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

by Flora Ferrari

  Dear Garrett

  If you're reading this, then the unthinkable has happened and I've not survived the set up of our business. This letter will act as the first step in transferring control over to you. Hopefully it's never needed, because if you are reading this it will mean I didn't get to see my little girl fully become the amazing woman I know she'll turn out to be.

  After all you've done for me over the years, I hope you'll understand that you're the only one I trust to secure my Kaitlin's future. You're the closest thing to a brother I've had, and I hope you'll see Kaitlin as family in the same way.

  Her inheritance has been placed in trust, with you as the trustee, on the advice of my lawyer, who tells me it really would be the best thing to do to protect her interests. I want her to be able to go to college and make something of herself, unlike her old man.

  I know that our business has already been promised a great deal of that cash to jump start the first few franchises, and it's with the love of a brother that I ask you to scale down our plans if it's not too late to do that, so Kaitlin won't remember me as the man who broke all his promises. I'd hoped by the time she needed the money, we'd have a few off the ground and running, but looking over the books, I'm not sure I've calculated correctly.

  I know you'll find a way to make it all work. You always had the brains.

  You've been a decent man since the day I met you and I knew all those years ago when you made sure me and Kaitlin's mother's secrets stayed safe that you would be a lifelong friend. I've owed you my life all these years and I'll still be asking favours of you from the other side.

  All I've calculated on is a scaling back, and I know you'll do us both proud rolling out Brannigan's Boxing all over the world someday. I've always known our dream should have your name on it, and I'm making that one of my official requests, so you can't feckin argue with it.

  Anyway, I know you're better with the sums than I'll ever be. I've arranged for control of the accounts to go to you and that lawyer of mine has all the access codes you'll need. The latest paperwork's attached. I put everything I had into this venture, as well you know, and as inconvenient as it might be for you, I'm not too proud to beg you to see it through.

  I would dearly love for Kaitlin to be more than a silent partner when she'd ready, but I know that will depend as much on the stubbornness of my girl as much as you. At the very least, I want her to be able to see her daddy did something to be proud of.

  Someday I hope the pair of you will be able to meet in Dublin, when Tiernan and Kilpatrick are finally gone. I hope you'll show her the city that should have always been her home. Until then, I trust you to keep her safely out of it, the way you have since before she was even born.

  Always in your debt

  Your best friend

  Donovan Kearney

  With a sinking heart, I flipped to the financial documents and closed my eyes on a groan.

  Just glancing over the figures I could see exactly why he hadn't given her full control of her money. There wasn't enough there, not by far. Her college fund was well and truly muddled with the money he'd put into the projections we'd worked out together. It was going to take some very careful management to allow Kaitlin everything her father intended to be able to afford with the money in the same pot.

  My gym was the blueprint. The original. I put everything I had into the idea, money and resources, determined to get it off the ground. Kearney was after a legacy after nearly twenty years running from his past, but in a way, I was too.

  Boxing was in my blood, but I'd taken her father's advice and kept my stints in the ring strictly amateur. School was my focus. I did business studies and marketing. I became a promoter. A successful one. The work for Tiernan and Kilpatrick was what had funded my lifestyle, but it wasn't what I wanted to look back on as my life's work. And five years ago, Kearney looked me up again on the internet with a proposal.

  He wanted to set up a network of boxing gyms, like the one I'd taken over from my father, designed to be a focus for youth groups in the least affluent areas, giving kids like the pair of us a chance at doing more than being groomed by thugs who viewed them as disposable assets. It was exactly what I knew I should have been doing all along, right from the moment he wrote to me.

  His suggestion was a way of washing my hands of the Dublin underworld at some point down the line. I'd thought so many times about stepping onto a plane and never coming back. It was my escape plan. My retirement scheme, bubbling away on the back burner, well out of anyone's notice.

  But this changed everything.

  Kaitlin wasn't ready to manage all of this on her own, and without a solid leader and much more input from me, the dream her father and I had built together would crumble.

  CHAPTER 19

  Kaitlin

  Garrett seemed to be set on showing me how amazing the food in Dublin could be as though he was hoping to be able to distract me from the only conversation I wanted to have. About my college fund and the future.

  Every night, he met me at his apartment, usually with some new outfit to fit with the style of the place we were going. Whether it be in the centre of the city, or out in the different villages that made up the wider Dublin area, we drove out in his car, and Garrett's driver, Mickey, picked us up for the journey home. Each morning his car would be right back in the street out in front of his building, where we could see it from the kitchen window, making coffee, and I'd stopped questioning the magic.

  I didn't see much of his men at all, and I got the sense that Garrett wanted to keep it that way. Most of the work he did seemed to involve his laptop, and strings of long phone calls and meetings. It wasn't exactly my idea of what a gangster got up to.

