Table of Contents
Copyright
Title
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Thank You
Also By
Author Bio
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents depicted in this work are of the author’s imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locations, or events is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2016 Madison Stevens
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.
Cover designed by Najla Qamber Designs
Braden (Kelly Clan #5)
by
Madison Stevens
Teagan just wants to live a normal life and not get sick again. Though she fantasizes about having a boyfriend she can bring home for Christmas, she needs a normal, safe man, and not Braden, the sexy traitor mobster who saved her life. She’s doing her best to not think about the amazing kiss she shared with him and instead focus on her clothing line.
Braden is deep undercover. He's the inside man for Finn, the head of the Irish Mafia, and keeping an eye on the recent influx of enforcers of the enemy Russian Mafia.
Despite wanting Teagan, Braden knows she’s better off away from him. Things become dangerous and complicated when he's asked to kidnap Teagan to keep her safe from the vengeful Russians.
Now Braden and Teagan find themselves thrown together, their lives threatened before their love even has a chance.
Chapter One
Christ, Braden hated being around these pricks. He glanced around at the suited men talking about some stupid dive bar they’d been to the night before and all the vodka they’d been knocking back before they beat the shit out of some guy for looking at them the wrong way.
One of the men said something in Russian. Several others laughed.
He’d never been one that was afraid to get a little rough if necessary, but random violence was pointless. All it did was piss people off and bring more attention without doing anything useful to bring in money.
Hell, Finn understood that. Maybe Ennis did, too, on some level, but he’d let his jealousy of Finn lead to him being in bed with thug punks and vicious assholes.
And now Braden was stuck with them.
It had been nearly a year since he’d walked away from his position in the Kelly Clan and followed the elder brother, Ennis, on his quest to keep the family name feared in the criminal underworld.
Of course, Finn Kelly had seen this coming from early on when his father had named him head of the family instead of his brother and had hoped it wouldn’t go this far. He’d wanted to move the Kelly Clan into legitimate business and away from the bloodshed that had soaked the lives of every man in the family.
Many people, including Ennis, thought Finn had gone soft. It was only a matter of time before people were forced to choose. Unfortunately for Braden, that time arrived, and he’d followed Finn’s brother away and into the embrace of people who lacked any of the honor he’d come to expect from his time with the Kellys, like the vicious Russians Ennis had cozied up to.
Unlike Ennis and a lot of his other lackeys, Braden hadn’t chosen to follow. He’d been asked to betray Finn. Ordered really, by none other than Finn.
Now Braden was stuck in a shit job dealing with a bunch of pricks that wanted to harm the people he called family. He had to play double agent and somehow try to stop anyone else from getting hurt. The simmering conflict between Finn’s men and the Russians had flared up recently, with the Russians getting bolder.
Bodies were starting to pile up. And no one would ever claim that gang wars were the kind of thing that would stay calm. There was no way Ennis would keep his men out of the brewing shit storm between Finn and the Russians.
Braden ran a hand through his thick dark hair and grimaced at the oily feel. Ennis and his other men had been doing nothing but petty shit for the last six months other than passing information along to the Russians, but that hadn’t been the case for Braden.
Pulling double duty between the two factions of Kellys was starting to wear on him. Setting up secret meetings and knowing that each time he did it was only putting his position more at risk didn’t leave him relaxed.
The door near him creaked open, and he watched as a weathered Russian stepped through and raked the room with a suspicious gaze. The deep scar on his face was only one of the many signs he was as lethal as he was brutal.
Boris stopped when his eyes landed on Braden and glared as he stepped further into the warehouse. Behind him, the new Russian Mafia kingpin quickly followed with purpose, his heavy black coat draped over his shoulders as if it were nothing, even though it likely cost several thousand dollars. The only color on him came from the shiny gold chains hanging around his neck. The chains provided a gaudy clash with the fine material of his coat.
Braden glanced over to where Ennis had been sitting at the table with some of the other men from both of their factions. Ennis stood and nodded to the other man.
“It seems life in America suits you well, Stefano,” Ennis said.
The kingpin stepped over to the table where Ennis had been sitting at and took a seat on the other side. Every movement was imbued with authority that Ennis only hoped to exude.
No, a boss like this was one a man didn’t mess with. Finn might have met his match with this man.
“I might like it better here if you’d follow through on your promise,” Stefano said. “How are we allies when only my men are dying?” He shook his head. “This is not right.”
Ennis glanced over to Braden. They had spoken about this privately, but the war between Ennis and his brother had grown beyond his ability to manage it.
