Saint a nolan bastards n.., p.15
Saint (A Nolan Bastards Novel), page 15
His hand on the car door, he shot her an annoyed look. “What do you want me to say?”
At the snap in his tone, she blinked at him.
Not only were they cousins, but she and Joey had been friends for years, and that friendship had translated into a great working relationship, one with very few disagreements or outbursts despite the high-pressure nature of their jobs. During that time, they had crafted a plan to take over Hathaway Group when their dads retired and run the business together. As partners.
On top of that, she’d been a bridesmaid in his wedding, and for the past three years, babysat his young daughters at least once a month so he and his wife could enjoy the rare date night.
And he dared to look at her like that? Like she didn’t have a right to know what the hell had changed all that?
“Why did you do it?” she asked. “Why didn’t you defend us?”
He had the decency to look abashed, but slowly, his expression changed until dark fear riddled his features. “I had to.”
“Why?”
In the void left by his silence, her mind grasped onto a memory. That odd moment during the meeting when Manny had mentioned Joey’s wife.
“Because he knows.” Fear shuddered in his voice.
The warmth of her blood seemed to steal away. “He knows what?”
“Last year…” He stared at his hand on the car door. “Michelle and I… we were fighting all the time and… I met someone—”
At Brynn’s gasp, his head snapped around. “I didn’t mean to do it. It just happened.”
She recoiled. “You cheated on Michelle? Oh, Joey.”
“If he tells her, she’ll leave me.” His eyes glinted with his desperation. “I can’t lose her or the girls.”
“But…? Has he…? Is he… blackmailing you?”
With a vicious yank, he wrenched open the car door and ducked inside the cab. “I’m sorry.”
He hauled the door shut on his mumbled apology, then the car’s engine fired and propelled the vehicle through the dark night.
Suddenly alone on the quiet, dimly lit street, she scurried to her car. Diving inside, her hands were ice-cold and trembling when she jammed the key into the ignition and eased the SUV away from the curb.
While she drove through the maze of deserted side streets on her way back to the main thoroughfare, her thoughts careened out of control, jumping from one terrible worry to the next as she grappled with all that Joey had revealed.
Lost in her churning thoughts, she didn’t notice the car behind her until its bright headlights beamed in her rearview mirror.
At the next stop sign, she planned to turn, preferring to drive around the block rather than be pursued by the car with the glaring lights.
But when she turned, so did the car.
She turned again at the next stop sign, and again, so did the car.
When they passed beneath a streetlamp, the light briefly glided over the faces of two men in the car’s front seats. At the next crossroad, she executed another turn, leading them back toward the street she’d been on when they’d emerged behind her.
The car followed her.
Her heart kicked.
At the very next stop sign, she turned, completing the circle, and the car turned behind her.
She stabbed the button to lock all the doors and continued on to the main road, where she made a rolling stop, then whipped her car out into traffic. The truck she cut off blared its horn.
Undeterred, she weaved around and snuck between several more vehicles as she made her to the highway junction. Blessedly, she hit the wave of traffic lights and slipped under three green lights before easing onto the interstate ramp. Sliding into traffic, she headed north toward home.
With frantic glances, she kept watch in her rearview mirror. Just when she’d begun to hope she’d shaken the car, it sidled up behind her.
Her heart tried to pound its way out of her chest as she dropped her speed in the feeble hope that they’d get annoyed and pass her.
While other cars zipped by her in the left lane, the car remained close on her tail with their high beams on.
She punched the accelerator, pushing down on the pedal until the needle on the speedometer hovered over a dangerously high number.
The car stayed close.
Though she slowed to a safer speed, her thoughts raced ahead with terrifying scenarios. The long dark tunnel of panic dragged her downward.
Her heart thumping in her ears, she grasped in the dark for her cell phone. Should she call 911? What would she tell them? That someone was flashing their high beams at her?
She returned her phone to the center console. Sucking big gulps of air into her lungs, she scolded herself. Once again, she was letting the fear win. She was tired and overreacting.
The exit to her condo neared and she peered hard into the rearview mirror when she edged onto the off-ramp.
The car followed her.
Fear knocked a panicked cry from her, and she cranked the steering wheel and careened over the gravel shoulder and back onto the highway.
As she knew it would, the car mimicked her erratic driving.
She snatched up her phone, and her fingers flew over the screen.
“Hello?” Aiden’s voice was gruff with sleep.
“I’m sorry to wake you—”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice instantly alert.
“The basement flooded at the Wicker Park project and I was there all night bailing water and I just left and—and there’s a car following me and—and—and I tried to lose them, but no matter what I do, they keep following me and—and I don’t know what to do.”
“Where are you?”
“On the highway. I just passed my exit. I was afraid… if they followed me home….” Fear squeezed her throat.
“Good. That’s good.”
“Aiden, what are they going to do to me?” Her words leaked out as a ragged whisper.
“Nothing, a stór. They’re not going to get anywhere near you.” The sound of his voice pushed her creeping terror back into the shadows. “You’re going to drive to me. I’m at Rory’s. Drive to me. Stay on the main roads.”
