Dad's Irish Mafia Friend (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 110)

by Flora Ferrari

  Just what had Dad been caught up in if Garrett was the guy the biggest crime families in Dublin deferred to?

  "Morning."

  "Hi." I stepped back, letting him into the room, making sure my robe was tied tightly around me as he walked in and put the tray down on the glass-topped table by the window.

  I wasn't wearing anything underneath and the thought of that made me flush. In the night, he hadn't seen anything of me beneath the sheets and somehow that made it less excruciating now that he was fully clothed and I was not.

  His tie was still knotted to the headboard and I wished I'd spared a few minutes to tug it free, because it hung there like a guilty reminder of what he'd done to me and how naked I was beneath the robe.

  All of my things were still at the hostel, but there were towels here and the shower had looked so amazing.

  I'd spent a full half hour under the waterfall jets.

  The bed was like sleeping on a cloud compared to the thin, lumpy mattress of the bunk I'd had at the hostel.

  I watched him depress the plunger on the coffee pot slowly, and pour out two mugs like none of this was remotely strange.

  Maybe in his world walking off with a woman over his shoulder, at gunpoint, was just another day at the office.

  "What is it you do, Garrett? Aside from promoting boxing matches." I needed to know who I was getting into bed with. Not that I planned on doing that again so literally. As much as I was drawn to him, I was more appreciative of the danger surrounding him now than I had been. And it seemed safer to keep my distance.

  He didn't sit down and I was unsure he planned to. His eyes never left me, but they danced with amusement.

  "That's a pretty personal question when we're only just getting acquainted."

  "Only just getting acquainted?" I raised an eyebrow. "Is that what you call last night?"

  He shrugged. "Well, it was a start, wasn't it?"

  I rolled my eyes at his attempt to derail my question. Garrett didn't strike me as coy, which could only mean he didn't trust me. That grated more than I'd thought it would. Once again I was the silly little girl getting in too deep.

  But it wasn't that. I was sure of it. Garrett was either all bravado or he was lying to himself. Whichever, I wasn't going to let myself get hurt.

  "Look. I don't care about any of this. As soon as I get you to sign the right bits of paper, I'm out of here."

  His jaw rippled and his eyes darkened with the speed of a cloud passing over the sun. "That's not a good idea."

  "Well it's what's happening! Unless you really think that macho bullshit about owning me meant anything at all."

  "Oh, you're a real cute hoor." Garrett shook his head, that elusive smirk of his twitching at his lips as he huffed out an amused-sounding scoff.

  I raised my eyebrows, completely astounded that we'd gone from having a conversation to him slinging insults at me. My cheeks flushed hotly. Was he talking about last night? "Excuse me? Did you just call me a whore?"

  He rolled his eyes on an exasperated sigh. "You chat shit. That's what it means."

  The man was infuriatingly laid back and acted like he refused to react to anything I did. Apart from the occasional flash of levity in his eyes, Garrett's face was unreadable and cold.

  "Right. Fine. I just need you to sign some paperwork so we can untangle this bullshit trust fund Dad set up, and I can get back control of my money. Okay?"

  "No."

  "What?"

  "We've got a problem, Kaitlin. You see, I don't believe you. Your father would have made arrangements to send me something."

  "He did."

  "Well I didn't get it."

  "I didn't send it! You didn't even pick up your phone. I wasn't going to risk it getting lost in the mail!"

  "Where is it then?"

  "It's back at the hostel."

  He sipped his coffee, leaning against the wall close to the window. "And you want me to let you go and get it, is that it?"

  I breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes. That's right. I go to the hostel, I get the envelope, all of this ridiculousness goes away."

  Garrett tugged at the edge of the sheer curtain with one finger, pulling it away from the glass so he could look out to the street. He didn't respond for what seemed like forever.

  "No."

  "What?"

  "Come here." He beckoned me over and I looked at him, hesitating a moment too long for his liking. "Come here to me now."

  He pulled me in even closer as I came towards him, and I felt the pleasant prickle of his stubble and his breath, warm, against the back of my neck, snaking down the collar of my robe. The nearness of his body reminded me of all the things he'd done to me last night, and how well we fit together. We might have been made for each other. In another lifetime.

  Keeping me close against the wall, he flicked the curtain again, pulling it out so I could see the street and I peered through the gap.

  "Your man down there having a cigarette, he's one of Tiernan's. And that taxi's been parked there since last night, turning away fares and I reckon he looks a lot like one of Kilpatrick's boys."

  I swallowed. The hope that the drama at the boxing match last night had all been about the fight was fading fast.

  "They're watching me?"

  Garrett nodded. "Everyone's watching you."

  My mouth went dry as the magnitude of the situation began to dawn on me.

  "Why?"

