THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series (35 page)

Stacy

Cassidy watched me tear at the cardboard that held the pieces of the crib I’d picked. I hadn’t said anything to her since she came through the door. I didn’t know what to say to her.

What do you say to the woman trying to replace your mom?

“I’m sorry, Stacy,” she said softly.

I looked over at her. “What?”

“We got off on the wrong foot. Your fiancé’s death on the day your father and I got married and everything…”

I shrugged. “That’s in the past.”

“Yes, but I feel like it’s standing between us. He should have been in New York with you. If I’d known that you were supposed to marry the next day—”

“No one knew, but maybe Killian. I never told anyone.”

“I know, but—”

“That’s not an issue, Cassidy,” I said, pulling myself clumsily up to my feet. “Davis and all that is in the past.”

“Then why won’t you speak to me? Why do I still feel this tension between us?”

I crossed her arms over her chest. “I never knew my biological mother. And I didn’t have a female figure in my life until Abigail Callahan came into my life.”

“And I’m not trying to replace her.”

I shrugged. “She was a saint. No one can replace her.”

“I get that.”

“And you had an affair with my dad while they were married.”

She nodded. “I know. But you should know that I didn’t know he was married until we’d been together for months.”

“Does that matter? You stayed with him after you knew.”

She inclined her head slightly. “I did. But I was in love with him by then.”

“That’s not an excuse.”

I turned back to the crib box, trying to figure out how to open it without having to bend over again. I hadn’t asked for Killian and Pops to set this up; I didn’t agree to allow this woman into my house. The only reason she was here was because Killian told me it would make things easier at family get-togethers and that he would see it as a personal favor to him if I’d do it.

I loved him. How could I refuse him anything?

I bent over and started tugging at the cardboard again, feeling very clumsy. This pregnancy was turning me into someone I’d never been before. I was fat and round and ungraceful. Killian said I was beautiful, but I didn’t feel it. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t enjoying this pregnancy. I liked the feel of the baby moving inside of me. I liked how thick my hair was now and how big my boobs were getting. I even liked the idea of what would happen at the end, of the baby I would get to hold and love for the rest of my life.

“Let me help with that.”

Cassidy came over and knelt beside the box, tugging at the corners.

“I can do it.”

“But I’m here to help. Let me help.”

I waved my hand, moving over to the dressing table that was still in its box, leaning against the wall. I pulled at the cardboard of that box, slipping the long pieces out. One piece didn’t want to come out easily, so I had to tug a little, nearly losing my balance as I did. Cassidy was behind me when I did, catching me and steadying me.

“Everyone needs a little help. Especially a new mom.”

“I’m not a mom yet.”

“Sure you are. And you’re joining a very big, exclusive club.”

I pulled away from her. I didn’t want her opinions.

Being pregnant had made me realize more and more every day what I was missing not having my mom around. I had so many questions I could quite wrap my mind around them all. If she’d been here now…but she wasn’t.

“I know you miss Abigail,” Cassidy said softly.

“I do.”

“She’s not here. I’m sure she would have wanted to be. And I know that I wish she was here. You kids deserve your mother to be here at your side. I’m not trying to take her place.”

“But aren’t you?”

“No. I just want to be with your dad. I think we make each other happy.”

“But you’re living in her house.”

Cassidy looked a little uncomfortable for a moment. Then she nodded.

“I wanted to buy a house of our own, but Brian didn’t want to sell your house. He said that you kids needed to be able to come home from time to time, to feel welcome somewhere.”

I crossed my arms over my chest again. “He said that?”

“Yeah.”

“And you agreed with it?”

“I did. I knew that I couldn’t come in here and make demands about everything. He was yours first. I never wanted to change that. I just want to join the family, that’s all.” She came to me and tentatively took my hand, her touch soft and almost nonexistent. “Can you imagine what it was like for Abigail, coming into your life the way she did? Can you imagine how hard it was for her, wanting to be your mom, but knowing she could never replace her?”

I nodded slowly. “I suppose.”

“I don’t want to be your mom; I don’t want to replace anyone. I just want to be your friend.”

I didn’t know what to say. But I’d seen her with Pops, seen the way his face lit up whenever she walked into a room. He loved her despite everything.

“Why did you never tell him about Brianna?”

Cassidy dragged her fingers through her hair. “Because he chose Abigail and I didn’t want to interfere with that. Because Killian and Sean needed their father.”

“But you must have needed him.”

A bitter smile twisted Cassidy’s lips. “I did. More than you’ll ever know. But he made his choice. I couldn’t take those boys’ father from them.”

