SEAN: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 3)

by Glenna Sinclair

Jack’s eyes moved slowly over the two of us, taking in every point of contact.

  “I could see that this was serious for Delaney,” Jack said, his gaze focused on Sean, “but I was a little concerned about you, Sean. But now I can see that you, too, are taking this seriously.”

  “I am.”

  “You love my daughter?”

  “Yes,” Sean said, his voice strong, allowing no confusion.

  I smiled.

  Jack inclined his head slightly. “You hurt her, you know I’ll kill you, right?”

  “I do, sir.”

  “Jack…”

  Sean tugged me closer to him. “You don’t have anything to worry about. I love her, and I believe she feels the same way about me.”

  Jack’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he nodded.

  “And sir?” Sean said as Jack started to turn. “I won’t be doing any more jobs for you. It makes Delaney uncomfortable, and I really have no reason to be involved in your organization anymore.”

  Jack regarded him with an unreadable mask on his face. Then his expression softened as he looked at me.

  “Do you really think I’d let you work for me now? I won’t put her at that sort of risk.”

  I felt some of the tension leave Sean’s body. “Of course.”

  Jack came back to us, reaching out to touch my jaw lightly. “I never wanted my chosen lifestyle to blow back on you, Delaney. That’s why I chose to step back, to put distance between you and me and your mother. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be a part of your life. It was that the people I care about the most are at the most risk of getting caught up in things I can’t always control. Do you understand?”

  Tears made my vision a little blurred. And my throat was suddenly very raw.

  “I love you. I’ve always loved you. And I will do anything to keep you safe, even if that means robbing myself of the joys of watching you grow up. But you should know that I was always aware of what was going on in your life, and I was always so very proud of you.”

  I pulled away from Sean and threw my arms around Jack’s neck.

  “I love you, too, Daddy,” I said against his ear.

  He held me tight for a long moment, a sob vibrating through the length of his body. Then he pulled back and wiped my tears away with the back of his hand.

  “He stops making you happy, you let me know. I’ll have him taken care of.”

  He was joking—I think.

  I watched him walk away, suddenly aware of how alone he was in this home so filled with love and respect. Then I turned to Sean and let him fold me into his arms.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  “You created the situation that allowed my father to finally be honest with me. Thank you for that.”

  He kissed the top of my head. “Any time.”

  “Move in with me.”

  He pulled back just enough to look me in the eye. “Yeah?”

  “You spend every night at my place anyway. Move in with me. Let’s make it official.”

  A slow smile lit up his eyes. “Okay.”

  I kissed him, feeling as though nothing could possibly make my life any better.

  Chapter 22

  Sean

  Moving in with Delaney was simple. The most complicated thing was putting my condo up for sale. I didn’t have anything, therefore packing consisted of putting my clothes in a few suitcases and boxing up the few kitchen utensils I owned. The mattress I slept on went to Pops and Cassidy’s to be stored in a spare bedroom, the television to a spare room in Delaney’s place. That was about it.

  There were some benefits to living a Spartan lifestyle.

  Brianna’s law firm had made an offer. They wanted me to become a third-year associate in their criminal law department. I was seriously considering it. Before Momma died, before my world was turned up on its ear, I considered going into criminal law. Tara and I were going to work in the district attorney’s office for a few years, then open our own little firm. It was an ambitious dream, but one we both took to heart. I still thought about it sometimes, a little sad I hadn’t explored that option.

  Suddenly, life seemed to be an open road that was filled with more possibilities than I’d been able to see before Delaney. There were so many choices to be made, and I was excited to get down to it.

  In the meantime, I still worked for MCorp. I arrived at my office the Wednesday after Pops was freed from jail, pleased that the press was gone and the whole thing had been swept under the rug thanks to the dismissal of the charges. But when I turned on my computer and began combing through the emails that had built up over the last few days, I was brought back to the tension of the weekend by a series of emails from Sara.

  The evidence I’d asked for.

  I opened the first to find a quick note from Sara.

  Heard the charges were dropped, but I thought you’d still find these interesting. I sure did. Your father is a very interesting man.

  S.

  That made my blood flow a little faster.

  I studied the attachments, trying to decide where to start. One was marked officer notes. Another was marked surveillance notes. The third was marked witness statement.

  I opened the third.

  In almost all statements, there’s a little paragraph at the beginning that explains who is testifying and what they are testifying to. This one didn’t have that, and the witness was marked simply as witness.

  Q. Can you tell us whom your remarks today are regarding?

  A. Brian Callahan, CEO of MCorp.

  Q. How do you know Mr. Callahan?

  A. Witness refused to comment.

  Q. What do you allege to have seen him do?

  A. Lots of things. He’s been working with Jack McGuire since they were both very young. Although Brian has left the main part of the organization, he still does work for Mr. McGuire in the form of providing security for his men.

  Q. How does he go about this?

  A. He usually has his sons do security and he will sometimes go with them on the jobs, watching over Jack’s people and making sure nothing goes wrong.

