The Billionaire Boyfriend Proposal: A Kavanagh Family Novel (15 page)

He leaned over my shoulder as I unfolded it
and read. "It's an address," I said. "Do you think it's where Skull
lives?"

He nodded. "He probably left it here for us
to find just in case something like this happened."

"He wants us to get him."

He caught my hand as I went to walk off.
"Wait."

"Why? We have to call the police."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. Robbie has
never wanted the police involved. He doesn't want to see Skull go
to jail."

"But we have to do something!"

"I know. I will."

"
We
will. I'm coming with you."

"No way."

I snatched my hand away and gave him a glare.
"We need a plan of attack."

He sighed. "Yes, ma'am. You can help plan,
but you are
not
coming with us."

Us? Surely he wasn't going to get his
brothers involved.

He spent the next hour on the phone. I sat on
the back porch and watched him pace back and forth along the garden
path as he spoke. Aside from the pacing, he seemed unperturbed,
like he did this sort of thing every day. I guess he had in the
army.

When he finally joined me, he said, "I'm
heading out."

I jumped up. "Where to?"

"Don't ask."

I caught his elbow and jerked him to a stop.
"Don't shut me out, Blake. I need to know. You said I could be
involved in the planning."

He heaved out a breath and searched the
clouds in the sky. "I'm going to get Robbie back."

"With your brothers?"

"No, six other guys."

"Who?" When he hesitated, I added, "Don't
make me call your brothers on you. Or worse, your mother. Just tell
me so I don't worry."

"One is a buddy of mine from the army who
lives in Roxburg. The other five are what you'd call
muscle-for-hire."

"You mean thugs you pay to beat people up? Is
that wise?"

"They don't always beat people up. Sometimes
they just have to look like they'll beat people up."

"How do you even know where to find
muscle-for-hire?"

"Family lawyers. They know everybody in this
city, the good, the bad and the mean."

I shuddered to think why the Kavanagh lawyers
would know anything about muscle-for-hire thugs. "What happened to
letting Robbie make his own choice? You don't think he can talk
Skull into letting him walk away anymore?"

"Maybe he can, but Robbie clearly doubts it
himself, otherwise he wouldn't have left the address. Robbie had no
real choice in going. He shouldn't be with Skull, he should be
here. We're a better family unit for him right now."

I threw my arms around his neck and hugged
him fiercely. "Thank you, Blake. Now, what can I do?"

"Stay here and stay safe."

"I could drive the getaway car."

"This isn't a heist."

"I'll have my phone ready to dial the
police."

"It's not an action movie, Cassie. You're not
coming."

"There's a flaw in that plan which I don't
think you've noticed yet."

He frowned. "What?"

"You can't make me stay." I walked off to the
house. I meant what I said. I could be more of a help than a
hindrance if he only allowed me to come along. Maybe I couldn't
crash heads together, but I could drive and knew how to dial a
phone number, something they couldn't do if they got themselves in
difficulty.

I changed into jeans and a dark T-shirt. We
weren't going at night, but it felt right to wear something dark
for a covert operation. I joined Blake downstairs. He glared back
at me, arms crossed over his chest like a fearsome warrior.

"I still can't believe I'm letting you come
along," he muttered.

"You'll get used to it on the way. Now, I
have a question. How are we going to stop Skull from coming back
here to fetch Robbie again?"

"We're going to pay him. Our first stop is
the bank. I just spoke to my bank manager and he's organizing the
cash now for us to pick up."

I held up my hands and blinked back at him.
"You're going to
buy
Robbie back?"

He nodded. "The muscle-for-hire is our
insurance plan."

"How much?"

"Twenty thousand."

My jaw slackened. My eyes bugged out. "You
have twenty-thousand in cash lying around?"

"I just sold a house, remember, and I haven't
bought a new one yet. Even if it weren't for that, the manager
would only need to move some money around. It doesn't take
long."

I still stared. "But…twenty thousand is a lot
of money. Are you sure you can afford to give it away?"

