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

by Glenna Sinclair

  I suddenly felt very sick to my stomach. I leaned back against the wall, my hand on my belly. I could feel him watching me and could feel the weight of his stare. And that only made my nausea worse.

  “How did he contact you?”

  “Phone calls, first. A mechanical voice making me all these promises, telling me things about myself. The things he knew were staggering.”

  “And then?”

  “Text messages.”

  I tugged my cell phone out of my back pocket and took it to him. I’d pulled up the screen with all the text messages and watched as he read through them. I knew some of them would be painful to him because they talked about him, about his past, giving me instructions on how I should speak to him in the hours after he woke after the wedding.

  “You fell off your script.”

  I brushed my cheek, thinking there was a hair brushing against it, but then I realized I was crying again.

  “Because I didn’t need it anymore.”

  “Is this how you learned about my biological mother? You said I told you.”

  “You did talk about her a little. But most of what I knew, I learned there.”

  He continued to read, not really looking at me, but asking the occasional question. I tried to be as honest as I could be. I could see he was just pulling further and further away from me, but I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want any more lies between us even if it meant that he would never look me in the eye again.

  “Why?” he finally asked, his voice low and rough.

  “He promised to give me the money I needed to pay back the people my father hurt.”

  There. Now it was all out in the open.

  I waited for his response. I didn’t have to wait long.

  “Go back to the loft and pack your things. You can keep whatever you bought, but I want you out before they release me.”

  “Kyle, please—”

  “And I’ll keep your phone. This is probably how he overheard our conversations. But I’m going to send Ian over to make sure that’s all there was.”

  “Kyle…”

  I touched his arm, tried to get him to look at me. Again he refused.

  “If he doesn’t give you the money, let me know and I’ll arrange for it. But I’m sure he will because he got what he wanted out of you.”

  “I don’t care about the money anymore.”

  “And I’ll call my lawyer first thing Monday morning, see what we need to do to get this marriage annulled.”

  Tears were rolling down my cheeks.

  “I love you, Kyle. I don’t want to go back to Vegas. I don’t want an annulment. I want to stay here with you.”

  “But I don’t want you.” He shrugged my hand from his arm. “Go home.”

  I turned and walked away, managing to stay on my feet until I was out of the room and far enough down the corridor that he couldn’t see me if he happened to come to the door. And then I slid to the floor and cried harder than I’d cried in a very long time.

  I’d thought my life was over once before. This time I was positive.

  Chapter 23

  Kyle

  I read through the texts three, four times, trying to imagine what it was like for Amelia to read these the first time. The information was sound, things that very few people knew about me. I supposed it would be possible to find most of it out with a long, strenuous search, but it had the feel of someone close to me, someone who’d heard these things first hand. And the language was familiar. Whoever wrote the texts used the same quirky language, the same unique spellings as someone I knew, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  Whoever did this was someone close to me.

  I texted Ian and asked him to meet me in the trauma room since I was still hooked to an IV. He arrived, a big grin on his face.

  “What’s it like to have a woman crying over you, brother? Even Killian doesn’t get that all too often.”

  I held up the phone. “Can you tell if there’s some sort of listening device on this phone?”

  Ian frowned. He took the phone and began studying it, moving through the screens faster than I could keep up. Ian was the family computer wiz. He knew things about all modern electronics that I would never hope to learn. I’d once seen him find a virus on a laptop in seconds, beating out the technicians MCorp pays to keep their computers running properly.

  This time it took him almost a full minute.

  “A virus. Someone was using this phone as a live microphone.”

  “Can you tell where it came from?”

  Ian shook his head. “I can send it to my computer and look at the code, but I’m not sure I’d be able to tell much about it.” He looked at the phone, then at me. “Why? Whose phone is this?”

  “Amelia’s.”

  Ian’s eyes darkened slightly. “Did you say something—?”

  I nodded and Ian cursed under his breath. “Does she know anything about it?”

  “She was getting text messages from someone. He offered to pay her a huge sum of money if she married me and kept me distracted.”

  “Is that why?”

  I shrugged, a little embarrassed now that I’d said it out loud. “She also happens to be Robert Clark Wallace’s daughter.”

  “Oh, hell!” Ian spun around, headed for the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  “We should get Killian in on this. And Sean should be here by morning. He’ll want to know what’s going on.”

  Great! Now the whole family will know about my disgrace.

  ***

  We stood out in the hallway, reading through the text messages for the millionth time. Carmine had gotten out of surgery. It was rough going, but the doctor thought he might survive. Jack was still under the knife and everyone was waiting for word on his condition. Cassidy was with Caroline in a waiting room upstairs, the rest of us down in the emergency ward still. No one had noticed that Amelia was gone, and I was relieved. I’d already had to explain enough, and I didn’t want to have to explain that, too.

  “It’s familiar,” I insisted for like the tenth time. “I know those texts—not the words, but something about the writing. I know the person who sent them.”

  “An old enemy, maybe?” Killian suggested.

  “I don’t normally text my enemies.”

