THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series (50 page)

Delaney

I was curled up on the couch in my office, going over some financial papers. But I wasn’t really reading the documents I held in my hands. I was thinking about Sean and his clothes hanging in my closet, mixed up with my suits and dresses, his expensive suits and pressed jeans such a masculine addition to my life. And his body in my bed…
hmm,
I couldn’t wait until the end of the day when I could go home and spend a few hours alone with him.

He offered to pay me for half my condo so that we could put his name on the deed, too. I laughed and told him that the condo was worth more than a lawyer’s salary could cough up. He laughed and informed me that he had a trust fund worth twice what my company was worth.

I’d just moved in with a billionaire.

My life was such an amazing twist and turn of adventure. My head spun each time I tried to keep up with it all.

We talked about the future, about the things we wanted to do together. We talked about traveling, about going to Europe for a few months before he accepted the offer Brianna’s law firm had made him. It seemed like a dream, but I was excited by the prospect. Neither of us really had to work anymore, but we both got something from the day-to-day grind that we couldn’t get from a carefree existence. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t appreciate the value of backpacking across Europe while we were young and free.

Before marriage and babies…

Just the idea made me blush.

I set the financial papers aside and ran my fingers through my hair, a low sigh slipping from between my lips.

“Don’t do that. You have a meeting in ten minutes and you don’t want to look as though you just climbed out of bed.”

I looked up and laughed as Alex came toward me. “I don’t. Trust me.”

“Still. They expect you to be well composed.”

“Okay.”

He set a cup of coffee on the table in front of me and handed me my cell phone. “Ten minutes,” he reminded me, as he slipped back out of the office as quietly as he’d slipped in.

My cell phone buzzed as my mind began to wander back to Sean. I immediately wondered if it was Sean texting a nice, mid-morning message. Instead, it was a text from a number I didn’t recognize.

I know who you are. I know who just moved into your house. Don’t get too comfortable. The Callahans are going down.

Dread danced like ice-covered fingers down my spine.

I texted back.

Who is this?

The person who’s taking them down. I’ve already begun. You can thank me for Brian’s arrest.

Why?

Why not?

I called Sean, but my call went to voicemail.

What the hell?

Sean

Pops was in a meeting when I arrived outside his office door, but he quickly wrapped it up when his new assistant told him I was there. He’d gone through a number of assistants these last months, ever since he married Cassidy and she had to give up the position. I think he was looking for someone as efficient as she was, but no one could be as efficient at such a job than the woman who loves you despite all your flaws.

“What’s up, Sean?”

I sat heavy in one of the chairs in front of his desk, my mind whirling as I tried to figure out how to ask what I needed to know without showing my whole hand.

“Do you ever talk about what you do for Jack in front of your assistants? Or maybe the secretaries?”

“Never. You know that.”

“But you meet with Ian and Killian here.”

“Only after hours, after everyone’s gone home.”

I nodded. I knew that. I’d been a part of some of those discussions.

“What about at home? Do you ever talk about these things in front of Cassidy or Brianna? Or maybe the maid?”

“We don’t have a maid. And yes, Cassidy knows all about it, but we’re usually careful not to talk about it in front of Brianna. She doesn’t need to know more than she already does.”

“What about Kevin?”

Pops sat up, studying me from across his desk. “What is this all about?”

I hesitated a second. “The feds had a witness against you. Someone who knew things that Killian, Ian, and I should be the only ones outside of you and Jack to know.”

Pops frowned. “And you think someone overheard one of our meetings?”

“I’m hoping.”

“It’s not someone in the family. That’s not possible.”

“What about Jack? Does he have a lover? Does he talk to her about these things?”

“I doubt it. Besides, if it was someone from Jack’s side of things, they would have been going after him, not me.”

I agreed, but it was still an avenue we had to explore.

“Do you think this witness is connected to everything else that’s been happening? To Brianna’s kidnapping and the hit on Killian and the information the Italians have been getting?”

“I don’t know.”

Pops stood and began to pace the room. “There’s someone out there trying to get back at us for something, someone trying to hurt me personally.”

“Yes.”

“He kidnapped a daughter I didn’t know I had and forced Cassidy to betray me. Then he tried to kill my first-born son and make my only daughter believe it was her fault. And the Italians…that could be about Jack, but something tells me it’s not.”

“I think whoever this is, it’s personal. And it’s someone close to us.”

“But who?”

That was a good question.

I watched my father pace for a few minutes, my mind working the problem until I felt raw and unable to continue. There was no answer except for the obvious, and I really wasn’t ready to focus on the obvious.

