Almost Innocent

by Carina Adams

The Callaghans had been the backbone of organized crime in New England for years. They owned Maine and New Hampshire. Not a single thing was smuggled in or out of Canada in either state without them knowing about it. Most of the time, a Callaghan Industries truck brought it in.

  Which meant no drugs. Guns, contraband, people—you name it, and the Callaghans dealt in it. Except for drugs. Because the borders were patrolled heavily by people lining their pockets with Colin’s money, there was no way in hell a freak shipment, or two, made it through undetected.

  That caused a problem for the Ganzarolli family. Their best suppliers were in New Brunswick and Quebec, yet it cost them thousands to get the product into buyers’ hands because they had to ship it so far out of the way. Dustin was the answer they’d been looking for.

  Before he could blink, Dustin was in over his head.

  Somehow, he convinced his men to join him. First, it was the long-haul drivers. They’d make a quick stop before getting to the Callaghan Industries pickup, then carry his product over the border without so much as a glance from border patrol. Then it was the delivery drivers, men he already trusted to drive the cargo to the buyer and bring cash back, so why not have them make one extra stop and get a little more money? Then it was his direct employees, who went from pushing weed and coke to peddling heroin.

  Worse were the lives he took when someone couldn’t pay, or he felt he was being betrayed. Which was all the time, because he had this pathetic idea that he had to personally try the drugs he sold. For quality purposes.

  Asshole.

  Over the last few years of his life, Dustin became paranoid and extremely violent, more so than he ever had been before. And right there, for every step of the journey, was dear old cousin Mark. Egging Dusty on, pouring poison in his ear, twisting the truth in a way that Dustin didn’t know heads from tails. It was awful to see.

  Suddenly, Dusty wasn’t in charge of his part of Callaghan Industries or his side business anymore. Mark was. Dustin may have been the figurehead, but Mark was running the show.

  If Colin had discovered what Dustin was doing, he would have had Dustin taken out. He would have had them both killed. That was without Colin knowing what was happening to me.

  Colin had been close to figuring it out, I knew that much. While Dustin had a group of men loyal to him, the old timers were still loyal to his father, and things had started to fall apart. Ezra’s death had been the last straw, the nail in the coffin. It was only a matter of time before the whole thing would have come crashing down around him.

  Which made Dustin even more violent toward me. I’d only been a few months pregnant when he murdered his brother-in-law, but I had thought that the baby might save me from his outbursts. It hadn’t.

  Absentmindedly, I ran my hand down my throat, feeling the scar he’d left that night. I wasn’t sure what it was from, just that it had been there when I woken up. Even if I had escaped and I’d never had to choose between killing him and saving myself, Dustin would have died. His days had been numbered. Someone would have murdered him before the year was over.

  “What’s the next step then? How do we make sure he stays safe?”

  Conall adjusted, sitting back. “You go upstairs, pack as much of yours and Grady’s things as you can, and tomorrow, we leave.”

  “With Declan?”

  “Declan is not my concern.”

  I shook my head. “No. I’m not leaving without him.”

  He bobbed his head once. “Yes, Litt’l One. You are. You’re going to take your son and keep doing what you’ve been doing. Declan has a choice to make. No one can make it for him. But I can, and will, keep you and Grady safe. Fiona too, if she’ll come. You’re my only priority.”

  “What choice?” I gripped Conall’s hand. “What choice does Declan have to make?”

  “He has to decide if he’s the man he wants to be, or the man he has been pretending to be.”

  I didn’t understand. His words terrified me. “He’s coming back, right?” Even I could hear the unmistakable panic in my voice.

  “Gabriella…” His comforting tone was the same one Colin had used when my grandmother had died, and it made me shoot to my feet.

  “No!” I pointed at him. “No. Where did he go?”

  Conall stood and walked toward me slowly, as if approaching a crazed wild animal. “To right a wrong.”

  The blood fell from my face. “He’s going after Mark.”

  Conall nodded. “He’s doing something we should have done years ago.”