“Thank you,” I said softly. “If you had taken him away, I never would have found my family. I never would have found Killian.”

She nodded, her eyes bright with tears. “I believe all things work out the way they’re supposed to.”

“Yeah.” I turned to the crib. “Do you think we should just let Killian do this?”

She laughed. “Might not be a bad idea.”

“Can I ask you something about pregnancy?”

“Sure.”

“There’s this clear liquid…”

Killian

“Babe?”

I was dreaming about fast cars and gunfire when Stacy pushed my shoulder.

“It’s two o’clock,” I moaned, glancing at the clock. “We have hours to sleep.”

“I know. But the baby has other plans.”

“Tell him to go back to sleep.”

“I would,” she said, her voice twisted with pain, “but my water broke.”

I sat up, the reality of what she’d just said spreading over the sheet beneath her. We’d planned for this, planned every step, but I was suddenly drawing a blank.

What was I supposed to do? Something about a suitcase and a phone call…

“Call the doctor,” she reminded me.

I made the call, then pulled on a pair of jeans before scooping her up out of bed.

“I need clothes, Killian. Dry clothes.”

“Are you sure we have time.”

“I think so.”

She made me set her down. Some irrational part of me was afraid the baby would just fall out if she insisted on walking around the room that way. But she managed to pull on a maternity dress and clean underclothes without any flying babies making an appearance. I drove faster than I should have through the city to the hospital, hearing her admonitions to slow down, but not heeding them.

She moaned as I took a hard left. For some reason, the pain that came with the contractions hadn’t crossed my mind until then. Her face was twisted with it, her lips puffed as she tried to breathe through them and struggled to hold onto what they’d taught us in that birthing class.

“It’s okay, babe,” I said, reaching over and taking her hand. “You’re going to be okay.”

She just nodded as she continued to work through the pain.

Fear suddenly settled in my belly. I kept reminding myself that this was a perfectly natural process, but bad things happened every day. I managed to get her to the hospital and into her room before I had to step out. I leaned against the walls and closed my eyes, taking as many deep breaths as I could.

Then I called my dad.

The family arrived one by one. Ian, then Kyle. Sean and Brianna. Pops and Cassidy.

Stacy’s eyes lit up when Cassidy came through the door.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said.

“Of course you can,” Cassidy said, taking her hand. “Just imagine that little bundle of joy that will be lying in your arms when all is said and done.”

Stacy seemed to relax after that. But I was going insane. It was killing me to watch my wife in so much pain.

Pops moved up behind me, his hands on my shoulders. “It’ll all be over soon.”

“I did this to her,” I said in a low whisper. “What if—?”

“Don’t do that. This is a happy day, son. Don’t darken it with your fear.”

But how could I avoid it. I waited so long to be with Stacy. If things went south and I lost her, I don’t think I could live with that.

But then the nurse came in and said something about ten centimeters and this flurry of activity began and Stacy was holding my hand, making these hard, groaning sounds as she sat up and pushed. My beautiful wife, so perfect and delicate, was enduring the most incredible pain as she brought our child into the world.

I don’t think I ever loved her more.

And then he was there, his eyes big and brown, just like his mother’s.

Brian David Callahan.

Stacy

Cassidy brought the baby to me, lying him gently in my arms. I smiled, always so excited to feel the weight of this perfect human being in my arms.

Ian’s laughter burst through the open doors, Kyle’s following. Kevin and Brianna were tucked into a corner of the back deck, whispering to each other. I suspected there was something going on there, but I wasn’t sure what. Maybe another illicit romance. Maybe just a friendship that spanned a kidnapping and the traumatic adjustment back to real life.

Killian and Pops were standing off to one side, talking quietly about things I wasn’t sure I wanted to know about. I no longer resented the business Pops chose to participate in, nor did I resent his decision to bring my husband and our brothers into it. But that didn’t mean I was eager to hear the details.

Sean was sitting on the loveseat, staring at the screen of his phone.

“Business?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not exactly. Just a text from a friend.”

There’d been something different about Sean recently. A new light in his eyes. Cassidy thought he’d met someone. I hoped she was right because he deserved a little happiness.

Things had been calm lately. The kidnapper who’d been harassing Pops had stopped texting again. Everyone thought that the death of his hitman had cooled his heels. I wasn’t too sure that was it, but I was hoping they were right. It never hurt to be optimistic, right?

Killian came over and ran his hand gently over the baby’s head, leaning low to kiss him.

