THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series (46 page)

Delaney

He had nightmare after nightmare. I was asleep the first time, but I couldn’t sleep after that. I just lay there and watched him fight his demons, his arms flailing wildly from time to time, words I couldn’t quite understand coming from between his beautiful lips. I listened closely, hoping to get a hint to whatever it was that was haunting him, but there was nothing. His words were jumbled, his voice hoarse and sad. I couldn’t…I didn’t know what was haunting him. But I knew his father’s arrest had just made it worse.

I saw the news on the internet and I was shocked. Men like Jack and Brian were untouchable. Neither had been arrested since they were young men—I knew because I’d looked it up when Jack came strolling back into my life. Jack had been arrested multiple times when he was in his late teens, early twenties. Most of his arrests were for assault, but there were arrests for drug possession and theft, too. There was even one arrest for domestic violence against his wife, Caroline. That one was dropped before it went anywhere, just as the drug and theft arrests had been, but it was still there, still telling a story. And Brian…there were multiple arrests for assault against other mob members, members of other gangs, but they stopped when he was twenty-two, after he had served a few years for beating up some Italian mob guy.

Brian Callahan’s arrest made me wonder if Jack was as above suspicion as he thought he was.

Could my father be arrested, too?

Sean wasn’t the only one having nightmares.

I slipped out of bed and dressed quietly, careful not to disturb Sean. It was Sunday, a day I normally spent indoors watching old movies, or at the office catching up on paperwork. Today, I was meeting Jack. I called him last night and asked him to meet me for breakfast at a local café. He never asked why.

He was sitting at the back of the diner, a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead. That in itself frightened me. I’d never seen Jack McGuire dressed in anything less than an expensive Italian suit. But today he was wearing jeans and a golf shirt.

“Hi,” he said, standing to greet me as I approached the table. He kissed my cheek, then settled back down, watching as I took a seat across from him.

“You okay?”

He shrugged. “Things have been quiet so far.”

“Brian’s arrest could be bad for you.”

“It could be devastating, depending on how happy Brian is with our relationship at the moment.”

“Do you think he would turn on you?”

Jack pushed out his lower lip, shaking his head slowly. “I don’t think so,” he said, but there was a little hesitation in his movements, his voice.

He was scared. And that scared me.

“How’s Caroline?”

He shook his head again. “Not good. She jumps every time someone comes to the door or the phone rings. She’s convinced that I’m next.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“What about you? How are you?”

I pressed my hands to the tabletop, thinking about Sean writhing in the bed as I snuck out the bedroom door. He cried out again just as I put my foot on the first step of the stairs. I wanted to go back, wake him, and assure him that whatever he was dreaming couldn’t be as bad as reality. But I knew if I did, I would not only miss my breakfast with Jack, but I might embarrass Sean—and that was the last thing I wanted to do.

“Brian’s family is struggling to get him out. Sean and Brianna were at the fed building downtown, but they only let them see him for a second.”

“You talked to them?”

There was such suspicion in his voice that my eyes came up quick enough to strain a small muscle in the side of my neck. I tilted my head slightly, realizing that Jack had no idea about my relationship with Sean.

What a time to tell him.

“Sean came over last night. He said that his father was beaten up, but that he didn’t think he would say anything.”

“They’re desperate…” Jack’s eyes suddenly lit up, and it was like the weight of the world suddenly shifted. He didn’t look quite as fearful, but the wheels were still spinning in his head.

“Did Sean say anything else?”

“Only that they’re going to arraign Brian on Monday, and he and Brianna hope to get him released then.”

Jack nodded. “That’s good news.”

“Is it? Sean’s worried about what the feds might do to Brian today. He’s not sure how much his dad can take. And then there’s Cassidy…she’s pretty upset about the whole thing.”

“I know. I’ll go over and talk to her after this.”

Before I could say anything else—I wanted to go with him, but I wasn’t sure that was something Brian would be okay with—the waitress came and asked if we were ready to order.

Who could eat at a time like this? I ordered coffee and a sweet roll to justify taking up space in the diner.

