THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  I showered and shaved. I stepped out of the bathroom and discovered she’d picked a suit for me and set it out, complete with undershirt and shoes. She was nowhere to be found and the shopping bags were all gone. It gave me a little bit of an uneasy feeling in my chest to find her gone.

  What was that? What did I care if a woman hung around long enough to ask me how my day was? I hadn’t asked her how her day was, why should I expect her to ask about mine?

  But I did.

  I dressed quickly and headed downstairs. She was perched on the edge of the couch until she heard my footsteps. Then she stood and turned.

  And I stumbled just a little on the stairs.

  The dress was made of some sort of nearly translucent material that was layered over and over again until it looked heavy, but delicate. The front pushed her breasts up until they looked like they might simply fall out, making my hands itch with the desire to give them a little help on their fall. The waist was tight, but the skirt fell in this…I don’t know. There were probably fancy words for it all, but all I saw was the long slit up one side that had the potential of showing off one of her long, toned, tan legs.

  That dress was almost as good as the panties and undershirt she’d had on last night that nearly drove me over the edge.

  She reached up a little self-consciously and tucked a loose hair behind her ear.

  “Is this okay?”

  That was a complete understatement. It was more than okay. It was fucking awesome.

  I crossed to her, ran the back of my fingers over her upper arm. “Beautiful.”

  She looked up at me, her eyes bright with pleasure. “Yeah?”

  I leaned close and kissed her, my mind already headed back to the stairs as her lips barely brushed mine. Was it just because I’d not lain with her yet? Was it all the teasing we’d been doing, the little make-out sessions? Or was it something more? I wasn’t sure, but I knew I wanted her almost desperately, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to wait much longer.

  “We should go,” she whispered.

  I groaned, nodding even as I gripped her upper arms and pulled her in tighter against me. But I didn’t touch her again. I breathed deeply of her lovely scent, but I didn’t touch her again. I took a deep breath, nodded again, and then turned. She slipped her hand into mine…and I almost lost it. Again. But, somehow, we made it out the door.

  Chapter 16

  Amelia

  He was quiet on the drive to his father’s, both hands gripping the wheel as if he was afraid the small sports car would suddenly lose control. And when we pulled up to the house, we had to park a little bit back on the driveway because of the number of cars that had arrived before us. It looked like half the city had turned out for this party. And, sure enough, when we walked inside the impressive marble entryway, we could hear the rumble of more than two or three dozen voices.

  “Just stay by my side and follow my lead,” Kyle said, his lips close to my ear.

  “Okay.”

  He held my hand tight and led the way into a large sitting room at the back of the house. Conversations taking place close to us suddenly ceased. People turned and stared, so many eyes moving over me I almost felt as though I was a fish in a glass bowl. A tall man with dark hair came over, a crooked smile on his handsome face.

  “Well, you must be Amelia,” he said.

  “I am.”

  “I’m Killian. I’m this one’s oldest brother.”

  Kyle tensed, his hand gripping mine a little tighter. I don’t know what he expected, but Killian just leaned close and kissed my cheek lightly.

  “Welcome to the family, Amelia.”

  And that was the explosion that broke the dam. Dozens of others came over and introduced themselves. I met Killian’s wife, Stacy, and his brother, Ian. Another brother, Kevin, said a shy hello, but he seemed more interested in standing off to the side, observing, Brianna at his side. And Cassidy, of course, came over and welcomed us.

  “You look lovely,” she said as she leaned in for a kiss on the cheek herself.

  “Thank you.”

  Kyle grabbed a drink off a passing tray and drowned it one swallow.

  “Do I make you that nervous?”

  He looked at me for a long second. “No, not you. But these people…they can be pretty judgmental.”

  “They seem pretty open at the moment.”

  “Just wait.”

  He slid his arm around my waist and led the way deeper into the room. I found myself waiting and watching for the one member of Kyle’s family that I wasn’t in a hurry to meet. Brian Callahan didn’t appear to be anywhere in attendance. I wasn’t sure how it would go when we came face to face, if he would even know who I was. A part of me hoped he would know. But there was this small part who really hoped he wouldn’t. When this was all over, when the mechanical voice on the phone got what he wanted, I was sort of hoping that maybe Kyle and I…it was stupid, really. If he ever learned the truth of how we came to be married, he wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me. But I could always hope.

  “This is Jack coming toward us,” Kyle bent close and whispered.

  Jack was a tall, thin man. He had gray hair and his face was a maze of wrinkles, but I could see what a handsome man he must have been once upon a time. The woman beside him was tall, almost regal in her bearing. She was blond, clearly a decade or so younger than Jack. But there was this weariness about her that made me wonder about the relationship the two of them shared.

  “Kyle,” Jack called boisterously. “This must be your beautiful bride.”

  “This is Amelia,” Kyle said, actually tugging me closer to his side as Jack approached.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Amelia,” Jack said. “This is my wife, Caroline.”

  “Lovely to meet you,” Caroline said, her voice a little dreamy, as though she’d met a lot of people over the years that she never really cared much about.

