by Kasey Krane
“They found out about…that Davey means something to me.”
I almost choked at that. What did he just say? My mind was racing. Had he always known?
“Why would they take him? Who are they?” I cried.
He reached for my hands and held them tightly.
“This is not about you, Rosalie. This is about me. They took Davey because they’re trying to get to me. Because they’re right, Davey does mean something to me.”
As much as I wanted to focus on what Brendan was saying, and a few hours ago, this would have been a significant thing to me—I couldn’t brood over it right then. My son’s safety was my only concern.
“What will they do to Davey? Are they going to hurt him?”
“People who work with me are out there right now trying to hunt them down. We will find Davey.”
“But will they hurt him?” I shouted. I just wanted him to answer the question. There was some relief in knowing that Brendan knew who had Davey. At least it wasn’t a complete lost cause.
“No. They will not. They know I’ll kill every last one of them if they do.”
I peered into his eyes. They were so green and they were burning up. He wasn’t exaggerating. He was prepared to kill for Davey.
Why?
Why would he care so much about a kid he had just met?
Brendan released his grip on my hands and stood up. He towered over me and I wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“Brendan, there is something I want to tell you…” I started in a shaky voice.
“He’s my son.”
We stared at each other in silence. I expected him to be angry, but he wasn’t. At least he wasn’t in that moment. Maybe Davey’s disappearance was all that was on his mind too.
“When did you figure it out?” I asked.
“This morning, while you were asleep. He was asleep too. I went to his room to check on him and I realized he looks exactly like I did at that age. He has my eyes.”
My nostrils flared as I felt another bout of tears welling up inside me.
“And then you left,” I said.
Brendan sat beside me on the couch.
It was the truth. That was exactly what had happened. As soon as he figured out that he was Davey’s father, he had left us. Just as I’d expected him to.
“I needed some time to think,” he said, after being silent for a few moments.
“Would you have even shown up again if you didn’t find out about the kidnapping?” I asked, wiping my tears.
Now that it was established that I couldn’t do anything for Davey, the only thing distracting me was directing all my frustration and anger at Brendan. Didn’t I have every right to be angry with him?
“Maybe I could have dealt with it in a different way if I was told the truth by you,” he said. Brendan looked up at me from under his heavy lidded eyes. He was frustrated too.
I clasped my hands together in my lap, tangling my fingers together.
“I guess I was waiting for the right opportunity,” I replied.
“You can stop lying to me now, Rosalie. More importantly, you can stop lying to yourself. You were never going to tell me. You wanted me gone from your life. From Davey’s life. You had plenty of opportunity to confess.”
I tore my gaze away from him, breaking down in sobs again.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, I felt so lost and confused. I didn’t want to disappoint Davey. I didn’t think you would want to be a father.”
I hoped he would take me in his arms again, that he would quickly forgive me for keeping the truth from him—but he didn’t.
“That was not a decision for you to make. To decide whether I want to be a father or not.”
“You can admit it, Brendan. Now that I know about your history. You never wanted kids. You don’t want to be a father.”
He banged his fists on the coffee table, hard enough that he made the coasters jump.
“Damn right I didn’t. I never wanted to be a father. You’ve got it all figured out pretty well. But what made you think I would abandon my responsibility as a father? That I wouldn’t fall in love with Davey. That I wouldn’t feel a connection to my own son? He’s my flesh and blood. He’s a Doherty. You thought I would reject him?”
He spat the words out with venom in his voice. In those moments, it seemed like he truly hated me. I hated myself too.
“Brendan, I’m sorry,” I murmured.
He stood up and walked to the window, keeping his back turned to me firmly.
“It’s too late for that now. If I knew the truth, Davey wouldn’t have been taken. If I knew he is my son, I would have known they were coming for him and I would have protected him.”
I knew he was right. I had made a poor error in judgement. I knew that now, but there was nothing I could do to change it. There was nothing I could do to bring my son back.
I went up to Brendan, and when he still didn’t turn to look at me I placed a hand on his shoulder. Finally, he turned.
“I’m going to find him, Rosalie. He’s my kid. I’m not going to let anyone hurt him. I promise you that.”
I nodded. I believed him. He had no idea how relieved I was to hear it. I wished he would have taken me in his arms and kissed me.
“I know I’ve made a mistake by not telling you about Davey, but I thought it would have been easier to just raise him myself.”
“You could have found me. You knew who I was. Everyone around here knows who I am.”
I nodded. “Yes, I know that. I’m not going to lie. It was a conscious decision on my part to keep Davey from you. I thought I was saving him a lot of disappointment.”
“By not letting him have a relationship with his father?” Brendan narrowed his eyes accusingly at me. He had every right to.
“I genuinely thought you ditched me that night at the party. I assumed that was the kind of father you would make.”
He brushed a hand through his hair and shook his head.
“I would never desert my own flesh and blood.”