Jack watched her walk away, more interest in his eyes than I was comfortable with. Then he focused on me again.

“Why was Sean at your house last night?”

I shrugged, the gesture belying the roller coaster that was flying in my belly.

“You asked him to watch over me.”

Jack’s eyebrow rose. “You know about that?”

“You shouldn’t have done it, Jack. I told you I had it under control.”

“Yeah, well, the guy was threatening to hurt you. I couldn’t just sit back and allow that to happen.”

“It’s over now. Sean and his brothers put the fear of God in Claude.”

“Good.”

“But Sean and I…we’ve been seeing each other for a few weeks now.”

I finally had Jack’s completely, undivided attention. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He sat back, his eyes moving slowly over me. “That’s not what I wanted. In fact, I told him to keep his hands to himself.”

“You never told me.”

He shook his head. “Sean is not the kind of man you should be involved with, Delaney. I never wanted any of my girls with members of my organization.”

“Well, I’m not one of your girls. And I have a mind of my own.”

“Sean’s not good for you.”

“He can’t be any worse than Claude.”

“Claude was an asshole. But Sean…you realize he works for me, right?”

“In a protective role. Not as a member of your organization.”

Jack leaned forward slightly. “That’s what he told you? Did he also tell you that he’s run some jobs for me that even his father doesn’t know about? That he’s been sneaking around behind Brian’s back for more than three years, doing things that Brian has no idea about? Has he told you that ever since his mother died, he’s been a little off his nut? It’s a fucking miracle he hasn’t gotten himself killed or arrested.”

“Sean?”

“Yeah, Sean. He’s not the clean-cut lawyer he wants you to think he is.”

I bit the inside of my lip, trying to balance the image of the Sean I knew with the image my father was creating for me. It wasn’t balancing out.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose. “After all the gruff you gave me about being the head of the Irish mob, you’re going to let your boyfriend get away with his dangerous behavior?”

“Sean’s…he’s different.”

“Is he?”

The waitress returned with the coffee, asking all the requisite questions as Jack stared at me from across the table. As the waitress walked away, he mumbled, “Never should have asked him to protect you. I knew it was a bad idea.”

“If you hadn’t asked him, I would have met him some other way.”

“You think so?”

“We have a connection, Jack. We would have found each other.”

“Now you sound like your mother. She used to say that about us.”

“Did she?”

He shook his head again, as he wrapped his large hands around his coffee cup. He stared into its depths, lost in thought for a long moment.

“Sean’s always been a good kid, the best out of the rag tag band of children Brian has. But ever since his mother’s death…he’s been odd, you know? I think being alone with her when she died—to be the one to deal with the immediacy of it all—screwed up something in his head.”

“Sean was alone with her when she died?”

“Yeah,” Jack said, lifting his coffee to his lips. He took a long sip, then set it down, his eyes still on the mug rather than me. “She came down with stage four pancreatic cancer at the end of April. Three weeks later, Brian had to put her in the hospital because she couldn’t eat and she’d lost an insane amount of weight. She refused the chemo, but Brian believed she would live for another five or six months if she could just keep her weight up. The doctor agreed. So, without her consent, the two of them put her in the hospital to force feed her with a tube.”

“Why? If it wasn’t what she wanted…?”

Jack shrugged, his eyes finally moving up to mine. “Brian loved her. He couldn’t wrap his mind around a world without her in it.” He sat back a little, a look in his eyes as if he envied what Brian had with Abigail. “They were taking shifts. Brian spent all day with her no matter who else was there, but then the boys divided up the night shift. Killian was with her the first night, Ian the second, Kevin the third. Then it was Sean, and Kyle would have taken the last night before they released her—if she’d put on a little weight. But on Sean’s night, she died about two or three hours after Brian went home for the night.”

“How did she die?”

“They said it was the cancer. That it weakened her heart and she died of heart failure.”

It made sense. Maybe that was what haunted Sean so deeply. Maybe he felt guilty because his mother died on his watch.

What a horrible weight to carry around.