“Hello, little man,” he said softly.

“Could you be any prouder?”

“Give me a daughter and we’ll find out.”

“Can I recover from this one first?”

He kissed me, the feel of his lips as new as the first kiss. I leaned into him and closed my eyes, exhausted, but in a happy way.

When I opened my eyes again, I looked around the room at my family. My brothers. My dad. My stepmom and stepsister.

For a little girl who began this life abandoned by her mother and hurt by her drunken father, I didn’t have that bad a life.

I hugged my baby closer to me, sending up a silent prayer to my mom.

Thank you for bringing us together. Thank you for giving me something no one else could do. Thank you for touching my life. I wish we could have known each other longer…but thank you for what you gave me.

Thank you.

~~

Delaney

Walking down the street shouldn’t be stressful. Yet, these last few days, I swear I could hear someone following me. That, coupled with the text messages I’d been getting from Claude, and it was enough to make me very nervous. I wrapped my arms around my chest, hiding the canister of pepper spray Jack gave to me.

Pepper spray. Like that made up for all the years of neglect.

I walked a little faster, smiling to a secretary I recognized from the first floor of my building. I should have taken the security guard up on his offer to walk me, or started parking in the garage as Jack suggested. But I was never one to ask for help, or take advice, especially advice from someone like Jack. So I walked quicker, hoping to make it to my car before whoever was behind me caught up to me.

I was just about there, just two spots down from my compact little Jaguar F-Type S convertible, when someone grabbed my arm. I twisted and pressed the trigger on the pepper spray. I couldn’t see his face because it was covered by a dark hood. He shoved me back even as he leaned his head sideways, avoiding the spray and trapping me between the side of someone’s SUV and his body. I struggled, kicking my legs and twisting, but he was much bigger than I was…and stronger. He pinned my hands above my head, twisting my wrist to force me to drop the pepper spray. I tried to scream, but he saw it coming and shoved his forearm against my mouth. I tried to bite him, but he rearranged his hands and managed to move his arm out of the way just in time.

I did manage to raise my knee just enough to catch him in the nads. He cried out, shoving me harder against the side of the SUV.

“Fucking bitch!” he cried against my ear, so loud that my ear started to ring.

I continued to struggle, pulling against the hand holding my wrists, twisting against the weight of his body.

“Let me go,” I mumbled against his hand.

I knew it was Claude. It had to be Claude. But he was tall, too tall. And strong.

What did he want with me?

I struggled a moment longer, but it was pretty obvious that it was pointless. He just stood there against me and waited. When I finally stopped squirming, he looked down at me, his face only barely visible in the dark under that hood. I could see the curve of his jaw and the shape of his lips, but that was about it.

“Are you done now?” he asked quite clearly, obviously unafraid that I might recognize his voice.

“What do you want?” I asked, my words still muffled by his hand.

But he knew what I was asking just the same.

“A friend of mine would like you to know that he’s not done with you. This is just a taste of what he has in store for you. He’ll be in touch in a few days.”

I mumbled against his hand. He lifted it so that he could fully understand what I was saying, but instead of repeating myself, I spit in his face.

“Cunt!” he cried—just as his hand slammed down against the side of my face. My head rocked back and smacked against the SUV’s window. I saw stars for a second, pain flashing through my skull. The man leaned close to me and wiped the spit away on the fine silk of my blouse.

“If it was up to me…” He didn’t finish his thought.

He ripped my bag off my shoulder as he stepped back, digging through it for my wallet. And then he was gone, leaving the bag and its contents scattered across the ground. I stood there and watched him go, almost shocked to still be on my feet. But I wasn’t for long. I slowly slid down to the ground, the reality of the situation slowly sinking in.

He could have killed me. Worse, he could have raped me.

I was completely vulnerable.

My insides were shaking like Jell-O in a bowl, and my hands had a tremor that made it nearly impossible to gather my things. I thought it was pretty bad to have a boyfriend who scared the crap out of me whenever he lost his temper, shoving me up against walls and leaving bruises on my arms from his rough grip. But this… Shit was getting real, as they say.

It was time for me to grow up and learn how to protect myself.

I was Delaney Doherty. I was CEO of Heavenly Match. I was a strong, independent woman.

A strong, independent woman, who was crawling on her hands and knees, collecting the things her mugger graciously left behind on the asphalt of the parking lot. And then I stumbled to my car, locked myself inside, and drove as quickly as I could to the safety of my secure condo.

And then I drank a bottle of wine, took a hot bath, and promised myself I would never feel that weak again.