THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series (45 page)

I never understood it. Not even when I was older and I saw my brothers begin to participate in the protection racket Pops ran for Jack. But I was beginning to understand now.

“My mom hated it,” I said, settling back down in the chair beside Brianna. “They argued sometimes, late at night when they thought we kids were asleep. Mom would accuse Pops of acting like a child in his choice to continue working with Jack’s organization. She told him that he was putting the entire family at risk. And he’d try to placate her by, first, telling her that he wasn’t doing anything that could send him to prison for more than a few years. And then he’d point out that the house we lived in and the Mercedes she drove were all paid for through his relationship with Jack. She’d get so mad that I could hear the horror in her voice even as she spoke in a low whisper.”

“I can’t imagine what kept your mom with him. I mean, everything I’ve heard about her, she was something of a saint.”

“She was. But she loved him.” I thought about Delaney and the passionate way I often caught her looking at me from across the room. “You know what they say about angels and devils…”

Brianna chuckled softly. “Yeah, I guess so.” She brushed her red hair off her forehead. “I’ve had my share of experiences with bad boys, too. But I never imagined my mom marrying the ultimate bad boy.”

“No, the ultimate bad boy would have been if she’d married Jack. Pops…he’s just the side kick.”

“And that’s why we’re sitting here now, you know. They’re hoping he’ll roll on Jack.”

“Yeah. But he would rather go to jail. I know my Pops.”

Brianna got this distant sort of look on her face. “I always thought I knew my dad. I mean, I guess I always knew he wasn’t my biological dad, but I thought I knew him well. It’s kind of odd to know this man is my father and to not know him well at all.”

“It must be hard.”

She rotated her head a little. “Not hard. Just…strange.” She sat forward a little and rested her chin on her hand. “Isn’t it odd for you having my mom married to your dad?”

“It is. If I was ten years younger, I might resent her. But she makes him happy.”

“They make each other happy. I never really appreciated how unhappy my mom was after the divorce until I saw her with Brian.” She sort of rolled her head on her palm in some semblance of a headshake. “She must have been miserable all those years.”

I tried to imagine Pops being miserable for twenty plus years—my entire life. But I honestly don’t think he was. He loved my mom. It was there in the way he looked at her when she wasn’t aware of it, in the way he held her hand when they went upstairs at the end of the day. It was there in the little kisses they shared when they thought we kids weren’t looking, the pat on her ass he gave her when he was in a teasing mood. He loved her, there was no doubt. And she loved him.

I stood again, the memories this night was bringing up to the surface growing uncomfortable. I kept thinking about the things she said to me the night she died, the promises she made me give.

Take care of him. He won’t take care of himself, especially at first. Make him get out of bed, make him face the day…

She’d known him well. Pops fell apart in the days after she died. Killian had to pull us all together, plan the funeral, and get us all out of bed. If not for Killian, we might have all withered away with her.

Mom held this family together. Her death destroyed us and we were still putting ourselves back together.

“I’m sorry I haven’t tried harder to get to know you.”

Brianna looked up, surprise clear in her eyes. “You don’t have to apologize. I thought we were doing pretty good, considering.”

“Considering what?”

“That I was this big secret all these years. That my mom cheated with your dad behind your mom’s back. That I’m the product of an extramarital affair.”

“None of that’s your doing. It was on them.”

“Yeah, well…when did that ever matter in the long run? I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the whole thing. I can just imagine how hard it’s been for all of you.”

“Kevin seems okay with it.”

She blushed a little. “Kevin is different. He helped me out when I was kidnapped.”

“He’s a good kid, you know?”

“He’s hardly a kid.”

I nodded. “I suppose he isn’t anymore. But it’s hard to see him any other way.”

The door opened then, one of the agents sticking his head out.

“He’s been processed. You can see him for ten minutes, but that’s all we can do tonight.”

Brianna stood, and I pressed my hand against her back, leading the way inside. We didn’t know what we were going to find once we walked through that door, but it suddenly made our discussion look a little trifle.

Sean

He was dressed in an orange coverall, the thing so big on him that he looked almost sickly. There was a bruise forming on his right cheek and his lip was bleeding on one corner.

“They beat you?” I asked. “With or without the handcuffs?”

Pops just shrugged. “They think I’m going to sing.”

“I know.”

I sat across from him, aware of the agent at the door watching us quite closely. I wanted to touch him, but he was shackled to the floor, his hands and legs both strapped to the chains like a dog. I crossed my arms over my chest to force myself to sit still, to not turn and berate the agent for the way they were treating him.

“They’ll arraign you in court on Monday,” Brianna said softly, her voice trembling with unshed tears. “We’ll be there. I’ll make sure they set a reasonable bond so we can get you out.”

“What are the chances they’ll set bond on a RICO case?” Pops asked. He was looking at me, but Brianna answered.

