“Who knows? Maybe. You shouldn’t be so nervous about showcasing your talent. I know, I know…” She raises her hands. “That’s easy for me to say. I get to hide behind a keyboard. I don’t have to watch my readers read my book. But I mean it, Kelly. Whenever you’re ready to perform in front of an audience, you’re going to set the world on fire, kay?”
I nod, trying to believe her, trying to tell myself she’d understand if I suddenly blurted out the truth. “Kay.”
We spend the rest of the journey watching the Maltese landscape drift by until we join the long wide well-paved road that leads to the capital. It’s like a fortress of a city, the walls tall and baked yellow, at least ten times the size of Medina. The ocean glistens just beyond it, visible because Valetta is sloped, and for a second I’m able to simply revel in its beauty.
Disembarking the bus, Lena runs a hand through her hair and the moment is shattered. It reminds me of the way Kane ran his hand through his hair earlier today when he was on the verge of telling me why he had to leave the States.
But then he got that phone call and he had to leave… why? Where did he go?
He said he didn’t have time to explain, but now fear is smashing through me like waves on a beach, growing larger and more powerful with each passing moment, leaving my nerves so taut it’s only a matter of time before they snap.
“Come on.” Lena tugs on my hand, laughing as she drags us toward the capital. “You can’t spend the whole trip daydreaming.”
I laugh with her and we walk into Valetta, following the crowd of tourists and Maltese people, walking beneath the imposing yellow walls. There’s a McDonald’s off to the left and Lena giggles, pointing at it.
“Some things never change, huh? Come on. Let’s go off the beaten path a little.”
Together we walk toward the city center, the ocean glistening at us from the bottom of the sloped, completely symmetrical roads. There are no buildings to obstruct the view of the sea, designed to let the Maltese know when a foreign army was invading.
But it’s not an army I’m worried about.
It’s the way Lena takes turn after turn, leading us from the more touristy areas to by-streets, and then alleyways until suddenly we’re standing in a quiet shaded section of the city.
Lena leans against a wall and looks up and down, her eyes coming to rest on a bench that is placed beneath a tall tree, a smile lighting up her whole face.
“Oh my God, wouldn’t this be perfect, Kelly? Look at it. Maybe they move through the city in opposite directions, and this is their meeting spot…”
She approaches it as she taps her chin, her ideas moving almost visibly around her mind, but I can’t stop myself from scanning the area, praying for a flood of tourists to come through.
If the Bratva were going to hit us, it would be now, with nobody around to witness their actions.
“Lena, I think—”
Suddenly Kane bursts into the alleyway from the entrance behind Lena, sweat dripping down his muscular body, every part of him tensed and primed and ready for war. His jaw clenches as his eyes flit over me, and then Lena.
She has her back turned to him, facing me. “What?” she says. “What is it?”
“Lena,” Kane says, his voice gruff and low, and even now it sends shivers of need through me.
It’s so wrong. It’s so right.
Lena’s eyes widen and she gasps, spinning around. “Dad?”
Chapter Fourteen
Kane
“We have to go. Now.” My voice is gruff and commanding, brimming with urgency as I race forward and take my daughter by the arm. I stare hard at Kelly, willing her into action, as her gorgeous eyes go wide and her lips begin to quiver. “Come on.”
“I don’t understand,” Lena yells, walking at my side with too-slow footsteps.
Thankfully Kelly jogs after us, keeping pace, as I lead us down the alleyway and my eyes scan back and forth for threats.
“I know. I’m sorry, Lena. I can’t explain right now. I will, soon, very soon. But we need to get out of this goddamn city.”
“But you’re alive…” A heart-wrenching sob cracks Lena’s voice, causing my chest to tighten and my heartbeat to thunder through me, a layer of love placed upon the guilt which whirs through me. “I thought… I didn’t know what happened to you…”
“I know.” I sigh darkly as I lead us back into the main flow of foot traffic, hopefully masking us from the Bratva which followed them into the city. “I’m sorry, Lena. I’m so, so sorry, but I promise it was to keep you safe. I promise I wouldn’t have disappeared unless I had to.”
“Where are we going?” Kelly asks.
Even now – at the most unacceptable goddamn time – I can’t stop my eyes from straying to the way her breasts dance as she walks, the shimmers which move through them, waking up the carnal parts of me.
I keep my eyes focused on the crowds, my gaze flitting here and there, over Maltese faces and French faces and dozens of other nationalities… searching for anybody with neck tattoos or face tattoos or a Bratva look about them.
“Jocko has a car waiting,” I snarl. “We need to get away from the city and regroup. From there, we can decide our next step.”
“Jocko, as in your old military buddy?” Lena says, her voice shaking as though she’s trying to grab onto this one piece of knowledge, the only part of this that makes any sense to her.
“Yes.”
“And then you’ll explain what the hell is going on?”
“Yes.”
I feel her considering, spot her chewing the inside of her cheek out the corner of my eye. Despite all that’s happening, I can’t help but smile at the sight of that, even if it’s a habit she kicked when she was a little kid. Dozens of memories surge up inside of me, warm and welcome, of family scenes in which I told her to quit it.