“We need to be more careful,” Pops said. “No more discussions outside of this office. No more discussions where anyone might overhear. No more talk around Cassidy and Brianna.”

I nodded.

“I trust Cassidy and Brianna, but maybe they aren’t quite aware of how quiet they need to be about things. Maybe one of them is talking to someone they shouldn’t.”

Even as he said it, the memory of Kevin’s hand moving over Brianna’s hip flashed through my mind. I kind of shook my head because I didn’t think it could be possible. But what if it was? Kevin was a wild card, the only one…no. This was Kevin we were talking about. He was my brother. Pops’ favorite. It couldn’t be Kevin.

I went back to my office and reviewed the rest of the evidence Sara had sent me. It was pretty clear the federal agents were after Jack. They even said so in their notes. But they had nothing on Pops outside of their witness and, whoever he was, the witness was unwilling to testify in open court.

Why? What was he hiding?

And there was clear frustration on the part of the feds where Scarsorsi was related. They clearly were angry with him for interfering in the meeting at the new warehouse. I guess I should have thanked him for his warning.

I was aware that Pops and Scarsorsi were friends from back in the day. Scarsorsi even had a thing for Momma once upon a time. But it never occurred to me that he was helping Pops out with his clumsy attempts to scare him straight. I wondered if Pops was aware of that fact.

Probably not.

There was nothing else, really. Nothing that shed light on the identity of the witness. Clearly this person had a deal with the feds that kept his identity well hidden.

I finally gave it up, answered a few professional emails, and headed out. I wanted to forget about it for a while and just hold Delaney in my arms.

She was cooking when I walked into the condo, frying some sort of fish on the stovetop. I walked up behind her, lifted her hair out of the way, and kissed her neck.

“Hey, babe,” she said, smiling as she twisted in my arms and offered me a proper greeting.

When she pulled back, a shadow crossed her face.

“What is it?”

She slipped the fish from the pan and wiped her hands before going to her bag to retrieve her cell phone. She pulled something up with a few swipes, then handed it to me. There were a series of text messages, some threatening, all menacing.

“Who sent these?”

“I don’t know. They just came while I was at the office this morning. I tried calling the number, but it went to a generic voicemail every time.”

I dialed the number, but like she said, it just went to voicemail.

“What’s going on, Sean?”

I handed her the phone back and crossed my arms over my chest.

“We think someone’s out to get my father.”

The words sat heavily in the room between us. She watched me, silently waiting. I sighed before I filled in the glaring blanks.

“Almost a year and a half ago, Cassidy was supposed to move to Los Angeles to live near Brianna. They had these condos in the same complex, just across from each other. But when she arrived, instead of meeting Brianna at a coffee shop like they’d arranged, Cassidy got a call from a man claiming to have Brianna. He instructed Cassidy to move to Boston and get close to my father.”

Delaney frowned as she again picked up a towel to wipe her hands, as though she felt dirty just from the thought of trouble.

“Why would he pick Cassidy?”

“He somehow knew about the affair they’d had when my mother was pregnant with me. And he knew Brianna was my father’s. He thought Cassidy was the only one who could get close enough to my father to hurt him, to steal information that would allow the kidnapper to hurt my father.”

“So she did it?”

“She did. She got a job as his personal assistant and stole names from his phone and took pictures of papers sitting on his desk. She sent them everything she could find that seemed even slightly incriminating, hoping that they would release Brianna. They didn’t. They just kept asking for more until she finally told Pops. And Pops took Ian, Kevin, and Killian to California and they rescued Brianna.”

“Just like that?”

I shrugged. “We thought it was over, but then Stacy’s fiancé was killed. Pops thought it was related because there was a warning on a warehouse where one of Jack’s men was tied up that said they were going to take everything precious from Pops. So he sent Killian out there to watch over her. But Stacy thought Killian had killed her fiancé, so she hired a hitman to kill him. Fortunately, she fell in love with him and called it off. Unfortunately, whoever set the whole thing up paid the hitman twice as much to continue with the contract…and he nearly killed Killian.”

Delaney began to pace the kitchen.

“Not only that, but someone was giving information to the Italians, creating a turf war between them and Irish. And giving information to the police so that a bunch of Jack’s men were picked up off the streets. Someone was trying to take us out, one bit at a time. And then Pops’ arrest…”

“You think that’s related to all this?”

“Now I do. These text messages seem to confirm it.”

“But why?”

I shook my head. I’d been working so hard on the “
who”
that I hadn’t considered the “
why
.”

“I don’t know.”