  But Jack, he was clearly a bit more interested in the situation than his wife was. His eyes moved over me, lingering on my bodice a little longer than it should have. And then he smiled, and there was something in his eyes that made me feel a little uncomfortable.

  “You did well, Kyle,” he said without asking me a single question. “I think I understand everything now.”

  The man walked away and began to laugh, a low laugh that sent shivers of disgust up and down my spine.

  “What was that about?”

  Kyle shook his head. “Ignore him. He’s just acting like a dirty old man.”

  “The way he looked at me…”

  “I know, babe.” Kyle lifted my chin and kissed me lightly. “Don’t let him upset you. He’s been drinking.”

  A second ago, I didn’t think I could ignore such behavior. But now, with the way Kyle was looking at me, and the promise in his kiss, it became the easiest thing in the world. He started to turn away, but I grabbed his lapel and pulled him back into me. There was surprise in his eyes, but then he was kissing me, his lips moving slowly over mine, his body slowly swallowing me up. He ran his hand down my back, his exploration taking him briefly over my hip. There was a deep slit in the side of the dress that was only revealed when I took long strides—which I’d been trying not to do—but his fingers found it and slipped underneath, moving to places where it was probably not advisable to visit in such a crowded room. And what he found made him gasp a little as he pulled back to look me in the eye.

  “You’re not wearing…”

  “You told me not to.”

  He stared at me for a long minute. Then a long, pleased smile slipped over his face.

  “I like when you obey me.”

  “Obey?”

  He moved closer and pulled my bottom lip between his teeth, nibbling for a long second. I think he might have said something else, but we were interrupted by more well-wishers who wanted to welcome me into the fold.

  He was right about the judgmental thing. I overheard a couple of women complaining that I wasn’t his
type. And some older woman said something about the trashiness of my dress. But, for the most part, they all seemed really pleased to see Kyle married and settled down.

  I snuck away after an hour or so to find a bathroom. I didn’t need to use the facilities, I just needed a minute to catch my breath. I washed my hands just to have something to do. Then I looked at myself in the mirror and barely recognized the woman who looked back at me. The dark shadows that had been so persistent under my eyes these last few years were gone. And there was color on my cheeks where I was pale almost constantly. The frown lines weren’t as permanent as I’d been afraid they would be and the dark cloud that had been following me around wasn’t as persistent as it could have been.

  I was looking into the face of a woman who was happy. I couldn’t remember the last time this face had been truly happy.

  I wanted to tell Kyle that. I wanted to tell Kyle that he was the reason I no longer looked like death warmed over. I wanted him to know how much I adored him and how good I felt whenever he looked at me the way he did. There were so many things I wanted to tell him. But there was this little part of me that was afraid that if I told him these things, I would lose the money that would solve all my problems and I would lose the man I was quickly falling in love with. I wasn’t sure I could survive the loss of both.

  I stepped out of the bathroom and nearly walked into someone coming up the short hallway.

  “Sorry,” I said, stepping back just as he reached out to catch my arms.

  “It’s not a bad thing to catch a beautiful woman in my arms.”

  I smiled, but the smile faltered as I focused on my savior’s face and realized I recognized it. This was Brian Callahan.

  The man who destroyed my family.

  I think the realization of who he was holding hit him about the same moment.

  “Wallace,” he said softly. “You’re April’s daughter.”

  I pulled away and started to turn, but he grabbed my arm again.

  “You are her, aren’t you?”

  “Amelia,” I said softly. “Daughter of Robert and April Clark Wallace.”

  He nodded. “Your mother was a friend of mine.”

  His use of the word friend hit me hard in the stomach. I stared at him, aware that my eyes were narrowing, aware that he could see the anger building inside of me.

  “Is that what you call it? Friendship?”

  He tilted his head slightly. “I don’t know what you’ve been told—”

  “You ruined my family. If not for you, my parents would still be together and my father would be healthy and happy.”

  Confusion danced in his green eyes. I watched him, aware on some level that he was a handsome man. I could see what would attract my mother to him. But that was on a level that was far behind the ratcheting anger in my chest. I’d imagined what I would say to the man who destroyed my family. Rehearsed in mirrors, actually. Even whispered it to my father during some of the most difficult moments in his healthcare these last few years. But now that I was actually face to face with him, I didn’t know what to say.

  “You’re Kyle’s new bride, right?” He let go of my arm, but he moved closer, looking at me as though he’d just realized that I was a human being who demanded some attention. “Amelia. He told us about you.”

  “But he wouldn’t have mentioned who my mother was because I haven’t told him what you did.”

  “What did I do?”

  My mouth fell open. I stared at him, wondering how he could ask such a question.

  “You had an affair with my mother.”

  Brian’s eyebrows rose. “Where did you get that idea?”

  “From my mother. She told my father and they got divorced over it.”

  He cocked his head slightly, the wheels clearly turning quite quickly in his head. Then he did the last thing I expected him to do. He threw his head back and laughed.

