by India Kells
Her warm eyes looked at him as if he were the one not grasping the situation. “Not much. That a family needed my help.”
Liam didn’t know if he should laugh or bang his head on the table. “I need to call Gabrielle.” Putting his coat on, he took his bag in one hand and Chewy’s leash in the other.
Catriona quickly put on her coat. “What do you mean? What’s going on?”
He walked out a little too fast for his stiff leg. Pushing the door open, the cold hit him hard, and he lifted his collar, allowing Chewy to sniff a fire hydrant as he pulled his cell phone out. He realized he’d left his gloves at the precinct.
“Liam! Wait!”
Ignoring the soft voice behind him, he dialed Gabrielle’s number, only to be sent to voice mail.
A string of curses flew out of his mouth as the angel nun stepped in front of him, and he bit his tongue when he realized it. “Sorry, sister.”
Before he could sidestep, Catriona touched his hand, and that immobilized him better than any shackle. “Liam, you seem upset, but I don’t know why. I need you to explain.”
People passed them by on the sidewalk. The temperature made him huddle even more in his thick coat. He saw Catriona shiver. “I’m not going to discuss it here in the cold. My apartment is around the corner and it’s Chewy’s feeding time.”
Her smile returned. “Of course, let’s go.”
Chewy pulled on his leash, knowing perfectly that food was at the end of this trek. Catriona walked companionably beside him, admiring the Christmas decorations on the streets, and she laughed when a couple of kids started throwing snowballs at each other. Liam was tempted to close his eyes at the sound. It was so pure, so unchecked, it almost hurt his soul. Clenching his jaw, he pushed those unwanted emotions away. Catriona Walsh was off-limits. She was married to another, and even if that man wasn’t made of flesh and bones, in his mind, it was the same thing. His mother’s strict Catholic upbringing ingrained this profoundly and irrevocably in him. He didn’t know why he felt such a strong connection with her. He hoped it was because she was Irish like his mother. After all, if it was another sick coincidence that Liam didn’t want to contemplate, he had no idea how he’d deal with the situation.
Silently, he pointed to a restored brick building. Since his injury, he’d trouble with his landlord and had to relocate in a rush. Gabrielle had helped and offered him an apartment that had been used previously in a mission as lodging. The downside was that he had to get up a flight of stairs and his thigh didn’t like that at all, often suggesting sleeping in his car.
He appreciated having neighbors on the first floor. The elder lady, Miss Lupe, and her roommate Marcus, who acted more like her caregiver, were friendly eccentrics who kept watch over anything and everything. Apart from the odd call over strange noises or invisible shadows, he liked them. Another added benefit was that Miss Lupe’s nephew, Hector Nazario, was deep in the criminal underworld, but he was one of the good guys who’d helped him and his brothers secretly in the last few years. As a cop, Liam had serious issues with that, but when confronted with the fact that he shouldn’t push aside any help to bring his father down, he’d had no other choice but to come to grips with it.
Unlocking the door, he unhooked Chewy’s leash and the mutt leaped up and down the couch, shaking his shaggy brown fur while looking at him with hopeful eyes.
“All right, all right. Let the human slave remove his boots and I’ll get your food.” And then he turned to Catriona. “Welcome to our little home. It’s not much, but I had to relocate quickly. Gabrielle found me this place until I can look for something new. Get comfortable while I feed the impatient child in the room.”
Turning his back on her, he went into the small kitchen as Chewy was jumping all around him like an overjoyed puppy. Ignoring him, Liam quickly filled the kettle before taking both dog bowls and putting them on the counter as he got the food. Filling one dish, he put it down and his dog scarfed his dinner down like it was going out of style.
As he was washing the water bowl, he saw that Catriona had discarded her gear and was walking around his living room from the corner of his eye. There wasn’t much to see. The last person who had lived here had been Zoe, his brother Archer’s wife, and she had only used it as a temporary base.