“Fairly slim. But we’ll convince them it’s in their best interest.”

“We’ll get you out of here, Pops,” I assured him. “Brianna and I will work on it together.”

I felt her sharp glance, but she didn’t say anything. I started to reach for his arm, but caught myself just in time.

“As loose as the RICO statute is, they have to have some solid evidence on you. My guess is that it’s not as strong as they’d like, or they would have brought you in yesterday. Bringing you in on the weekend was a desperate move, one that shows their hand just a little. We’ll get you out.”

Pops nodded. “Tell the family that I’m okay. Make sure Cassidy doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“I will,” Brianna assured him.

“She’ll be upset,” he said, focusing on her now. “Make her get some sleep tonight. There’s nothing she can do, so make sure she takes care of herself.”

“I will.”

“Cassidy will be taken care of, Pops,” I said firmly.

“And tell Killian to worry about MCorp, not me. If this ruins my reputation, so be it.”

“I’ll tell him, but I can’t guarantee he’ll listen.”

Pops smiled. He knew Killian well enough to understand what I meant.

“MCorp can take care of herself.” Pops looked at me, his eyes suddenly wide and unblinking. “The new merger, the burger joint downtown? Make sure to get the paperwork through on time.”

I studied his face, a little confused, but aware that he was passing me a message that he didn’t want the federal agent to decipher. MCorp wasn’t working on a merger with any kind of burger joint. The closest we’d ever come was the pizza chain we bought out more than a year ago.

And then it hit me. It was a message for Jack.

“I’ll take care of it.”

My father sat back, a big smile pulling at the cut on his lip. “Don’t worry about me too much. I’ll be okay until Monday.”

Brianna grasped my hand as the agent came over and unhooked the chains from the floor and table. He grabbed Pops’ arm and yanked him out of his chair, pulling him toward the door. He couldn’t have been rougher with him, practically dragging him by the chains attached to his wrists. But Pops was smiling as if he was going for a stroll in the park. It didn’t bother him at all.

He had that much confidence in us.

“What are we going to do?” Brianna asked as we stepped out the front doors. I turned to her just as her knees went weak and she began to cry. I cradled her awkwardly against my chest, holding this girl who was virtually a stranger, but my own flesh and blood at the same time. She only cried for a moment, just long enough to leave a nice wet patch on my shoulder, then she pulled away, rubbing at her eyes with the heels of her hands.

“Sorry,” she mumbled softly.

“I need to go talk to Killian. And then we need to find out what they have on him. There must be some sort of evidence, an informant or a document of some sort. They have to have something to justify his arrest.”

“There’s not much we can do now. It’s after midnight on a Sunday morning.”

“I know. But—”

“We’re going to need more than just you and me. Let me talk to the partners at my law firm. Maybe they’d be interested in taking on this case.”

I didn’t think they would be, but I nodded. “You do that.”

“Call me in the morning, and we’ll plan out our strategy for Monday.”

“Okay.”

She walked away, headed toward the parking lot where she’d left her car. I watched until she drove away, then began walking. My car was back at Killian’s. Brianna must have forgotten that we’d come together. But it was okay because we weren’t but a few blocks from MCorp’s offices, and I knew Killian was more than likely there.

He was sitting behind his desk, cursing at the computer screen when I walked into his office.

“That bad?”

“You see Pops?” he asked, pushing away from the desk and striding toward me.

“I saw him.”

He stopped, something in my face telling him more than he wanted to know. He sighed, leaning back against the desk. “That bad?”

“They roughed him up a little.”

Killian shook his head, anger flashing across his face. “Assholes.”

I had to agree. I rubbed my eyes, then crossed my arms over my chest.

“We can’t do anything to get him out until he’s arraigned on Monday. Brianna wants to ask the partners at her firm to represent him. Until that happens—if it does—she and I will work on things.”

Killian nodded. “What can you do?”

I shook my head. “Not much. We need to find out what they have, but they have no reason to share it with us until he’s arraigned and a court date is set.” I dropped my arms and buried my hands in my pockets. “But I have a friend in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office who might be able to get us a sneak peek.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll call her tomorrow, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.”

“Her?”

I smiled despite myself. “You weren’t the only one who was something of a Casanova in college.”

Killian chuckled a little. “I guess not.”

He walked back around the desk, tension coming back into his shoulders as he looked at his computer screen again.

“It’s already on the local news. It’ll probably go national by morning.”

“How did they get ahold of it so fast?”

Killian shook his head. “One of my friends at the local television station said that they got a tip about an hour before the arrest. If they’d been able to catch him outside the gates of our housing community, it would have been a media frenzy right there on the front lawn.”

I nodded. I had to admit that I was surprised there hadn’t been a lot of press hanging around the federal building. But chances were good that the press knew they would get a heads up when there was a photo op, they didn’t have to stand out in the dark to get it.