“Sean was supposed to be one of the pall bearers at the funeral, but he didn’t show. He skipped the funeral and the wake at the house. He wasn’t anywhere to be found for the first few days after her death. Then he went back to school as if nothing had happened, finishing law school at the top of his class before he came home again. Brian gave him a job and he did well. But then, a month or two after he came back, he stepped into my office one afternoon and told me that he needed some extra cash. He asked if I’d send some extra work his way. I thought he was hinting around for a loan—which I would have given him quite happily—but then I realized what he really wanted was to get out on the streets. He wanted the violence and the danger that came with my organization. The more dangerous the job, the happier he was to take it.”

“And you never told Brian?”

“Never had a reason to.”

I cocked my eyebrow as I studied Jack’s face. “It never occurred to you that he was crying out for help?”

Jack shrugged. “It’s not my place to raise Brian’s kids. I just did what he asked.”

And that was my father in a nutshell. He never cared about anyone beyond his own nose. And that was why there would always be this sense of distance between us.

I stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“To find Sean and tell him that I love him and I’m there for him.”

Jack grabbed my wrist. “Delaney, didn’t you hear a word I said? That boy has a death wish.”

“Maybe I can help him. Maybe I can give him a reason to live.”

“Guys like that”—he stood and pulled me close to him, almost as a lover would—“don’t want to be saved. Trust me. I’m one of them.”

“Maybe you would have wanted to be saved if you’d had someone who loved you enough to do it.”

“I did, Delaney. I’ve had a lot of women who thought they could save me. But none of them ever did.”

“But Sean’s not you.”

I pulled my arm free and walked away without a backward glance. Sean could be saved. He loved me and I loved him. There was nothing bigger than that to give a person a reason to live.

Sean

“We’ll only have a few minutes to argue, so we have to have a solid argument.”

“I know,” Brianna said, pushing a book out of her way as she made notes on a pad of paper. “But we have to be smart about it.”

“We have to be fucking brilliant.”

She looked up. “That sort of language won’t fly in a courtroom. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

I dragged my fingers through my hair as I paced the small room. We were at Brianna’s law firm, working in one of the research rooms across the hall from their extensive library. Brianna snuck me in past the security guard a couple of hours ago when we realized we’d need more resources than what were available at MCorp.

I kept seeing the split lip my father had sported last night, imagining what they were doing to him now. We had to see what they had, but I hadn’t been able to get ahold of my friend in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office yet. I knew she would give us some of the material, but I had to get her on the phone first. If we just knew what it was they had on Pops, we might be able to fight it more efficiently in court.

“An arraignment isn’t really the place to make our case, anyway,” Brianna said. “The judge won’t have patience for anything beyond his plea.”

“I know.”

“We’re really stressing over something that we shouldn’t be. What we should be worrying about is what happens after the arraignment.”

“I know. I just don’t like the idea of walking in there unprepared.”

“Neither do I.”

“What could they have on him?”

“That’s something you’d be better at answering than I would. I’ve only known him a few months.”

I sat hard on one of the wooden chairs, my thoughts so random and insane that I could hardly grab on to them.

Take care of him.

I could hear my mom’s voice in my ear almost as if she were sitting right next to me. Six years and I hadn’t forgotten a single word she’d said to me that night, even the ones I wished I could forget.

I promised I would take care of him—and I would. I just had to know what the feds had on him.

Who would turn on my father? Who would be high enough up in the organization to know enough to get my father in trouble? He hardly touched any of the mob’s business dealings anymore. All he did was show up at the big deals and help out with protection. And sometimes, especially lately, he didn’t even do that. Cassidy kept him busy at home most nights, so he let Killian and Ian run the show most of the time now.

It was only Jack and his lieutenants who knew the extent of my father’s involvement in the organization anymore. And family—but no one in our family would turn on Pops. That chance had come and gone long ago. Everyone was involved in some way. In fact, whoever turned on Pops might have been better off turning on Killian or Ian; there would have been more they could spill and more for which they could have put them away.

All they had on Pops was the fact that he turned a blind eye to the money flowing in and out of MCorp that wasn’t all completely legit. But if the feds went after every CEO who did that, they’d have to arrest the entire top one hundred list of great CEOs from
Forbes Magazine
.