  Q. Making sure nothing goes wrong. In what capacity?

  A. He’ll sit in a car within sight of the exchange or the delivery of illegal goods, and he’ll watch the thing play out. If the other side becomes aggressive, he’ll get out with his gun and make sure nothing happens to Jack’s people.

  Q. Is he alone when he provides this protection?

  A. No. He’s usually with Ian or Killian.

  Q. And those would be Ian Callahan, Callahan Industries Managing Director, or Killian Callahan, head of PR at MCorp?

  A. His oldest son and his eldest adopted son.

  Q. Have you seen Brian Callahan participate in these activities?

  A. No. But I’ve heard him arrange them, and I’ve overheard him talking about it with Killian and Ian. Sometimes Kyle.

  Q. Kyle?

  A. Kyle Callahan, another of his adopted sons.

  I stopped reading then, sitting back in my chair, trying to figure out who the witness was. Who did Pops talk about operations in front of? Who could possibly know this much detail about the operations?

  My father was careful about such conversations. He wouldn’t have them in front of me until I started joining in, helping him protect Jack’s people. Momma had made him sort of paranoid about being overheard and caught because of his own stupidity. She was always hounding him, reminding him that what he was doing was illegal and that he could get caught. I’d heard her lectures on more than one occasion. And he was careful.

  Who could have heard this?

  The only names that came to mind were names of people who would never turn on Pops.

  Cassidy.

  Brianna.

  Kevin.

  Jack.

  Delaney…not Delaney. She had yet to be that close to the family.

  It didn’t make sense.

  I turned back to the file, readi
ng through it some more.

  Q. How many children does Mr. Callahan have?

  A. Seven that we know of. His biological children, Killian, Sean, and Brianna—whom no one knew anything about until a few months ago. And then his adopted children, Ian, Kyle, Kevin, and Stacy.

  Q. Do they all participate in their father’s business?

  A. No. But they’re all aware of it.

  Q. How are they aware of it?

  A. It’s just something that’s been there all their lives.

  Q. Mr. Callahan never tried to hide it from his family?

  A. No.

  Q. Is Jack McGuire aware that Mr. Callahan’s family knows about his actions?

  A. Yes. He doesn’t care. His family is aware of his participation, too.

  Q. So it’s not secret in their families?

  A. No. Never has been. But no one’s willing to speak out because they’re all afraid of Jack.

  Q. Why?

  A. Witness rolls his eyes, but doesn’t answer.

  Q. Can you give us specifics on an upcoming event in which Mr. Callahan will be providing security?

  A. There’s a warehouse on the outskirts of town, across from the Bank of the East on Jackson Boulevard? The mob just bought it under a dummy corporation name. They’re going to have a meeting with a street gang there on the 25th.

  Q. What kind of meeting?

  A. A discussion about the Italians. The Italians have been causing the Irish a lot of grief lately and they’re trying to work it out, but it’s not happening at the moment. So they’re trying to get the Harbor Point Bloods to help them out.

  Q. For what purpose?

  A. To protect their territory, obviously.

  Q. And they’re meeting on the 25th?

  A. There was supposed to be a meeting earlier in the month, but it was interrupted. So they’re trying again.

  My heart sank with every word. I tried to think of who could have known all this, anyone outside of the family. But I knew it was impossible. Only Pops, Killian, Ian, Jack, and I knew about that meeting.

  Jack wouldn’t have let that information slip. It was too important. And Ian or Killian wouldn’t have because they were there when Anthony Scarsorsi drove up and effectively ended the whole thing—though I did wonder why Anthony would do that when allowing the meeting to go on would have given the feds the evidence they needed to put my father—and me—in jail. I was there that night. What Scorsorsi did actually saved our asses.

  Was it possible that Scorsorsi was working more on our side than he let on?

  My head was spinning. Who could have known all that?

  Again, the only answer was Cassidy and Brianna. And Kevin.

  I clicked the link that would close the witness testimony and grabbed my cell phone before heading upstairs to my father’s office. I had a few questions for him.

  Chapter 23

  Delaney

  I was curled up on the couch in my office, going over some financial papers. But I wasn’t really reading the documents I held in my hands. I was thinking about Sean and his clothes hanging in my closet, mixed up with my suits and dresses, his expensive suits and pressed jeans such a masculine addition to my life. And his body in my bed…hmm, I couldn’t wait until the end of the day when I could go home and spend a few hours alone with him.

  He offered to pay me for half my condo so that we could put his name on the deed, too. I laughed and told him that the condo was worth more than a lawyer’s salary could cough up. He laughed and informed me that he had a trust fund worth twice what my company was worth.

  I’d just moved in with a billionaire.

  My life was such an amazing twist and turn of adventure. My head spun each time I tried to keep up with it all.

  We talked about the future, about the things we wanted to do together. We talked about traveling, about going to Europe for a few months before he accepted the offer Brianna’s law firm had made him. It seemed like a dream, but I was excited by the prospect. Neither of us really had to work anymore, but we both got something from the day-to-day grind that we couldn’t get from a carefree existence. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t appreciate the value of backpacking across Europe while we were young and free.

