by Krane, Kasey
Just when I turned to walk back to the house, my phone rang and I saw it was Aiden calling.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you?”
“Looking for Connor like I was fuckin’ asked to do,” I growled.
“Well, there’s good news and bad news,” Aiden said. “The good news is you can stop looking for him because we found him.” Every muscle in my body was taut, and I stood completely still as I waited for his bad news. Connor was found? How? Where? Dead?
“The bad news is, he’s in a coma. In the hospital. The cops found him.”
A fuckin’ coma? How the hell did he go into a coma from a gunshot wound? None of this made sense and I didn’t know what questions to ask Aiden. I had to be careful.
“You better come down here to the hospital now. We’re all here,” Aiden added.
* * *
I had to compose myself in the car in the hospital’s parking lot, before I went up there to meet the rest of my family. I felt like I was fucked up on pills, when I hadn’t even had a drink. My adrenaline pumped furiously through my veins. I had no idea what was waiting for me in the hospital.
But I had no choice. At least Connor was in a coma. But for how long? What happened to him? When was he going to talk?
When I went up there, I found my whole family present. All my brothers, my father, Cynthia and Isabell. Some of the other guys who worked closely with Dad and the business were there too. Everyone wanted to know what was going to happen to my uncle.
They were scattered around the waiting room and all of them turned in unison when I walked in.
“What the fuck is going on?” Dad groaned at me. I could see he was confused, but I couldn’t exactly tell if he was worried too. They were brothers after all, even though they’d spent a lifetime trying to get past their differences.
My father and Connor were two very different men.
While Dad had always treated our mother like she was his queen, Connor had never treated a woman like she was even human. Most of the time, it was hard to believe they were even related.
“I don’t know what’s going on. I wish I fuckin’ did,” I replied. My brothers came over to crowd around me.
I was the missing link in the story. I was there when Connor got into trouble.
“I’m finding it hard to believe that the girl caused all this,” my brother Tristan spoke up. Clearly, Dad had told them the story I’d given him. It wasn’t that far from the truth. If they knew Reese the way I did, they wouldn’t have found it unbelievable that she got his gun and pulled the trigger.
Reese wasn’t just an ordinary young girl. She was a girl who had learned to take care of herself—through any means necessary.
“What exactly did she do? How did he go into a coma?” I asked, looking at their faces directly.
“It’s a medically induced coma. They had to put him in it to deal with the swelling in his brain. They’ve managed to treat the gunshot wound but they can’t guarantee a full recovery. They can’t guarantee anything,” my brother, Nolan, said.
“Where did the cops find him?” I asked next.
“Side of the highway. Unconscious and close to bleeding to death. Apparently it looks like he’s been shot and then hit by a car.” Aiden shook his head while he spoke.
Our father was standing to the side with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I have to get the fuck out of here. I don’t need to be here. You boys keep a close eye on all this and let me know what happens. Someone needs to wake him up so we can figure out what’s actually happening. Who did this. Where the girl is now.” It looked like Dad was close to losing his mind.
While he walked away, Aiden turned to me again.
“Do you want to see him?” he asked.
* * *
In his hospital bed, attached to the machines, my uncle looked all shriveled up but still as disgusting as I remembered him.
It was amazing how I still felt no sympathy for him. In fact, I wished he was dead already.
Seeing him there reminded me why I did what I did.
I had made the split-second decision to protect Reese from him. I didn’t want him to touch her. I didn’t want her to be subjected to a lifetime of torture and misery by being married to him.
I barely knew her when I made that decision. I didn’t know what she was made of. I knew I was attracted to her and I wanted my cock in her, but that was all I based it on.
And even now, my decision hadn’t changed.
If Connor woke up and if they found Reese, they would return her to him. Her stepfather had sealed a deal and handed her over to him. Which meant that she rightfully belonged to him.
I clenched my palms tightly at the thought of her walking into his bedroom. Of his big fat body heaving on top of her perfect curves.
Now that I had her, now that I knew just how sexy she was, how good it felt to be inside her, to fuck her and own her—I couldn’t imagine anyone else owning her instead.
Least of all this fucking bastard who wouldn’t know how to treat her.
And did I know how to treat her?
I kept her locked in my basement.
The irony didn’t fail to strike me.
But it didn’t change the fact that I still wanted to keep Reese all to myself. I didn’t want Connor to wake up. I didn’t want them to find her.
I didn’t know how I’d manage all that, but for now, I was glad I saw Connor again because I needed the reminder.
I had made the right decision.
And if it looked like Connor was going to wake up, if he was ever in a position where he was able to talk—I would make sure to take care of the situation before he had a chance to.
“I’m done here,” I said, leaving the hospital room.
I was sure Aiden detected a strangeness in the room, a strangeness in my behavior. But what was he going to do about it?
