The Kennedy men are infamous around Boston, and tales of their escapades are widely reported. They’ve had their fair share of family drama, and there were plenty of skeletons in their closets, so I’m guessing that’s why they’re comfortable helping us out with our predicament.
“We’re all packed,” Rick supplies, appearing in the doorway with his younger brothers in tow.
“Great. Let’s get cracking then.” James tips his head at Kaiden. “Stay safe, young man.” He smiles at me. “And look after this young lady.”
Kai stands, nodding before he walks to where his brothers congregate. James leaves to get the plane ready, and I stand beside Faye and Kyler, a little awestruck, if I’m honest.
Kyler pulls his wife into his side, pressing a kiss to her temple. “I know the circumstances are less than ideal, but I hope you’re enjoying your stay here,” Kyler says.
“I am. Thank you for letting us stay.” I skim my eyes around the room. “You have a beautiful home. And now that I know who owns the property, I can see Alex’s touch everywhere. I don’t know why I didn’t pick up on that before.”
“She did an incredible job,” Faye says in a soft lyrical tone. “And she has a wonderful eye. This is one of our favorite places on the planet.”
“I’ll bet. You’re both at Harvard too, right? That’s how you know Rick?” They nod. “It must be nice having a place to escape to on weekends and during school breaks.”
“It is, and that’s exactly why we purchased this place,” Kyler agrees. “It’s been a Godsend.”
Now I understand the high-tech security and choice of location for their vacation home. I thought living under a spotlight in Rydeville was bad, but it’s nothing compared to the attention the Kennedys garner. It must grate on their nerves.
Kai appears with Sawyer and Jackson, and I make my goodbyes to the Kennedys, walking toward Joaquin, Rick, and Harley. “Stay safe, guys.” I hug Joaquin and Harley, holding in a smile as Harley’s cheeks stain red.
“You too.” Rick lifts his duffel bag. “Go easy on him.” He jerks his head in Kai’s direction. “He feels things deeply, Abby, even if he doesn’t show it.” I don’t acknowledge his statement because I’m making no promises.
I walk to the kitchen to grab some breakfast, and I’m sitting at the stool in front of the island unit, munching on some toast, when Faye walks in. “Hey. Do you have a couple minutes to talk?” she asks, moving to the Keurig and pouring herself a mug.
I finish chewing and set my toast down. “Sure.”
She slides onto the stool beside me. “I just want to check you’re okay.” She peeks over her shoulder, but we’re alone. “It’s my first time meeting Kaiden, and while he seems like a good guy, I couldn’t leave here today without checking you’re here because you want to be here.” She peers into my eyes. “Things seem intense, and I have some experience of dealing with hot-headed arseholes.” Her wide grin is warm and meant to relax me.
“Kyler was like that?” I can’t keep the incredulity from my voice because that isn’t the image I have of him. If the media reports are true, he’s always surprising Faye with romantic gestures, and he got shot trying to protect her a few years ago. He’s swoon-worthy in the extreme.
She grins. “He was a total pig when I first met him, and he did some stuff that really hurt me.” Her face contorts unpleasantly. “All because he thought he was protecting me.” She rolls her eyes, and I snort.
“Yep. I have one of those too.”
She nods sagely. “I recognized that.” Propping her elbows up on the counter, she rests her chin in her hands. “But the thing I’ve learned is guys like Kyler and Kaiden might appear abrasive, and they might drive you to distraction, but there is no guy more loyal or more protective, and when they open their hearts?” A dreamy expression appears on her face. “There is nothing more intense than being loved by a guy like that.”
“He doesn’t love me.” I shake my head. “And I don’t need or want the complication of loving a guy like that.” It’s cold, and not entirely true, but I say what I need to.
“You sure about that?” Her face showcases her surprise.
“Kaiden’s not capable of romantic love. He’s too closed off. Whatever love he has in his heart he reserves for his family and his friends. Not for me.”