Ennis had thought he’d be able to depose Finn just by taking men with him and allying with a powerful faction, but his younger brother had outmaneuvered him and managed to hold on to the loyalty of many of the top men. Hell, Finn even had some powerful political and business contacts now.
Still, no one wanted bloodshed. The men on both sides were uneasy about taking out family in many cases.
The Russians had made things complicated, which suited Finn more than Ennis. The longer things stretched out, the more likely the men were to return to the family, if both sides could abstain from killing one another. The Russians were a whole different matter though.
Finn seemed to hold out hope that his brother would come back to him as well, but Braden had watched Ennis slowly turn into a monster. There were some things a man just couldn’t come back from, some things that pushed you beyond the point of forgiveness.
Braden had often wondered if he himself was too far gone. Maybe they all were, and he was just deluding himself.
“Finn has held on to his position better than we expected,” Ennis said, waving a hand. “We just need to be patient.”
To most he might seem cool and collected, but Braden watched as his other hand twitched slightly against the table, a nervous habit he’d witnessed from his boss several times.
“I real
ly feel that if we—” Ennis continued.
Stefano slammed his hands against the table. The sound echoed against the walls.
“I think we are done doing your way,” the kingpin said, his face radiating menace and his thick Russian accent accentuating the point. “My men want justice. You can’t be a little bitch and expect Finn to respect you.” He sneered. “Or me. My men want the traitor. I want the traitor.”
Braden tensed. If the Russians went after Conor, he wasn’t so certain he’d be able to step in without alerting them to his own traitorous nature. Boris was already suspicious of him.
“You go after Finn’s second-in-command, and they will use every weapon in their arsenal to come back at you,” Braden said. “This isn’t about being a bitch or respect. This is about fucking them over when we’re all ready.”
Every eye in the room turned to look at him. Generally, he preferred to stay quiet during this sort of meeting, but if necessary, he knew how to sway the opinion of the higher ups.
He watched as Boris stepped closer to the two bosses. Braden could see the glint in his eye as he did so. The Russian bastard was up to something. He always was.
Boris nodded. “Yes, you right,” he said, his poor English seemingly even more pronounced than normal. “But we still need to send message.” He raised a finger. “How about pretty new wife, or,” he said and looked directly at Braden, “maybe pretty sister?”
Braden kept his face unmoving. His heart pounded. Fucking Boris. That son of a bitch.
Teagan. Boris wanted to take out Conor’s sister Teagan. Braden didn’t even dare to take a deep breath. He couldn’t let them see how angry he was.
He couldn’t let it happen. It didn’t really matter what happened him at this point, all he knew was nothing could happen to her. Screw Finn. Screw Ennis. And most of all, screw Boris.
Stefano nodded. “Yes, this is a good plan.” He slammed a hand on the table and rose. “So it’s settled. We take out the traitor’s sister.”
Ennis’s face hardened, but he didn’t say anything, and didn’t raise any objections.
Stefano grinned down at him. “You have no problem with this?”
“Do what you need,” Ennis said.
Braden tensed when Boris came to stand next to him against the wall.
“Maybe we have fun with her first,” Boris said with a twisted smile. “She is pretty.”
The Russian was trying to get a rise out of him. Braden pressed his arm hard against his side. The handle of the gun he wore dug into his rib, reminding him how easy it would be to take out Boris and Stefano.
The only problem was that there were always more to take their place. And with people like this, they only got progressively worse. If they could beat the bastards at their own game, then it would be better for the Kellys, for the city, for everyone.
Stefano motioned to the door and started toward it. Soon Boris and a few other of the Russians present followed. Then the men working for Ennis headed toward the door.
The squeaky metal door opened wide as the men filed out. Braden stayed in the rear and scanned the area as the men bundled up.
The weather had grown chilly over the last few weeks. A light dusting of snow fell from the sky, and for the first time in ages, he thought about how close it was to Christmas. Another year alone and away from family.
It wasn’t like he’d been the most social guy to begin with, but at least with the Kelly Clan, he knew where he belonged. He benefited from their warmth in the familial love they shared.
Feet crunched in the snow as he stepped over to a dark black car with black tinted windows and opened the back door. Ennis gave one final nod to Stefano and slid into the car.
Braden followed closely behind him but not before eyeing Boris before he did. The smug prick smirked at him as if he’d already won, clearly happy to have gotten one over on him. Fucker.
Soon as the door closed, Ennis turned to him. “They can’t kill Teagan.”
Braden nodded, although hearing Ennis say that only irritated him. He was the reason she was even in this mess. The man hadn’t even tried to talk Stefano out of it.
When Conor turned his back on the family and sided with Ennis, Teagan had been a part of that package deal, but only so she could receive the treatment she needed for her medical problems.