  “This is funny to you?”

  “Of course not,” he said, catching himself, but still indulging a few chuckles. “I just…your mother worked for me for a brief time six years ago. Just after my wife died. She was staying here with a friend.”

  “She said she met you on a business trip.”

  “She met me while she was here visiting a friend. She stood in for my personal assistant a couple of times and we became friends.”

  “More than friends.”

  He shook his head. “I hate to be the one to tell you, sweetheart, but I wasn’t your mother’s type.” He took my arm again and leaned close to me. “My wife had just died. I hadn’t been with anyone but Abigail in a long time and I wasn’t in a hurry to move on. An affair was the last thing I was thinking about.”

  “No…”

  “Maybe she used me as an excuse to get out of a marriage gone bad?”

  “No!” The anger was back with a rush, pushing away the confusion his words had introduced. “My mother wouldn’t have done that. She loved us.”

  “You can love the people in your life and still need to have something for yourself. You should go talk to her, child. Go find out why she lied to you.”

  I started to shake my head even as his words penetrated a wall I’d put up long ago. I didn’t want to remember my mom, the sadness I saw in her, the dark days of depression when she would go lock herself in her room and not come out for weeks at a time. I locked all of that away because I wanted to be angry with her. I wanted to blame her for everything that went wrong because someone other than my frail father had to be to blame.

  “I don’t know where she is,” I finally said, the words coming slowly.

  Brian’s expression softened. “Was it really that bad?”

  I didn’t want him to console me, not this man whom I’d blamed for the destruction of my family for so long. I stepped back from him, from the possibility of his touch.

  “She lives here in Boston.”

  I shook my head, shook it so hard I could feel some of the pins coming loose in my hair. “That’s not possible.”

  “When you’re ready, you come find me, and I’ll give you the address.” He came close to me again, touching my arm just ever so lightly. “Kyle’s happy. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him quite this happy in all the time I’ve known him. For that, I owe you just about anything you could possibly ask for. So, if you want to blame me for your parents’ divorce, you do that. If you want to blame for the sky being blue, you do that, too. But believe me when I say that there is a bigger explanation to all this that only your mother can offer you.”

  He walked away, humming under his breath.

  I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry.

  And I wanted to believe him.

  Chapter 17

  Kyle

  “She’s good with the baby,” Brianna said. She was hanging on my shoulder, peeking around me to watch Amelia hold Killian and Stacy’s son. At three months old, the kid was just beginning to realize there was a world outside of sleep and his mother’s breast. He was reaching for Amelia’s nose, making these soft little noises as she talked to him in one of those voices adults make when they’re playing with an infant.

  “Aren’t all women?” Kevin asked.

  “Not necessarily,” Ian said. “Some women have no maternal instinct at all.”

  “Like who?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve dated a couple of corporate-minded women who couldn’t care less about small children.”

  “That’s too bad.”

  Kevin ran his hand over Brianna’s shoulder before heading out onto the back porch where most of the party had gathered. It was late—and many of the guests had left. Those who remained were mostly family, gathered around the porch furniture, sharing in the free-flowing champagne and booze that was available from the small bar.

  Amelia had seemed a little distant for the last few hours, going through the motions but not really engaging in the party. I caught her throwing glances at Pops from time to time, as though there was something going
on between them. And when I finally got the chance to introduce them—Pops had to stay late at the office, so he arrived late—there was tension radiating from Amelia that I could have felt even if my eyes were closed.

  But now, now she seemed to have returned to the happy, relaxed woman she’d been earlier in the evening. The contentment on her face as she talked to the baby made her even more beautiful than she’d been before. If that was possible.

  “It’s a lovely sight, a woman holding a baby.” Pops set his hand on my shoulder. “Does it scare you a little?”

  I shook my head. “Not as much as I thought it might.”

  “You’d be a good father.”

  I grunted. “I don’t know about that. But it doesn’t matter, really. We haven’t even reached that point where we’ve talked about it.”

  “When you do, remember this moment.”

  Pops moved around me, calling out to Cassidy. She immediately stood and went to him, melting in his arms as he kissed her. I couldn’t remember Abigail ever acting like that around us kids. She was a conservative woman. She believed there was a time and a place for everything. Public displays of affection were not something she believed in. But Cassidy didn’t mind. Love radiated from her face whenever she looked at Pops. And I, personally, was happy for him. Every man should have a woman look at him that way.

  Someone turned on some music, something a little more upbeat than the classics that had been playing during the party. I walked over to Amelia and wrapped my hand around the back of her neck.

  “He’s amazing, isn’t he?” she asked, beaming up at me.

  “He’s something.”

  She smiled as she focused on the baby again. “It’s been a long time since I’ve held a baby. I’d forgotten how good it could feel.”

  “It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Stacy asked, beaming at her son. “I never imagined I’d be happy sitting at home, alone with an infant. But now…I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

  “Now you know the secret to keeping your wife happy,” Killian called from across the porch.