He settled his big hands on my shoulders.
They were heavy, solid and reassuring. "Cassie, I may have been in
the army these last eight years on army pay, but I am still a
Kavanagh. I've had a trust fund since before I could walk and it's
been well invested. Twenty thousand is a drop in the ocean. I'd
rather put it to use in getting Robbie away from his brother than
just let it sit around."

I nodded, somewhat numb. He was a Kavanagh
and Kavanaghs were richer than God. Twenty thousand was spare
change to them. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Blake had been
brought up in a privileged home. He was so normal and down to
earth. He didn't care about exclusive brands, fast cars or parties.
I guess that was why his trust fund was still in the bank.

We collected his SUV from his parents' garage
and drove off to his army friend's home on the other side of town.
Like Blake, Ty looked big and gruff at first, but when he saw
Blake, his stern mouth broke into a grin.

"So this is her," he said when Blake
introduced us. "I've heard a lot about you."

"You have?"

Ty winked then sighed theatrically. "You have
no idea."

Ty followed us in his own black SUV as we
rounded up the rest of the crew. Blake briefed them all then we
drove on to the address Robbie had left for us. It was a small
weatherboard house in a suburb that featured regularly on the news.
Shootings, stabbings and police raids occurred daily. It was the
sort of place where I expected Skull to hang out, but I hated
knowing that Robbie had been brought up here. Despite his initial
sullenness when we'd caught him vandalizing Willow Crescent, he
clearly didn't have a criminal mentality. He'd quickly shed his bad
attitude when we gave him the opportunity to live a normal life
doing something he loved—painting—with people who wanted nothing in
return. He was a good kid. We had to get him home.

Blake's plan was to wait and see who came and
left the property over the course of an hour. Through the window I
saw people walking around inside and only one person left in that
time. I recognized him as one of the gang members who'd come to my
house.

"Lock the doors, Cass," Blake said to me.
"Don't open them for anyone except us or the police. If anyone
starts shooting, step on the gas and get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you behind."

He kissed me on the mouth. It was filled with
longing and sweetness that was at stark odds with our surroundings
and what he was about to walk into. "I thought I'd lost you eight
years ago," he whispered. "I won't risk that again."

I watched him go and locked the doors. The
seven of them walked up to the front door, their weapons hidden
beneath jackets. Blake didn't want anyone to use violence. He hoped
the threat of it would be enough. He knocked on the door. Four of
his men remained behind him while the other two stood flush against
the wall on either side of the door. They drew their weapons.

My heart pounded. My hands were slick with
sweat as one gripped the steering wheel and the other hovered over
the phone resting on my knee. I scanned my surroundings then looked
back at the house. The door opened, but the person on the other
side went to shut it again only to find Blake's shoulder in the
way. He muscled his way in, forcing the door wide open.

I braced myself. Everything within me
recoiled and tightened as I waited for the sound of gunshots or
shouts or even sirens. Whose crazy idea was this? Why hadn't we
called the cops from the onset? What right did we have to drag
Robbie away from his brother?

I couldn't think through the answers. My mind
went numb, but every other sense was on high alert as I watched.
Only the two men flanking the door remained outside now, still
hidden and ready to leap inside if needed. I could no longer see
Blake and I felt sick with worry. I breathed deeply and let it out
slowly. And I watched.

Minutes ticked by so slowly that each one
felt like a lifetime. My nerves were shredded, my blood cold, and
the hand hovering over the phone twitched like crazy. Then finally
one of Blake's men emerged from the house, then another and
another. I searched each face, my heart in my throat, until I
spotted Blake himself, his hand on Robbie's shoulder.

Despite the relief flooding me, I began to
shake. I choked back tears, determined not to cry now. It was all
over. They were okay.

The men walked steadily back to the two cars
and piled in. "Robbie!" I cried as he got into the back seat. "I'm
so glad to see you."

"Cassie!" He grinned, but it quickly faded.
"Jeez, Blake, are you nuts? What did you bring her along for? She
could have been hurt."