  Mark would tell him everything. Flashes from the past hit me, worse than a panic attack.

  Dustin and Mark forcing me to do things I’d never wanted to do, using me in ways that now made me nauseated if I forced myself to remember. Dustin telling Mark that he was tired of me, that it was my fault his life had gone to shit.

  “You see this?” Dustin pointed down, but I didn’t have to look to know what he was talking about. “This is your fault.” He backhanded me again. “You’re so fucking worthless you can’t even get my dick up.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him from where I’d fallen on the floor, wanting nothing more than to tell him to take another pill. Instead, I got back up on my knees and crawled toward him, ready to try again. If I didn’t, the beating would be twice as bad tonight.

  Before I could reach him, he kicked, connecting with my shoulder and making me cry out and inch back. The low laugh from the corner, telling me we weren’t alone, made bile rise in my throat.

  I could handle Dustin alone. I could play the part of his whore, just to survive. I couldn’t handle the two of them together.

  “Something funny?” Dustin leered. “She’s fucking pathetic. Can’t do one fucking thing right.”

  “Want me to take her off your hands?”

  My head started to shake, but I couldn’t tell if it was my gut reaction showing through or if it was from fear. No! No! I screamed inside my mind. Anything but that.

  “You want that useless slag?” Dustin slurred. “Then take her. Get her out of my sight!”

  Arms reached around my stomach, lifting me off the ground, and no matter how much I kicked, Mark didn’t let go. Not until he’d moved down the hall and into his room.

  He gave me his sinister smile, the one that gave me night terrors, as he closed the door. “You’re mine now, Gabby.” The way he said my name made my skin crawl. “Go ahead and scream. You know how much I like it when you do.”

  I backed up, my body shaking—this time from fear. That had started almost a week of constant pain. Terrible things had happened to that girl in that room. Things I could never admit had happened to me because my brain wouldn’t cope. I watched it, movie-like, happen to someone else.

  Mark would tell Declan everything. Once he knew the truth, he’d stop loving me. He’d despise me. He’d have no choice. I still hated that girl.

  I didn’t make it to the bathroom before I threw up.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Declan

  I sat there, not listening, just staring at him, while he talked about what information he’d gathered so far, animatedly moving his hands. He looked so much like my brother—our brother—that it almost hurt to see. I couldn’t believe I’d never noticed it before.

  If I had, I just wrote it off to a strong family resemblance. Seeing it now, I could tell it was so much more than that. It was uncanny. They had the same nose and, when they laughed, the same lines around the same eyes.

  “Dude, do I have shit on my face or something?” Mark asked, swiping his cheek with a palm. “You’re staring.”

  I shook my head. “Sorry. I’m tired.” I forced a smile. “Didn’t get much sleep the last two nights.”

  Mark laughed. “I figured. You look like shit.” He headed for the bar in the back corner of my office. “That have anything to do with Gabby?”

  I tensed. He’d only been here for twenty minutes, and for the majority of that time, I’d wondered how in the fuck this man, the one I love
d like a brother, could be the same one who had hurt Gabby so badly she went into a full meltdown at the mention of his name. What kind of goddamned monster was he? And how in the hell had he been able to hide that kind of depravity for so long?

  I leaned back in my office chair, staring at the ceiling and asking for strength. I didn’t want to do anything but nail his feet to the floor, beat him into a bloody stump, then torch what was left. That wouldn’t get Gabby justice though.

  Until I could, I’d play his silly-ass little games. I sat up and smiled the way he expected me to. “Maybe.”

  My cousin poured himself a generous amount of my Macallan single malt before settling his smug ass back in the chair across from me. “That a wise choice?”

  The way his eyes sparkled as he asked it, as if I was doing something wrong, pissed me off. “Why wouldn’t it be? Dustin’s been gone a long time.”

  Mark shrugged. “She’s got a kid.”

  At the mention of Grady, I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw hurt. I could only sit there, focusing on my breathing, until I got my temper under control. Fuck him if he thought he could even think about my nephew.

