Braden: #5 (Kelly Clan)

by Madison Stevens

  When Finn had first started talking about pulling out of crime, Braden hadn’t been so certain it would work. In truth, he wasn’t so certain there would even be a position for him with the Kellys in their new life when he returned from spying on Ennis and the Russians.

  Running clubs wasn’t something he was equipped for, and he doubted they were going to put him in front of a bunch of customers.

  He might get the job done as far as keeping cops from being on his tail, but that didn’t make him subtle or all that good with people.

  Maybe he could be a bouncer, but it wasn’t like any of them couldn’t work the door. It’s not like he even wanted a job like that.

  No, this kind of life was where he was most comfortable. It was familiar, like an old suit, even when he was carrying a gun and waiting for shit to go down.

  Braden stretched again. His muscles ached. It had been ages since he’d gone to the gym. He did a decent job with body-weight exercises at home, but it wasn’t the same thing. Likely he’d feel it when he went back. If he ever did.

  His position wasn’t just about whether he’d be forced to be a bouncer at the end. Despite what Finn had said, he still wasn’t totally certain how it would all end for him when the dust settled.

  He’d had to do things for Ennis that he didn’t like. Take care of people that he didn’t really want to.

  It wasn’t like he’d lived as a saint before, but his hands weren’t just dirty now; they were filthy. The fact that he wasn’t capping Stefano and Boris alone was bad enough. He wasn’t sure he could come back from something like that.

  Movement caught his eye. His hand dropped to his gun. He almost snarled at himself. He shouldn’t have been sitting there feeling sorry for himself and not focusing on his job.

  The front door of the apartment complex opened, and Teagan stepped out. Though his heart stopped racing, he was still more than a little surprised.

  Her bright red tweed coat stood out in the crisp, cool morning. He wondered if it was another product from her fashion line. Not that it mattered. She could have come out wearing a potato sack and would still have knocked the breath out of him.

  She walked briskly down the street toward her little shop. He knew Finn had facilitated opening the place to keep an eye on her. It was easy to give her a shop and make sure the place had good surveillance.

  Braden still hated the fact that she insisted on walking there, but seeing as he didn’t get a say, he could just make sure that she got there safely. After all, it was the predictable everyday routes that criminals would use to ambush someone.

  When she reached the door, he slowly pulled the car past the front of the shop. And for a moment their eyes connected. Panic coursed through him.

  She wasn’t supposed to know he had been watching her. He wasn’t quite sure if she recognized him, but he didn’t stay to find out. Braden hit the gas and made a quick turn on to the next street.

  His heart thumped wildly in his chest, and as silly as it might have seemed, there was a part of him that wanted her to see him. But it wasn’t safe.

  He toyed with telling her. Maybe if she knew everything, it’d be easier. As long as she didn’t tell anyone anything, it’d be fine.

  No. Braden shook his head. He didn’t have time for fantasies. Right now, he needed to get his head in the game to work out just how he was going to convince Ennis that kidnapping Teagan was the only way to save her.

  * * *

  After a long night working on the sketch, Teagan had come up with something that might work. She had gone over the idea repeatedly in her head until she was certain it would work, until she could see every little detail inside her mind and was finally able to commit the thought to paper.

  She sat up after being hunched over the sewing machine for hours. The little Brother clock on the wall said she’d been there for nearly five hours. There was so much to do on the dress.

  The dark blue fabric was perfect for the evening wear she was creating. It was the kind of thing that every woman needed in her closet besides a little black dress, a deep navy blue dress that made her stand out against the night.

  She sighed as she pictured the end results. It would be perfection.

  A loud knock from the front door pulled her from her thoughts. She glanced over at the window and frowned at the flower delivery man.

  She stomped her way to the door and swung it wide open. Being ripped away from the creative zone filled her with annoyance. She’d agonized over the design, and she just wanted to finish a version of it. It didn’t help that she already knew who had sent the flowers, and she didn’t want anything to do with him.

  The delivery driver gave her a bright smile.

  “I have a delivery for Miss Teagan—”

  “Yeah, okay, that’s me,” she said.

  The smile faltered. She suppressed a wince. She was annoyed, but she felt bad about taking it out on the delivery man.

  The man handed over the flowers to her. She turned to the trashcan by the door and tossed them directly in. He watched her with open shock.

  Teagan held out her hand. “You need me to sign, right?”

  He nodded, still not quite certain if he dared speak. Teagan scrawled her signature on the little screen and handed it back to him. She nodded to herself as she confirmed the source of the flowers: Ennis.

  “Have a good day,” she said and closed the door behind her.

  She glared down at the flowers in the trashcan. How many bouquets of flowers had Ennis sent her?

  He was never going to stop. No matter how many times she ignored him, he just didn’t seem to take the hint. She desperately wished she had a block button for him as well. But at least he hadn’t taken to sending her dick pics. Yet at least.

  Teagan stepped over the table and gathered her sketchpad and purse. Her creative mood had been completely ruined once again by Ennis.