She eyes me for a long time, opening and closing her mouth in quick succession as her gaze flits from my face to my ring and back again. I doubt she knows much of my background, so I guess she’s assuming I’m engaged to Kaiden. Perhaps she was going to ask me but thinks better of it. “I’m not sure that’s true, but you know him better than I do.” She casts a glance at her phone. “Shoot. I need to go before James sends out a search party.” She drains the last of her coffee. “And you’re sure you want to stay?”
“I’m good, but thank you for asking.”
“Okay then.” She stands, pulling me into a quick hug. “I wish we had more time to chat. I have a feeling you and I’d get on like a house on fire.”
“Me too.” My warm smile is genuine.
She slips a card into my hand. “That’s my contact info. Call or email me anytime. I mean it. If you need anything or you’re in trouble, get in touch.”
“Thank you so much. You’ve no idea what that means to me.” That this stranger would make such an offer reminds me there are good, generous, kind people in this world.
I haven’t encountered many of them.
It also reminds me of Jane, and I wonder where she is and if she’s doing okay. I can’t imagine she’s coping well without Drew, and I wish I was there to help her deal with her broken heart.
“Take care of yourself.” She gives me one final hug before leaving, and I turn to the sink, rinsing out my mug in slow motion, waiting for him to announce his presence.
I dry and put my mug away when he steps forward.
He wears a mask I haven’t seen in a while, but it’s one I’m well accustomed to. Disgust clings to his eyes, and his emotions are on lockdown as he stalks toward me. I knew he was listening, and I knew my comments would hurt him—but not this much. A pang of remorse hits me in my chest, and it’s getting harder to hold on to my anger.
Kai is getting to me, and my head is a mess as I now question everything I’m doing to get back at him.
But I stand my ground, refusing to be intimidated or take it back.
He deserves to hurt.
To grovel.
To fight to prove his feelings for me are genuine.
I demand no less.
I deserve no less.
He steps up close, his chest brushing against mine as he glares at me. “You don’t know what I’m capable of.” His tone screams death and destruction, and a shiver works its way up my spine, but I hold firm, maintaining a cool composure. “But keep pushing me, and you might just find out.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The house is much quieter without the Anderson brothers, and I’m rapidly going out of my mind as boredom sets in. Sawyer is locked in his office for most of the day while Jackson has returned to his stoner ways, and it’s not as much fun now I can’t partake. Kaiden is avoiding me, and he spends a lot of his time in the impressive gym housed in one of the outbuildings. The rest of the time he’s holed up with Sawyer, but every time I suggest I can help, the door is literally closed in my face.
“Here.” Kai strides into the bedroom, thrusting a small package at me. Now the others have gone, there are two spare bedrooms, and he moved into one without me even asking. My comments to Faye about his ability to love seems to have struck a nerve. He’s maintaining distance between us, and I’m woman enough to admit I can’t stand it even if I’m the one who orchestrated it.
However, I know he still sneaks in here at night, because I’m attuned to his presence, and I always feel him in the room. He doesn’t know I’m aware, and I’d rather keep it that way. My feelings are an epic clusterfuck of disastrous proportions, and the more my anger fades, the more I crave him.<
br />
I don’t know how much longer I can keep hiding the truth.
“What is it?” I ask, accepting the package and ignoring the way my skin heats when his fingers brush mine.
“Something to stop your bitching and whining.” He walks off, and it’s natural to shove my middle finger up at his retreating form. “I felt that,” he says, and I flip him off another few times for good measure.
When he’s gone, I open the box, and my heart soars when I remove a Kindle Oasis e-reader. It’s linked to his account, and he’s set up a Kindle Unlimited subscription for me. A couple of pregnancy books are already loaded to the device, and my heart feels like it might beat a path out of my chest. I set it down and go after him, heading to his bedroom first.