  “I’m not following,” I finally managed to grind out.

  He glanced at his drink, an annoying smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. “You really wanta raise someone else’s bastard?”

  “I don’t consider my brother’s son a bastard. They may not have been married, but Grady is still a Callaghan.”

  “Is he though? Your nephew, I mean? Dustin didn’t think it was his kid.” He gulped his drink. “And you were gone. You missed a lot.”

  One hand fisted in my lap, fingernails digging into my palm to remind me to stay focused. “Oh, yeah? Like what?” I tried to keep my voice casual, but I felt as if I was failing.

  Mark only shook his head once. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told ya.” He lifted his drink to his mouth once again. “How’s Fiona?”

  I frowned at him, finding it harder to hide my emotions. “How’d you know I saw Fi?”

  He shrugged. “The two of them were inseparable before Dustin died. I just assumed they would still be.”

  It was an easy cover, an easily bought explanation, but the hair on the back of my neck stood at attention. I ignored my unease. “Good. She’s good.”

  “She seeing anyone?”

  He asked in a way that made it sound as though he was interested—romantically. The way a friend you’d banned from even looking at your sister would subtly ask if she was dating anyone. It was weird and made my stomach clench. Something was off here.

  I leaned forward, elbows on my desk. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

  “Shame. After the way Ezra died and after what happened to her…” He stared over my shoulder as he trailed off. Then he smiled. “Eh, never mind.”

  After the way Ezra had died and after what had happened to her? What in the fuck was that supposed to mean? I wanted to demand he finish that sentence.

  Fi had been through hell. My brother-in-law had been butchered, cut to pieces and left to bleed out on his kitchen floor, choking on his own blood. Meanwhile, his wife had been knocked unconscious, raped, then gagged and bound in their bedroom so she couldn’t call for help once she woke up. The two of them hadn’t been found until the next afternoon when my father sent someone over to check on them.

  Fiona’s in-laws had blamed her—Ezra had started working for my father and Callaghan Industries two months before the home invasion destroyed their lives. His parents were horrified when Fi tried to bury his body in Maine, even though she was his wife and wanted him close. She’d finally given in, after his mother was hospitalized, and let them take his body back to their family plot. They in turn thanked her by refusing to let any of the Callaghans, including heartbroken Fi, attend his funeral or his burial.

  She’d been destroyed. Not only was she still trying to recover physically, but she lost her husband twice in a matter of weeks. I thought for sure we were going to lose her—she disappeared into such a dark place. To add insult to injury, the police never found out who had done it. Their investigations turned up nothing.

  Ezra had been a well-liked, well-respected member of our community. Other than being married to Fiona and inheriting any adversaries our family had, he had no enemies. Police eventually ruled it a robbery gone bad. It was still an open case.

  My parents had demanded retribution. I’d come home early from college in Boston—my junior year was almost over anyway—and done what I could to right the wrong. No one knew anything. No matter who I hurt or how hard I hit, I couldn’t get a single lead. I failed her.

  There had been a divide between Fiona and me ever since. A gap I couldn’t breach. At first, I let it go because she was dealing with not only what had happened to her but also the death of the one person she’d counted on and trusted above all else. I thought she was disappointed in me for letting her and Ezra down.

  As the months went by, I realized it was more than that. She wasn’t telling me everything. She wasn’t telling anyone everything. She was avoiding us, putting distance between us all, because she was clinging to a secret. Part of me felt as though she knew who had attacked her.

  Fiona was a strong one though, all fighter. After Dustin’s death, only a few short months after Ezra’s, she picked up the pieces, dropped her married name, and forced herself to get out of bed every morning. She was a constant source of support for a scared and pregnant Gabby, and I know that without Fi, things would have been much harder for her.

  “I’m not surprised Fi’s single though. I don’t know how I’d feel if the woman I was dating dropped that little bomb,” Mark continued, almost as if he expected me to know what in the hell he was talking about.

  The asshole was baiting me. I wasn’t going to like whatever he had to say. “What bomb?”

