Killian: The Doherty Mafia #1

by Krane, Kasey

  And just like that—right before my eyes—he went down on one knee in front of me.

  My breath caught in my throat. I felt dizzy with shock. What was he doing? I was about to order him to stand up, then he started to speak.

  “Sorry, I don’t have a ring right now. I wasn’t prepared for this, but I know I have to ask you this question. I don’t want to waste any more time with you Reese. This is not a game. I want you to be my wife. I want you by my side every day. I don’t ever want to watch you walk away from me. So, will you do it? Will you marry me?”

  He took my breath away. It was too crazy to be real.

  Killian Doherty just asked me to marry him.

  Instead of answering his question, I burst into tears.

  * * *

  He pulled me into his arms and I rested my head on his chest. I could hear his heart beating.

  I was wrong the first time when I said this cabin felt like home. This felt like home. Being in his arms, our bodies together.

  But I still couldn’t believe it.

  I looked up at him. He had the most intense brown eyes that bore into my soul. Did I ever tell him that?

  “Why do you want to marry me, Killian?”

  With his thumb, he gently stroked my bottom lip.

  “I’m sorry it took me a while to figure out. I couldn’t admit it to myself, Reese. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. I’ve fallen for you. Hard. You’re the woman I want by my side for the rest of my life.”

  I never thought I would hear anyone say this.

  Even Charlie…even he hadn’t been able to express his emotions in words like this. Least of all did I expect it from Killian.

  Maybe he saw the worry in my eyes.

  “I can see you’re doubting yourself, Reese. You shouldn’t. Every seed of self doubt instilled in you is that man’s fault. Your stepfather. He was supposed to be your parent. He was supposed to empower and nurture you. But he did the opposite. I know what happened to your boyfriend. You don’t have to worry about loving me.”

  My bottom lip shook. I couldn’t get the words out. He knew?

  Oh my God, I loved him so much. I felt like my heart was about to burst with happiness.

  “Do you love me?” he asked.

  He sounded so soft and sensitive in that moment. I wondered how many people got to see this side of him.

  I certainly didn’t picture him as this man when we first met. Not even until five minutes ago.

  There were so many reasons why I was in love with him. Killian was strong and dependable. He knew what he wanted and how to get it. Most of all, I felt safe with him. It was like he knew me better than I even knew myself. He was right from the start. He had done everything to protect me and now I was here in his arms. Right where I belonged.

  “I am completely and utterly in love with you, Killian Doherty,” I replied. I saw the way his eyes changed. He looked relieved, like he hadn’t been sure what my answer would be.

  How could he doubt himself? How could I possibly not love him?

  “And I don’t care if you never buy me a ring, because I’ll marry you right now if we could,” I added.

  Killian lifted me up in his arms and spun me around. I couldn’t help but laugh with joy. My hair spilled like a long brown curtain around us. I didn’t even care that I was just in my pajamas. I didn’t care how I looked. I knew he only saw me as beautiful.

  “Then you won’t have to wait long,” he said before kissing me.

  * * *

  We had sex right there on the living room floor, laying in front of the fireplace.

  Killian lit the fire and it was the warmest and coziest I had been in a long time. Maybe ever.

  He sat with his back to the couch and me in his arms. We were both naked and slightly damp from the sex.

  I couldn’t stop running my mouth along the clean sharp muscles of his chest and abdomen.

  Did he have any idea how perfect his body was?

  He could have any girl he wanted, but he was choosing to marry me!

  I still couldn’t believe it.

  I knew it was going to take me a while before the reality truly sank in. I was going to be Mrs. Doherty in a few days.

  I was going to have a new family. His family.

  Isabelle would be delighted. I chuckled at the thought.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked, hooking a finger under my chin and lifting my face up so he could see me.

  The fire danced dangerously in his dark eyes.

  “Just that Isabelle is going to call me Ray for the rest of our lives.”

  He smiled at that.

  “I can’t wait to introduce you to the rest of the family. They are going to love you.”

  “And if they’re anything like you, then I’m going to love them,” I said.

  I sank deeper into him while he weaved his fingers in my hair.

  Could we just hide out here in the cabin in the woods forever?

  We were silent for a while. I was sure he was lost in his own thoughts just like I was. Our future seemed exciting.

  Then I remembered Aldo.

  My other family.

  I never saw him when we left the house. Had he managed to escape? Did he get hurt? Was he even alive since the shootout?

  “I hope I never have to see him again. Aldo,” I said.

  Killian took a while before he responded.

  “I don’t want to give you any false hopes, Reese, because there are going to be consequences for what happened.”

  “You mean he’s going to come for me?”

  I sat up and stared at him. The man who was soon going to become my husband.

  “He’s going to want vengeance for what we did to his house. To his family. His authority. I have started a war by taking you away from him.”

  I searched Killian’s eyes for regret.