* * *
The longer Connor was in a coma, the longer I would have with Reese. That was the way I looked at it.
At least for now, until I had the whole mess figured out.
As I left the hospital, my father called me. I sat in the car before answering the call.
“Any updates?” he asked.
I wanted to laugh and remind him he was at the hospital just forty minutes ago. The fucker was in a coma. His brain was all swollen up. What was he expecting? A miracle?
But I knew I couldn’t snap like that. Connor was family and Dad was acting the way he would for any member of the family in a coma.
“Nothing’s changed. Someone will be at the hospital on shifts, so we’ll find out if there is any progress.”
He cursed.
“I just can’t wrap my head around this. The girl knocked you out. Then she shot Connor. Then she ran over him with the car?”
“I don’t think she did that. I was still in the car when I came to, and it was exactly where it was when we stopped,” I lied. My brain was running on overdrive, trying to figure out if I was giving any key evidence away. I needed to keep my story straight but it was getting harder and harder.
“So who hit him?”
“I don’t know.”
“You should have come straight to us. You should have called one of us,” he complained.
I rubbed a hand over my face, which muffled my voice.
“I was out of it. Okay? I was injured. I needed to go home.”
He cursed some more.
“Fine. But don’t you forget this is your responsibility, Killian. You need to get to the bottom of this. We are all waiting for some answers, and the less we can have the cops snooping around our business, the better.”
I grumbled a response and he ended the call.
Through the windscreen, I stared straight ahead at the car park.
It would be so easy for me to go back home, charge down the basement and pump two bullets into her head right now. It would solve everything. I wouldn’t have to worry about her talking. Someone finding her.
Connor laying his grimy hands on her.
But I couldn’t do it.
Not yet.
I just needed some more time with her. I didn’t know how long.
And right now, when I felt like I was completely fucked in the head—the only thing I really wanted to do was go talk to her.
She had a unique ability of getting under my skin and turning me on at the same time. She challenged me and I grew to like that.
Throwing my phone to the backseat, I brought the engine to life and drove out of the hospital.
I hoped I wouldn’t have to come here again any time soon.
I had no interest in Connor’s health or wellbeing.
* * *
On the way back to the house, I stopped at a diner.
I was hungry and figured Reese would be too.
I arrived at the house and my first instinct was to go down to see her. I could have sat on the couch, drank a can of beer, changed and taken a shower. But I wasn’t interested in any of that. My need to see Reese again was very real.
She remained sitting in the corner of the room when I went down.
I wasn’t sure if I was just imagining it, but it seemed like her face brightened up when she saw me.
The last time we spoke, things got a bit intense and I wasn’t sure where her head was at. The thing was—I wanted to find out. I was actually interested in getting to know her.
And that was the part that made all of this very complicated.
“What’s that?” she asked when she saw the big paper bag in my hands.
“Food,” I replied, taking everything out and laying it on the floor between us.
There were burgers and fries, milkshakes and cookies. Enough for second helpings for each of us.
“Didn’t feel like cooking tonight?” she asked, grinning.
This time she didn’t pretend to not care. She lunged straight for a burger. I sat down across from her and helped myself to some of the fries.
I watched in silence as she took a few big bites and seemed to enjoy the food she was eating. She even went in for the milkshake and took a bite out of a big chocolate cookie.
“This is amazing,” she murmured, closing her eyes for a moment, as she savored each bite.
It brought a smile to my face.
“Now that you’ve had something to eat, I need you to keep talking,” I interrupted her moment of bliss.
Reese opened her eyes, staring at me with furrowed brows.
“Keep talking about what?”
“Your story.”
“There’s nothing more to tell.”
“You think I’m an idiot?”
She took another bite of her burger and shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”
I drank some milkshake and breathed in deeply.
“Okay, why don’t you tell me what you really want from your life. You told me you don’t care about marriage or love. You don’t believe in those relationships. But you must have had some dreams, right?”
Reese watched me speak, and a glaze came over her eyes. She gulped the lump in her throat, and I could sense she was thinking about something. Picturing something far away. Maybe it was a thing she didn’t imagine would ever come true.
“I don’t want you to laugh at this. I always wanted to be a nurse,” she admitted.
I did almost laugh, but stopped myself in time. Her cheeks were flushed pink and the only thing I could think about was how much I wanted to kiss her right then.
Sixteen
Reese
I could see him grinning.
Was it really that funny? The fact that I harbored aspirations of becoming a nurse?
I rolled my eyes at him and he took a big bite of his burger.
“Okay, I’ll be honest, you would make a good nurse,” he admitted.
I couldn’t stop myself from blushing hard. Was that a compliment he just gave me? I couldn’t believe it.
Killian didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who happily dished out compliments.