  "You really don't know?"

  I shook my head and Garrett seemed to weigh up whether or not to enlighten me. I stared at him, sick of being kept in the dark.

  "It's all very Romeo and Juliet. Your father met your mother, and they fell in love. It was very special." His tone was flat and slightly hurried, as though he didn't really think any of that at all. He still had half an eye on the street below, but he took a breath and stepped away from the window, guiding me over to the glass topped table where he'd set down breakfast.

  "Only, your Ma was supposed to marry a Kilpatrick. Her family was tangled up with the Tiernan's, and her going with Conor was going to smooth things over. No chance in hell they were letting your Da get in the way of all that, but the eejit did it anyway. Conor Kilpatrick thought the Tiernan's had snubbed him, so he went and made it real clear he wasn't in the mood for joining up any more. Took out Doyle Tiernan's three best men. The Carrigans - your mother's family - disappeared."

  I swallowed. My eyes felt too big for my head and I couldn't quite remember how to blink.

  "They killed my grandparents?" The idea of people being murdered because my parents ran away together was insane.

  He tilted his head, a tight smile pulling onto his face that didn't match at all with the dull numbness in his eyes. "Who knows. They killed your cousins and the rest of them vanished overnight. Packed bags, left houses. Probably changed their names too."

  A chill went through me. I was already horrified. But Garrett wasn't done yet.

  "As for the Tiernan's, they put a price on your Da's head. If he ever showed his face in Dublin, they were going to make him pay."

  "Right now, they've got the whole of the city carved up between them. If it's not Kilpatrick territory, it's a Tiernan patch. Both sides have been taking shots at each other since your father got out. The feckin' Gardaí have both sides under protection because they don't want to give anyone a chance to start massacring each other with semi-automatics."

  I swallowed hard enough to hear it. Suddenly I felt shaky, and very much out of my depth. What the hell had I been thinking? How could I have not known this was the world my parents came from?

  I had to wise up, and fast. Garrett was right. I couldn't just go wandering about the city anymore. If what he was saying was true, I was lucky I got out of the boxing match alive.

  I looked at him and it felt like the world was shifting under me. "Are you in the Tiernan Cartel?"

  Between the two choices, that seemed the better option. Maybe he was protecting me because he was associated w
ith my Mom.

  "No."

  My skin chilled instantly and I felt the small hairs on the back of my arms stand upright. This was like walking into a horror movie. Suddenly I was the girl who managed to get herself stranded and alone in a dark log cabin in the middle of the woods, with a failing flashlight, dressed in a nightie. I didn't like that feeling one bit.

  "You're the only reason they didn't kill me. You're with Kilpatrick."

  Garrett shrugged one shoulder. "And the penny drops."

  I forced myself to clear my throat so my voice didn't waver. "I thought you were my father's friend."

  "Oh, I was."

  "But you're working for the people who wanted him dead!" I felt betrayed. What the two of us had wasn't special at all if I was just some kind of commodity to him.

  Garrett's eyes fixed on mine so solidly that I had to drop to silence and I felt like I'd slapped him.

  I froze in place, like he had me physically trapped. My heartbeat drummed in my chest, thundering in my ears and I felt unsteady on my feet. I sat down abruptly on the edge of the bed, folding forwards and breathing deeply while I cradled my head in my hands, hoping for the swell of panicked nausea to pass.

  "Everyone wanted him dead. And now they want you dead too."

  I swallowed hard.

  All I wanted was to go to college. That's all I wanted.

  "Honey, you just walked into the middle of a gang war and painted a feckin' great target on your pretty little chest. The only way you stay alive is with me."

  CHAPTER 13

  Garrett

  "I need you to look good tonight."

  Kaitlin gritted her teeth as she took the dress I held out to her and I narrowed my eyes in return.

  "What's wrong?"

  She jutted her jaw and I braced myself for the answer.

  "Last night you tied me up. This morning you're buying me clothes, telling me what to wear?"

  My fist crushed around the small velvet covered box in my pocket that held the diamond drop earrings I'd picked out for her. There was no sense adding them into the mix now.

  What the hell was she talking about? Every other woman I'd met had done everything they could to get me to lavish gifts on them, but Kaitlin was acting as though I'd insulted her.

  Was I trying to tell her what to wear? Yes, but not for the reasons she seemed to think. I thought she had her head on her shoulders well enough to know it made sense to dress the part. It's exactly what she'd done each time I'd met her.

  "I could have sworn you enjoyed yourself more than I did last night."

  Heat flushed across her cheeks and the smallest smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

  "That's not the point."

  "Isn't it though?"

  What I'd said was only the truth. I was going to take her out in Dublin in order to be seen with me, and I needed to make it clear that she was far more than some disposable girl I'd taken a fancy to.

