Destination Connelly (The Colloway Brothers Book 4)

by K. L. Kreig

  “It okay with you if I move in this week, Hazel?”

  I hear Nora’s gasp, but I couldn’t care less. I want Nora. I want Hazel. I want them forever. I don’t plan on asking permission to piece my fractured family back together.

  “Yeah!” she yells jumping off the chair and into my arms.

  When my eyes slide back to Nora, she’s just shaking her head, but a grin that looks just like Hazel’s is painted on her face.

  Love can hurt and heal. It can break and mend. It can be the loneliest place on earth or fill you will such a sense of completeness you feel like you’re going to ignite.

  With both my girls in my arms, I’m on fucking fire.

  Chapter 36

  Nora

  For weeks now things have clicked along smooth as glass. Connelly didn’t wait a week to move in. He loaded up his car with a few days’ worth of clothes that Sunday night when he took us home. He’s been with us ever since.

  Hazel is in heaven and I do believe I am right there with her.

  He’ll drop casual hints here and there about marriage, but he’s yet to come outright and ask me. At first, I was a little miffed, but I think I’m okay with it now. I know I don’t need a piece of paper to make our relationship true and real.

  “Knock, knock.”

  I would recognize that voice anywhere. He’s been avoiding me like the plague lately.

  “Come on in, stranger.”

  Brad saunters inside. Leaving the door open, he takes a seat across from me. My desk separates us, but he feels so far away it may as well be the Grand Canyon. It makes my heart hurt.

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” he replies awkwardly, throwing one leg over the other.

  “I’ve missed you,” I tell him lowly.

  His eyes have been wandering everywhere, avoiding contact with mine. I taste good-bye suspended in the air.

  “Again, sorry.”

  “Why do I feel like you’re not here to talk about business?”

  When his grays latch on to me, all I see is sorrow. He takes one long breath and before he speaks, I already know what he’ll say. “I wanted to tell you in person that I’ve handed in my resignation.”

  “Brad, no…Why?”

  He half snorts, half laughs. “Nora, do you really need to ask?”

  Suddenly angry, I lean back in my chair and cross my arms. “Yes, I really do need to ask.”

  His eyes turn to steel and his jaw tightens. “Fine. You already know, but since you’re making me say it, I’m not going to hold back. I can’t watch you with him, that’s why. I don’t think you comprehend how in love with you I am, Nora, and I can’t witness firsthand him living the life that I want with you. That’s fucking torture. Daily. Fucking. Torture. It’s one thing to know I can’t have you. It’s another thing entirely to know someone else does.”

  “Brad,” I start with compassion, “you knew there couldn’t be anything between us. I’ve made that very clear. I’ve never led you to believe otherwise.”

  His eyes flit away briefly. “I know.” His resigned voice just about breaks me. I hate that my friend is hurting because of me and there’s nothing I can do about it. “I just always held out hope, like I imagine you did with him.”

  Now it’s my turn to look away. I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry seems appropriate, but I’m not. I’m sorry he’s hurting, but I won’t apologize for being with Connelly, where I’m meant to be.

  “You don’t have to leave, Brad. Not because of this.”

  He smiles sadly. “I do. Reverse the roles, Nora. If he were with someone else, what would you do?”

  That’s a stupid question. I would rip her fucking eyes from their sockets.

  I try a different tactic. “Connelly won’t accept your resignation.”

  His mouth turns down. “He already did.”

  After a silent stare-off, I croak, “I’m sorry.”

  His head bobs back and forth as he stands. “Don’t be sorry, Nora. I’ve only ever wanted to see you happy. I’d just hoped it could eventually be with me, but you’re where you’re supposed to be. And so is Hazel.”

  I swallow thickly.

  “You are happy, right?” I hate the small thread of hope he has in his voice.

  “Very.”

  He nods once sharply, turning around one last time before he leaves. “You call if you ever need me, yeah?”

  “Of course I will.”

  I’m still watching the space Brad just vacated trying to work through my mixed emotions when Connelly steps through my doorway. The look on his face says it all.