  Sometimes when we were at a restaurant together, someone would come over to the table wanting to talk, and Garrett would tolerate a very tight-lipped conversation for a handful of minutes, but he always dismissed them before too long.

  He left the room to take phone calls at his apartment, and sent the calls straight to voicemail when we were out.

  Every day he left me in the apartment, without a key, so I couldn't even pop to the shops on my own.

  I was all too aware of the bubble he was keeping me in and it was grinding me down.

  Part of me was content to stay there, looking forward to tumbling into bed with him every evening and waking up next to him, but I hadn't been out during the day since he'd moved me in and I was starting to feel caged.

  "Garrett, I want to go sightseeing with Nora tomorrow."

  He barely looked up from his newspaper.

  "You can't. You go out there without me, you're dead."

  I gritted my teeth, eyes burning into him, my face fierce with all my anger and frustration. "Great. Thanks for the reminder. What's your plan, that I never go out again?"

  I got up from the bed, just to put some distance between us, and crossed the room before I did something stupid like try to strangle him. I wasn't in the mood for winding up flat on my back when I didn't intend to be.

  Living like this wasn't sustainable. I'd go stir crazy. I was already starting to, and lounging around all day doing nothing, waiting for him to come home like some housewife from the fifties without the cleaning duties wasn't what I'd had in mind for the rest of my life.

  "I can't stay inside forever, Garrett. This is getting ridiculous."

  "Where d'you want to go?"

  I let out a sigh, throwing my hands up. "I don't know! Anywhere. Somewhere. I want not to have to ask you about every damn thing and have you act like I need an armed guard at all times."

  Over the top of his newspaper, he gave me a long, solid stare that I couldn't properly read. Tension grouped around his mouth and I thought he was going to pull his macho act and tell me he knew best and I wasn't safe without him as my shadow all over again. But something in his eyes softened.

  "Fine. Come with me."

  "Where are we going?"

  "If you're set on going out without me, you
've got to learn to do more than piss someone off when you hit them. We're going to my gym."

  If I could have done it without him seeing me, I would have punched the air in triumph. That sounded a hell of a lot like he was coming around to my way of thinking.

  And I had to admit he had a point. If he wasn't such a gentleman, I could have found myself in real trouble for hitting him the way I had. Even if he had deserved it.

  CHAPTER 20

  Kaitlin

  I barely recognised the boxing gym without the crowd that had been there the night of the fight.

  In the light of day, it was a long, rectangular space with a row of boxing rings set up side by side down the length, and not quite the same amount of space opposite with mats on the floor and punch bags hanging. Space for free weight and jumping rope.

  Stale sweat was the overriding odour, but somehow when that blended with the canvas and the chalk and leather from the gloves, it smelled good. Male and primal. Just like Garrett himself.

  I smiled at the fighter I'd seen in the ring the night of the fight, but he froze in the middle of waving to me when he saw Garrett by my side.

  "Did you just growl at him?"

  "He needs to concentrate and keep his head in the fight. You're not helping."

  I rolled my eyes. "Jeez. Excuse me for being friendly."

  "You don't need to be friendly to anyone in here apart from me."

  I folded my arms across my chest, my smile slowly sneaking in. "Are you jealous?"

  He hooked a finger into the neck of my t-shirt, pulling me close enough to kiss. My lips parted as he dusted his mouth against mine, and heat rushed through me as his tongue flickered into my mouth.

  I couldn't squash my smile when he pulled back.

  "I don't have anything to be jealous about. Everyone in here knows you're mine."

  "Is that so?"

  "You better believe it."

  His possessiveness should have repelled me, but I loved knowing he prized me above anything else. Again my heart squeezed at the thought of how good he'd be as a dad, showing his kids this stuff instead of me. He wouldn't let anyone mess with them, and he'd play the tough guy when he had to, but I knew he had a softer side too. I could see him reading bedtime stories and scaring away the monsters under the bed.

  I cleared my throat before the perfect little picture of our could-be life together could get any more vivid. My heart ached for it, which I knew was ridiculous. I hadn't wanted any of that so soon. Not until I met him. But he didn't think of me like that. I was his best friend's daughter who'd waded into his life and started causing trouble. That was all.

  "Get changed. I'll meet you back out here."

  Five minutes later, I came out of the changing rooms to see him standing there in loose legged track pants and a black t-shirt that moulded itself to his sculpted chest. My mouth went dry when his eyes settled on me and his mouth twitched in that barely visible smile of his that told me he liked what he saw.