None of it made sense. The only the way this worked was if it was a personal vendetta. But who could be that high in the organization and have that sort of vendetta against Pops?

I needed to know what they had.

I pulled my cell phone out and gave my friend another call. This time she answered on the second ring.

“Sean Callahan,” she said with something of a sigh. “Imagine you calling me.”

“Hello, Sara,” I said, slipping out of the room. “Thank you for finally answering your phone.”

“I was at the movies with a friend. It is Sunday afternoon, after all.”

“I’m aware.”

“So, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

I was quiet for a minute. I wasn’t quite sure how to go about this. Sara was…we were in law school together. We were in the same study group, and when things got too much to handle, we sometimes worked off the stress in bed together. There was nothing really romantic between us—at least, not for me—but we did enjoy each other quiet often those last few months of school.

Would she think I thought it was romantic if I asked for a favor? I wasn’t sure Delaney would like that. And I definitely wouldn’t.

“You want a favor?” she prodded.

“What makes you think that?”

“Because you’re the third member of our study group to call me since I got this job. And I happened to see a warrant go through our office that had the name Callahan on it. A relative?”

“There’s got to be a thousand Callahans in Massachusetts.”

“I’m sure there is. But only one Sean Callahan calling me on a Sunday afternoon.”

I laughed softly under my breath. “I suppose so.”

“Tell me what you need, Sean.”

I explained it to her in a quick, severely condensed version of the story. She listened without interrupting, then she sighed.

“You realize this is a federal case, so there’s not a lot I can do.”

“I do.”

“But I’ll look into it for you. Just because you were a lot of fun at a time when I really needed that.”

I leaned back against the wall, a lie on my lips. But I caught myself before I let it fall.

“I appreciate it, Sara.”

“How much?”

There was a tease in her tone. It was a familiar sound, one she often used when she was trying to get me into the bedroom during a particularly intense study session.

“More than you’ll ever know. But…” I hesitated, afraid she wouldn’t get me what I needed. But I couldn’t do this to Delaney. “I have a girlfriend.”

“You mean someone finally managed to pin you down?” There was surprise and some disappointment in her voice. “That’s amazing. I didn’t think it was possible.”

“I’m sorry, Sara.”

“Don’t be. I hope you’re happy, Sean. Really.”

“Thanks. I hope you are, too.”

She laughed. “Yeah, well, not in that arena, obviously. But my career makes me happy.”

“I’m glad. And I hope you find someone who’s good to you.”

“Me, too.” She sighed hard enough that I could hear it clearly over the phone. “I better go. Someone needs a favor, so I guess I have to spend the rest of the day in the office.”

“Well, whoever that is, he should appreciate you more than he already does.”

Another giggle. “I knew there was something about you I really liked. Goodbye, Sean.”

I disconnected the call and pulled up a picture of Delaney I’d taken last week. She was sitting on the couch, a book in her hands, but she was sound asleep. She’d looked so peaceful that I couldn’t help but snap the pic. And now…I wanted to be with her right now. I wanted her here by my side. I knew if she was here, this whole thing wouldn’t seem so insurmountable. But I didn’t want to ask that of her. This was my problem. I had to deal with it.

I shoved the phone back in my pocket and went into the research room. Brianna looked up as I walked back to the chair where I’d been sitting and fell into it.

“She’s going to send me as much as she can. But she warned me that it’s a federal case, so they don’t have a whole lot in their offices.”

“Even a little would be helpful.”

I agreed. I rolled my chair closer to the table and looked over the notes I’d taken earlier.

“Maybe if we—?”

“Food!”

I turned and—as if she’d just walked out of my thoughts—Delaney came into the room.

“What are you doing here?”

I jumped to my feet and slipped the heavy bags out of her hands and set them on the table before pulling her into my arms, giving her a big kiss as her lips parted to answer my question.

“She called. Did I forget to mention it?” Brianna asked, a spark of mischief in her eyes.

“You did.” I brushed a piece of hair out of Delaney’s face. “You didn’t have to come down here.”