The circumstances might be fucked beyond belief, but I can’t deny how good it feels to have my daughter’s hand in mine, to feel her warmth, safe.
“Okay.” She breathes. “But the second we get back, you explain.”
I nod as Kelly keeps walks next to me, her eyes flitting to mine for a precious moment, and all the familiar warmth I felt flows away… or, rather, it transfers from the past and swells into the future I want to share with my woman.
It’s difficult not to study her as we walk, and not just her bouncing breasts, or the way her cheeks flush and the cute-as-fuck pursing of her lips. It’s difficult not to study her gleaming eyes and wonder if our children will have the same color, or if our daughters will share her flowing dark brown hair.
Forcing myself to look away, I resume my scan of the crowd, readying my body for war if the Bratva dares to threaten my daughter or my woman.
Two hours later, we’re sitting in a shadowed living room in a large house at the very edge of Malta, close to the sea, so that looking across the water we can spy the Sicilian coast – not that we are looking across the water, the curtains being tightly shut.
Jocko stands in the corner of the room, his thick arms folded, his bearded face impassive as he stares into the room. I knew he’d come through for me, arranging for this safe house and going back to their apartment in Medina to collect their bags.
I couldn’t risk the Bratva getting their hands on my daughter’s laptop and stealing her work. I know how much it would tear her up inside.
She’s suffered enough already.
I sit on one side of the glass table and Kelly and Lena sit on the other. Kelly and I can’t stop glancing at each other, as though forces are moving through us beyond our control, beyond reason, beyond common sense.
“Dad.” Lena runs a hand through her hair, smoothing down her ponytail. “I’ve been quiet this whole time, right? The whole drive – driving around and around to make sure we’re not being followed – I’ve been quiet. We agreed I wouldn’t ask questions until you’re ready. Right, right?”
There’s a quiver of desperation in her voice, making me clench my fi
sts tightly, as my mind involuntarily skips to what she’s going to say when I tell her about me and her best friend.
Slow down, a voice roars inside of me. One thing at a time.
But Kelly is so, so distracting, with her legs folded so her summer dress rests against the outline of her thick delicious thighs, making me think of how she looked when she was bent over, her pussy glistening for me, her tangy sex…
I push the thoughts from my mind.
“Yes,” I say. “You’ve been very patient. Thank you.”
“So now you’ll tell me what the heck is going on.” She says it firmly, no hint of a question in her tone, and pride swells up inside of me. “Because you have to admit, this is pretty insane. First, you’re gone. Poof. No clue where. And now you’re here, speaking about Russians and organized crime and…”
She trails off, raising an eyebrow at me. Kelly leans forward, making it difficult not to study the way her cleavage shifts, a perfect passage for my bulging manhood.
Not now.
“You’re right. You deserve to know.”
I sigh, running a hand through my hair, not missing the way Kelly’s smile twitches at the gesture. I fight the urge to return her smile with a smirk of my own as I let my hand drop.
“You know I started the gyms when I retired from the Army?” Both women nod. “Well, I wanted to bring in some extra cash so I could open more. A childhood buddy of mine – Russian – put me into contact with Sergey Abramov. I made a mistake and took my buddy’s word that Sergey was a legitimate businessman.”
“I’m guessing he wasn’t?” Lena says.
I shake my head. “He’s the leader of the Bratva. It’s like the mafia for Russians. For a couple of years, it all went well. You remember those security jobs I used to work?”
Lena and Kelly nod, reminding me how intertwined they are, reminding me that Kelly has been with Lena every step of the way.
“Of course,” Lena says. “For concerts and stuff?”
“Exactly. Well, one day Sergey sends a bunch of his men to pick me up after one of these jobs, men I’d never met before. They drove me out into the middle of nowhere and told me I’d been training to become a front-line soldier for the Bratva. They put a gun in my hand and they…”
I trail off as rage tears a jagged hole in my chest, as the memory slams into me.
“They brought out a man who hadn’t paid his debt to the Bratva. They told me I had to execute him or be killed myself. They put a gun to my head.”
Lena covers her mouth with her hand. Kelly stares, her eyes glimmering like she’s going to let tears flow down her cheeks at any moment.
“What did you do?” Lena says, her voice muffled by her hand.
Behind them, Jocko’s face gets even harder, but there’s a battle-ready glint in his eyes, and the corner of his lips twitch. He knows what I did – what any ex-military man would do.
The right fucking thing.
“I went to war,” I snarl. “I disarmed the prick with the gun to my head and I took him as a human shield, and then I forced Sergey to let the hostage go. Sergey never forgave me for what he saw as a betrayal, and he put a price on my head. Do you remember when I sent you to stay with your grandmother in California?”
Lena nods, as a single tear flows down her cheek.
“That was when I was at war with them. Jocko was watching over you, the same way he has been here. Sergey thought it’d be easy to take me out, but it proved far more difficult than he ever could’ve dreamed.”
“Damn right,” Jocko growls.
“In the end, we made a deal. I’d leave the States – so he could look tough for his men – and he’d leave my family alone. He swore on the Bratva, in front of several of his lieutenants, so he had to keep his word unless he wanted to be branded a liar. But it seems he’s decided to take the coward’s route of exploiting a loophole in our deal. He thinks your protection only extends as far as the States.”