“I didn’t know that. I knew nothing about you.”
My lips quivered. I knew more tears were coming. I felt helpless because I couldn’t help my son, and also because Brendan hated me now.
But then he grabbed me by my hips and pulled me in. He used his thumbs to gently wipe my tears away.
“We can talk about all this later. Right now, we just need to focus on finding Davey.”
“How much longer will it be?”
“I don’t know. I’m waiting to hear from my brothers, but none of us will give up until he’s asleep in his own bed safely.”
I nodded. Tears still rolled down my cheeks, but he was there now to catch them. I wasn’t sure if he would ever forgive me for all the wasted time. For missing Davey’s birth, for missing his first steps and his first words. But for now, there wasn’t anyone else who I could rely upon more.
Mom was right—I had been wrong about Brendan all along.
I looked up expectantly at him, hoping he would kiss me, but he released me and turned to look out of the window again.
“Come on, kiddo, where are you?” he mumbled under his breath.
I watched his reflection in the glass. He looked determined and enraged as he stared out at the streets. I pressed my eyes close and whispered to Davey that I loved him.
Twenty-Six
Brendan
Even though it seemed like a long time, it hadn’t been that long that we were waiting at the apartment—probably like half an hour—before all my brothers showed up.
Tristian had spread the word.
When the rest of the Dohertys found out that I had a son who had been kidnapped by Aldo Baron, they all wanted to be there to do their part.
Rosalie was lying on the couch, curled up and softly sobbing when the rest of my clan stormed her apartment. She sat up with a jerk, surprised to see so many of us together.
But there was no time for introductions or niceties.
Aidan and Tristian were the only ones to even acknowledge her presence there, while the others just jumped on the problem at hand.
“We have men on the streets, trying to collect information on where Aldo could be holing up with the kid,” Killian said.
“I’m collating a list of all his local warehouses and holding cells,” Nolan added. “We’ll check every one of them.”
“He wouldn’t have taken him to one of his usual sites of business. Besides, we’ve already done rounds of those when we were searching for him,” I said.
Over Tristian’s shoulder, I saw Rosalie still on the couch. She looked shell-shocked. She wasn’t expecting to be surrounded by my brothers, and I was sure we probably looked intimidating to her when we were gathered together like that. We looked intimidating to everyone.
“But if we have no other leads on where to start looking, we’ll have to hit up the warehouses and storage facilities,” Aidan said.
I clenched my jaws and nodded.
“And we will burn them down,” I growled.
My brothers stared at me. They knew what the implication of those actions would be—yeah, we had been at war with the Barons for a few months now, but burning down all their holding cells would be a direct act of violence. It would give the Barons the excuse they needed to retaliate. But kidnapping an innocent child was worse in my books.
Once we started burning each other down, there would be no stopping the extent each family would go to win. There was only one way to end something like that once it snowballed—total and complete annihilation.
“I don’t give a shit what happens after this. I’m going to do everything it takes to bring Davey back. I’m not letting him go,” I continued.
Tristian slapped a hand on my shoulder.
“Neither are we, brother. We just wanted to make sure we are all on the same page.”
“One hour. That is how long those motherfuckers have to release Davey back to us. If they don’t do it in that time, I’m going to start burning down everything they own.” I could feel the blood rushing into my ears. My veins felt like they were about to burst.
I would burn down this whole city if I had to in search of my son.
Rosalie offered everyone coffee while we all waited together to hear from the Barons. None of us were able to get a hold of Aldo directly either, so we had no other choice but to wait for him to reach out to us.
I had a feeling he wasn’t going to.
He was tripping on the power and control he had over us now by kidnapping Davey. He was probably having us watched right then too, enjoying the way we were losing our shit.
I stood at the window, keeping an eye on the street. My brothers were spread around the living room, discussing their versions of the game plan. I didn’t need to discuss any of it. I knew what I would do—whatever it took to bring Davey back in one piece.
I didn’t notice Rosalie. She may have been standing beside me at the window for several minutes.
“It sounds dangerous, what you’re about to do,” she said in a quiet whispery voice.
“It is going to be what it’s going to be,” I replied.
We turned to face each other.
I was in love with her. I could admit it to myself now—there was no point denying it. I loved her from the first moment I met her, before I even knew she was the mother of my kid. I had never been this obsessed with anyone before.
But now I didn’t know if I could get past what she had done. What she had kept from me. The danger she had put our son in.
It was my fault too. I should have sensed something was fishy when she told me about her stalker the previous night. I should have known Aldo had her followed and watched. I never should have left Davey’s side.
“I just…want you to be safe. I want you both to be safe,” she murmured.
Rosalie’s eyes were so watery and so blue. She looked angelic and delicate when she cried. Her nose and cheeks were all flushed pink and if the circumstances were different, I would have kissed her right then.
“Davey is going to be safe. I’m going to make sure of it. No matter what it takes, he is coming back to you,” I said.
