there, but I couldn’t guarantee that they would. Those men put their business first and their family second. It was the nature of the job, and it always would be. We had to love them in spite of that.

“They are. But I need you now, and you are here. You are a good friend, Kat.” She let the tears flow as she barred down for yet another contraction.

“Breathe, Jo. Just breathe.” I took note of the time and told her so that she could inform the doctors.

“It’ll be okay,” I reassured her. I’d do whatever I could to make sure she was comfortable.

“Will you stay with me?” she asked.

“I will. I’ll do whatever you need me to do,” I promised.

I’d be there with her until the end. She was family.

Janson

“Is this the club?” I asked as I looked out the tinted windows up at the bright neon sign. El Gato blinked in neon blue letters down at us. Men and women lingered just outside the doors, cigarettes in and alcohol in their hands as they chatted so loudly that we could hear them all the way from the car. The music spilled out onto the street, the backdrop for these loud, drunken conversations, and even I cringed. The bar was uncharacteristically seedy for Canton, which was a normally a family-friendly middle-class neighborhood.

Of course, David would find a place like this. It was the one place that stuck out in all the normal.

The nasty little seed that sprang forth.

“Is he in there?” Greyson asked from his phone. “Do you actually see him?”

He looked at me and nodded. That motherfucker was going to pay. He’d played the family for a fool, kidnapped the only thing that mattered to my boss, and tried to force her to be his. Even if I wasn’t involved in what was about to happen, I would have no sympathy for a man like him.

For the threat to the family, for what he did to Joanna. He was a fool and he needed to die.

At our hands. It wouldn’t be quick, it wouldn’t be painless, that was a given, but it was Greyson’s job to decide who got to live and who got to die and how. It was his right as the soon-to-be leader of this family.

It was gruesome but it was the truth. It was the only way our families would be safe. His wife, his child. My Kathryn.

She was mine.

I’d never get used to feeling this way. But I knew I needed to protect her at all costs. It was the one thing I knew better than I knew myself.

I opened the car door and stepped out. “Well, let’s fucking go get this bastard and end this shit once and for all.”

He got out of the other side and nodded. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

I saw his gun flash from under his blazer and reached for my own, checking its location. It made me feel safe. Powerful. I knew that if I had to, I could defend myself. I’d been handling firearms since I was a teenager, and I was smart enough to be an expert at it by now.

But the same could be said for David.

The reality of that man was that he worked twice as hard as us to get half of the legitimacy that we had, and he still failed. I wondered what kind of force we would be facing, his men against ours, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t come down to it.

One on one, that was what Greyson wanted. I was just meant to be there at his side.

“If shit gets dodgy, you make sure to get out of here, you understand?” Greyson said.

“You know that’s not going to happen,” I answered as I gripped the handle of the knife in my belt. Fuck that shit. I would go down with him and he knew it.

We stormed in through the club doors and looked around until we saw him. He was just fucking sitting at the bar drinking a cocktail while women danced up on the stage in little more than a pair of harem pants and bikini tops. It was a foul sight, but that didn’t matter.

I grinned as we made our way through the crowd to David. We couldn’t do it here, no, we would have to convince him to talk to us, walk outside with us. We’d have to use a little bit of creative magic on our part. But we were part of the Irish mob. That’s what we did.

Greyson clamped a hand on David’s shoulder and he turned around to face us. The man staring up at us had the right body, the right hair color, but the wrong fucking face.

“I’m sorry, man. I thought you were someone else,” Greyson said as he pulled his hand away.

“I know. I was paid three hundred dollars to just sit here and order beers. He has a message for you,” the man at the bar said. He had no idea who we were. What we were, I could tell from the blank expression on his face.

“What’s the message?” Greyson asked as he glared out at him.

“He said to tell you ‘better luck, next time.’ I guess you guys lost a bet or something? He couldn’t say.” The man in the suit just shrugged.

“Something like that,” I said. “Did he say anything else to you?”

“No, just offered me three hundred dollars and free drinks. After the week I was having, I couldn’t say no to that.” He shook his head and took a swig of his beer. “You mind if I stay a while?”

“Where was he when he said this?”

“Here. He left maybe twenty minutes ago.” The man just sat there.

“Yeah, stay, drink.” Greyson grabbed his phone and dialed. “You have the wrong man. David left. Anyone witness this?” he asked.

Then he nodded. “Search the area, see if you can put out a tail on him.”

The phone I’d been ignoring rang again. I grabbed it and looked down. One text from Kat.

Baby is coming. Need you both. Now.

I answered it. “Kat?”

“Yeah, you two need to get here, but I don’t think you’re going to make it. Doctors said she is a good little laborer. She’s in there screaming her head off. I have to get back, but I wanted to let you know that the baby is on its way.” She sounded rushed and short of breath.

“I’ll let him know,” I told her.

“It’s quicker than almost any first-time labor they’ve seen. You two might not make it before the baby comes,” she told me.

“We’ll rush.”

Fuck. David would have to wait. We needed to get to the hospital now.