Blake took the phone off my knee then closed
his hand over mine. My shaking eased. "I know," he muttered,
watching me with that intense gaze of his. "It wasn't my
choice."

"I insisted," I told Robbie as I drove
away.

"When I was a kid I insisted on eating dirt,"
Robbie said. "Didn't mean it was a good idea."

I laughed, loudly. It was completely out of
proportion to his comment, but I couldn't help myself. I was silly
with relief. "You're going to make a great dad one day.

He leaned through the gap between the front
seats and kissed my cheek. "I'm happy to see you."

"You okay?"

"Yeah." He settled back between the two guys
and belted up. "I can't believe Skull let me go so easily. He even
promised not to come after me this time. What do you think changed
his mind?"

I glanced at Blake, sitting very still in the
front passenger seat. "Guess we'll never know," he said.

It would seem Robbie wasn't to be told about
the payment. Maybe it was a good idea for now. We could tell him
later, when he was older and was better equipped emotionally to
deal with the fact that his brother effectively sold him to us.

We chatted all the way home, dropping off the
others along the way. We spoke about nothing in particular and
everything that we could think of. It didn't matter. It was just
nice to have him around again.

Once home, I prepared a late lunch and we ate
it on the back porch, gazing out to the garden bathed in fall
sunshine.

"Robbie," I said, "do you remember the
picture you were about to paint on the fence opposite mine the
night we caught you?"

Robbie's cheeks flushed. "Yeah."

"What was it going to be?"

He shifted his weight and I was about to
retract my question when he answered. "Two faceless guys dressed in
hoods and a woman behind them, walking away."

Robbie, Skull and their mother. I'd been
thinking about the other pictures he'd painted too lately and what
they meant. If I had to guess, I'd say the sad clown represented
Robbie. With his lively, friendly personality, he'd probably been
seen by the rest of the gang as a bit of a clown, but he was deeply
unhappy beneath the mask. The warship and burning building maybe
represented a turf war or other violence he'd been involved in, and
the two fighting dogs were meant to be himself and Skull. The
entire collection was his story, ending where it had begun—with his
mom leaving. It was a cry for help, yet I didn't think he even knew
that himself. Art could be an intimate experience and the
subconscious often couldn't be controlled when an artist was in the
zone.

"You should finish it," I said. "On real
canvas, not a fence."

"No. It's okay. I no longer want to."

I let it go, satisfied that he was in a
better place now than he had been then. "I'm going to call my
students this afternoon," I said. "Classes will resume
tomorrow."

"Great," Robbie said around a mouthful. "I
want to finish that piece I started last time. Is the model
returning? She was hot."

I rolled my eyes. "You're not supposed to
admire the models for their hotness."

"I can't help it. I'm a guy."

"Then be sure to let her think you admire her
for the strength of her feminine body and the qualities that show
through in her eyes."

He sighed. "So much to remember."

Blake smiled then announced, "I'm going
out."

"To go surfing with your brothers?" I checked
my watch. "You should make it."

He shook his head but didn't elaborate and I
didn't ask. It was none of my business. I didn't control him any
more than he controlled me. If he wanted to leave he could.

I set aside my plate, my lunch unfinished. I
was suddenly no longer hungry.

"I'll come," Robbie told him.

"No. Stay here with Cassie. She needs you to
hang around today."

I narrowed my gaze at him. What made him say
that? He was right, though. I did want Robbie around, just for the
day. Maybe we could sit on the riverbank and work on his technique
for painting water. We'd been so caught up in renovating the summer
house, it would be nice to take time out and relax.

I left Robbie in the kitchen doing the dishes
and followed Blake out to his car. "What happened at the house?" I
asked. "Did Skull take much convincing?"

He leaned back against the car door and took
my hands. His thumbs rubbed across my knuckles. "It was easier than
I expected. I asked to see Robbie, but Skull said he was sleeping.
I showed him the cash and told him I'd give it to him if he let
Robbie leave with me. If not, my men were all army trained and
carrying. I happened to mention there were a dozen more positioned
outside."