“But why nursing? What gave you that idea?” he asked.
I shrugged, focusing on drinking the milkshake so I wouldn’t have to look into his dreamy brown eyes.
“I figured if I can’t truly love someone personally, maybe I can help people through my work instead.”
“Nurses are strong creatures. They see a lot of shit, literally and figuratively,” he replied. We grinned at each other.
It was kinda hard to believe we were sitting there together in the cold basement, eating fast food and cracking jokes.
“I think I can handle it. I’m a lot stronger than most people assume I am.”
Killian nodded like he agreed.
“But it’s not like I can actually become one. I don’t know how to make it in the real world. I don’t know how I’ll do it alone. If I’ll even have the chance,” I continued. I watched him closely for this part, hoping his reaction would give me a clue for what he planned to do with me.
He didn’t reply, moving his jaws slowly as he ate his food. But at least he didn’t look away. He held my gaze, letting me soak in my own worst assumptions. I had moments when I just wished he’d put me out of my misery.
If this was going to be the end of my life, I wished he’d just do it already.
I had to break eye contact. It was too intense. His face was too handsome and sharp. Everything about him was dangerous. It was like I was constantly sinking in quicksand.
“What about you? What got you involved in your…uh family business,” I asked. I didn’t know how else to frame the words without actually mentioning ‘mafia’ directly. I may not have known all the details about the Doherty family, but the fact that they were associated with Aldo meant they belonged to the same world.
It was a no brainer.
It seemed like the question made Killian uncomfortable.
Why?
So, I felt the need to keep pushing. I needed him out of his comfort zone.
“Why did you choose this path for yourself? Wouldn’t your family have supported you with any profession you chose?”
He flashed his eyes at me. They were suddenly bloodshot and burning. I knew immediately that I’d asked him the wrong question.
But I really really hoped he answered it.
I was desperate to take a peek inside this man’s mind.
* * *
“I had no choice. I had to do it,” he replied. I watched him rub a hand over his face in frustration.
Actually, I didn’t expect him to answer. The fact that he did gave me the encouragement to carry on with my line of questioning.
“Why? Were you forced into it?”
“We all were. We had to make them pay.”
He wasn’t looking at me anymore, but staring at the wall. His eyes were still very red.
“Whom? What did they do?”
He jolted his face in my direction, narrowing his eyes at me like it was my fault. Like I was the one who had wronged him. Instinctually, I wanted to inch away, go curl up in the corner again. But I didn’t. I glared at him, wanting answers.
“Our family had connections with the mafia, but we were never directly involved. My father wanted to stay out of it. Mind our own business.”
Killian kept raking his fingers through his hair. I could see this was a difficult conversation for him, but I didn’t need to push him anymore. It was like a dam had broken or something, and now everything gushed out.
“But that’s not what they wanted, not how they liked it. They killed my mother.”
Killian’s burning dark eyes settled on me. He looked through me like he was imagining the scene.
I felt my heart sink. All I could do was clasp and unclasp my hands. He lost his mother too…somebody killed her.
He clenched his jaws and spoke through gritted teeth.
“The Di Maggio family. They had the wrong information. They thought my father had done something he hadn’t. They wanted revenge and came into our house at night and killed
her.”
His voice was hollow and deep, like a wild animal’s foreboding growl. I had goosebumps on my skin. A chill ran down my spine as Killian spoke. In that moment, I could see he was capable of anything. His heart was empty. He’d lost all feeling.
“Where…where was your father? Where were you?” I didn’t know why I continued with the questions. Hadn’t I heard enough? It seemed like I’d already pushed him to the edge.
He fixed his dark eyes on me, shaking his head.
“He wasn’t there. He was out of town. They knew he would be. My brothers were asleep. I was in the house. Asleep too. I should have protected her. I should have saved her. I couldn’t.”
His voice wavered and there was something there I didn’t think he was capable of being—vulnerable.
For a moment, Killian Doherty almost looked frail. Like a wild animal hiding behind the bushes from a bigger, more horrible creature.
I couldn’t grasp what I felt in that moment. Sadness? Pity? Empathy?
I stood up and went to him. He didn’t see me when I sat down beside him. Our arms were touching, but it was like he couldn’t see anything around him.
Like his grief had suddenly made him blind.
* * *
“Killian.” I said his name, causing him to turn to me, but after that, I didn’t know what to say. He stared at me and I stared back.
I parted my lips to speak but no words came out. He just shook his head and looked away.
“My father lost it. He loved my mother. He was in love with her. We all lost it and we wanted revenge. My father pulled up all the connections and influence he could and we went out and attacked the DiMaggio family.”
“What happened?” I finally managed to speak.
“They are all dead. We got each and every last one of them. It didn’t happen overnight but we got there in the end. We made them pay for what they did to my mother.”
