He carried the boxes to his SUV and placed them in back.
A loud burst of gunfire ripped through the air. Anna screamed as bullets pushed through the side of the metal storage unit.
Riley sprinted toward the unit, one of his guns already in hand.
Fucking Russians. If they hurt Anna, he’d find every last one of them and make them pay.
Entering the unit, he spotted Anna huddled on the ground. He pulled her over to where he was behind the furniture.
A black car with tinted windows sat on the street. Its tires squealed as the driver fired out the window.
Riley returned fire. Several bullets struck the side of the car as it zoomed out onto the street.
He looked down at Anna. She shook and cried in the crook of his arms.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Anna looked up to him. Tears streamed down her cheek as she tried to nod. Riley slammed the door on the storage unit closed and ushered her back to the car, glancing around for signs of any more shooters or a distant flash that might suggest a sniper.
He slammed the key into the ignition and hit the gas before pulling his phone out of his pocket.
Anna stayed quiet beside him, and he worried that she might be in more shock over the ordeal than he realized.
This was his world, not hers. She’d been in danger before, but that didn’t mean she was used to it. Hell, even he wasn’t used to it, really.
Finn picked up on the first ring.
“The Russians have mobilized,” Riley said quickly. “They just fired on us at a storage place on Main Street.”
“Us?” Finn asked.
“Anna was with me. I’m on my way to my house.”
Finn grunted. “What storage place on Main?”
Riley took a hard right. The more space they had between them and the storage unit, the better. Russians never ran solo, and he more than expected others to show up.
“The old storage place Donnie used to go to.”
He knew Finn would remember Donnie and the storage unit.
“I’ll send some men over to check it out,” Finn said. “You keep her safe, and I’ll be in contact.”
Riley nodded and hung up the phone. He stuck it back into his pocket.
Anna placed her hand on his, and he rubbed her fingers with his own.
“Where we going?” Anna asked.
Riley looked over to where she sat.
“A safe place,” he said. “My house.”
Chapter Ten
By the time they reached Riley’s house, Anna had calmed down some. They were lucky the bullets had all missed them, and that somehow she’d come out in one piece.
She just kept taking deep breaths, trying not to focus too much on what had happened. For now, she hadn’t been hurt, and Riley hadn’t been hurt, and that was the best outcome she could have hoped for.
Riley stepped over to her side of the car and helped her out. When she looked around, she was surprised to find that he lived in a secluded wooded area.
She considered that for a moment. Maybe it did make sense. It wasn’t the kind of place you’d look for a single guy like himself. That might make it safer given he was involved in the kind of work that might lead to people shooting at you at a storage unit.
Looking around she felt safe there. She liked the idea that people might not be able to easily find them. Maybe they would be safe from the Russians there.
At least she hoped so. Obviously, they didn’t already know where he was, as no one had popped up and shot at them.
It was a very clean-looking house architecturally. It had the lines of more of a ranch-style home like something from the 1950s, almost like a project a famous designer might do with lots of open windows and low lines.
Riley opened the door, and they stepped inside. Something beeped, and her pulse raced. He walked over to a numeric pad and pressed several buttons. The beeping stopped.
“Just a security system,” he said.
She nodded.
The design flavor of the inside matched that of the outside. There was no cabin in the woods feel, but rather a more updated and sophisticated look than she expected. Beautiful wood beams lined the ceiling, and hard wood ran throughout.
Anna watched as Riley typed in a sequence of numbers on the pad, and she was surprised when a loud click echoed through the house.
“Automatic locks,” he said. “I’ve got the whole place outfitted for full protection. You know, for safety.”
It made her feel somewhat better but also worried her that he was so prepared for a situation exactly like this.
How often had he been in this sort of situation? He was so calm and professional about it, and that was unnerving in its own way.
Something bumped hard against her leg. She jerked and nearly screamed as something cold and wet touched her hand.
Anna looked down and found a beautiful golden retriever staring back up at her, now panting.
“Sorry about that,” Riley said and scratched behind the dog’s ear. “Daisy loves to meet new people.”
The sweet passive dog wasn’t the sort that she expected to see with a person like Riley. He seemed like he would have some big and scary type of dog to help with guarding the house, like a German Shepard, but she supposed with all the security he had, it wasn’t really necessary.
Anna squatted down in her skirt and placed her knees on the floor. She scratched behind Daisy’s ear.
The dog’s tail started wagging furiously. She dropped to the ground and rolled around.
Anna laughed and scratched her belly. The dog let out a happy bark.
“She’s very sweet,” she said.
Riley held out a hand to help her stand, and they made their way back to the kitchen. A light gray counter with white cabinets stood out against the dark hardwood floors. It was a beautiful contrast and made the whole area seem so bright. She loved it.
“I found her on the side of the road,” Riley said. “She and her littermates had been abandoned. The other four had already passed, and she was on death’s door when I found her.”