I rap on the door, and it eases open. Sounds from the bathroom confirm he’s in the shower, and I’m backing out of his room when I spy the open sketchpad on the bed. I’m a nosy bitch, especially with Kai’s artistic talent, and I feel only a little twinge of guilt as I stride toward the bed. I sit down and snatch it up, turning it over onto his current drawing.
Pressure sits on my chest as I take in every exquisite detail of the sketch. A dog-eared photo is paperclipped to the top of the page, and Kai’s replica is almost a mirror image. He is just that good.
It’s Emma Anderson, Kai’s mother, and she’s cradling two babies in her arms. The one hooked in her left arm is tiny, and clearly a newborn, and the other baby is older, sitting upright on her lap, reaching his chubby fingers out toward his new brother.
Tears prick my eyes as I brush my fingers over the broad pencil strokes, quickly turning the page before my tears destroy the picture. This next drawing is of me. I’m asleep in the master bedroom, but Kai has used his imagination to include a baby in my arms. I’m curled into a ball with our sleeping child cradled against my body.
Sobs rib free of my soul, and I drop the pad, racing from his room back to my own.
The pain in my chest is so intense I’m struggling to breathe. I sink to my knees in my bedroom, wrapping my arms around myself as I rock back and forth with tears streaking my face. I crawl on my hands and knees to the bed, bury myself underneath the covers, and cry myself to sleep.
When I wake, it’s pitch-black in the room and outside. My throat is as dry as the Sahara Desert, and a heavy ache castrates my heart, reminding me of earlier.
“Abby.”
I scream at the unexpected sound of his voice, and he reaches out, taking my hand. “Calm down before you give yourself a coronary.”
“You know better than to creep me out like that!”
“And you know I like to sit here and watch you sleep.”
“Don’t bother being nice if you hate me again.”
“I don’t hate you, Abby. I never really did,” he admits, dragging his hand through his hair. “It’s what you represented, but I’m man enough to admit I was wrong.”
Nausea churns in my gut, and guilt threatens to consume me.
“I cooked pasta,” he says, not waiting for a reply.
Which is good.
Because I’ve no idea how to respond to him right now.
“And I set some aside for you because you missed dinner. Let me heat it up for you.”
“Why are you being nice to me again?”
He threads his fingers through my hair. “You’re not my enemy, babe, and I’m not yours. We have enough of them without turning on one another.” I nod, because he’s right. “I know what you’re doing, but it won’t work. It might piss me off temporarily, but I meant what I said. I’m going nowhere.” He presses a kiss to my hair, and I fight a new wave of tears.
I need to tell him.
But I don’t know how.
And once he knows what I’ve done, he’ll hate me for real this time.
I have fucked everything up.
My lower lip wobbles, and he notices. He cups the back of my head. “Shush. It’s okay, baby. Just let me take care of you.”
My eyes convey everything I’m feeling, and he bends down, kissing me softly. When he lifts his gaze, I see uncertainty there, which surprises me, until he bends down again, this time to plant a gentle kiss on my tummy over my shirt.
The tender gesture slays me on the inside, and I chew on the inside of my cheek and dig my nails into my sides to hold myself together. “I’ll be back,” he whispers, kissing me again, and I watch him exiting the room, hating what I’ve done, knowing there’s a chance he’ll never forgive me.
“Is there some imaginary monster chasing our asses, because why else are you running like your life depends on it?” Jackson queries, in a breathless tone of voice, as we race around the path in the wooded area at the side of the lake, the following morning.
“Everyone has monsters they’re trying to outrun,” I say, panting as I wipe sweat from my brow.
I love running in this kind of weather. As Jackson is fond of saying, it’s cold enough to freeze his balls. It’s difficult to warm up at first when my limbs threaten to crack and splinter, thanks to the bitter cold, but once we pick up our pace, my legs loosen, and I welcome the crisp bite of the air stinging my cheeks as we run.
“So true,” he says, in a much quieter voice, and I slow my pace to check on him.
“You want to walk the rest of the way back?” I ask.
“You saying I’m unfit?”
