by Kasey Krane
Brendan
The Doherty Mafia #4
Kasey Krane
Savannah Rylan
Copyright © 2021 by Kasey Krane & Savannah Rylan
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
1. Rosalie
2. Brendan
3. Rosalie
4. Brendan
5. Rosalie
6. Brendan
7. Rosalie
8. Brendan
9. Rosalie
10. Brendan
11. Rosalie
12. Brendan
13. Rosalie
14. Brendan
15. Rosalie
16. Brendan
17. Rosalie
18. Brendan
19. Rosalie
20. Brendan
21. Rosalie
22. Brendan
23. Rosalie
24. Brendan
25. Rosalie
26. Brendan
27. Rosalie
28. Brendan
29. Rosalie
30. Brendan
Sneak Peak at Tristian
About Kasey Krane
More Books by Kasey Krane
About Savannah Rylan
More Books by Savannah Rylan
One
Rosalie
Davey wanted me to look at the picture he had drawn of us at kindergarten that day. He held it up with a bright smile on his face, pointing at the stick figures in crayon. One was him—the smaller one with big green eyes, and the taller one with long yellow hair was me. His mommy. The two figures held hands, walking by a tall tree with apples hanging from its branches.
“It’s beautiful, honey. I love it,” I said, enveloping him in my arms. Then I took the picture and stuck it to our small fridge with a magnet.
“This way, I’ll get to look at it everyday,” I added, lifting him up. He wrapped his small arms around my neck.
“I love you, Mommy,” he said, pouting his lips. I knew what was coming. “I don’t want you to leave tonight.”
I brushed his silky brown hair with my fingers. It had gotten so long, I reminded myself to trim his bangs over the weekend. If I had the time.
I tried to distract myself with other thoughts so my eyes wouldn’t fill with tears. Why was it so hard to leave him? Every night was the same story. I reexamined my life all over again.
Davey was a sweet little boy, caring and loving and unafraid to show his emotions. Of all the stupid shit I’d pulled in my life—I knew I must have done something right to deserve a boy like him.
I wanted to do everything I could to give him a good life. A decent life. I told myself we were just having a rough start, in a few years, things would improve for us. I looked around the apartment as I swayed him in my arms, trying to comfort him so he wouldn’t cry.
The place was small. Tiny. The rooms were cramped with stuff, even though we didn’t own a lot of things. Davey didn’t have many toys. I couldn’t spare a lot of money to pay for things that weren’t essential. I tried to save so we could move to a better neighborhood some day, maybe even get our own place.
I knew my life could have looked a lot different if I didn’t have Davey. If I didn’t get pregnant at the ridiculously young age of eighteen. I had my whole life planned out back then. I was going to go to college. I was going to have a career. But when I found out I was pregnant, I had to give it all up. I had to find a job. Any job.
My mother tried to help us, but she didn’t have the means either. I would never have been able to pay for college, make the time to go to classes and look after a newborn and also somehow earn a living.
So I chose to do the practical thing.
Davey leaned his head on my shoulder as I pressed him to my chest and breathed in the clean soft scent of his hair.
“I’m sorry, honey. I wish I didn’t have to go, but I’ll see you in the morning, okay? I’ll be right here when you wake up,” I said, smiling through my tears.
The babysitter, Nina, arrived fifteen minutes late. Which meant that I was going to be late for my shift.
It wasn’t like I was irreplaceable at the bar. This was New York City, and I was just a waitress. It wouldn’t take them ten minutes to hire someone new if I kept this up.
It was the second time this week I was late and pretty soon, it wasn’t going to look so good for me.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” Nina exclaimed, running in through the door.
Davey was sitting on the rug in front of our small TV. His grandmother had gifted him a coloring book recently, so I knew it was going to keep him busy for the rest of the evening.
“I’m going to be late, so I’m going to go,” I said, rushing over to give Davey one last kiss. He looked up at me encouragingly with a smile. Almost like, at the tiny age of three, he already knew how important it was for me to go to this job. As much as I didn’t want to go.
I waved at Nina and ran out of the apartment—taking two steps at a time down the stairs.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I cursed under my breath as I ran to the subway. I couldn’t lose this job. I needed to keep this one. I’d lost too many in the last year and I needed to bring some stability into Davey’s life. I needed to pay the bills. Put food on the table.
Standing squashed up between a crowd of people in the subway, my mind drifted to fantasizing about life as a college student. Dorm rooms. Classes. Coffee dates and parties at night. I never got to experience any of that.
I was a twenty-two year old mom, trying to keep two jobs that paid shit. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the door of the subway. I had to look away. I didn’t like what I saw.