His kettle whistled, bringing him back to the present.
He prepared his teapot and filled it with hot water. As Catriona approached the counter, he turned to fetch a couple of cups.
“Wow! It’s the first time since I’ve been here that I’ve seen someone making tea instead of coffee.”
“There was only tea when I grew up, and I prefer it to coffee when I’m here.” A euphemism of everything it entailed as, in his childhood, tea, or what passed as a very weak version of it, was all he ever got to eat or drink. Cold, at the bottom of his mother’s cup when she wasn’t looking. However, that wasn’t a topic for a polite conversation with a nun. He pushed the steaming cup in her direction, careful to avoid any contact. She took the cup, closed her eyes, and sighed.
Liam held his cup, admiring her beautiful face. Even in the shadows, it was as if she were radiating light.
He was almost caught in the moment when she opened her eyes.
“Thank you for the tea. Now, start explaining why you frantically tried to reach Gabrielle.”
“I don’t doubt your intelligence or your courage, but you’re coming into this blind and that’s the most direct way to heaven for you. I appreciate your willingness to help, but I won’t have you killed on my watch. I’ll find another way to get the information I need.”
Where he thought the little nun would cringe at his order and tone, Catriona instead slammed her cup on the counter. If he wasn’t mistaken, there was a fire in those wise eyes.
“I want to know what’s going on, what’s making you so afraid of me helping you?”
Was she for real? “You’re… you’re like a baby! You lead the sheltered life of a nun! The person after us won’t go down without a nasty fight. He’s violent and perverted, ready to sacrifice anything to get what he wants. So, sister, the best you can do is say a prayer, and I’m sending you back to where you came from, where it’s safe.”
Calmness resettled over her featured. “Gabrielle said a family needed my help. I guess it’s yours. Who’s after you? Ready to even kill you?”
Liam felt tired now. So tired. His leg throbbed and he’d had enough fighting her for today. So when he turned to look at her once more, the words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them, hurting like always. “My father.”
Chapter Two
Catriona blinked a couple of times, allowing her brain the extra seconds to process what Liam had just said. In the end, it still didn’t make sense. “Your father is trying to kill you?”
With a grimace, Liam dumped the rest of his tea in the sink. “My father wants power, or more correctly, to crush people under his boot, and as his bastard sons are fighting back, destroying us is his priority.”
“Bastard sons?” It was obvious she sounded like a stupid parrot, but now that the lid was cracked open, she couldn’t help but want to know more.
“Gabrielle didn’t tell you anything, did she? As soon as I find her, I’ll wring her neck! She knows better than to bring an innocent into this mess.
Once more, he called her innocent as if she hadn’t done or accomplished anything in her life. “Let me remind you that I’ve worked with major agencies and law enforcement organizations…”
“Behind closed doors, sitting at a desk and surrounded by throngs of police officers. This is different and must be handled carefully, out in the field with me, without much protection to make sure you stay safe. I won’t risk you.”
It was clear he was dismissing her, and she could leave and forget all about this. Somehow, it felt like the wrong path to take. She knew Gabrielle wouldn’t have asked her to help if it wasn’t essential or if she didn’t have the capacity or strength to complete the task. Liam Har
ker was a stranger, but she saw something in him. He was a good man in a complicated situation, and he needed help.
“I’ll take the risk of my own accord. I wasn’t given these gifts, the ability to understand numbers, to use them only when it’s safe or easy. I couldn’t live with myself if I stepped back now. I’m not afraid of danger. Never have been. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have chosen to do what I do. Your family needs me. You need me. Please.”
At that moment, it was apparent how heavy the burden on his shoulders was. His hands rested on the counter and his head bowed. How long had he shouldered this? He spoke of his brothers, but she suspected that he was intentionally taking the brunt of it to protect them too, as he was doing with her.