Someone was tipping the press off, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t anyone on our side. It had to be the cops, the federal agents.

“Go home, Sean. You look dead on your feet.”

My head was spinning with everything that needed to be done, but I inclined my head slightly.

“You should, too.”

“I will. Stacy’s been calling, worrying about everything from Pops’ arrest to whether or not I’ll be home in time to help with the baby’s midnight feeding.” Despite the exhaustion in his eyes, there was a certain glow of exhaustion that came when he talked about his son. “I just need to prepare this press release.”

“Have you heard from Jack?”

Killian shook his head. “But I’m sure I will very soon.”

I was sure, too. Just like I knew I was going to have to see him tomorrow and pass along Pops’ cryptic message. It would be helpful if I understood it myself.

“Go home,” Killian said again. “I’ll call you if anything changes between now and the morning.”

I nodded, the thought of seeing Delaney cheering me a bit.

We said our goodnights, and I slipped out of there, going down the private elevator at the back of the building instead of using the public elevator. I wasn’t sure if there would be press outside, but I didn’t want to take any chances. The less that got out about all this, the better.

Delaney was asleep when I let myself into her condo with the key she’d given me a week or two ago. I stood at the end of the bed for a long minute, just watching her sleep. She was curled up on her side, her arms wrapped around the pillow that I’d used on all the other nights I’d slept here. Her hair was a mess, tangled around her face like a huge rat’s nest, but I kind of liked that look on her. She was always so well coifed, always concerned about presenting the right image when she went out into the world. The idea that I was one of few who ever saw her like this was exciting its own way.

I closed to the door to the bathroom and climbed into the shower, letting the hot water pound on my shoulders. I was worried about Pops. I couldn’t stop thinking about the marks on his face that were clearly evidence of misconduct on the part of the feds. They were trying to get him to turn on Jack and that was never going to happen. My father wouldn’t do that. And, even though it was hard to look at those marks, it was a bit of a doubled-edged sword. They were hurting him, breaking the law and possibly placing him in serious danger, but it also implied they didn’t have enough evidence to go to trial. That could only be good news. No evidence meant no trial. No trial meant they would have to let him out at some point, hopefully in the near future.

In the meantime, Brianna and I had to do all we could to prove that in court without making things worse for Pops.

We had a little more than twenty-four hours to figure out how to handle the arraignment. Even as exhaustion weighed heavy on me, I wanted to go to the law library and figure out exactly how we should handle this. We had to get him out. The sooner he was out from under the thumb of the feds, the better.

But I was so fucking tired!

“Hey,” Delaney said softly as she joined me in the shower. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You looked too peaceful,” I said, turning and pulling her gently against my chest. She pressed her lips to my throat, running her hand slowly up my bare chest.

“I missed you,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I got so mad.”

“I lied to you.”

“Yeah…”

“I should have told you the truth that night over dinner.”

She didn’t answer me. She just pressed her face against my chest, her lips brushing softly against my bare skin. My body instantly responded to her, my cock stiffening, my balls tightening. I lifted her chin and kissed her, tasting sleep and the vague hint of her toothpaste. She moved closer to me, pressing her breasts against me, her nipples hard and alive against my skin.

We stood there, in the center of the shower stall, kissing for the longest time. As much as I wanted more, I wanted to just stay like that for the rest of my life. She was so soft and perfect against me, her skin like silk and her kiss like the most incredible, creamiest dessert in the world. Her touch took the burden of my father’s arrest off my shoulders, helping me forget—for just a moment—all the things that needed to be done and all the things that were so far out of my control.

“I love you,” she whispered ever so softly against my lips.

I pulled back and cradled her jaw in my hand. “Don’t say it just because I did.”

Her eyes widened as she stared up at me. “I’m not. It’s the truth.”

“There are things—”

“Shh,” she whispered, pressing her finger to my lips. Then she replaced her finger with her lips.

How could I argue with that?

I lifted her up, my hands on her ass, my fingers wandering to places I was aching to touch. She wrapped her legs around me, tugging me closer to her. It was just natural, the way our bodies fit together. And then she was pinned against the wall and I was sliding inside of her, my head spinning as pleasure rushed through me. I’d thought I’d never be here again, that she would never allow me to touch her again. But here we were, back where we belonged. And we did belong here. I fully believed that Delaney was meant to be in my arms, that I was meant to know her.

My mom always said that there’s one person out there for everyone. Sometimes you find that one, sometimes you don’t. But if you’re patient enough, chances are good that your somebody will eventually find their way to you.

She believed Pops was her one and only. And I knew that Delaney was mine.

But what would she think when she learned the truth about me? Would she run for the hills when she realized I wasn’t the man she thought I was? Or would she stick it out and hope that I would change and become something better?

I wasn’t sure which I was hoping for. I just knew that being with Delaney made me a better man.

I didn’t want to lose that.