Anna sat down in the barstool at the counter and looked down to where Daisy now waited patiently for her food.
“Had to feed her by hand and didn’t really expect her to make it through the night,” he said. He grabbed out a can of dog food and dumped it into the bowl she watched as he chopped up the contents and placed it on the floor. He gave Daisy another pat on the head as she wolfed down the food.
“But you’re strong, aren’t you?” he asked the dog.
Daisy tilted her head up to stare happily at her master.
“I think she’s very lucky to have you,” Anna said softly. The happy dog had done a good job of distracting her from the horrible experience she’d had not all that long ago, but the memories of the gunshots flooded back into her mind. She rubbed the bridge of her nose.
Riley stared at her for a moment, and she wondered just what he was thinking. He looked like he was about to say something but instead he turned to a glass cabinet where a few tumblers sat and pulled one out.
He walked over to his refrigerator ice maker and dropped a few cubes in. He reached under the counter and pulled out a bottle of whiskey.
He poured her a glass and pushed it toward her. She picked up the glass and took two large drinks from it, eager for the fog of alcohol to take the edge off.
It had been a hell of the day. Although it did scare her at the storage unit to be shot at, this wasn’t her first time.
As strange as it seemed, the second time around wasn’t nearly as bad. She wished it wasn’t even something they had to worry about though. Picking up boxes shouldn’t be so dangerous.
Riley reached out and took hold of her hand across the counter. She stared up at his bright green eyes.
“Finn is sending some men over to check out the unit,” he said. “They likely won’t find much besides the bullet holes, but you never know. Sometimes shooters can get sloppy.”
Anna nodded. They suspected it was the Russians, and it seemed like there was no point in worrying over it. Getting the police involved would only complicate things, and if anything, the Kellys had a much better chance of finding out who did it.
“I’m just going to get your stuff out of the car,” he said. “You stay here with Daisy. She’ll keep an eye on you.” He patted the dog on the head.
Anna nodded and watched as Riley walked back into the living room. She heard the alarm beep as he punched in the code and stepped outside.
Daisy looked up at Anna from her now empty bowl and cocked her head to the side. She had already thought Riley was a good man, but seeing how he was with Daisy and knowing their story only made her sure of the fact.
All this time she had been worried about being with a man in the mob. It was an easy out.
Thinking of him as some ruthless killer was easy. It gave her an excuse to distance herself from him.
Sure, Riley was in the mob at the moment. But he was also more than that. He was also a man trying not to be in the mob but who couldn’t seem to find a way to step completely away.
He was a man who was kind enough to rescue an abandoned puppy and nurse her back to health.
The whole time she’d known him, she’d not once seen him do anything he didn’t have to do. Riley returned fire only when they were fired on first. He only shot a Russian months ago because he was threatening her and Claire.
Violence was a part of his life, but he didn’t seem to enjoy it or seek it out unless someone he cared about was being threatened.
The front door beeped again, and she climbed off the stool and made her way to the living room. Riley set the boxes down by the front door.
“Nothing seems to be—” he began.
Anna wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her mouth against his. She found his arms around her waist pulling her hard against him. Riley slanted his head and deepened their kiss.
She didn’t care about the shooting, the Russians, danger, or anything else. Right then all she cared about was him. Right then all she needed was to be with him.
Chapter Eleven
Riley sighed as he sank down into the hot soapy water. As soon as he was in position, Anna lay her head back against his chest. The sex they’d just shared was great, but this low-energy intimacy had a power all its own.
He loved the way her soft body slid against his in the soapy water and felt the lower half of him start to rise again.
“You’re insatiable,” she said. “Are you always ready to go?” She chuckled.
Riley placed his mouth against her ear. “Only when you’re next to me.”
He loved that she laced their fingers together on the side of the tub, and with the other hand, brought up the sponge from the bath water. Gently, she sponged around the side of her neck.
Although her hair had fallen out of the bun during their lovemaking, she pinned it back up while they were taking a bath. Her perfect slender neck was now again exposed to him.
Riley placed gentle kisses along the soft curves there and nibbled on her delicate skin when he reached her shoulder.
Anna stilled her movements and tilted her head to the side as he continued to kiss back up her neck.
“You know you’re amazing don’t you?” she mumbled, her eyes half-closed.
Riley stilled his mouth and pulled away. He’d been fighting so hard to get into her life he was surprised when she openly admitted anything to him. It wasn’t all that long ago she was making up excuses and trying to run out on him, after all.
“I don’t know about that, but I’d be glad to hear it again,” he said.
Anna turned in his arms and stared at him. Her crystal blue eyes, slightly glazed from the whiskey and soothing bath water, stared back at him. Her gaze was unflinching and seemed to bore down into his very soul.
She brought her hand up out of the water and cupped his cheek. Her fingers traced along his lips. He placed a small kiss on her thumb as she did so. Anna smiled at him.