Lena looks at me for a long moment, her eyes brimming with tears. “So you did it to save me.”
I nod fiercely. “I’d do anything to keep you safe, Lena. You know that.”
“But why couldn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to. I swear to God I did. But it was part of the deal. Sergey didn’t want any loose ends. He wouldn’t budge on it. I would’ve told you in secret but…”
I trail off before the words can reach my lips, but she lets out a short laugh as realization flickers across her face. “But I’ve got a big mouth and I would’ve given myself away, huh? Is that what you’re trying to say?”
I chuckle. “Maybe.”
She stands up and walks over to me, prompting me to stand. “I’m so glad you’re alive, Dad. I know all of this is crazy. I know we might not make it out of this in one piece. But I’m so, so glad you’re back.”
She collapses against me and bursts into tears, sobbing against my chest, as I raise my hands and run my fingers through her hair. I close my eyes and let my cheek rest against the top of her head, savoring this moment, because I’m not sure she’s going to feel the same once she learns the whole truth.
Chapter Fifteen
Kelly
The next few days are the strangest and most difficult of my life.
We were supposed to be exploring all the different aspects of the Maltese culture, but instead, Jocko leaves the house as the sun is setting to get some supplies, and we spend the next few evenings sharing meals as Lena and Kane reconnect.
I do my best to join in on the conversations, but it’s like slow torture being so close to Kane and not being able to do anything.
He’ll glance at me sometimes, an intense look in his eyes, his jaw tight like he’s fighting some inner battle. I’m only able to hold his gaze for a few seconds before I turn away, lust hammering through me, telling me this is wrong, telling me we need to stop.
But we don’t kiss.
We don’t talk about us, about the soul-shattering conversation we had in the apartment in Medina. We keep everything surface-level as he fills us in on where he’s been the last three years.
“All over Europe, England. I spent some time in Ireland. I’ve been working construction and odd jobs here and there. I worked as a private detective for a little while. Anything to keep me busy and out of trouble.”
By the end of our seventh day in Malta – halfway through our trip – it’s like Kane and Lena were never apart.
They bring back all their silly jokes, like pretending that the other person passed gas when they’re eating dinner, causing Lena to laugh like I haven’t heard her in years.
A punching feeling hits me in the gut every time she does this, a reminder of all the ways I betrayed her in Medina, and yet there’s something else too.
A feeling of waiting… waiting for Kane to steal a moment alone with me, so we can, so we can—
So we can what?
If he’s silently telling me to forget what passed between us – which him ignoring me seems to indicate – surely it’s better that I do the same. Surely it’s better we both wordlessly agree to put it behind us and pretend like it never happened, as we wait for Jocko and Kane to work out how to leave Malta without the Bratva getting word of it.
“The problem is they’re watching the damn airports,” Jocko tells us while we’re all sitting around the table for dinner, Kane and me doing our best not to exchange lust-filled glances. “So until we figure out how to get rid of them, we’re stuck.”
“Our flights aren’t for a week,” Lena says, tearing a piece of bread loose.
“We might have to change those if we don’t work this out,” Kane says.
He leans forward and rests his head in his hands, drawing my eye to the way his bicep muscles tighten, to the way every part of him swells with tension.
At times like these, I can almost pretend that what passed between us in Medina – all the heat, all the closeness, the sensation of his tongue dragging across my sex – never happened.
&n
bsp; It’s at night when things get difficult when my mind is left free to flow into my dreams where searing sensations scorch through my body and my only option is to reach down between my legs, to grind my palm against my sex and rub, rub, rub until I can feel a few precious moments of release.
I try to fight it every night, as I huddle beneath the covers in my bedroom. The nights here are deceptively cold, the Maltese brickwork doing little to trap the heat, making me seek warmth in the fantasies which constantly flood my mind.
Tonight is no different.
After we share a meal and I take a quick shower I lie down and tell myself I’m not going to think about Kane. I’m not going to let my mind stampede ahead of me.
But then his words start whispering across my mind, fierce and savage, deep and compelling. I remember the way he said we were going to be together forever.
We were going to have a family together.
I own you, he snarls in my mind, his phantom breath whispering over my skin as my hand slides down between my legs.
And then my door starts to make a creaking noise and I sit up, shivers moving all over my body, as part of me wonders if I’ve already fallen asleep and this is a dream.
Kane walks into the room, a hulking silhouette in the low light, his eyes the brightest part of him as they gleam and he stalks forward. His naked chest hard and – as he turns to quietly shut the door – I can’t help but let my eyes roam over his taut, tight back muscles.
“I tried to fight the temptation,” he growls, moving slowly across the room. “I swear I tried to stop myself. But watching you every damn day – sitting there with your head in your Kindle, sneaking glances at me over dinner – it’s driving me insane.”
What about Lena?
That’s the question I should ask him, but I can’t summon the words to my lips, force myself to ruin this moment when all I want to do is savor it.
Malta with My Best Friend's Dad: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 256) Page 7