"Or else what?"
The twinkle in her eyes darkened mine and my cock twitched all over again. "Oh, it's a good thing I'm wearing a belt if you're going to start talking to me like that."
Kaitlin slid her hand along her thigh, up to where I'd bunched her silky skirt up to her crotch, and her hand slid beneath the folds of material. Her eyes fluttering closed as she let out a moan.
"You bleedin' well better not, Kaitlin Kearney. I'm the only one who gets to touch you. Don't you know that already?"
Kaitlin
Garrett was definitely the man of my dreams. Whatever else was true, I knew that.
I could barely contain myself when he pried himself away from me, agreeing to go down to his car with that glint in his eyes like he knew exactly how worthwhile the delay would be. The thought of him tying me up had been sustaining me all evening. Any time I drifted back to memories of Tiernan's kidnapping, I overlaid them with what Garrett was going to do to me instead.
And in a few minutes, when he came back up, it wasn't going to be just a fantasy any more.
I stripped my dress off slowly, imagining it was Garrett taking each shoulder down in turn. I got off the couch where he'd left me to slide the zip down, shimmying it down over my hips and letting it puddle on the floor.
Garrett had said he wanted me naked, but I felt so sexy in the sheer bra and garter belt over my tiny little panties, that I didn't know whether I was going to comply.
It took everything I had not to slide my fingers inside to find my clit at the thought of him punishing me with his belt again. The idea of belonging to him so much that I was only his to touch was so thrilling. I wasn't going to ruin that for temporary, empty sustenance when it wouldn't be long before I had the real thing. Garrett - my fiance - making me climb the walls just the way I liked it.
The cold marble of the kitchen floor was what I needed to cool the searing heat from my body, and I unhooked my bra as I padded over in my stockinged feet, draping it over the back of his armchair as I went.
I wanted Garrett to find a trail leading all the way to me, even though I already knew he'd never, ever need one to find me.
One by one, I unclipped my stockings. Perched on the stool by the breakfast bar, I rolled each one down in turn, careful not to snag the silk with my nails.
The windows were dark and I hadn't drawn the shades. I didn't want to. I liked looking down on the lights of the city knowing that so few people looked up enough to see us. I didn't care if they did.
The tall narrow window at the end of the kitchen looked down to the street, and Garrett always had Mickey park the Lotus down there where he could see first thing in the morning that it was returned from the restaurant the night before.
I shimmined my panties down and strolled over to it with them hooked over my finger, hoping that Garrett would look up from the street below for once, and see me.
I couldn't touch myself, but I could make sure he was still riled up. I could see lights on the dark shape of the Lotus, but I couldn't make Garett out on the street. The trunk was closed, which no doubt meant he was turning the interior over looking for the rope he'd promised me. When he came back up, I was going to make sure he knew exactly how grateful I was that he'd do this.
For a moment the street was totally dark and still and I drew a breath, relaxed in the calm, beauty of it.
And then everything lit up with a resounding bang.
The force of the explosion made the glass shake under my hands.
My head told me earthquake, but I was wrong.
The Lotus had jumped into the air like someone had yanked on a string, but nothing else down there had moved an inch. Before I could process any of it, flames had burst through the windows of the car below. A second bang make the building shake. The fuel tank. It had to be.
My knees buckled and I slumped to the ground in shock.
My hand clamped over my mouth, stemming the urge to scream.
Alarms screeched from all directions, filling my head with too much noise, and I could barely breathe. Garrett was in the car.
Already I could hear the screech of sirens in the distance, but I didn't care.
Garrett was in the car.
CHAPTER 34
Garrett
As soon as I clicked the unlock button on my car keys, I knew something was wrong. The usual bip and flash of the lights wasn't the same as it usually was. I got the tow rope out of the back, pulling my mobile out to call Mickey.
"Sorry to disturb. You notice anything funny with the car when you dropped it off?"
Tow rope in hand, I closed the lid of the boot again and strolled back towards the lobby.
"It was all fine earlier. A couple of the lads were looking it over at the party."
"Is that so?"
I clicked the lock button again, turning around with a frown on my face as the car refused to respond.
"D'you know who?"
"Ah, I'm sorry Brannigan. A couple of Tiernan's boys, maybe one of Kilpatrick's too. I don't know their names."
I shook my head. "No bother, Mickey. Thanks. Have a good evening. See you in the morning."
Almost as soon as I disconnected the call, the car jumped three feet into the air with an almighty bang.
My face slackened with disbelief as my first real love exploded right in front of me. And then my concern went to Kaitlin, upstairs, alone in my apartment. But who knew for how long? They'd meant to kill me, no doubt about that.
I wasn't going to let them make an opportunistic move in the aftermath.