It was pure instinct when she breached the gap between them and covered his wide knuckles with her smaller hand. The simple gesture was to offer comfort, but strangely, something twisted in her chest at the contact. Beyond that feeling, it was the shock of locking eyes with him at that very moment, the silver of his irises looking deep into her soul that shook her the most. For the very first time in her life, something churned in her body at his contact. The feeling was so foreign, she didn’t know how to process it, and it almost made her lose her train of thought. “Liam. I’m sincere. I know I can help. I’m not fragile and you can trust me. Let me help you. Let me put my talents to good use so you can finally find peace.”
The man broke eye contact when he closed his eyes and sighed heavily, pushing himself from the counter as he turned his back on her, allowing herself to gather her thoughts.
Time was suspended as Catriona watched him rake his fingers through his short brownish hair, a sign he was unsure and debating the right thing to do. In this position, he seemed even taller, larger. It wasn’t only physically, she realized. His aura, or presence, made him a force to be reckoned with in a room. She’d seen it at the café, but it was even more impressive in the intimacy of his home.
When he finally turned to look at her again, Catriona knew she’d won.
“Okay, you can help, but there will be rules.”
This time, she smiled. “Hit me. I’m used to rules.”
His mouth wavered as if to smile. “No taking risks or making a move without telling me first so we can discuss it, and I’ll find you a safe place to stay and you’ll agree to it. That’s non-negotiable.”
The rules were fair, but he probably wouldn’t like what she was about to say next. “I’ll agree to all of them on one condition. That they also apply to you.”
Liam couldn’t hide his surprise. “I don’t need those rules.”
“But I do. I figure working together makes us a team, so if you want me to respect your rules, I need you to abide by them too.”
The play of emotions running over his face was an indication that, even if he was a cop, he was more used to walking his own line, wherever it went. Finally, he nodded slowly, almost carefully.
“If it brings you peace and makes your work even easier, I’ll do it, Sister Walsh.”
The name grated her nerves. “Catriona. Please, say that name. Gabrielle uses the sister title to tease me. I’m not officially a nun. Yet.”
Liam opened his mouth, but his question was cut off by his ringing phone. “My brother. Archer.”
He put him on the speakerphone between them. “Hey! Took you long enough to call me back.”
“Hey, yourself! You’re not the one juggling an empire, a wife, a baby, and a teenage brother-in-law.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Zoe is the one that manages all that stuff while working for you at the same time. She’s the real hero suffering by your side.”
Archer sighed. “It’s the time of year. The holidays make everyone crazy, and I can’t finish half of the work that needs to be done.”
“I’m happy I’m not in that situation and trying to take down our evil father, so your family gets a safe and merry Christmas.”
A series of curses came from the other end of the phone, and Catriona didn’t know if she ought to blush or giggle.
“Careful, brother dear. You’re on speaker with our brand new financial expert that Gabrielle arranged for us. Catriona Walsh.”
Again, vile words flowed over the line, but soon the cultured British voice found some sort of calm when it spoke again. “Sorry about that, ma’am. I’m Archer Blackwood, unfortunate brother of this no-brain cop who knows better than to trap me on an open line without me knowing.”
“Please, Mr. Blackwood. No need to apologize.”
“Archer, please. Now, Liam, thank you for introducing me, but I have other things to do.”
“Wait.” Liam turned the phone in his direction. “I need a safe place for Catriona to stay. Can you find her a room somewhere with lobby security and all the trimmings?”
A low growl crested. “Do you remember that we’re close to Christmas? Do you think I have free hotel rooms popping out of my pockets?”
It was Liam’s turn to snarl. Catriona found it fascinating to see the brothers’ interactions, from teasing, to annoyed, to frustrated, and she was sure it wasn’t the end of it.
“I can’t keep her at my apartment. It’s not the safest place. And don’t talk to me about Gabrielle, she’s already off and gone. No offense to Miss Walsh, but self-defense is not her strong suit, thus the security.”