  Carefully, she locked up the shop and stepped out onto the street. Cold air engulfed her and help temper some of her rage coursing through her.

  Teagan made her way down the road. After the strange moment in the morning when she had been certain she’d seen Braden, Teagan couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that she was being followed. Maybe it was just a tired and stressed-out mind playing tricks on her, but she couldn’t be sure.

  She glanced behind her. The sidewalk had a few people making their way to the various office buildings in the area. Two men stood out towards the end of the road. Their suits were ill-fitting for the people in the neighborhood and faces scarred from obvious past fighting. Not much about them fit into the neighborhood.

  She swallowed once. This was not good. Her heart hammered in her chest as she picked up her pace.

  She hadn’t paid much attention to her brother and Finn as they spoke about the Russians that were in town. Now, she wished she had.

  It seemed so naïve to assume they would never come up to her. Ennis had little power when it came to the Russians, and she knew this. She’d seen it firsthand.

  She glanced behind her again, making sure to do it the most casual of ways, not that she had any idea what she was doing. The men had gained some ground on her. In just a few blocks, they would catch up with her, which was long before she could get herself safely to her apartment.

  Teagan cursed herself for not packing the gun Braden entrusted to her. She might have no idea how to actually hit anyone with it, but it was still a hell of a lot better than having nothing at all.

  Strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her roughly into the alley. Teagan opened her mouth to scream and found a rough palm pressed against her mouth. Her blood pounded in her ears now as fear took over. She opened her mouth and bit down hard against the skin there.

  “Stay quiet and quit biting me if you want to make it out of this alive.”

  She recognized the voice and let go and turned to stare into familiar soft hazel eyes. The man’s hand slid away from her mouth.

  She hadn’t been seeing things.
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  “Braden,” she whispered.

  Chapter Five

  Hours earlier, Braden knew something was fishy at the meeting with Ennis and Boris. It had just been another numbers meeting where they went over the gun shipment coming in and some of the other essentials they might need to be concerned about. Even crime had to deal with the realities of logistics. Those guns weren’t going to deliver themselves.

  As usual, Boris was acting cagey about what else might be on the ship he’d arranged for. Braden didn’t like surprises, and he sure as hell didn’t like them from men he didn’t trust as far as he could throw them.

  He had a feeling there was something else on that ship that would leave his soul even more stained than it was. Some lines a man just shouldn’t cross if he wanted to claim to be anything other than scum.

  Ennis had already participated in things that sickened Braden. A little honest crime was one thing, but preying on people like they were expendable assets was something else entirely.

  He almost laughed at the thought of going to confession and talking with a priest about it. The priest would probably kill him and then confess to another priest. Demons had to be destroyed, after all, even when they walked around and pretended to be men.

  It didn’t matter what the truth was about the ship for the moment. Braden would find out what else was coming on the next shipment no matter what, and if they required him to make some hard choices, so be it. He was tired of not being able to do anything, tired of having to sit around while the true scum threatened to take control of the city.

  Until then, he thought it might be best to wait to ask Ennis about getting Teagan out of town. There was no telling what he’d be pulling her into there with the situation still somewhat unstable.

  If the Russians didn’t make any quick moves, he could get the whole thing arranged without too much trouble. He’d thought they’d be a bit patient, take their time.

  After all, they hadn’t immediately gone after her. That was a good sign.

  The meeting was just about at an end when the smug prick Boris asked Braden if he was a praying sort of man, pointing to a cross tattoo on his arm.

  In an instant, Braden knew that Teagan was in danger. He made his excuses and hurried the hell out of there, praying to a God who he didn’t deserve to talk to that Teagan was okay.

  Now, there he was, with Teagan in his arms and Russian enforcers near. So much for careful planning.

  Fucking Russians. If he had to stain his soul some more to protect Teagan, he’d gladly do it.

  She turned in his arms to stare at him, and for a moment, he found himself lost, wanting nothing more than to be close to her, but knowing she would be in danger.

  She wouldn’t be safe, no one would be safe, until the Russians had been forced out of the city. For that to happen, he still needed to be close to Ennis, and that meant he wouldn’t be able to be with her.

  “What are you doing —” she began, a mix of panic and confusion in her eyes.

  Braden grabbed her arm and pulled her flush against his body. He molded them into a small hollowed out part of the wall in the alley. They’d only been lucky that the spot was available. He pulled her hard against him and placed his other hand on the gun at his side.

  He sucked in a deep breath. A gun battle in a narrow alleyway wouldn’t end well. Even if he managed to take out the enforcers, he or Teagan would likely get hit. He could probably survive a gunshot wound, he doubted a woman with her medical problems could avoid serious infection.

  Teagan stilled in his arms. Her breath came out in soft puffs against his neck. He could feel her pounding heart. Even if it was safe to talk, he wasn’t sure what he might say. She was right to be afraid. The men had come not to just scare her, but to kill her.