“I was so scared earlier,” she said softly. “The bullets were flying all around me, and I didn’t know what to do. I thought I was going to die. Then there you were. Like my knight in tattooed armor.”
She leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the lips before turning around in his arms again. A sigh of contentment followed.
Riley felt an ache inside. He was no knight. All his life had been about killing for crime.
It was what he was raised to do and what he had trained for. The things he had seen. The things he had done. He wasn’t sure if he could ever truly be absolved of his sins.
No, Riley was no knight. But more than anything in the world, he wanted to be the man she thought he was. He wanted to be better for her, worthy of her.
Anna traced her fingers over the tattoo he had on his forearm. She traced the lines of the intricate Celtic battle plate.
“What is this?” she asked.
Riley lifted his arm and turned it around, the cuff more visible as he did so.
“A battle plate. The original was worn by some ancestor in the family,” he said. “When I was a kid, I used to pull all the old battle equipment my father had on the shelf out and try it on.”
Anna smiled at him over her shoulder.
“That sounds like fun,” she said.
Riley nodded. “It was until my dad found me and beat me within an inch of my life. I never touched it again. For some reason I couldn’t help but get a tattoo of it. Funny how we try to run from what we really are but only end up back in the same spot in the end.”
Anna turned to look at Riley. She could hear the pain in his voice and knew that his parents’ choice for him in life had not been the one he would have made. He’d not chosen the criminal path; it’d been thrust on him.
She was sad for the boy that just wanted to try on a piece of his heritage and had gotten savagely beaten for it. She was sad for the man that felt he was not worthy of more in life.
What would he have been like if he had a choice for himself?
Well, with the Kellys turning away from crime, he was starting to have that choice, and she knew he could be someone loving, kind, and great.
She couldn’t change the past or ensure a better future for him, but she could show him how she felt now.
Anna kissed him softly, her mouth moving over his as she drew him into the kiss. She turned completely in his arms, her thighs spread wide over his as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
His hot, thick erection pressed between her stomach and his.
Anna pulled herself up slightly and then down onto his hard cock, sucking in a breath as she did so. She pulled back from his mouth and stared at him as she pressed all the way down.
They didn’t say anything as she slowly moved over him. The whole time they kept their gazes connected. She couldn’t take her eyes away from him as she moved up and down over him, not with a furious intensity, but slower, more deliberate, more thoughtful even.
Unlike the other times when they came together. This was slow and somehow more meaningful. Staring at him and having him watch her made it feel as though they were connected in more than one way.
Anna pressed down hard against him and shifted herself slightly. Riley rubbed deep inside of her, and she felt her own climax burning to be released.
She leaned forward and kissed him again. Their tongues mingled in her mouth, and she let her nails rake down the back of his neck. When she pulled her mouth away from his, she felt him swell inside of her.
He held on hard to her hips as his cock twitched violently inside of her, causing her own orgasm to crest.
Anna placed her head on his shoulder and panted as they both came down from their own euphoria.
“You never cease to amaze me,” he said breathlessly.
“Good.”
Chapter Twelve
The previous night had been fairly uneventful, at least as far as Russian gunmen went. Aside from the absolu
tely amazing sex they shared about a million times over, both slept well and woke mostly refreshed.
Sure, she was sore, but it was a good kind of sore. She’d gladly welcome a little soreness if it meant she could have another night like the one she’d just experienced.
The next morning proved equally uneventful. Not that she needed every second with Riley to be exciting. Just being with him was exciting enough.
She had been enjoying the quiet with him, sitting on the couch with Daisy while they sipped coffee and watched the news. They didn’t have to worry about anything of real consequence other than just having a nice, relaxing day. Something neither of them got often.
She was relaxed and smiling as they watched the news, until her apartment building came on the screen. A pit formed in her stomach, and her heart sped up.
A quirky reporter stood outside the apartment with a policeman, and Anna looked over to where Riley was sitting next to her. A muscle in his jaw twitched as he watched the reporter speak to the policeman.
“The resident doesn’t seem to be in the building at the moment,” the policeman said. “We are currently trying to make contact with her. It seems there was some sort of struggle in the apartment. Neighbors have informed us that a man was heard yelling at her.”
The quirky reporter pulled the microphone back to her own face.
“Can you confirm that this is the apartment of Anna Jones, campaign manager for Claire Walsh, who recently married to a known associate of the Kelly group? Who has known ties the Irish Mafia and is currently dating a member of said Mafia as well?”
The police officer shook his head. “As of right now we’re trying to make contact with the inhabitant of the apartment before we can confirm anything.”
“What are they talking about?” she said. She rose and looked around for her phone. She sighed. It was out of power.
She’d been so focused on gala planning yesterday that she’d not been paying attention. She’d have to give the police a call to sort out a few things.
Riley muted the TV as the reporter continued to try and get something out of the officer. She looked over at him in shock.
Riley: #4 (Kelly Clan) Page 6