  Maybe he changed his mind about everything? Maybe he realized that he’d pushed it too far. What if his family rejected me because of everything I had caused.

  He blinked and met my gaze. Weaving my fingers with his, he drew in a deep breath and shook his head.

  “But it’s all going to be worth it, my beautiful. I will do anything for you.”

  Sneak Peak at Aiden

  Chapter 1

  Leah

  I sat at a window seat, looking out at the scenes passing me by. It was all a blur, my eyes didn’t focus on anything in particular.

  I knew this terrain by heart, even though I hadn’t been back home in over five years.

  But I guess you don’t forget the place you were born. The place you grew up.

  The train inched closer to the station and everything looked familiar. It felt familiar. I even recognized the smells lingering in the air.

  After five years of living as far away from my hometown as I possibly could—I was back.

  Even though I didn’t want to be.

  ***

  I didn’t keep in touch with my family, and I figured they preferred it that way.

  After all, I was the daughter who had embarrassed and insulted them. I had brought shame to the family by getting pregnant out of wedlock.

  Hadn’t they taught me better?

  Hadn’t they tried to drill it in my head to keep my legs shut?

  Wasn’t God watching all the time?

  I was in high school and my parents were religious.

  And when I say that, I don’t say it lightly. I mean—Grace before every meal and praying on your knees before bed every night and waking up and crossing yourself in gratitude to God for letting you live another day.

  Yeah, my parents were those people.

  Church going and saintly. I was their only child and they hoped I would honor them by living a life of religion and good manners too.

  For a few years in my early childhood—that was all the life I knew.

  That was until I met Aidan. Then, everything changed and I was officially ‘spoiled’.

  The train stopped
at the station at the same moment that Aidan’s name entered my thoughts. I was glad for it. Glad for the distraction. I had tried very hard for all these years to keep him off my mind. To not say his name aloud.

  Instead, as I grabbed my bag and stepped off the train, I tried to recount the phone conversation I had with the nurse five days ago.

  I had just returned from a twelve hour shift at the nursing home. I was tired, exhausted and just needed a shower. So when the lady on the phone told me she was looking for Belinda Michael’s daughter—I almost laughed and hung up the phone.

  I never thought of myself that way anymore—as Belinda or James Michael’s daughter.

  I was just Leah.

  The lady on the phone spoke fast, telling me how the cancer was detected very late and had spread to almost all my mother’s vital organs, which were consistently and systematically failing her. She didn’t have long to live.

  My father had died three years before from a sudden heart attack that nobody saw coming. I wasn’t invited to his funeral.

  I didn’t know what the nurse wanted from me now, and I remained silent through most of that phone call.

  “So, will you come? She is all alone here with nobody to visit her in her last hours. Will you come and be with your mother?” the nurse asked.

  I ended the call before I burst into tears.

  ***

  I didn’t know how long my mother had to live and I hadn’t decided how long I’d be staying in town.

  The good news was that I had all my vacation days saved up. I never took a day off. My manager at the nursing home was so pleased to hear that I was finally taking some time off, she suggested I take as much time as I needed.

  I had to give up my apartment because I couldn’t afford rent as well as pay for accommodations here.

  Before I got here, I managed to find a serviced apartment near the hospital I could rent for a few weeks. It was going to be expensive and I wasn’t sure I could even afford it—but now that I’d made the decision to spend the last days with my mother, it had to be done.

  I went to the apartment from the station directly. Took a shower. Got something to eat.

  Basically, I tried to do everything I could to delay going to see her at the hospital. I knew I couldn’t avoid it forever but I felt like I wasn’t prepared. The last five days were not enough to prepare me to see her after all these years, in this condition.

  The truth was, I didn’t even know if she wanted to see me. Maybe the nurse just thought she was doing a good deed by calling me.

  I remembered the look on my mother’s face when I told her I was pregnant. I had sincerely thought she would understand. That she would try and help me. Maybe she would even be happy for me, and to see her first grandchild.

  But instead, she had locked me in my room while I could hear my parents fighting downstairs. I was sick and terrified. I wanted to be with Aidan. But they cut off all access and communication to him.

  After hours of quarreling about it amongst themselves, when they finally came up to my room again, they had a plan. My father refused to even look at me while my mother waved a printed ticket in the air.

  “You’re leaving and you’re never showing your face in this town again.” She hissed at me like she had no love left for me in her heart.

  I was eighteen years old. Practically a child myself. I was pregnant and wanted to be close to my family. I needed to be close to Aidan.

  “Mom…”

  I could still hear the desperation in my voice that night, but she walked out of my room and said there was no time to pack. I had to catch the first train out of town that very night.

  They were washing their hands off me.

  ***

  The nurse led me to the room my mother was in and then she left me there at the door.

  For several minutes, I just stood there in the corridor, too afraid to even look in.

  When I did eventually peek—I saw a frail and gray woman sitting up in bed eating Jell-Owith a plastic spoon. She stared up at a small TV with vacant eyes and didn’t look in my direction, even when I walked in.