  She was my woman whether she was ready to accept that or not. I needed that to be perfectly clear to anyone who looked at her, because there wasn't a sane man in the city who'd do any harm to something that belonged to me.

  And my woman needed to look like she was meant to be at my side. My suit was expensive and I didn't plan on showing her around in her student-budget wardrobe, or making it look like I didn't treat her right.

  "We're going out, the two of us. You're my woman now. I need everyone looking at you, knowing everything you have on your body is because of me. When they look at you, I want them to see me all over you."

  Kaitlin folded her arms across her chest and she shook her head. "Why don't you just pull your dick out and piss all over me. That'd say the same thing, wouldn't it?"

  I growled, snatching the dress from her and for a minute I didn't know whether to kiss her or kill her myself.

  "Suit yourself. Wear the same damn thing you wore last night and have them all stare at you because they know you didn't go home instead."

  Kaitlin

  The dress was beautiful. Probably the most beautiful dress I'd ever wear in my life.

  I couldn't begin to imagine how much it must have cost and I felt like such a princess turning my nose up at it. But it wasn't about the dress.

  The gorgeous, heavy silk dress, in a pale mossy green that draped and puddled like melted chocolate.

  God, a year ago I would have wet myself if some handsome stranger pulled the fairy godmother act so he could take me out to dinner like some kind of princess. I guess I did a lot of growing up between then and now, because as much as I loved it, I didn't love the idea of Garrett doing this to brand me.

  We both knew I didn't have a choice about being here with him, and that this wasn't just a gift. I would have given anything for it to have been more than just him fulfilling his duty in looking out for me.

  I let out a breath, facing up to the rest of the uniform he'd brought in for me to wear. Maybe I could get through it better if I thought about it like that.

  There was a shoe box on the dressing table next to two gift bags that Garrett had set down when he'd come in. There was an array of brand new makeup in one and I peeked into the other gift bag from Agent Provocateur with trepidation. No one had ever bought me lingerie before and my breath was already faltering at the thought of what Garrett had chosen for me to wear.

  Carefully, I undid the label holding the top of the gift bag closed. Layers of tissue paper surrounded the delicate garments and I pulled each one out in turn. A sheer, nude bra came first, with nothing whatsoever to hide my nipples. My jaw dropped as I hooked a finger around the strap of a matching thong with barely anything to it, except the same barely-there sheer fabric. The delicate lace was almost invisible against my skin except for a thin scalloped detail in white. I'd never worn anything like this and the idea of Garrett seeing me in it made me hot all over. Somehow the shade of nude matched almost identically to my skin tone.

  I'd be as close to naked beneath the silk dress as if I'd not been wearing any underwear at all. Only the thinnest sheer lace would be between me and the smooth silk of the dress. And when I took it off, there would be no hiding any part of me from him.

  There was a matching garter belt and a set of champagne stockings with a seam going all the way up the back, and that was it. I swallowed against the sudden dryness of my mouth.

  Was that what Garrett had wanted? To have me eating dinner with him in such sexy things, knowing exactly what I was wearing underneath the beautiful dress.

  I flushed all over at the thought of him knowing how the tiny panties barely had a gusset and the smooth silk would skim right against my bare buttocks. It'd almost be like I wasn't wearing panties at all.

  Was all that just to prove his point and make his mark too?

  I couldn't quite believe that.

  He could have given me anything at all to wear as long as it was evidently expensive. These things were gorgeous, but they matched in with what he'd seen of my style. He'd paid enough attention to notice. Somehow these things matched me.

  I let out a sigh and determinedly took my towelling robe off before stepping into the thong and fastening the sheer bra and garter belt. Carefully I slid the stockings on and straightened the seams once I'd clipped them in place.

  I caught sight of myself in the mirror, flush faced and far more sexy than I'd thought I could be and I smoothed my hands over the garter belt, flattening the lace to my body. I looked good. There was no doubt about that.

  And I realised I wanted Garrett to see me in everything he'd picked out.

  If we were putting on a show, then I might as well be dressed the part.

  ---

  I was just stepping into my shoes when Garrett knocked on the door. The rat-a-tat-tat that we'd agreed on told me it was him, but I diligently checked the peep hole like he'd told me to before I undid the deadbolt.

  When he looked up from the carpet, his eyes flared wider, lust darkening the green of his eyes in an instant.

 
"You wore it then."

  I shrugged, wishing he'd tell me how good I looked. The way his eyes raked over me did the talking for him, but it would have been nice to hear it. I felt that gravitational pull towards him as he stepped in closer, looking me over from every angle.

  He pulled a small jewellery box out of his pocket, closing my hand around it before he stepped away.

  "Put those on and then we'll go."