I didn’t recognize myself. This was not the girl with dreams in her eyes.
But what about Davey? If I had all that—I wouldn’t have him.
And I wouldn’t have exchanged him for anything in the world. He was mine, and mine alone and I was going to keep it that way.
Me and my son against the world, and sometimes it did feel like the world was against us. Like we were at war, trying to survive. But we didn’t need anyone else, whatever happened. I wouldn’t make the mistake of bringing someone into our circle. Just like I hadn’t needed anyone else when I was little. It had always been me and Mom.
My life had come a full circle.
“You’re late!” Rocky complained when I rushed into the bar.
“I know, I’m sorry, I had to wait for the babysitter to arrive for my kid,” I said, while putting on my name tag.
The bar was already thumping and in full-swing for the night. Rocky didn’t care about my kid.
“If this keeps happening, we’re going to have a talk. Actually, scratch that. I’m not going to talk about it. You know what I’m sayin’.”
“Yes, I know, and I’m really trying here. Just cut me some slack. Okay?”
We were talking behind the bar while he mixed some drinks.
Rocky grunted in response. He didn’t have time for my excuses. Instead, he turned around and handed me the drinks.
“Table fourteen,” he growled, giving me a hard long stare.
I weaved my way around people who were standing and swaying and talking loudly. I hated working there. This wasn’t the career I had in mind.
I did morning shifts at a diner nearby, which didn’t help either. Both jobs were the kind where I wasn’t treated as a respectable member of the community.
I was a waitress. I worked for tips. I had to smile and be polite, usually when I didn’t want to.
I walked up to the table with the drinks. A group of men sat around the table, leering at me when I went to them. I knew what they were thinking—they were trying to assess if they could grab my ass.
“Haven’t seen you around here before,” one of the guys said as I leaned over the table to place all the drinks.
When I worked this shift, I was constantly aware of the fact that my body was available to these men. Whether I liked it or not.
“I’ve been working here a few months,” I forced myself to respond. If I didn’t make an effort, I wasn’t getting tipped—and tips were what I relied on.
“I would have noticed a thing like you,” he said, staring directly at my ass now. I stepped away from the table quickly but he caught my hip and pulled me closer to him.
“Anything else I can get you boys?” I tried to keep it casual, trying my best to hide how much they made my skin crawl. The other guys smirked like I was putting on some kind of show for them.
“You could come sit on my lap, sweetheart,” he added.
“I have to get back to work or I’m going to lose my job,” I said, pulling away from him. He held on tightly, refusing to let go.
“I’ll give you a job. I promise I’ll make it worthwhile,” he replied and his friends broke into a fit of laughter.
It got harder for me to keep the smile on my face.
“I hope you boys have a nice night, but I really have to go now,” I tried again. This time he yanked me to him and I fell on him. His thick arms wrapped around me as he kept me pinned in place.
And I knew that even if I screamed, nobody would hear me over the loud music playing in the bar. More importantly, nobody would care.
Two
Brendan
Tristian and I stood at the bar, each of us was nursing a beer. Both of us were tired. We had a long day in the city and the meeting had drained us. This war with Aldo Baron was messing up our business everywhere. Our father had sent Tristian and I to meet with our associates here so we could convince them to stay on our books.
It took a lot of convincing.
The Dohertys and the Barons were the big players in New York. Everyone knew that. And nobody wanted to get in the middle of a feud between the two families. They didn’t want to piss either of us off. So the sooner the war ended, the better it would be for both parties—but Aldo Baron didn’t see it that way.
“And he’s too pussy to even show his face,” Tristian continued the conversation where we’d left off.
I nodded. “A grown-ass man hiding because he’s scared.”
Tristian chuckled. “He knows he won’t make it out alive if we get our hands on him.”
I looked around the bar, too tired to even focus on a chick to take home. Tristian’s eyes roamed too. There was a group of girls a few meters away from us and we knew they were checking us out. Talking about us.
“You gonna go over?” Tristian asked, when one of the girls stared right at me and broke into a giggle. Her friend whispered something in her ear while they continued staring.
I thought about it.
Maybe I should have. Banging a chick would have taken my mind off the other shit. The meeting had been successful. We still had those guys working with us, but who knew how long it was going to last. In a couple of weeks, they could change their minds and others would follow suit.
We needed to end this thing with the Barons and resume business as normal. Didn’t anyone else in the family see that? Or was I the only one thinking logically? Everyone else wanted to keep fighting Aldo, crush him into ashes. I knew my brother Killian, Aidan and Colin were taking it personally. Aldo had attacked their women. But they weren’t thinking straight. Not logically.