  I was wearing my lycra leggings and sneakers that I usually wore for jogging and yoga, and I had on my sports bra under a loose white tank top. If it was going to take learning to defend myself to get a bit of freedom back in this city, then so be it. My hair was tied up in a high ponytail. I was ready to kick ass.

  He beckoned me over, prowling towards the ring, looking every inch the king of his domaine.

  "Are you going to teach me to box?"

  I danced a couple of quick steps from side to side, fists raised in front of my face, imitating the little I'd seen in the ring. I didn't know a thing about boxing that wasn't from Rocky films, which was a sad thing in retrospect, given my father had apparently been such a champ.

  "No."

  Garrett was in one of his serious moods then. I stopped my little dance, swallowing hard. His mouth refused to twitch into a smile. Of course he was going to suck the fun out of this.

  "But you're teaching me how to land a punch, right?"

  "There's no point."

  "Hey! I'm not totally hopeless you know. I have good coordination and I had to inherit something from my dad."

  "You need space to land a decent punch. And more strength than you've got."

  His hand closed around my poised fist and he pushed my arm back until my fist was just behind my ear, and then he drew my arm forward in a slow motion swing through the air, describing the arc of a right hook.

  "You see how far your man would have to be for you to hit him with any force, No one's going to stand back and wait for you to bring it before trying to grab you."

  "Right." No longer so hyped up, I let my shoulder rise and fall in a lopsided shrug. "So that's it, lesson over?"

  "Course not. I'm going to teach you how to inflict pain."

  My brows darted up towards my hairline. Of course he was. Garrett wouldn't do anything less.

  He tapped the side of my head. "You've got to think smart, Kaitlin. It's a tough world out there."

  My lips quirked into a smile I couldn't mute, and I had to shake off the thrill of Garrett teaching me something worthwhile. "Bring it on."

  Garrett ducked under the ropes, holding them for me to do the same and I followed him into the middle of the empty ring.

  Again I raised my fists in front of me, taking a balanced stance with one foot in front of the other.

  Garrett strolled around me, as casual as anything, then lightning fast he jabbed at my stomach. On instinct, my hands dove to protect myself and Garrett caught my arm. Before I knew what had happened, he had me pinned against his chest, pressed against the ropes, my arm twisted behind me.

  "Ouch." My breathing was heavy and I was all too aware of the feel of his muscled body holding me up. Fighting was the last thing on my mind, though I wouldn't have said no to a different kind of tumble.

  I couldn't get enough of him now that I'd had him.

  "Stop trying to fight me. That's lesson one. You're not in the middle of a boxing match. No points for technique."

  He let go and I shook my arm out, working my shoulder to make sure the fading sting of pain was superficial and I tried to get my head back in the game. I wasn't going to let him get away with that.

  "So what am I supposed to do?"

  "Defend yourself with everything you've got."

  I raised my eyebrows, watching him stalk around me again. This time I felt more like a rabbit cornered by a fox.

  "What is it I've got?"

  His lips quirked and he let out an infuriating laugh. "If you don't know that Macushla, I can't help you."

  Right now, it didn't feel like very much. All I had was a track record of Garrett manhandling me. Whether I'd liked it or not, I couldn't seriously have made a go at stopping him.

  "Elbows. Teeth. Keys, if you've got them on you. Thumbs in eye sockets. Fingers clawing handfuls of the flesh on their thighs and the tendons on their forearms. The solid heel of one of your shoes. But what you never, never do, Kaitlin, is hit someone without committing to it 100%. Relax a minute."

  He moved behind me, stepping close and I stiffened slightly, showing the strength in me as he ran his hands down my arms.

  "I said relax," he murmured, breath hot against my bare neck and I felt the ever-present flicker of arousal in me at the proximity of his voice to the shell of my ear. I flushed, tingling all over at the memories of us tangled together in the bedroom and the way his voice always coaxed me over the edge.

  His arm circled my waist, pulling me back against him and his unmistakable erection. At least I wasn't the only one this was getting to.

  "Trust me, Kaitlin."

  "I do."

  Breathing all too heavily for the amount of exertion, I let my arms go limp. Garrett rolled my shoulders and I let my neck sag like a limp noodle.

  "Mm. That feels good."

  "Kaitlin. Concentrate. You're going to hit me, and you're going to use all the force in your body. You're going to let your arm swing, just like this. Your power comes from the whole of you, not these puny litt
le arm muscles of yours. You understand?"

  I nodded, feeling every part of me melt into him. This made sense. Being here with him. But I did need to focus or I'd never get to be anywhere else at all.

  I let my arms dangle, heavy from my shoulders, just like he said.

  "What you want to do is get a whip crack going. You're going to land the hit with the heel of your hand. Solid, sharp. But right up until that point, you keep it fluid."