“It seems very personal.”

“It does.”

“Why Brian and not Jack?”

That was something else that bothered me. Jack was the leader of the Irish mob. If this was a move to take over the organization, this person would be going after him, not Pops. It didn’t look like it was the organization this person was after. He wanted Pops in jail. He wanted Pops to suffer.

But why?

Something told me that if I could figure out the “
why
,” I could figure out the “
who
.” But it seemed like that proverbial gold ring—it was always just out of reach.

“It doesn’t matter,” Delaney said, coming into my arms, wrapping her own arms around my chest. “You and I are no longer part of all this. We’re on our way to Europe, and then we’re coming home to a new life. You’re going to work for that law firm, and I’m going to launch that new social networking app, and we’re going to be blissfully happy together.”

“You’re right.”

“Promise me that all this is in the past for you.”

I kissed her forehead. “He’s my father.”

“I know. And Jack’s mine. But we don’t have to let their choices define ours.”

She was right, of course. I kissed her gently.

“We’ll go backpack shopping tomorrow.”

Her eyes lit up, and I couldn’t help but smile.

She was right about one thing: we were going to be blissfully happy together because we already were.

Sean

I heard the phone buzzing, but my sleepy mind wanted to ignore it. I rolled over to find Delaney sound asleep, her hair tangled everywhere. I smiled softly, moving it gently out of my way before reaching over her to get her phone off of the nightstand.

I didn’t know the number. But it was three o’clock in the morning, so it must be important.

“Hello?” I mumbled.

“Somehow I knew you’d be the one to answer.”

The voice was altered electronically, probably by one of those apps, making it almost unrecognizable as human.

“Who is this?”

“I’m sure she showed you the text messages.”

I nodded, glancing back at Delaney, as I carefully slipped out of bed. I went into the hallway and stood at the head of the stairs, staring down into the darkness as I tried to picture the person on the other end of the line.

I was afraid I knew who it was, but I fought the idea.

“How long do you think it will be before he goes down? Do you really want to go down with him?”

“Why are you after my father? What’d he ever do to you?”

“Oh, Sean, how naive you really are. After all you’ve done for Jack, how can you still be so blind as to what Brian Callahan is capable of?”

“I know what he’s capable of. That’s what makes me wonder who could have the balls to take him on like this.”

“Don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing.”

“Do you? Do you really know what you’re getting yourself into? Because I don’t think you do.”

“He deserves to die for what he’s done. But I’d rather pick his family off, one by one. That way he suffers before he meets his end.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s a bomb attached to the ignition switch of one of your brother’s cars. Can you guess which one before they get up for work tomorrow morning?”

“You’re lying!”

“Am I?”

There was laughter, but it sounded like that canned stuff they used to put on the soundtracks of sitcoms back in the seventies. But there was also something familiar about it.

My heart sank.

Fuck me!

“I know you’re lying because I know that when you lie, you have this funny little quirk to your laughter.”

“Very good,” the voice said. “You know who this?”

“I do.”

“Then you know that if you tell anyone,” he said, the app disappearing and his real voice floating across the distance to me, “that I will come after Delaney. And I will not stop until she’s dead.”

“We’ve stopped you before.”

“Temporary delays.”

“We got Brianna back—”

“Because I let you.”

“—and we stopped that hitman from killing Killian.”

“Only because he kidnapped Killian instead of shooting him dead—right there in the car like I told him to.”

“You touch one hair on Delaney’s head—”

He laughed again. Kevin laughed as if this was some sort of game we once played when we were kids.

“Watch your back, Sean. This isn’t over. In fact, it’s far from over.”

“Why? Just tell me that much. Why are you doing this?”

“Because he took her away from us,” he said, his voice a low, angry growl. “Abigail Callahan was the only person who ever gave a shit about me! She was the only one who ever saw me for what I was and not for the person everyone else assumed I was. And he took that from me. Do you really think I believe that she died of heart failure because of the saline and morphine they were giving her? Bullshit! He killed her—and now I’m going to make him pay. I’m going to take away everything that’s precious to him!”

“I’ll stop you.”

“Try. I want you to try. I want to play this game with you because this time…no one is going to win here, Sean.”

“Then stop.”

“Go kiss your girlfriend. She’s so pretty when her hair tangles that way…”

The phone went dead in my hand. I ran back to the room, but she was still asleep, alone and unmolested in the bed. But now I found myself searching every weak spot in the house.

We were leaving for Europe tomorrow. I loved my family, but Delaney...I couldn’t survive without her.

I’m sorry, Pops.

~~~