Once Kissed: An O'Brien Family Novel (The O'Brien Family) (25 page)

I often wondered what I would do if I were ever in a dangerous situation. But right now, right when it’s happening, I can’t think straight, and my body is shaking so violently my phone falls out of my hands.

“Fuck,” the driver says. “We have a tail. Who is that? Another one of your boyfriend’s cops?”

It takes me a moment to register what he’s saying. This man thinks Declan is my lover. “He’s not my boyfriend—”

The barrel of the weapon smacks me hard against my head, making me cry out. “Shut up, bitch,” the man behind us says. “We saw you with him.”

My mounting fear makes me desperate. “Please, don’t do this. I’m pregnant.”

“Sure you are,” the third man says, cutting me off. To the others he says, “We have to kill her fast.”

“Easy,” the driver says. “Too many witnesses out here. It don’t matter how much she’s paying us if we’re not around to spend it.”

“Sh-she?” I manage.

The men in the rear seats laugh. “Montenegro’s wife. Your man took away hers, she’s taking you away from him. Fair is fair, sweetheart.”

The car continues forward, accelerating enough to put some distance between us and the restaurant, but not enough to arouse suspicion from the cars on either side of us. I try to keep track of where we’re going, but each turn makes it more challenging.

We pass Franklin Square and make a left onto North 5th. Panic pounds the blood coursing through my veins, making me dizzy, and making it harder to focus. As far as I can tell, we’re near Penn’s Landing, but heading further away. Three more blocks, then another right. Jesus, where are we?

“Did you lose the tail?”

“Yeah. Back by Vine.”

“Good. Let’s get this done. Take the next left, and go straight past the old section of warehouses where we left the car.”

My heart pulverizes against my chest, its vicious beat flooding my ears. Curran and I are supposed to have lunch with his family tomorrow. We’re going to build a house, get married, have our first baby. How can my life be over, when it’s just begun?

“Please,” I beg, my terror splintering my voice. “I’m twelve weeks pregnant. Please don’t hurt me.”

“I said, shut up!”

My pleas earn me another jab to the head. But it’s the clicking sound that freezes me down to my bones.

“Oh, fuck,” the driver says. “Our tail’s back.”

The seat squeaks behind me and pressure eases from the base of my skull. “He alone?”

“Looks like it,” the driver answers.

“You sure?”

“Yes, asshole. There’s only one car.”

“Turn here,” the man behind me says. “Damnit, right here. We have to finish this shit now.”

“What about the tail?”

“We gotta kill him, too.”

No…please, no.

The driver pulls to the curb along a quiet street lined with crumbling buildings, stopping beneath an unlit light. Ahead of us in the cross street, cars speed along, but they’re too far and driving too fast to notice us. This is a place these men are familiar with. They’ve taken people here before.

I want to scream, run, and lash out. I don’t want anyone telling Curran I’m dead—that his baby and I are gone. I don’t want him to suffer—not after what he’s been through. But the hard metal digging into my skull reminds me that I may not be able to spare him from this.

The lights from the car behind us shine in the rearview mirror, illuminating the menacing stare of the driver and expanding as the car closes in. My hand inches toward the handle. It’s Lu—I’m sure of it. I have to warn her.

A gun rams into my ribs, keeping me in place and paralyzing me with fear.

“Don’t move—stay quiet or die quicker,” the driver mutters, pressing the barrel harder.

Terror stabs my racing heart like a dagger. I can’t breathe. I don’t want to die. Jesus Christ, I don’t want to die!

The familiar stomps of heavy boots close in before Lu appears at my passenger-side window, smiling. “Wassup, girlie? Boyfriend taking you for a joyride?”

I don’t see her raise her gun. I only see Curran, his first shot taking out the front window, and the driver.

“Get down!”
he yells.

I dive forward as sprays of bullets fire from all directions. Someone grunts, falling hard as the rear side doors fly open. More shots, more glass breaking, and above it all, Lu’s pained voice, screaming our location, barely audible over the firing weapons and racing footsteps: “Officer down. Repeat, officer down.”

“No!” I hit the seatbelt release and throw the door open. Lu lies on her back against the dirty walkway, blood seeping from her shoulder.

I scramble to her on my knees. “Get back in the car, and stay down!” she hollers.

“Where’s Curran?”

Her face hardens. “He went after the other two.”

Somewhere in the distant shadows, three consecutive shots fire, followed by an agonizing scream. The blood drains from my face. I’m certain Curran’s been shot. Two against one. The odds aren’t in his favor no matter how good he is.

The blaring sirens and flashing lights tell me help is near, but it doesn’t come fast enough. Lu’s widening eyes and her lifting gun send a warning a second before I’m yanked from the ground by my hair. “Try it and she dies, bitch,” a deep voice booms in my ear.