Braden knew that Ennis didn’t really care about Teagan. She was just a pawn to him, someone to hold up and use as an example. The man burned for Alyssa, Finn’s woman. Once again, he’d finished in second place behind his brother, like he was destined to always be in his younger brother’s shadow.
“If we openly go against them, we guarantee war,” Braden said.
Ennis furrowed his brow. “Damn Finn. Why does he have to be so stubborn? Look what he’s forced me into.”
Braden only barely kept the grimace off his face. Ennis was always the victim in his own mind.
“We can’t have a war, but we have to do something about Teagan,” Ennis said. He looked over to Braden and stared directly at him. “I’m counting on you.”
Chapter Two
Teagan stared at the dress sketch in front of her and frowned. No. Not right. Just not right.
She tore the paper off the pad she had been working on and crumpled it up. Irritated, she tossed it over into the pile of previously discarded sketches. A small hill was starting to form.
Nothing was coming to her. Things from her little online boutique and local shop had been selling well, but if she wanted to be considered a true designer, she needed to come up with something unique and interesting. Unfortunately, all she could think about was the same tried-and-true designs she’d already used.
Uninspired. That’s what she had become. There was nothing worse than a boring and uninspired designer.
She sighed and brushed some of her long brown hair out of her eyes.
Everyone else had moved on in their lives, and despite how hard she’d been working on her boutique, she had still somehow been left behind, just when she’d finally started to believe she could have a normal future.
Teagan closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on the palms of her hands. She sighed loudly as she tried to clear her mind of all thought, which was always harder than it seemed like it should be.
The technique had been suggested in the self-help books she’d been reading. They said to visualize her success and to see herself attaining that success. The only downside, of course, was at the moment, all she could visualize was one thing. Well, one man, really.
Damn Braden. Why did he have to creep into her thoughts every chance he got? Why did he have to invade every piece of her until all she could see or hear or smell or think of was him.
It wasn’t right. He wasn’t right. It wasn’t supposed to be him.
Or at least she’d never pictured a man like him being her knight in shining armor. And yet that’s exactly what Braden had been with his quiet bad boy ways.
Her mind drifted to that night six months ago when she’d been so scared waiting in the car for her brother to go after and save Claire, the woman he loved.
Scared and alone, Teagan waited outside. She could hear the gunfire from inside the office and wondered if she should do something. Not that she could have been much help.
With her immune issues, she wasn’t healthy on her best days, even if her recent treatments had finally allowed her to live a somewhat normal life.
And it wasn’t as if she knew how to fire a gun to save her life. Literally. For the first time ever, she realized just how vulnerable she was, and not from her medical problems.
Her heart sped up as the details from that night filtered back into her mind.
A shadow had moved near her side of the car. She looked at the window and found an angry man standing just outside, likely one of the Russians that were threatening her brother and Claire. She climbed over to the driver’s seat as the man tried to open her door and opened the driver’s door to make a run for it. She didn’t even spare a
glance backward and slid out as bullets sailed over her head.
The man had chuckled. She could still hear his mocking chuckle. It was all just a game to him. He was shooting at her, trying to kill her, and he thought it was funny.
She had nowhere to run. If she called out, her brother might lose the only woman he loved, but if she didn’t, there was no way she would be able to escape.
Teagan shook as the footsteps grew closer. She could barely will herself to look up when they stopped.
But instead of finding him looking down on where she was cowering, the man was frowning at something behind her.
He narrowed his eyes, still looking past her. “What are you do—”
His words were cut off as three bullets pierced his chest. Blood blossomed against his shirt, and she watched as the man slumped over toward the car and fell to the ground.
She gasped and slapped her hands over her mouth. Teagan turned, expecting to see one of Finn’s men, but instead found herself face-to-face with Braden.
He checked the man on the ground. “Fucking prick,” he mumbled.
She was surprised when he turned to look at her. Teagan had half expected him not to even know she was there.
“Why did you…” She gestured to the man. “You shot him. Isn’t he on your side?”
Braden glanced over at the man on the ground and then back to her.
“I am. I mean he is.”
He shook his head, his face reddening, and for the first time she was seeing him flustered. Braden wasn’t a man who got flustered. He was someone that always knew what he was doing and why he was doing it. The whole situation seemed so unlike him, and she still didn’t understand why he’d shoot one of his own allies.
He pulled out a gun from his boot and placed it firmly in her hand.
“You know how to use this, don’t you?” he asked in a hurry.
Teagan shook her head.
He sighed loudly, and it was odd, but she was sad that her ignorance disappointed him.
Braden: #5 (Kelly Clan) Page 1