  “You heard, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” he replies. Unrepentant, I might add.

  I want to chuckle, but I’m still reeling a bit, sad to be losing a good friend even though it’s selfish of me. “You followed him here, didn’t you?”

  Connelly shuts my door and closes the scant distance between us. I squeak when he picks me up out of my chair and sets me on my desk like I weigh nothing. He stands between my legs and holds my head still with his large hands. “Yes, I did. And I won’t apologize. He was going to make one final play for you.”

  “He was telling me good-bye,” I argue.

  “Nora, even you aren’t that obtuse.”

  My lips curl, remembering how I called him that at the welcome party a few months ago.

  “You clearly haven’t learned the rules of personal space yet,” I whisper hoarsely, unable to concentrate on anything now but the flames of desire dancing in his eyes.

  He dips his head, skimming my jaw with his nose before sucking the sensitive skin underneath hard. “Princess, I know the rules. I simply choose not to follow them when it comes to you.”

  My core gushes for him, like it always does, but he groans and pulls away before I have a chance to even reach for the simple mechanics that are keeping him from me.

  “I want you,” I moan, my hands going to his waist.

  “Jesus, I want to fuck you and tattoo every inch of you so every fucking man on this planet knows you belong to me.” He’s growly, possessive. I love it.

  “Feeling the need to mark your territory?”

  “Yes,” he answers shamelessly, his lips a hair away from mine.

  “Then do,” I urge.

  He drops his forehead to mine on a painful groan. “I wish I could, baby. I admit, I have another reason for being here. It’s work related.” At my pout, he grins and adds, “But we’ll definitely pick this up later. Doesn’t Hazel have photography lessons tonight?”

  I nod.

  “Good. I haven’t fucked you on the back patio yet and I plan to remedy that.”

  “God, Connelly.” My heart rate surges at his sinful words. The prospect of doing something so wicked excites me.

  Resigned to the fact that I need to wait until later to assuage the burning in my center, I ask, “So what did you need?”

  “Alred called this morning.”

  I immediately stiffen. In my entire career, I have never come across a more blatant chauvinist than Alred Kinnick. Most men at least attempt to hide their bigoted opinions, but he seems to go out of his way to showcase them like he’s proud of his small dick and even smaller mind.

  “You do realize I can’t do my job if he calls you every time he needs something, right?”

  “I’m sorry, Nora. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks, I guess.”

  “Well you can put the bitch down, then,” I mumble snidely under my breath. His chuckle eases the sting of the situation a little. I have given Alred no less than a dozen highly capable candidates for his CEO position over the past two months and he picks each one apart. God help the person who does pass his unreasonable scrutiny.

  “He has a new candidate he’d like us to talk to.”

  Us. Of course.

  “Who?”

  “Alan Johansen.”

  I swear by all that’s holy, every molecule of oxygen was just sadistically sucked out of my hundred-twenty-square-foot office space.r />
  “Alan?” I can’t breathe.

  “Yeah, he’s the CEO at a midsized investment firm in Maryland. Kinnick got wind of him somehow and is intrigued. As luck would have it Alan’s in Chicago for the next few days speaking at a conference and he has time for dinner tonight. I’ve already talked to him and we’ll be meeting at The Met at seven.”

  I open my mouth, unsure of what’s going to come out other than oh-hell-to-the-fucking-no, when he speaks over me. “I already talked to Gray. Landyn is going to take Hazel to their place after school, so we’ll just spend the night at my place since we’ll probably get in late. I guess I’ll have to fuck you on the patio another time.”

  I ignore his joke.

  “Connelly—”

  I’m once again cut off, this time with a quick kiss. “I gotta run, princess. I’m already late for meeting with Ash. It will be great to catch up with our third, won’t it?” he adds excitedly.

  Our third. The tripod of Dowling High, us three. Where Connelly went, so did Alan, so we spent a lot of time together.

  Once again I’m left staring at nothing but air, my mind still spinning on the tilt-a-whirl.