“You are unfit. You can thank your weed addiction for that.” I nudge him in the ribs. “Although, I give you ten out of ten for effort.”
“High praise indeed,” he says, stopping and bracing his hands on his bent knees. I swipe my water bottle from my backpack and guzzle it down. When I’m done, he’s regained control of his breathing, and we pick up a leisurely stroll.
“It’s Christmas in a couple weeks, right?” He nods. “So, are you guys going home or what?”
“We can’t go home. It isn’t safe.”
“Will your mom be pissed?”
“Yup. I’m dreading making the call.”
“Maybe you could ask James Kennedy to fly you under the radar.”
“We can’t risk it. Your bastard father will expect one of us to show our heads over the holiday season.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, beautiful.” He slings his arm around my shoulders, pressing a kiss to my temple. “We’ll do our own Christmas here, and I already have a few ideas how to make it special.”
“Let me guess.” I tip one finger off my chin. “Hash cakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the evening’s entertainment is watching Hot Cop Nails Naughty Mrs. Claus Under the Christmas Tree.”
He throws back his head, laughing. “This is why you’re one of my favorite people.”
I shoulder-check him, grinning. “You’re one of my favorite people too.”
He lifts his little finger. “Pinkie swear?”
I laugh, shaking my head as I wrap my pinkie around his. “Pinkie promise.”
“What is this?” Sawyer questions a couple hours later when I usher all three guys into the living room. I’ve pushed the couches to one side, so there’s room for the flip chart.
“We’re strategizing.” I point at all three of them. “Sit your butts down.”
Sawyer frowns. “Is that my flip chart?”
“It is,” I confirm, pushing him down onto the couch.
“How did you get into my office?”
“I picked the lock.”
He looks at Kai. “Forget the muzzle. We need to handcuff her to the bed.”
“I’m down with that plan,” Jackson says, predictably rubbing a hand along his crotch.
“Don’t start that shit again,” Sawyer says. “We finally have peace. Let’s try not to ruin it.”
“Enough shit talk,” I instruct. “We have fathers to defeat, and we’re making a concrete plan.”
“What the hell do you think Kai and I have been doing since you got here?” Sawyer asks, crossing one leg over his knee.
“Shutting me o
ut of your planning, and that stops now. This impacts me, and if you won’t include me, then I’ll go rogue.” Kai smirks, and my heckles raise. “Got something to add, caveman?”
“I’m just wondering what took you so long, firecracker.” I poke my tongue at him, and he smiles. “Let’s hear it, babe.”
I flip back the cover, revealing the sheet I already prepped. “I’ve listed our main enemies in order of priority. One. Michael Hearst. Two. Atticus Anderson.” I level Kai with a pointed look, expecting him to argue, but he merely nods. “Three. Christian Montgomery. Four. Trent Montgomery.”
I wait for one of them to interject, but I have their complete attention, so I continue. I pace the room as I talk. “Taking my father down is tricky, because he covers his bases and he has tons of law enforcement in his back pocket, but there’s got to be some jurisdictions his influence doesn’t extend to.”
“The issue with that,” Kai says, “is we have to lodge criminal charges in the state where they committed the offense.”
“There has got to be one judge, somewhere in the state of MA, who isn’t corrupt?”
“I wouldn’t bank on it,” Sawyer says.
“But your fathers are influential as hell, and they want to see my father brought to justice. Surely, there is something they can do?”
“Dad has already lodged charges against your father for the fraudulent theft of his company,” Kai says, telling me something I wasn’t aware of. “But, it’s like your father and dickhead Montgomery said in the ballroom. They are already burying him in red tape, and at this rate, it’ll take years to come to court, if it even sees the light of day.”
I scratch the side of my head. “So, we’re back to the murder charges. We have to find evidence to pin either my mother’s or your mother’s murder on him.”
A muscle pops in Kai’s jaw. “Except we have no clue where to find the evidence your mother stole proving he murdered my mom. We were so sure it’d be in your father’s safe.”
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