The hot barrel of a gun digs into my scalp, singeing my skin.

Lu keeps her weapon trained forward as she forces herself to her feet, joining the other men and women in blue who are suddenly there, announcing their presence.

“Drop your weapon.”

“Hands on your head!”

“Step away. Step away
now
!”

I barely hear them, my stare locked on Curran as the blue and red strobe lights smack repeatedly against my face. He stalks forward, through the throng of law enforcement arched around me, his stance rigid and his focus trained on the man holding me.

He’s alive. Somehow, Curran survived.

“One more step and I’ll kill her,” my captor warns. His voice is that of a desperate man, out of options and outgunned.

Curran freezes, the gun in his hand steady. He should appear torn, yet he’s not.

He makes his decision and carries it through.

The air explodes around me as the grip to my hair loosens and I collapse to the ground.

I recognize that look, the one that shifts in a perp’s face. It’s the same one that kid had right before he reached for his gun and shot Joey full of holes. This perp, like that teen, knows there’s no going back, not after what he’s done.

He’s going to kill Tess, the mother of my child, my soon-to-be wife, and the woman I promised forever. There’s no doubt in my mind.

He makes his choice.

And I make mine.

My target is his left eye, and that’s precisely where my bullet strikes.

I bolt to Tess’s side when his body buckles and her knees give out. From one blink to the next, she’s in my arms. I wrench her to her feet and drag her away, over to where McMullen and two others are seeing to Lu.

“You all right?” I ask Tess. “You hurt?”

She points in the direction of the perp with one eye and a busted skull. I think she means to say something about him, but instead asks, “How did you find me?”

My hold on her tightens as I remember the call. “Lu saw them take you. She phoned me and half the precinct. With all the traffic this time of night—and festivals going on down at Penn’s Landing—no one could get to you fast enough. For the time being, we knew we were on our own. So we formed a plan as soon as we got a handle on where you were headed, and moved in.” I motion ahead to our left. “I parked on the block before this one. Snuck through that small alley and stuck to the shadows. Lu took her time pulling up behind you and getting out, giving me time to get in position. It worked. Perps never saw me coming.”

“I see,” she says, two seconds before she almost collapses. I ease her down on the curb. “Your job sucks,” she stammers, breathing hard and clinging to my shirt with white knuckles.

Maybe, but it’s what I’m meant to do.

I kiss her forehead, because that’s all I can do right now. What I want to do is snatch her to me and never let her go. She almost died—Christ Almighty, my girl, my kid, I almost lost them, just like that.

I kiss her again, this time a little lower. Her glasses are crooked. I try to fix them, but they’re bent from the throw-down. “They thought I was Declan’s girlfriend,” she says, her voice continuing to tremble.

“Then my guess is Montenegro’s wife put a hit on you.” I shrug to make like everything’s fine, and that I’m not freaking the fuck out over her being kidnapped and held at gunpoint at twelve goddamn weeks pregnant. “Women are funny when it comes to their men.”

I don’t mean to make her tear up, but that’s what she does. She clutches the front of my shirt and loses it, crying so hard I can barely understand her. “I thought you were dead. You were outnumbered; Lu was hurt. D-did you kill them—all of them?”

I nod, anger reverting me to cop mode.

Police officers are taught to protect, and to do so, that means we’re also taught to kill. I’m not immune to taking a life. I felt the impact with each one I ended tonight. But I also know I didn’t have a choice. Not this time. Not if it meant saving the woman I love and the baby she’s carrying inside her.

I hold on to Tess and let her cry, ’cause that’s what she needs to do. By the time the EMTs arrive to take Lu to the hospital, she’s calm enough to let me help her to her feet.

We walk to where they’re securing Lu to a stretcher. Tess holds tight to my hand as she bends to squeeze Lu’s arm. “Thank you for watching over me,” she tells her, softly. “You saved me and our little one.”

Lu nods and offers her a tight smile. I can tell that shot to her shoulder is killing her, but she manages to stay strong and be nice to my girl. She’s a good cop, and an even better woman. I lean in to tell her as much. “Lu, I—”

“Thirty years, O’Brien.” Her scowl and husky voice cut me off. “Thirty
fucking
years and two shifts left till retirement.”

I straighten and swipe at my face. “Ah, yeah, sorry about this, Lu—”

“No stab wounds, no bullet holes, not even a damn black eye. Then I meet you and take one to the gut.”

“It’s only a flesh wound to the shoulder, ma’am,” the EMT interrupts.

“Was I talking to you, asshole?” Lu growls back.

“Um, no ma’am,” he answers.

“Then shut the hell up. You ain’t no doctor.”