“I know. I wanted to.”

I kissed her again because that was exactly what I’d wanted to hear.

The three of us sat around one of the tables a bit later, food spread out between us. Delaney fed me a chip with some salsa on it, as Brianna explained what we’d been doing all day.

“We simply want to be over-prepared when we go to the arraignment tomorrow. If he isn’t released—”

“It’ll be bad,” I said, the heavy Mexican food suddenly becoming a lump in my stomach.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Delaney said, rubbing her thumb over my bottom lip, wiping away a bit of the salsa. “The judge has to set some sort of bail, right?”

“No, not really,” Brianna said. “He can, but if the prosecutor asks him to deny bail or set it really high, the judge can.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Because they know that Pops is the best they have against Jack.” I watched Delaney’s face as the words came out of my mouth. “We think the real target here is Jack and that they arrested Pops because they have some evidence against him, but not enough to go to trial. I think they’re hoping that arresting him will put the right amount of pressure on him to make him turn on Jack. But they can’t possibly appreciate the relationship Pops and Jack have.”

“I saw Jack this morning. He was worried…really worried. But when I told him what you said, about the bruises on your dad, he seemed to relax.”

“Jack knows Pops won’t turn on him.”

Brianna was following this conversation, her eyebrows knitted together.

“Do you think we could use Jack somehow?”

Delaney shook her head. “Jack is worried about Brian, but I don’t think he’d put himself at risk to help him. He’s pretty selfish that way.”

“It’s not selfishness,” I said. “It’s self-preservation.”

Delaney shrugged—as if the difference was so minimal that it was inconsequential. “It’s stupid. Brian is the closest thing he’s ever had to having a best friend. A brother, even. Yet, he’d let him rot in jail if it meant staying out of jail himself? How does a man like that inspire such loyalty?”

“He takes good care of his people.”

“You mean money?”

“I mean everything they could need. You don’t understand what it’s like to be a part of this kind of organization. It’s a family.”

“Jack wouldn’t know the first thing about family. Or loyalty.”

Brianna cleared her throat and stood. “I think I’ll go get some of those other books we needed.”

We didn’t need any more books. We didn’t even need the books we already had. I winked at her, thanking her for her kindness. The moment she closed the door, I turned in my chair and lifted Delaney out of hers, pulling her onto my lap.

“What’s going on?”

She shrugged, but there were tears in her eyes. I moved her hair away from her neck and kissed her there, nuzzling against her until she giggled a little, turning into me, her hand sliding around the back of my head.

“I love you,” she whispered softly.

“I love you, too. That’s why I want you to tell me what’s bothering you.”

She was quiet for a long minute. Then she said, “He wasn’t even a part of my life until I was fifteen. And then he comes around maybe twice a year, for birthdays and the odd holiday. Then a year or two ago, he’s suddenly here all the time, wanting to have lunch, wanting to give me advice, wanting to be a dad. When I asked, he said it was because his other kids were grown and gone and they didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore.”

I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed gently. “I’m sorry.”

“And now he’s telling me the man I love is broken and trying to get himself killed.”

I stiffened, a denial jumping to my lips. But I couldn’t deny it because it was true. It was all true. I just hadn’t realized that Jack was insightful enough to realize that.

“He said you’ve been doing work for the mob for three years and that you didn’t even tell your own father about it.”

“It’s true.”

“Why?”

I pressed my face to her shoulder, breathing a little harder than the situation warranted. I didn’t know how to put it into words. I didn’t know how to tell her about my darkest secret, the one that was slowly killing my soul until the moment I met her.

But she knew. She touched my face and drew it up, forcing me to look at her.

“I know you’re haunted by your mother’s death. I know you were there with her when she died.”

Oh, fuck!

I turned my face away. I couldn’t look her in the eye when she was looking at me with such compassion.

“I know that haunts you. I know that you work for my father to take that pain away.”

I shook my head. “Delaney…”

“Tell me about it. Maybe if you talk about it, it’ll help.”

“It’s not as simple as all that.”

“I know it feels complicated. But really, if you just talk about it…”