“Okay.” She gulped heavily. “I’ll call when I’m close—”
“No. Don’t hang up. Stay on the phone,” he said. “If you have to set me down to drive, that’s fine, but don’t hang up. Keep talking. Tell me what’s happening.”
At the next exit, she left the highway, only to get right back on the southbound ramp.
“Did you do it?” Aiden asked.
“Yes. They did, too. Aiden—” Her voice climbed with her rising hysteria.
“You’re doing great, sweetheart. Are your doors locked?”
“Yes,” she squeaked and stabbed the automatic lock button several more times.
The drive to Rory’s house on the south side of the city seemed to pass in a time warp. At Aiden’s instance, she read aloud each road sign as it whizzed past her car window. In between markers, she heard Aiden’s low voice and the muffled replies of someone in the background, but she couldn’t make out their words through the phone’s speaker.
When she read the road sign for Rory’s exit, Aiden came back on the line. “Come down Twenty-Fifth to the alley. You’re going to pull into Rory’s garage. We’re outside waiting for you.”
The menacing car exited the highway behind her.
“Oh, no,” she whispered. Terror rose up to steal her voice.
“What is it?”
“I have to stop for a red light.”
“Do you see any other cars?”
Her gaze darted left and right and back again. “No. Can I run it?”
“Do it.”
As the car approached the stoplight, she jammed the accelerator and burst through the empty intersection. She repeated the crime at the next traffic light, then turned onto Rory’s street.
“I see you.” Near the mouth of the alley, Aiden’s silhouette emerged from the dark and he stepped into the spill of light under a streetlamp.
Braking only enough to allow her to make the tight turn, she hit the curb with a jolt, then sped up the narrow alley. In her rearview, the shapes of three more men detached from the shadows and moved to block the alley’s entry point.
She pulled into Rory’s garage and silenced the car engine. In the piercing quiet, her heartbeat echoed in her ears while through the phone, the rustle of noises coming tightened the coil of panic constricting around her.
She pressed her forehead against the steering wheel and squeezed her eyes shut. And listened.
Muffled voices.
Quick, sharp breaths.
A shout.
Then Aiden’s voice crackled over the connection. “They’re gone. I’m headed your way.”
Unwilling to part with her lifeline, she retrieved her phone from the cradle and eased open the car door. She slid from the vehicle, but when her feet hit the ground, her knees buckled, and she fell back against the car door.
He appeared at the rear of her car, and at the sight of him, emotion swamped her. The panic and fear began to fracture apart inside her, making room for relief and embarrassment and a myriad of other sentiments.
His dark eyes peered into her face as his long strides carried him to her side. “Are you all right?”
“I’m okay.” But her hands shook so badly, she lost her grip on her cell phone, and it clattered to the pavement. “Did you see who it was?”
He crouched down and plucked the phone off the ground. Straightening, he handed it to her. “I didn’t recognize them. But I got their plate numbers.”
“I’m s-sorry.” Teeth chattering, her whole body trembled as the panic dissolved.
“You’re shivering.” He looped an arm around her shoulders and tugged her against his chest.
Wrapped in the warm cocoon of his arms, the tension drained from her in a rush. She clung to him, burrowing into his heat and clean, spicy scent.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
Unable to speak, she nodded.
His fingers kneaded the base of her neck until her breathing slowed and evened out.
The three other men strode down the alley toward them. She picked out Cian’s long, lanky stride and Rory’s graceful gait, but the third man’s walk she didn’t recognize.
When the men neared, she turned her head. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“Are you kidding?” said the man with the unfamiliar walk. “Did you see us? Standing all together like a bunch of tough guys? We looked cool, right?”
Unbelievably, laughter bubbled in her throat.
“Yes, you’re very cool.” The words rumbled in Aiden’s chest, where her head lay.
“And we didn’t even have to break a sweat.” He smacked Cian on the arm. “How about that, Captain Badass?”
“It was all you,” Cian said. “Everyone fears Benjamin Walker.”
A goofy grin spread across Ben’s face, and he raised the baseball bat in his hand. “Don’t forget my trusty sidekick.”
Ben gave the bat a whirl, and with a sharp curse, Rory ducked as it whizzed past his head.
Slowly, he straightened. “Step away from the bat, Benji.”
A comical grimace contorted Ben’s features. “My bad.” He leaned the bat against the garage wall and backed away.
As the trio slipped by and filed through the backdoor and into the house, their voices echoed around the small, cramped garage. When they’d faded completely, she moved to extract herself from Aiden’s embrace.
But she couldn’t will her weak limbs to obey. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I d-don’t know why I called you.”
Of course she knew. She hadn’t been thinking clearly, or she would’ve stopped herself, but as it was, instinct had kicked in and overruled reason. Without layers of doubt or overthinking to obscure the truth, she’d made her choice. Reflexively, he was the comfort she sought whenever she was hurt or afraid.
Above all others, he was the one she wanted.
He was the one she trusted.
He was the one.
Always had been.
Always would be.
“I’m glad you did.” His mouth brushed over her forehead.