Again, another sigh came from the other end. “I’d offer you the apartment beneath mine, but Kai has taken it with Isabel for the time being. Wait a sec.”
The line went silent for a moment and Liam looked up at her. “Sorry about that.”
Amused, she shook her head. “Don’t be. It was amusing. I don’t have brothers or sisters, so I like to hear them going on with it. How many brothers do you have?”
“There’s six of us. Lazarus King is the one who found us all. Archer Blackwood is the rich Brit and very annoying, Kai Jones is the funny guy, or rather he thinks he is. He’s a surfer too. Aleksei Voronov is former Russian mob and cage fighter, and Sam Sarkhan is… complicated.”
“Wow. So many.”
“We’re similar in age as well, although our backgrounds are very different, as well as the reasons why we hate the man who sired us.”
She could almost taste the venom in his last words. “What’s your father’s name?”
“Jamieson Finch.”
Catriona gasped, having heard the name many times on the news. At first, he was depicted as the most successful business there was, with a burgeoning political life that many had predicted leading to the White House. The latest she’d heard was the accusations of slave rings and pedophilia. Proof that people who seemed to have the best reputation could conceal the vilest of secrets, in addition to making babies out of wedlock and abandoning them to fend for themselves. No wonder the brothers hated their father so much.
Before she could ask more questions, Archer came back on the line. “Okay, I just called Aleksei and he agreed to lend you one of the apartments in his building.”
Liam snorted. “Aleksei would never do that. What did you threaten him with?”
“Okay, let me rephrase that. I asked Aleksei, who refused, and then asked Deva who agreed. That’s the best I can do. His building is as secure as mine, and with the holidays, you won’t be able to find anything as good in any area of Chicago. After the New Year, I’ll be able to get you something else.”
“Okay. Thanks, Archer.”
“No problem. Call if you need anything. Same for you, Miss Walsh. And thank you for your help.”
When he hung up, silence descended upon them, and it was clear that Liam Harker wasn’t a man accustomed to stillness or silence, and he started talking right away.
“Did you bring bags with you?”
“Yes, everything is in the rental car I left at the restaurant.”
“Good, let’s get them so you can get settled.”
He headed for the door, but Catriona stayed in place.
“We.”
At that single word, Liam, who as al
most at the door, turned. “What?”
“We. That was the arrangement, the agreement we agreed to. And you said so yourself, your apartment doesn’t have a sufficient level of security.”
His brain worked a mile a minute. “Yes, but alone I can defend myself.”
She could’ve crossed her arms, or given him a look, but instead, she went to sit on the sofa by Chewy, who was the happiest pup alive to have someone scratching his belly.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing. You just said we’re safe here. I’m staying.”
Liam walked around to place himself before her, his tall, muscled frame spreading shadows. “Are you trying to be difficult?”
“Are you a man of your word? Less than five minutes ago, you made a promise.” She saw him clench his jaw. “And if towering over me is a tactic to intimidate me, it won’t work. I know a couple of nuns who frighten me more.”
“Aren’t you afraid of anything, Miss Walsh?”
“Plenty, but somehow, you’re not one of those things, Mr. Harker.”
Chapter Three
Packing his stuff and bringing enough food for Chewy, as well as his things, had taken more time than Liam expected. But contrary to what his frustrating angel had mentioned, he was a man of his word. He only hoped that he had the fortitude to survive it all.
His focus hadn’t wavered: finding his father and bringing him down for good was still his only goal. However, knowing that he needed Catriona’s help to accomplish this task, he suspected that she would be a significant distraction. Not that she was doing anything in that way, on the contrary. Buttoned up, proper, angelic, smiling—there was no fault on her side. It was his own body that was playing tricks on him, and not playing fair. When she’d said she wasn’t yet a full-fledged nun, his cock had jerked. What was wrong with him?
When everything was packed in his car, they stopped to grab her small suitcase, and he told her he’d return her rental later, before heading to Aleksei and Deva’s place.