  Before marriage and babies…

  Just the idea made me blush.

  I set the financial papers aside and ran my fingers through my hair, a low sigh slipping from between my lips.

  “Don’t do that. You have a meeting in ten minutes and you don’t want to look as though you just climbed out of bed.”

  I looked up and laughed as Alex came toward me. “I don’t. Trust me.”

  “Still. They expect you to be well composed.”

  “Okay.”

  He set a cup of coffee on the table in front of me and handed me my cell phone. “Ten minutes,” he reminded me, as he slipped back out of the office as quietly as he’d slipped in.

  My cell phone buzzed as my mind began to wander back to Sean. I immediately wondered if it was Sean texting a nice, mid-morning message. Instead, it was a text from a number I didn’t recognize.

  I know who you are. I know who just moved into your house. Don’t get too comfortable. The Callahans are going down.

  Dread danced like ice-covered fingers down my spine.

  I texted back.

  Who is this?

  The person who’s taking them down. I’ve already begun. You can thank me for Brian’s arrest.

  Why?

  Why not?

  I called Sean, but my call went to voicemail.

  What the hell?

  Chapter 24

  Sean

  Pops was in a meeting when I arrived outside his office door, but he quickly wrapped it up when his new assistant told him I was there. He’d gone through a number of assistants these last months, ever since he married Cassidy and she had to give up the position. I think he was looking for someone as efficient as she was, but no one could be as efficient at such a job than the woman who loves you despite all your flaws.

  “What’s up, Sean?”

  I sat heavy in one of the chairs in front of his desk, my mind whirling as I tried to figure out how to ask what I needed to know without showing my whole hand.

  “Do you ever talk about what you do for Jack in front of your assistants? Or maybe the secretaries?”

  “Never. You know that.”

  “But you meet with Ian and Killian here.”

  “Only after hours, after everyone’s gone home.”

  I nodded. I knew that. I’d been a part of some of those discussions.

  “What about at home? Do you ever talk about these things in front of Cassidy or Brianna? Or maybe the maid?”

  “We don’t have a maid. And yes, Cassidy knows all about it, but we’re usually careful not to talk about it in front of Brianna. She doesn’t need to know more than she already does.”

  “What about Kevin?”

  Pops sat up, studying me from across his desk. “What is this all about?”

  I hesitated a second. “The feds had a witness against you. Someone who knew things that Killian, Ian, and I should be the only ones outside of you and Jack to know.”

  Pops frowned. “And you think someone overheard one of our meetings?”

  “I’m hoping.”

  “It’s not someone in the family. That’s not possible.”

  “What about Jack? Does he have a lover? Does he talk to her about these things?”

  “I doubt it. Besides, if it was someone from Jack’s side of things, they would have been going after him, not me.”

  I agreed, but it was still an avenue we had to explore.

  “Do you think this witness is connected to everything else that’s been happening? To Brianna’s kidnapping and the hit on Killian and the information the Italians have been getting?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Pops stood and began to pace the room. “There’s someone out there trying to get back at us for something, someone trying to
hurt me personally.”

  “Yes.”

  “He kidnapped a daughter I didn’t know I had and forced Cassidy to betray me. Then he tried to kill my first-born son and make my only daughter believe it was her fault. And the Italians…that could be about Jack, but something tells me it’s not.”

  “I think whoever this is, it’s personal. And it’s someone close to us.”

  “But who?”

  That was a good question.

  I watched my father pace for a few minutes, my mind working the problem until I felt raw and unable to continue. There was no answer except for the obvious, and I really wasn’t ready to focus on the obvious.

  “We need to be more careful,” Pops said. “No more discussions outside of this office. No more discussions where anyone might overhear. No more talk around Cassidy and Brianna.”

  I nodded.

  “I trust Cassidy and Brianna, but maybe they aren’t quite aware of how quiet they need to be about things. Maybe one of them is talking to someone they shouldn’t.”

  Even as he said it, the memory of Kevin’s hand moving over Brianna’s hip flashed through my mind. I kind of shook my head because I didn’t think it could be possible. But what if it was? Kevin was a wild card, the only one…no. This was Kevin we were talking about. He was my brother. Pops’ favorite. It couldn’t be Kevin.

  I went back to my office and reviewed the rest of the evidence Sara had sent me. It was pretty clear the federal agents were after Jack. They even said so in their notes. But they had nothing on Pops outside of their witness and, whoever he was, the witness was unwilling to testify in open court.

  Why? What was he hiding?

  And there was clear frustration on the part of the feds where Scarsorsi was related. They clearly were angry with him for interfering in the meeting at the new warehouse. I guess I should have thanked him for his warning.

  I was aware that Pops and Scarsorsi were friends from back in the day. Scarsorsi even had a thing for Momma once upon a time. But it never occurred to me that he was helping Pops out with his clumsy attempts to scare him straight. I wondered if Pops was aware of that fact.

  Probably not.

  There was nothing else, really. Nothing that shed light on the identity of the witness. Clearly this person had a deal with the feds that kept his identity well hidden.