With the tender kiss, she sagged more heavily against his solid chest. The thundering of his heart echoed through her bones, and though she knew she should move away, she craved his warmth and strength more than she wished to spare herself another broken heart.
Indeed, a moment in his arms just might be worth a lifetime of heartbreak.
Chapter 17
Terror had drained the color from her cheeks, and she was shaking so hard, her tremors reverberated through him. He was certain if he let her go, she’d crumble into a pile at his feet.
If he let her go, so would he.
“Do you want to sleep here tonight?” He rubbed a hand up and down her back, as if the friction might manufacture some warmth. “Or would you like me to take you home?”
Her wide eyes slid to the mouth of the alley. “Do you think they’ll come back?”
“And face the wrath of Ben’s bat? Nah, they won’t be back. But we may have trouble finding you a bed if we stay here. Why don’t I drive you home?”
Without argument, she handed him her car keys and shuffled around to the passenger side door.
Still a couple of hours from the morning rush, the streets were nearly empty as he maneuvered her vehicle through the city and the northern neighborhoods. As he drove, the shallow, erratic cadence of her breathing evened out, then fell into a slow, steady rhythm.
She laid her head against the seat back. When a yawn pulled from her, her chin quivered.
Her head rolled in his direction. “I really am sorry I woke you up in the middle of the night.”
He stole a quick glance at her. “You have nothing to apologize for. I wasn’t even asleep.”
After a beat, she turned her face to the window. “Liar.”
A thump of quiet laughter hit him in the chest. “I’ll be the first to let you know when you owe me an apology.”
Watching her profile, he caught the small smile that teased her lips.
It evaporated all too quickly.
“I talked to Joey tonight,” she said.
By the time she’d finished relaying the details of what she’d learned about her cousin, a dark shadow of confused dread clung to Aiden. “Moretti’s blackmailing him?”
“That’s what it sounds like.”
His grip on the steering wheel tightened. “I wonder who else he’s blackmailing?”
“I wondered that, too.” The shadow expanded to fill her voice.
At her condo, he slid the SUV into her leased parking spot, then walked with her up the dark path to the building’s front entrance. The cool night air held a crisp fall chill, and beyond the greystone’s massive silhouette, Lake Michigan groused and grumbled.
Inside the old structure’s art-deco styled foyer, they moved to the shiny steel elevator. With a soft ping, the doors slid closed, and the lift carried them to the top floor.
In the hall outside her door, she made quick work of the lock and crossed the threshold.
She turned back. “Did you want me to call you a cab? Or… you can stay… if you want.”
“I want to sleep with you.” The words were out of his mouth before he’d considered them.
Her eyebrows lifted.
“Oh, c’mon, get your mind out of the gutter,” he said. “I’m your boss, for crying out loud.”
Rather than roll her eyes at him or fire off a sharp retort, or even give him a begrudging smile, she stared. Her green eyes appeared huge in her pale face.
A lump lodged in his throat and he swallowed it with an audible gulp. “I want to stay. Here. With you. I want to sleep here, with you. In case you… need someone. Or if you want to talk.” The way we used to. “If you’ll let me in, I’d like to stay. Please.”
While he’d rambled, she’d conducted an open study of him, and when he fell silent, she took only a moment to decide.
Stepping back, she opened the door wide.
He passed through the archway and closed the door, plunging them into darkness a moment before she switched on a lamp and soft light bathed the room in its warm glow.
With harried steps, she went to the patio doors and flung them open. Cool air rushed inside along with the lulling roar of the lake. Today, the waters churned and frothed, like a snarling beast prowling at the gates.
Unfazed, Brynn closed her eyes and dragged in a deep, deliberate breath. It was not the first time he’d witnessed her purposeful, meditative attempts to draw air. While she stood before the open door, Romeo crept close, then squeezed around her legs and out into the night.
“The water helps,” she said when she detected him behind her. “I don’t know why.”
He angled his shoulders sideways and slipped by her. The large patio had been constructed as part of the building’s architecture, and the heavy, rough-cut stones wrapped them in a protective fortress high above the waves crashing to shore down below.
The chill night air nipped at him, and he shoved his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans as he took in the view. To the south, the lights of the downtown cityscape twinkled like a cluster of fireflies as the steel monoliths and majestic towers were dwarfed by the immense great lake lapping at its shores, as if keen to devour the mighty metropolis.
He inhaled deeply, as she had, hauling the smell of fresh water and earth into his nostrils.
“It’s calming up here.” In the dim light that reached them from indoors, his gaze sought her face. “I see why you like it.”
Her white teeth flashed in the soft darkness. “There’s a rooftop deck.”
Craning his neck, he peered up into the black sky. “How do you get up there?”
“This way.”
He followed her around the corner of the building where the terrace wrapped the home’s structure. When she started to climb, he hesitated, unable at first to see the pressed metal staircase fastened to the wall. In the shadow of the building, he reached out, and his hand grasped the thin metal railing.
An already impressive view, the sight from the roof stole his breath. Moonlight gleamed on the water’s rolling surface and the wet rocks that lined the beach. He propped his elbows on the deck railing and bore witness to the amazing spectacle.