  “Mom?” I had that same desperate note in my voice.

  She put the spoon in her mouth and took a moment to breathe in deeply before she turned to me.

  “Leah. You’re here.”

  She sounded hollow. Like there was nothing left of her inside. I couldn’t tell if she was pleased to see me.

  “Hi, Mom. How are you?”

  It was a stupid question but I had nothing else to say. I kept my distance from her like I was still afraid she could hurt me.

  “I’m well, my dear. I’m doing okay.” Her eyes brightened a little as she scanned me slowly.

  I had written two letters to her in the past five years. The last one had just contained my address and phone number if she ever needed to reach me. The only time she had written to me was to say that Dad had died.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Mom. I wanted to…wanted to come and see you.”

  “Before I die and reunite with your father in Heaven?”

  It amazed me that she still so strongly believed in all that.

  “I wanted to be here with you because I didn’t want you to be alone.”

  She placed the Jell-O cup and the spoon on the table beside her, then she held out her hand to me and I came forward.

  Touching her broke me. Her hands were boney and cold and now that I was closer to her, I could see how much pain she was in.

  There was a time when I never thought I could forgive her or my father for what they had done to me. I still wasn’t ready to forgive them now. But I was glad I made this decision to come here and see her.

  I wasn’t going to abandon her like they had abandoned me.

  My mother lifted my hand up to her lips and touched her mouth to my fingers.

  “Thank you, Leah. Thank you for coming. I have been thinking about you. I knew I didn’t have the right to ask you to come here, but I wanted to see you, dear.”

  I could feel the tears rising up in my chest, making it hard for me to get any words out.

  “Did you bring…my grandchild?” she asked.

  She knew nothing. Boy or girl. Twins? Nothing.

  My mouth went dry and I pulled my hand away from her. I wished she hadn’t brought it up. I looked away.

  “I put my baby up for adoption right after I gave birth. I knew I couldn’t be a mother to the child.”

  ***

  I sat with my mother in her hospital room for over an hour, until she fell asleep.

  I informed the nurse I was leaving and then I walked out of the hospital.

  I was back in town five years later and I didn’t know where to go. What to do.

  I had some old friends from high school I sometimes spoke to. None of them knew I was back because the last five days had passed in a blur.

  I thought about calling one of them now. Maybe I could meet her for a coffee somewhere. I tried to keep my mind off Aidan—wondering where he was and what he was doing. If I might get to see him again. Even from a distance.

  First, I needed to go get some groceries for the apartment, so I headed to one nearby.

  It just took me a few minutes in the store and soon, I was walking back to the apartment. As I walked, I could sense eyes on me.

  At first, I thought I was just self conscious because I was back here and afraid of people watching me and judging me. How much did people around here know? Did they recognize me?

  I kept my head down and hurried back to the apartment building, but the feeling didn’t leave me—of being watched. By the time I had the key in the lock, I was sure I could hear footsteps behind me.

  I hurried to get the door open and two hands appeared on either side of me, pushing the door open and shoving me in.

  ***

  It all happened so fast. One man wrapped his arms around me with one hand strapped to my mouth to keep me from screaming.

  The other guy shut and locked the doo
r.

  “You breathe one word or make a sound and you’re dead,” the man hissed in my ear before releasing me. I fell backwards, banging against the wall while struggling to catch my breath.

  I could still feel how tightly he had held me. Like he was going to squeeze the life out of me. I shuddered in fear because this seemed so unreal.

  Who were they? What did they want?

  But I had been warned not to say a word—and hadn’t I always been a girl who did what she was told?

  They stood in front of me. Tall burly men with tattoos and beards. They snarled at me like wild animals and in that moment, I knew it was not a false threat. They really would kill me if I took one misstep.

  “You’re Aidan’s chick, aren’t you?” one of them asked.

  I shook my head because it wasn’t true. I hadn’t belonged to Aidan in a very long time.

  “Don’t you fucking lie to me!” The other one lunged at me, pinching my cheeks with his thumbs and pulling me towards him. He gripped me so hard that my face ached. It felt like my neck was about to snap. I was convinced I was going to die.

  “Yeah you are. We saw you two together. You liked riding his bike as much as you liked riding his dick.”

  They laughed at that.

  How did they recognize me? I didn’t even know who they were.

  The guy gripping my cheeks released me.

  “You should know you’re being watched, bitch,” he said.

  “Someone from the Baron family will always be watching you,” the other one chimed in.

  I didn’t know what he was talking about. I had never heard of the Baron family. I had a vague idea that Aidan’s father was involved in some under the rug business. That his family had connections with the Irish mafia—but nothing else. I was clueless.

  But now, I was scared.

  They turned to go and I almost breathed a sigh of relief at that. They were going to leave. But before they did, one of them lunged at me again, grabbing me by the back of my hair.