  I haven’t seen or heard from Alan Johansen in over a decade. The last I’ve seen of my one-time good friend was the horrifying morning I woke up in his arms the night after Connelly’s birthday party. The last time I talked to him was a week later to make sure he understood how much of a mistake I’d made when I begged him not to tell Connelly about either us or the fact that I’d seen Connelly with someone else.

  Alan was the one who’d helped me plan the surprise visit for Connelly’s birthday. Alan was the one who picked me up from the airport and drove me to his house when my flight was delayed by four hours because of severe thunderstorms in Baltimore. Alan was the one standing beside me as we watched a beautiful brunette writhe on my love’s naked body.

  And Alan, the third in our tight little unit, a boy I loved but was not in love with, was the one who intimately comforted me after I’d drunk myself into a black stupor.

  He is my biggest mistake. My deepest regret. And the one unforgivable betrayal Connelly can never discover.

  Chapter 37

  Conn

  To say that the tension at our quiet table could be cut with any type of knife, dull or sharp, would be an understatement. Alan will hardly take his eyes from Nora and Nora will barely acknowledge his existence. It’s starting to make me wonder what the fuck is going on here. Whatever it is, I don’t like it.

  I’m reminded of my conversation with Gray on the dock a couple months back.

  “Did he like Nora?”

  “Who?” I ask, thoughts still clouded by yesterday’s mistakes.

  “Alan.”

  Alan. Yes. I’m pretty damn sure he was in love with her, too. “Who wouldn’t like Nora? She was a dick magnet.”

  “And you trusted the friend who’s been jealous of you your entire life not to say anything to a girl he also liked? Who you won over him?”

  “So, Alan, how’s Lydia?” His fucking wife.

  Dragging his gaze away from my Nora, my friend of twenty-five years looks at me. “She’s good, man. Spends her days taking tennis lessons and getting spa treatments. Just what every wife of a CEO should be doing.”

  “Wow, Alan,” Nora’s razor-sharp voice cuts in. “I didn’t take you for such a misogynist. You’ll fit right in at Kinnick Investments.”

  “Nora,” I chastise, unable to believe how she’s acting.

  I think I may hear her apologize under her breath, but can’t be sure. What the fuck is going on?

  Alan just laughs, clearly oblivious to her ire. “Temper still matches her hair, I see,” he jokes, but nobody laughs. This little reunion is not going at all like I’d planned. I expected a relaxing night of moseying down memory lane, but now I wish I hadn’t agreed to this meeting. All I want to do is get Nora back to my place so I can spend a couple hours enjoying how right she feels underneath me before we get Hazel.

  I redirect our conversation back to business so I can get this over with. “You interested in this challenge, Alan?”

  “Hell, yes. It’s a great opportunity. Alred Kinnick is an investment God. This would be a dream job.”

  “No issues relocating?”

  “Not in the least. The wife has some family in Louisville, so this would be closer for her. And no kids to worry about. Yet.” He winks.

  Nora remains unusually quiet as we spend the next hour discussing the position, the job requirements, and the challenges of working for Alred Kinnick. No matter how brilliant he is, the fact remains Alred’s an epically fucked-up bastard and working for him would not be an easy feat, even for someone who appears to worship him.

  We pass on dessert but take coffee when the conversation turns more personal. And uncomfortable.

  “Do you remember that epic birthday party I threw you after graduation, Conn?”

  Alan pointedly eyes me with something I can only decipher as hostility. He’s deliberately throwing me under the bus in front of Nora.

  Alan and I have stayed in touch over the years, often catching up when we’re both back home over the holidays or whenever he happens to be in town or I’m on the East Coast. But as with everyone else, life gets busy and we don’t talk as often as we used to.

  When we spoke earlier today, though, we spent a few minutes catching up on events over the past year. I brought him up to speed on my brothers, my nephews, and my mom’s new man. I told him about my recent acquisition of SER and reuniting with Nora. I left out the part about our daughter because I didn’t feel it necessary to air our dirty laundry to the world, but I got the impression from him even through the phone that he was surprised. And envious, even though he’s married to a very beautiful, very young, twenty-three-year-old sexpot.