  “Who would want to hurt you this way?” Ian asked.

  “The same person who kidnapped Brianna and tried to make sure Killian died.”

  Ian and Killian exchanged glances. They knew I was right, but they seemed reluctant to admit it to themselves. Then Sean came marching around the corner.

  “We need to talk,” he said even as Killian went in for the bro handshake. Ian got a hug and I got a chuck to the head. There was something about Sean’s movements, about the serious cloud in his eyes, that told me he knew something that was important to this situation.

  “I know who’s doing this.”

  The three of us exchange glances. “Doing what?”

  Sean sighed with frustration. “I know who’s been trying to take Pops down, who tried to kill you, Killian. I know who’s been behind all these things, probably behind the shootings tonight.”

  “You should know that we figured out that whoever it is has been blackmailing Kyle’s wife and used her phone to listen in to their private conversations.”

  Sean’s eyebrows rose. “You’re married?”

  “Long story,” I said.

  He studied me for a long minute, then he inclined his head. “Does anyone know where Kevin is?”

  “He was in the waiting room a few minutes ago,” Killian said.

  “Not anymore,” Sean said.

  Ian was the first to ask the obvious. “Why?”

  Sean took a deep breath and said, “Kevin’s behind it all. Brianna’s kidnapping, the hit man Stacy put on Killian, the information the Italians have been receiving, the federal warrant against Pops. All of it.”

  “Kevin?”

  I think we all said
it at the same time. None of us could imagine our happy-go-lucky, artistic little brother would be capable of some of the things this man had done. And we couldn’t imagine why. But Sean had an answer for all our questions.

  “He thinks Pops killed Momma. He thinks Pops stole away the one thing that ever mattered to him, so he’s taking him out. I talked to him and he admitted every bit of it. But he threatened Delaney and I couldn’t risk that he’d go through on his threats.”

  “Kevin.”

  I grabbed Amelia’s phone out of Killian’s hand and looked at the texts again. Then I pulled up some of Kevin’s texts and, sure enough, there were the same quirks, the same funny uses of ellipses and emoticons.

  It was Kevin.

  “We have to find him before he does something else.”

  Chapter 24

  Amelia

  I stood back and watched as Colin ran some sort of electronic device over my things, my clothes spread out over the couch, including my underwear. He was trying to be respectful, but I could tell it was a struggle for him.

  “Will you please finish? They should release Kyle from the hospital soon.”

  “Of course.”

  Colin sped up, but then he came to a lacy pair of my underwear and slowed down, moving the device so slowly that I was pretty sure I was going to burst a blood vessel as I watched. But then he finally moved on and he finished up fairly quickly. He left the loft, and I began throwing things into my duffle bag, aware that it was only going to fit about half of what I had to take. The dresses, slacks, and jeans I’d bought at the mall the other day were too numerous to fit into the duffle. But I wasn’t sure I wanted them anyway.

  I was packed in ten minutes. Colin knocked on the door and informed me that a car had arrived to take me to the airport.

  I just…I couldn’t do it.

  If he wanted me out, he was going to have to come and escort me out himself. Until then, this was as much my home now as it was his. We were married and there was no prenup. No one could tell me I couldn’t be there.

  “Tell them I’m not going.”

  “Mrs. Callahan, Kyle was specific with his instructions.”

  “Then call him and tell him that I’m not leaving until he comes here and tells me himself.”

  Colin’s eyebrows rose, but he only nodded as he backed out of the door.

  I unpacked, putting everything where it would have belonged had I bothered to unpack sooner. I’d been living out of bags and my duffle since I arrived. No more of that. I pushed Kyle’s things to the side, rearranged his dresser drawers, and made room for my things. I even emptied a drawer in the bathroom for my things. Then I curled up in the middle of the bed and waited, daring him to come and force me to leave.

  This was the life I chose now. I wasn’t going anywhere.

  Chapter 25

  Kyle

  He was gone. His things were packed in a hurry, his room at Pops and Cassidy’s house a mess. Drawers were open, hangers scattered over the floor. It was pretty obvious his departure was unplanned.

  That was just another nail in the coffin that pointed to Kevin’s guilt.

  We drove around the city, but there really was no point in it. We knew where we had to go. We knew the next step was breaking Pops’ heart.

  We walked into the hospital and found Stacy sleeping with the baby on her chest, Brianna trying to get comfortable in a corner, and dozens of Jack’s men hanging around, waiting impatiently for word on their boss.

  “Anything?” Killian asked.

  “No. But the nurse said it shouldn’t be much longer.”

  I walked across the waiting room and took Brianna’s hand. She seemed a little confused, but she followed me down the corridor to a quiet, secluded corner.

  “Do you know where Kevin is?”

  “No. Why?”

  I didn’t know Brianna well, but I studied her face, trying to gage if she was telling me the truth. She must have sensed the urgency in me and realized that there was something big happening. She crossed her arms over her chest and backed up a little as she chewed on her bottom lip.

  “What’s he done?”