Ears ringing, I legged it back inside. Too impatient to wait for the elevator, I headed for the stairs, taking them two at a time. Running on adrenaline, I'd barely broken a sweat when I got to the top.
My only thought was getting to her before they did.
I couldn't get my key to work, and I damn near broke the door down before it swung in and I raced inside.
"Kaitlin!"
Kaitlin
The life I could have had flashed before my eyes in a well of grief, watching the car on the street below burn.
Garrett was in it. Garrett was gone along with all the hopes I'd had for the future. Us together.
I couldn't breathe from crying, tears streaming down my face. What would I tell Nora? What would I do without him?
Somehow I reached for the phone, and dialled 999 with shaking hands.
And then someone was trying to take the phone from me, calling my name and I couldn't see through my tears, but I was fighting them off.
"Kaitlin. Kaitlin, it's me."
It felt like coming up after drowning. My breath rasped into my lungs like it was the first I'd ever taken as he hauled me to my feet, wrapping me up in his arms. I clung to his strong chest, eyes closed, breathing him in.
"I thought I'd lost you."
Garrett smothered kisses over the top of my head, breathing them into my hair.
"I keep telling you, you're not getting rid of me that easily."
"I got your rope," Garrett whispered and I thumped my balled fist against his chest, because damn it, that wasn't funny. But he laughed, and I spluttered out one of my own through my stalling tears.
"Maybe later. I think they kind of killed the mood."
It took a solid ten minutes for my breathing to fully level and Garrett kept hold of me. He didn't have much choice, I was still gripping onto him like I never planned on letting him go. And I didn't. I never wanted to feel the way I had looking down at the street, thinking he was in that burning car.
I wanted to close the door and never think about any of this ever again, but I knew that wasn't going to make it go away. And Garrett obviously knew that to.
"Macushla, I need to figure out which bastard did this. I don't want to leave you here, but you can't come with me."
I only squeezed him tighter at the threat of him walking out that door, and I shook my head. "You don't need to go anywhere. I know who it was. It was both of them. I heard them talking abo
ut some big surprise for you at the party, and how you'd been pissing them off. I should have said something. I could have stopped them!"
Down below us, the street was full of Garda, blue lights all over the place.
"That's it." Garrett's jaw rippled dangerously and the anger coming off him was palpable. "I'm done with them. The fuckers have crossed one too many lines. Get dressed. We're going downstairs."
Wrapped up in an old sweatshirt and back in my comfortable jeans, Garrett walked me out of the building, straight past the burning wreck of his car. He kept on going past the first line of tape, over to one of the officers.
I couldn't take my eyes off him, heart in my mouth. What was he playing at? I knew how tangled up with the underworld he was. He'd worked so hard to get to where he was, but after all this, he was voluntarily going up to the people he'd spent most of his career evading.
"You, get CAB on the phone. Tell O'Rourke I want a meeting. Right now. This bullshit ends here."
CHAPTER 35
Garrett
I walked into the station with no care for who saw me. They'd crossed another line coming after me for protecting Kaitlin and I was done with playing games.
O'Rourke had an interview room set up and I sat across the table from him, looking the man over, while he took in the sight of me. No lawyer. I'd been handling my own battles for long enough and that wasn't going to change today.
It said a lot that he'd dropped everything to meet with me. I knew I was a fat prize that he'd been salivating over for years. He wasn't getting me, but the man didn't know how lucky he was about to get.
"I want assurances, before we start. In writing. I get full immunity and so does my wife."
O'Rourke let out a low hum. "We'd all like that Brannigan. I didn't know you were married."
I tilted my head. "You don't want the financials and the storage locations, I'll just be talking straight to the Gang Task Force, and good luck picking out the bones of the assets. It's all stitched up better than you can unpick, that's for sure. I'm not married yet, but I will be, and there's no deal if it doesn't include her too."
O'Rourke shook his head, eyes narrowed.
"And what financials, exactly, are you intending to give me?"
"Tiernan's."
There. I had him. The cynicism slipped off his face and for a minute he looked so stunned I thought he was going to faint. I steepled my fingers as I leaned back in my chair, enjoying the moment.
"Oh, and Kilpatrick's too."
O'Rourke spluttered. "Both of them?"
"It's your lucky day. As long as you move fast. I'm talking simultaneous arrests across the city."
O'Rourke nodded and he flipped open a new page of his notebook.
I reached across the table, and snapped it closed again. "Oh come on, man. This is off the record."
He frowned. "Off the record isn't going to stand up in court. I need some kind of evidence."
"And you'll get it. The structure of their operations, the money trail, their big players. I've got it all."
O'Rourke swallowed. "Where?"