  “That she was raped. That she can’t have kids.”

  My arms thumped against the table as I dropped them, and I couldn’t keep the agitation out of my voice. “What?”

  No one knew that. No one. We’d kept it out of the papers, off the police reports. Dustin didn’t even know because it was none of his business. My parents had only told me because I was going after the monster and they didn’t want me to have any surprises that would stop me in my tracks. Hell, they may have even told me to motivate me. Whatever the case, no one else knew.

  “You didn’t know?” His voice was remorseful, as if he was sorry he’d just dropped a major bomb, but his body language gave him away. His shoulders were back, chin up, eyes focused on me and unblinking. The fucking douche was fighting a smile.

  “I didn’t.” I said the words slowly, forcing my feelings down. He wouldn’t have done that to Fi, would he? She’s his cousin. I shook my head. I’d give him one more chance to clear it up. One. “Where’d you hear that?”

  “Dusty.”

  In that instant, I knew. Mark hadn’t just hurt Gabs—he’d hurt Fi. Fiona!

  Dusty was a disgusting prick, but he’d loved Fi. Toward the end, I thought she was the only one he loved. If he had known, he would have never let a detail like that go. He would have demanded the same kind of retribution that he had demanded for Uncle Logan’s death. Dustin didn’t know. I believed that to my core.

  Fucker wanted to play games? We’d fucking play.

  I changed the subject, needing to refocus. “You two were very close.”

  “Me and Fi?”

  “No. You and Dusty.”

  Mark’s eyes narrowed slightly, and his shoulders tensed before he could cover it. “I loved him like a brother.”

  “You mean you loved him because he was your brother?”

  He laughed, not in humor but as if I was a dumbass, and lifted his head as he cocked an eyebrow. “Gabby tell you that?” He drained his tumbler and headed to the bar for another.

  “No. Dusty,” I lied.

  Mark glanced over his shoulder. “That why you killed him?”

  I forced my body to st
ay relaxed. “That why you didn’t?”

  He only laughed as he forced the cap back on the bottle of whiskey before he turned and leaned against the wall. “Why in the hell would I have wanted to kill him?”

  “You were supposed to be watching out for Gabby. Making sure she was safe. He was out of control that day. You should have been there to protect her.”

  “I didn’t work for you,” he sneered. “I worked for my brother. I sure as shit wasn’t going to ruin my relationship with him over a gutter slut.”

  My jaw tensed as I clenched my teeth. Fuck him. “You promised me you’d watch out for her.”

  He snorted. “I did watch out for her. I never let him kill her.”

  “What in the fuck is wrong with you?”

  He pushed off the wall and walked across the room as if he was proud of himself. He had no fear whatsoever when he looked at me. “You’ve always been so fucking blind where she’s concerned. You’ve never seen her for what she is—a cum-guzzling whore who enjoys being on her knees. She can cry to you about how mean he was or how badly he hurt her, but ask her what she’d do after he beat the shit outta her. Ask her why, if she hated it so much, she’d immediately drop to the floor and suck his dick.”

  He was lying. Gabby would never act that way, not even if she’d been forced. It was the one of the tricks Dustin had taught me—“Say whatever you can to get under the other person’s skin. Get them riled up, and they won’t think straight. They’ll make mistakes.” Short of cutting out his tongue though, I had no choice but to listen to the ramblings of an obviously insane man.

  I wasn’t some moronic chump. Mark could try to manipulate me, but it wouldn’t work. Even if he was telling the truth, it didn’t matter. My girl had done what she had to in order to survive. That was all that fucking mattered to me.

  “Didn’t matter who was there. After Dustin punished her”—Mark held up a finger—“and let’s not forget that half the time, she fucked up on purpose just to get punished”—he shook his head, dropping his hand—“she’d go to town. If he refused her, you know what she’d do? She’d crawl to me and beg me to let her suck mine. Does that sound like a woman who was abused? Nah. That’s a fucking whore who gets off on the pain.”