  “Excuse me,” Nora says, her voice tight. Standing, she throws her napkin down before heading in the direction of the ladies’ room.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Johns?” I demand, reverting to my old high school nickname for my best friend. I glare at him, simmering. I hate how my cool veneer is cracking, but fuck, he’s pissing me off. That was an unnecessarily intentional low blow.

  “What? Just wanted to talk about old times. Don’t be so goddamned touchy, Colloway.”

  My eyes slide in the direction Nora just took, then back to Alan. I study him quietly trying to piece together what he’s conveying with his body language and cryptic, almost caustic words. The edges of this jumble are jagged but are starting to slowly smooth out. And I don’t like how they fucking sound clicking together.

  “You knew she knew, yet you never said anything. Why?”

  A hard sneer twists Alan’s lips. His eyes shine in victory, but I have no idea what he thinks he’s won. I have Nora. “You don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?” I’m getting pretty fucking tired of his games and rhymes. This is not the friend I once knew. Correction…thought I knew.

  “Oh, this is almost too good,” he chuckles before taking a sip of his hot coffee.

  “Stop talking in fucking circles and spit out whatever it is you want me to know.”

  “Whose idea do you think the surprise was? Who do you think drove her to my house? Who do you think comforted her when she found her boyfriend all drunk and hopped up on Molly in bed fucking some whore?”

  Nothing in that sentence made sense. Not. A. Thing. There’s so much I needed to dispute, but the only word I could latch on to was “comfort.”

  The puzzle snaps in place with a deafening sound. The earth shudders below me as if a massive earthquake just ripped through the city. Or my world.

  “I was devastated, and I reacted out of spite.”

  Mother. Fucker.

  Gray was right. Alan wanted everything I had. He always did. And when he didn’t get it, he set out to make sure I didn’t have it either.

  My stomach churns with disgust and my blood boils with an anger so raw, so potent, so all-fucking-c
onsuming, it takes me over completely.

  Next thing I know Alan’s fleshy throat is between my fingers, his back plastered against the thick glass wall that separates him from life and certain death, should it give way. I vaguely feel a sting on my hands and arms, his nails ineffectively digging into me for purchase. Through the unadulterated hatred now clouding my vision and my common sense, I hear my name being called.

  I squeeze harder.

  “You fucking set me up,” I seethe, my spit flying in his face. “You got me drunk, fed me drugs, and sent some whore to fuck me so Nora would see the whole goddamned thing because you wanted her. Didn’t you, you sick fuck?”

  He shakes his head, but his effort is weak. I see the life draining from him. I tighten my hold.

  I. Want. Him. Dead.

  “Then you took advantage of her. You fucking used her in your sick, twisted mindfuck of a game. All because of what? Because she loved me? Wanted me? You ruined me! You destroyed her! Do you have any fucking idea what you did?” I roar so loudly I swear I feel the floor shake.

  It’s not the floor.

  It’s me.

  I faintly hear people yelling and screaming, but one word registers. Just one. The only word I think could bring me out of my murderous haze, keeping me from spending the next ten to twenty getting ass raped.

  Hazel.

  I immediately sense Nora. She’s crying. Pleading with me to let go. Telling me to think of Hazel and how she needs her father.

  I drop Alan like a flaming hot sack of shit.

  He’s already taken too much from me. I won’t let him take anything else.

  The second I let him go, she’s in my arms, wrapping every single limb around me. She’s sobbing uncontrollably and squeezing me so hard she may leave marks. I welcome them. They will remind me of all we’ve lost, but more importantly, all we’ve found again.

  “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry,” I choke out. So fucking sorry for so many things, the least of which was not recognizing a traitor in our midst. The person who knew me since the age of five and was supposed to be my friend worked against us, skillfully ripping us apart. My chest heaves as I work to get my blood pressure back under control.