  They watched, half hidden, as the men glanced down the alleyway. The enforcers exchanged glances and then murmured something to each other in Russian.

  Braden held his breath, waiting for them to make a sudden movement or continue down the alleyway. A long moment passed, and then the men turned and continued down the street.

  He let out his breath. They’d gotten lucky. Still, the whole encounter was too damn close for comfort.

  Teagan relaxed in his arms, and he felt his own body grow less tense as the men walked away.

  He wondered if they were just pretending not to see Teagan and Braden, but decided against it. They were in an alleyway with no one else around. There’d be no reason not to come after Teagan right then if they’d spotted her there. An ambush would make more sense in the alley than waiting for the wider street and greater chance of witnesses.

  Braden carefully looked down the alley. “We need to get you out of here. They might come back.”

  He stepped out of the hollow spot and pulled on her arm but stopped as she stiffened and yanked her arm away.

  “Why are you even here?” she demanded.

  It shouldn’t have hurt for her to ask that question. But somehow it did.

  It had been six months since they had even spoken, but it was like just yesterday to him. He thought of her every day. His thoughts were consumed by her.

  Not that she could know any of that. There was no way he could ever express his feelings for her. Not ever. To him, she was the one spot of light in his life. Tainting her with his darkness would be a true sin.

  He’d protect her, and he’d deny himself what he wanted. In a way, he needed to protect her from both the Russians and himself.

  He said nothing for a moment as he thought over his response.

  Teagan stared at him. His cheeks were slightly more hollow than what she’d remembered and the dark circles under his eyes far more pronounced than she’d ever seen.

  He always lived a hard life, but it seemed like it was catching up with him, maybe because of the company he now kept, she wasn’t sure.

  He just looked so exhausted. She barely understood how he managed to stay on his feet if he felt at all what he looked like. Despite her anger and confusion, her heart went out to him. Everyone was in a prison of circumstance.

  She didn’t understand everything that was going on, but maybe he’d just made the wrong choice to help Ennis and now was stuck on the wrong side, if there was such a thing among all these dangerous men.

  Gently she placed her hand against his cheek. The harsh stubble there scraped the palm of her hand, and she ran her thumb over the coarse hair. The growth was something she hadn’t seen on him before. It made him look dangerous and menacing, two things she knew he could be.

  She stared in awe as he closed his eyes and leaned into her palm. Her breath caught in her throat, and for a moment she had trouble swallowing. What was going on here?

  Her insides flipped as she watched his features soften. The same man she’d spent hours with as he ran her to all her medical appointments came back, the man who could have such kind eyes. The one that had placed himself between herself and Ennis when she’d slapped him. The man who killed an ally to protect her. The man who seemed to care about her.

  Teagan had missed him. Missed seeing his face and the way she felt when she was around him. It wasn’t gratitude. It was something far more intimate. She couldn’t and wouldn’t deny it.

  Her body leaned into him. The heat between them only made her want to press in more. She tilted her head up to him and stood on her toes as her mouth grew closer to his.

  One kiss. That was all she wanted. No one could deny the spark between them. He’d saved her life more than once. That had to mean something.

  As if coming to his senses, Braden snapped his head from her palm and stepped out of her reach. He stared directly at her, and she could see the emotional shutters coming back into place, the cold line he had drawn between himself and her.

  “Go home and stay there,” he said roughly. She could hear the strain in his voice as he spoke. “It’ll be safer there. It’ll be easier to watch you there.”

  “What?”

  “They won’t give up,�
� he said. “Go home and stay there. I’ll keep you safe.”

  Teagan gripped her hand to keep from reaching out to him again.

  “Why?” she whispered. “You still haven’t explained why you’re helping me.”

  He stared at her for a moment, and she wondered just what was going on in his head. It seemed like there were moments where she saw flashes of the real him, but they quickly faded. He turned away from her quickly.

  “Because it’s my job,” he said. His voice was flat and emotionless.

  Her heart sank. She didn’t know what kind of answer she had been looking for, but it hadn’t been that.

  Teagan stepped away from him as if she had been slapped.

  A job. That was all she was to him. A job.

  Unable to listen to anymore, she turned and made her way down the alley toward the direction of her apartment. The faster she got away, the better it would be for both of them. Somehow crying in front of him would only add insult to injury.

  Chapter Six

  Braden’s feet pounded against the treadmill. He’d turned it up, until he all but had to sprint to keep up. Again and again, his feet slammed against the machine. He kept his breathing steady, doing his best to focus his mind only on the exercise and not the rest of the day.

  How many miles had he run on the machine? He didn’t even have a plan before he started. Instead, he’d just decided to run until it seemed like time to stop.

  The exercise didn’t keep his mind clear like he’d hoped. Teagan’s face kept returning to his thoughts, again and again, no matter how much he tried to ignore it. Her face, her lips, her hands all called to him.

  He cursed to himself and hit the stop button on his treadmill. He couldn’t run away from her when she was haunting him like that. As if anything in his life would be so easy. Not that he deserved anything to be easy.