I wanted to sit the asshole down and come to some kind of agreement with him. For the sake of the business.
“No, you take this one. I want to go home alone tonight,” I said to my brother who smirked.
“Since when do you give up on an ass like that?”
Maybe Tristian was right. Maybe I was changing.
Tristian walked away from me to the group of giggling girls and I turned away. One more drink and I was leaving the bar.
Tristian was nowhere in sight, neither were the girls. I smirked when I thought about Tristian having somehow convinced all of them to go with him to a hotel somewhere. Only he would manage something like that.
I grabbed my jacket off the counter and left a wad of bills for the bartender. I turned to leave because all I wanted to do was return to my apartment and sleep. But before I could go anywhere, I saw her.
She seemed to be a waitress. Short. Blonde. Curvy. The lights were messed up at this place and she wasn’t standing close enough for me to see her face clearly, but there was something about her that made me stop in my tracks. Did I know her from somewhere? There was something familiar about her.
The way she moved, the way she turned her nose up in the air.
But I snapped out of it pretty quickly when I saw her push a guy with her hands. She was standing at a table in the corner. There must have been at least four guys at the table and one of them had an arm around her.
It was pretty obvious that she didn’t like it. She tried to pull away from him but he kept overpowering her,stopping her from getting away.
It took me a second to decide.
I put on my jacket and then weaved my way through the crowd towards them. Nobody else seemed to notice what was going on with her. They were talking to each other but I couldn’t hear their voices over the music.
The girl may even have been shouting, cursing at him to leave her alone.
“Hello, gentlemen,” I said, walking up to them with my hands thrust deep in my pockets.
They all turned to look at me, and that was when I met her big blue eyes. She reminded me of someone, of some place I’d been to before. Fuck. I needed to think.
It was like she casted a spell on me.
“What the fuck do you want?” one of the guys said.
“I want you to leave this chick alone. Simple,” I replied with a bitter smile.
The guy who had his arm around her, stared at me, then turned to his friends and smiled.
“Get a load-a this guy. He’s going to come up here and tell me what to do.”
I gave them a moment to enjoy themselves, laugh together because it seemed like they needed it. One last laugh to mark the night.
I smiled at them when they looked at me again. Then I grabbed the guy by his collars and pulled him off the seat. The girl spun away and slipped to the floor, but I figured she was going to be all right as long as she got away from this bastard.
“I asked you nicely, motherfucker. I really don’t like being rude,” I growled before knocking him out.
Three
Rosalie
I was convinced something bad was going to happen to me. The guy who had his arm around me made it very clear he wasn’t going to release me unless I gave him something. What did he want? A lap dance? A hand job?
I wanted to cry. I screamed and thrashed while his friends laughed and he fondled me all over. Just as I expected, nobody at the bar seemed to have heard me scream. Nobody was going to come to my rescue.
I thought he was going to drag me to the toilets right then. His grip was strong and the more I fought him, the more excited he got.
And then this guy appeared out of nowhere.
I barely even had a chance to look at his face before he pulled the man off me and punched him in the face. His friends jumped off their chairs, meaning to attack the guy who came to my rescue. But then, another guy showed up.
I had fallen to the floor and I stayed there, backing into a corner while I watched the scene unfold. I could still feel that man’s paws all over me. I still had tears rolling down my cheeks. I wanted to be home. I wanted to be with Davey, have him curled in my arms. Even when all this was happening to me, I
thought about protecting him.
The two guys wrestled with the three remaining men from the table. The guy who came to my rescue, and his friend—were clearly physically superior. They were both tall and muscular with short crew cuts and bulging biceps. They were the kinds of guys you didn’t mess with. The kinds of guys I knew to stay away from because I didn’t trust them. And yet, of all the people in the bar, they were the ones who came to my rescue.
I wanted to catch a good glimpse of the one who had pulled me off but he was too involved with the wrestling. At one point, he even took a punch in the face and it looked like his nose started to bleed. I winced in response to that, even though it seemed like he was unaffected by it.
Then the bar security arrived. Finally.
Two losers who wouldn’t have been able to break up the fight single-handedly if they didn’t have help from Rocky and some of the other staff.
The men were pulled apart. The guy knocked out on the floor was finally coming-to.
Ironically, it was the two guys who fought for me who were being pushed out of the bar. They were the ones who had started the fight. I scrambled to get off the floor and come to their defense. Even though I knew it wouldn’t matter. Ultimately, I would get the blame from Rocky for causing a scene and upsetting paying customers.
As they walked out, the tall hot guy who came to my rescue threw me one last look. Then he winked.