She leaned towards me and planted a soft kiss on my cheek.
“That’s just for good luck. I don't expect anything in return. Davey is…he is very lucky to have you and your family to look after him,” she said.
She had no idea what I did, what my family was involved in. Maybe she wouldn’t consider Davey to be that lucky once she found out, would she? What if she didn’t want him involved in the mafia? It was a dangerous world. She wouldn’t be wrong to want to stay away.
But I couldn’t think about that now. The hour was almost up and it was time to put my next plan into action.
We drove in our cars to the first warehouse on our list. The plan was to hit each and every one of them in the next few hours. Killian had already called for backup and more of our men were going to meet us at the location.
Tristian was in the passenger seat while I drove, gripping the steering wheel till my knuckles turned white.
“We’re going to find the kid,” he said. Probably in a bid to get me to calm down. He could see I was losing it.
“The only way Aldo is giving Davey back is if we force him to. He’s not going to do it out of the goodness of his heart,” I growled.
“And we will find a way to force him.”
“Yeah, by burning down every last piece of everything he owns.”
“You’ve been advocating for weeks about trying to make peace with Aldo. You didn’t want this war to affect our business,” Tristian tried.
I screeched the car to a halt right outside the warehouse where the other Doherty vehicles had collected too. I turned to face my brother. I hoped he knew he had said something idiotic.
“That’s my son he has. He kidnapped my kid and I don’t know when he’s coming back. Do you understand what I’m saying? I don’t give a fuck about our family business while my son’s life is in danger.”
Tristian nodded, but I had already jumped out of the car.
I pulled my gun out and held it up in the air. While my brothers and the others waited for someone to give the order, I charged through the gates, heading straight for the warehouse.
A bunch of Baron men acted as security. They saw the cars parked outside, they saw me marching in. The alarms had already been raised. They trained their guns at me and I didn’t give a shit. I was ready to walk up to a firing squad if I had to.
I was the one who took the first shot. My brothers stormed up behind me, shooting their guns too. Within seconds, this had turned into a shoot out. The Baron men fought back, trying to defend their property. I felt something sharp and hot fire straight into my thigh. I felt it pierce skin. Bone? Was blood trickling down my leg?
I didn’t even have the time to look down. I didn’t even notice the pain while I fired back wildly.
Eventually, we got every last Baron man at that location. We had severely outnumbered them.
One of the guys got the can of fuel and started splashing it around. I watched Tristian shoot the locks that held the shutters down. They pulled it up, splashing fuel inside too. More cans of fuel appeared until everything looked soaked.
Within seconds, it was all going up in flames. They let me do the honors, so I was the one who threw in the match.
This was just the beginning. I hoped Aldo knew that I wasn’t going to stop.
Twenty-Seven
Rosalie
I’d lost track of time. I didn’t know how long it had been since Brendan left the apartment accompanied by all his brothers. He hadn’t given me a plan, he hadn’t given me a time and I didn’t know how to get in touch with him. So I didn’t know if they had Davey, if my son…our son…was safe or not.
I felt even more helpless now, even more lost. I just wished Brendan didn’t hate me as much as he did now. Maybe then he would have kept me informed on his activities.
I hadn’t
told my mother yet about Davey’s kidnapping, and while I sat alone in the apartment, waiting to hear anything—I contemplated calling her.
The only thing Brendan had told me before he left was for me to not step out of the apartment, to not call or tell anybody what was going on, and to not answer the door to anybody other than him or his brothers.
It wasn’t like the cops had made any effort to contact me either.
I hadn’t heard from anyone in hours.
I just sat on the couch with a cup of coffee that had gone completely cold. Davey’s teddy bear was in my lap and I kept sniffing it to remind myself of how he smelled. I missed him. I hated myself for not being able to protect him. I hated myself for not trusting Brendan more.
Then finally, there was a knock on the door. I gasped before I ran over to open it. I’d forgotten about Brendan’s directive to check through the peephole first. But thankfully, it was him.
Brendan stood there in front of me and he looked like a man who had just walked through fire.
I stared at him in shock. His clothes looked black and almost charred. Clearly, he had been standing too close to a blaze. And it seemed like he was bleeding from his thigh.
“Brendan…” I whispered his name in horror. “Where is he? Where is our son?”
He shook his head and my heart stopped. I feared the worst.
“We don’t have him yet, but we’re getting close,” he replied, walking in.
I locked the door behind him, on the verge of breaking into tears again. I just wanted to see my son. I just wanted to be able to hold him again.
“I’m sorry, Rosalie. I’m trying. I’m doing everything I can to bring him back. I don’t know where he is but I’m going to find him. Do you trust me?” he asked.
I could see how broken he was. Broken…just like me.
I nodded. “Yes, I trust you. I know you’ll bring him back. He’s going to be fine,” I said.
I had no other choice but to believe it.