  “Why do you ask that?”

  “Because of the way you’re looking at me. And because…he’s been acting sort of odd lately. Excited, but odd.”

  “The two of you…?”

  She blushed, her eyes falling to the floor. “He’s a good guy.”

  “I thought he was, too.”

  That made her look sharply at me, her eyes narrowing just slightly. “What do you mean?”

  I went to her and touched her face lightly. “I met him in juvie. I was there because I stole a couple of cans of beans from a store. It was stupid because I was already living with Abigail and Pops, but there was this part of me that couldn’t believe they weren’t going to kick me out, you know?” I cleared my throat, not really prepared to walk down that road again tonight. “Anyway, he was my roommate. It was something of a mystery why he was there at first. I believed him when he told me it was for stealing money from a neighbor, but when I found out that he’d actually killed his mother and prosecutors didn’t know what to do with him, I believed it. If not for Abigail, he would have remained in that place until he turned eighteen. But Abigail…you know the stories.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “I didn’t know.”

  “Yeah. We don’t talk about it. Kevin probably had it worse than the rest of us. And I don’t think he ever lost that mentality, you know? That survival, you have to do anything, sort of mentality. I think it remained with him all this time.”

  “But he was so gentle with me. He would tell me things…”

  She blushed because it was slowly beginning to dawn on her that the things he told her were likely lies. And that he’d manipulated her.

  “Did you ever tell him anything you overheard Pops and Cassidy talking about? Anything to do with the Irish or business? Anything to do with Pops and Jack?”

  She nodded. “Little things. He’d ask if I knew about this thing or that thing and I’d tell him everything I knew. I didn’t think there was a reason not to.”

  “Neither did I.”

  “Please tell me Kevin didn’t…he wasn’t behind Brian’s arrest, was he?”

  “Why?”

  She turned sideways, her arms wrapped so tightly around herself that she was practically touching her fingers together across her shoulder blades. She paced for a minute, then she slowly turned to look at me.

  “He asked. He wanted to know how long a federal warrant would keep someone in jail. He asked what the RICO statute was. He asked…he asked everything he needed to know to make that arrest happen. And I remembered that when Brian was arrested, but Kevin, he was so devastated that I couldn’t believe he could be behind it.”

  “Sean’s pretty sure he was behind it. There was a witness, and everything he said, only you or Kevin could have known everything said and we knew it wasn’t you.”

  “He did this?”

  “He did it all, Killian and Stacy, the shooting tonight. Your kidnapping.”

  I thought she would fall. She nearly did, but I caught her.

  “Why didn’t I know? Why didn’t I recognize his voice?”

  “Because he was very careful. He’s incredibly intelligent, Brianna.”

  “But…my mom could have been killed! You could have been killed. And Killian…”

  Tears were streaming down her face now.

  “I’m sorry.”

  It was all I had to offer.

  ***

  Pops didn’t take the news any easier. He paled dangerously when we explained the evidence to him, so much so that I was concerned he might have a heart attack before it was all said and done. But then he straightened up and nodded.

  “We’ll deal with this. There are only so many places Kevin can go without access to his trust fund.”

  He was on the phone before the words were fully out of his mouth. Kevin was technically not at the critical age to acces
s his trust fund, but Pops had granted him access through orders to the executor when he went to Paris to learn how to paint. But that access was easily revoked. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure Kevin would have seen that particular maneuver coming. However, it gave Pops something to do.

  “There’s not much we can do now,” Ian said. “I can do a check on his computer and try to figure out what he was up to. And we can call the credit card companies, the airlines. But that’s about it.”

  I knew it wasn’t going to help much. Kevin was in the wind…and he’d remain there until he was ready to be caught. But he would be ready eventually—and we’d be waiting for him.

  Cassidy came to the waiting room as we stood there feeling useless, a big smile on her pretty face.

  “Jack’s out of surgery. He’s going to be okay.”

  That was a bit of good news, anyway.

  I elected to go back to Pops and Cassidy’s with the rest of the family and crash in my childhood bedroom rather than return home to an empty loft. No one questioned me because I was pretty sure word had already gotten around to everyone who mattered. It was weird being back in there, though. It made me think of Abigail and the little things she did for me that meant so much more than the big things.

  She read me a book every night before bed even though I could read since I was five.

  She brought me warm milk when she knew I couldn’t sleep.

  She found my stash of food, but she didn’t throw it out, didn’t chastise me. She simply asked that I keep everything in a plastic tote so that it wouldn’t cause a rodent problem.

  She understood me in a way that no one else did.

  If I thought Pops killed Abigail, if I believed that he’d taken her away from us prematurely out of some sort of selfishness, I would probably be just as angry as Kevin was. But I knew Pops wasn’t capable of that. He might be able to stand up to a criminal without batting an eye, but Abigail had him wrapped around her little finger. He wanted to keep her around as long as possible. If Kevin would just think about it, he would see that, too.

  No one killed Abigail but the pancreatic cancer that ravished her body in those final weeks of her life.