The EMTs exchange glances, then hurry to shove her in back of the ambulance. “Thirty fucking years!” Lu yells.

“I swear I’ll make it up to you,” I promise. “Do you like muffin baskets?”

“Fuck you, O’Brien.” The doors shut, but not before I hear her call me an asshole.

Tess rubs my arm. “She’s just upset about what happened,” she offers.

I take in her beautiful face, her eyes reddening the longer I look at her. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m a mess, and I think I have glass and pieces of bone in my hair. I’d like to go home. Can we go home?”

“As soon as we’re done here. I promise, baby.” I motion to the detectives waiting to take her statement. “It’s just procedure. Tell them everything you remember, and then we’re out of here, okay?”

The two suits step forward. I release Tess and step back just enough so it doesn’t look like I’m coaching her. I reach for my phone and hit the icon for my email. I rattle off the facts in a detailed report and send it directly to my sergeant, all the while keeping tabs on Tess. More cops show in the time it takes us to wrap up.

“Oh, shit,” someone says.

Three rookies gather around the last body, pointing to what remains of the man’s head. “Clean shot. All the way through. Do you know anyone who could do that? I sure don’t.”

“Hell, no. And did you see the perp by the building? O’Brien got him right through the heart.”

“Good job, O’Brien,” the one closest to me calls.

They mean it as a compliment. But they’re young, and still have a lot to learn. Maybe I’ll be able to show them. For now, my girl needs me. I reach for her and lead her back to my truck.

We’ve had enough bad lately. It’s time to start our life of good.

The autumn breeze is chilly, but the sun warms my face as I step onto the porch. Curran warms the rest of me when he presses his chest against my back and winds his arm around my growing belly. We wave to his siblings and friends. One by one, they climb into their vehicles and pull out of our long driveway.

My father and I settled out of court. For as much as he resents me, he hates scandal more. At least, when it’s directed at him. The figure we settled on paid the majority of my law school expenses; the rest I’ll work off as a prosecuting attorney in the DA’s office. Although I was only sworn in two months ago, I already know the public sector is where I belong.

I smile when Joey laughs at something Finn says. He pulls himself into the passenger side of Finn’s truck while Finn tucks his wheelchair in the rear cabin.

“Place is coming along nice,” Curran says to me. “Way better than it looked on paper.”

“I know,” I agree. “My favorite room so far is the master bathroom.”

He nibbles on my neck. “Not the bedroom?”

I laugh. “Oh, that room has its advantages, too. But our bathroom is gorgeous. I find myself going in there all the time just to stare at it.”

“I hear ya. I wasn’t sure when Sofe suggested that quartz shit, but that girl has damn good taste. Looks awesome with the cherry cabinets—and did you see the stone tile in the mudroom Finnie and Joey put down? Hell, they killed it.”

“Tell me about it. And they were so fast.” I turn to face him. “At this rate, we’ll be able to have Thanksgiving here.”

“Probably Christmas, too. It’s a big place.” He frowns when he lifts my hands and examines them closely. “Hey, where’s the rock?”

I smile and reach into my shirt, pulling out the long silver chain that holds my platinum engagement ring and wedding band. “I didn’t want to risk getting anything on them.” I shrug. “It seemed like a good alternative.”

That’s what I say, but my husband is no longer listening. “Hey. What else have you got in there?” He pulls at the collar of my T-shirt and peeks inside. “
Damn,
those are nice. Can I see them without the lace?”

We’ve spent another long weekend working on the interior of our newly constructed house, and both of us have to work the next day. But as my hands splay over the hard muscles of Curran’s chest, and I catch the gleam in his eyes, my exhaustion dissolves, replaced with a need that deepens my voice. “You can see anything you want, cop.”

“Yeah?”

“Oh, hell yeah,” I answer.

He lifts me in his arms, crushing his lips against mine as he carries me inside. The moment we hit the couch (incidentally, the one piece of furniture we haven’t broken in), it becomes a race to see who gets naked first.

I’m struggling to catch my breath when we finish, and he lowers us onto our sides, his rough hands sweeping over my bare breasts as his eyes latch on to mine. “I love you,” he rasps.

My arms link around his neck and draw him closer, allowing me to savor the sweeps of his tongue and the heat from his body.

As we lie there, I remember the words of his brother. Declan said that what I know will only take me so far. It’s who I know that will ultimately decide where I end up. I know Curran, his strengths, his faults, and how much he gives me. So I suppose “happy” is where I’ll be.

I smile and stroke the side of his face. “Thank you for loving me,” I tell him, quietly.

His blue eyes soften as he takes me in. “I didn’t get a choice,” he says. “Once I kissed you, I knew there was no going back….”