No doubt he was trying to sound out my angle, to work out whether this was too good to be true. It's what I would have been doing in his shoes. Gifts like this didn't land in people's laps all the time.
"We'll get to that. Once I've got my assurances."
"And what? You waltz in and take over where they left off?"
I smirked and shook my head.
"No. I'm not enough of a mug for running that kind of game. I'm just a businessman, O'Rourke. I keep telling you that."
"You think they won't come after you?"
"They're a bunch of thugs. When you seize assets from my rental property and come across the evidence I'm talking about, it'll be out of my hands."
"But you won't be charged for your involvement. That won't raise suspicions?"
My lips tipped up at the very corner of my mouth. "I know how to make it worth the while of the few men who are going to be left in this city to leave me and mine alone. They know what's good for them."
O'Rourke nodded slowly. "You understand immunity is for the past only. We won't be protecting you in ten years time when they let them out again."
"Oh, it'll be longer than that they'll be inside. The future's brand new, O'Rourke. Dublin's changing. By the time they're out, there won't be room for those kind of men in my city."
And besides, I planned to send a couple of emails out as soon as I knew the police cars were on their way. Tiernan and Kilpatrick would both get everything they needed to tear each other to pieces. Part of me hoped they made a good start before the Gard turned up.
O'Rourke reached across the table to shake my hand. "You've got it all worked out then. You always were a sly devil." His smile widened out and he shook his head, still looking partly stunned.
"I'm going to enjoy doing business with you Brannigan. You don't take any prisoners."
I planted my hands on the table and pushed the chair back as I stood up to leave.
"Don't get too used to it. This is a one time deal. No one threatens me or my woman and gets away with it. They're on the third strike between them. Enough's enough. That's all this is."
I had a life to live and a wife to make the mother of my children, and the rest of this needed to stop getting in the way.
CHAPTER 36
Kaitlin
Garrett took my right hand and slipped the claddagh ring off my finger, and I swallowed hard, watching him.
"Nora reckons I did this wrong the first time around." I turned the ring around, with the heart facing out and mine missed a beat as he took my other hand in his. "That you got the wrong idea when I said I wanted to keep you safe. So I'm doing it right, now."
Out of nowhere, I had tears streaming down my face and I kissed his lips over and over again.
"God I love you, but you don't have to do this anymore you know. I'll go to the airport and go home. I'll be fine." I swallowed hard, feeling tears sting at my eyes. My hands were shaking and I couldn't get them to stop. My body still hadn't processed the fact that although the car Garrett usually drove was a fiery smouldering mess, he was just fine.
I couldn't stop clinging to him, stroking my hands down his arms and along his chest, silently thanking just about every god I could think of that he hadn't gotten in.
"It's not like this is real or anything anyway. This is just a fling. Isn't it?"
The last thing I wanted was for him to be in any trouble because of me, and it looked like his whole empire was going to come tumbling down while he was trying to protect me. Just me being here was too difficult with the way things were. I was too big a prize, too much of a symbol. And I couldn't take it if he got hurt because of me.
Garrett's grip tightened fiercely and he pulled my face up to look into his eyes.
"Is that what you think, that this isn't real?"
Any attempt I had to keep my cool crumbled entirely. I shook my head. "I know it's not. You're - you're trying to protect me, for dad. That's all. And I knew that. And I've tried so hard not to get more involved, but I can't do it anymore. I couldn't take it if something happened to you when you don't even care about me-"
"Kaitlin, I'm going to marry you. In the sight of God. In his House, in front of a Bishop if that's what it'll take to get you to stop talking such total shite." His smile glinted in his eyes, just an infuriating sparkle. "Jaysus, woman. How much more real do you want?"
"But you- you said it was the only way."
"Yes. I did. I have to marry you Kaitlin you're the only woman I’ve ever had. I'm not going to send myself to hell for putting babies into the woman I always knew was going to be the mother of my children. And I was going to put babies in you one way or the other. I'm not sending myself to hell getting divorced from her either. I never planned on that."
I felt myself let out a sob and I covered my mouth over with my hand, bearing down on a swell of tears.
"You meant it? You never slept with s
omeone before me."
"Come on now, I was raised to be a good Catholic. You wouldn't want me to break Father Riley's heart right at the last temptation. I meant all of it, Macushla. You're the only one for me and you always will be. No one holds a candle to you. You're a walking disaster. You've nearly got yourself murdered three times over in as many weeks and you drive me to distraction. You're a total liability. And I worship the ground that you walk on. I must be touched in the head, but you're going to be my wife and you're damn well staying my wife if that's quite alright with you."
Dad's Irish Mafia Friend (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 110) Page 19
