Survival & Revenge (Boston Latte Book 3)

by Fiona Keane

  As the woman wheeled her cart by me again, the perfume of Aideen’s coffee calmed my frayed nerves. Liam spun around to face me, one second spent staring into my eyes with the corner of his mouth twisting to a smile. It was too fast for anyone else to notice, reserved for me…for confirmation. Of what? I felt my heart start to pound, immediately shifting into thoughts of Aideen alone at home, trying to determine an escape to get back to her. To her drinking coffee in my shirt, without my shirt, without the coffee…

  Her coffee. I lifted my head, glancing at the men and women around the table. One other person had coffee, the rest had nothing or water. The hearing continued, and drinks remained untouched until a brief pause in arguments. Liam leaned forward to whisper something into Satan’s ear before he swiftly stood and crossed the hearing room without a final glance at me. What the fuck?

  “Senator?” someone called, repeating his title three more times before I looked at my grandfather. His head hung backward, exposing his forehead to my view. My eyes widened, and I jumped from my seat, joining the crowd beginning to swarm his limp body. His eyes rolled behind drooping lids, head dangling as his wrinkled hands clutched his chest and throat, as if his empty heart was worth saving. I wasn’t an actor like Liam; I couldn’t pretend to be frantic or horrified. Kneeling at his side, his gray eyes widening in reflection of me, I stared at him. It was fucking beautiful. I was smiling at him, tears forming in my eyes as I watched the bastard gasp for breath. I took his left hand from his chest, patting it between my palms while I spoke into his ear, knowing the scent of his cologne would forever remind me of that precise moment.

  “You’re dying,” I whispered. “She destroyed you.” I wanted to laugh, my throat tickling with horrified excitement, but I shouted for someone to call for an ambulance instead. I knew by the white foam beginning to dribble from his mouth that an ambulance would only be a cover for whatever happened to him, protecting the rest of us.

  “Looks like it hurts,” I muttered into his ear as his body slumped into my arms. “Fuck, Grandpa. I hope it hurts less in hell. Tell Edward I send my best.”

  He tumbled from the chair, his limp weight crushing me as I withdrew from beneath him. The crowd absorbed my absence, tending to the dying man while I flew the fuck out of that building in search of home, in search of her.

  ***

  AIDEEN

  I hated watching him leave, having just got him back and knowing if each piece hadn’t fallen as it did during the night we would be waking up alone, separate. I would be with Liam, Noelle’s baby would have a mother, and Julian would be heartbroken.

  He promised he wouldn’t be at the State House longer than he needed, but a minute apart was too much as I wandered mindlessly between his kitchen and our bedroom once he left. I couldn’t even make more coffee to distract myself because the thought of making it messed with my mind. It was my coffee poisoning their grandfather, ending the twisted patriarchy. I didn’t know what that meant for Julian’s future, for us, or even for Liam, but my quivering heart wasn’t ready to go there.

  It was nearing ten, the hearing already started, when I found myself standing in front of the door to Julian’s bedroom. Both of my hands were on the doorknob, as though battling the other to stay away. Elliott didn’t matter anymore. Emma, Malcolm, Noelle; they were nothing, nobodies, and we were everything. I held my breath while entering, surprised to see the room immaculate. I think part of me expected to see Elliott’s corpse on the floor outside of Julian’s bathroom, but the room appeared untouched by life. His closet door gaped slightly in the darkness, but my path was to his bed. The linens were crisp and unmarred from the murder that took place just beneath it weeks prior. My heart was heavy as I sat against the edge of Julian’s bed, anxious for him to come home, wondering how pissed he would be when he found out what Liam and I planned behind his back.

  It was ironic, and I found myself smiling at the thought. Julian kept secret a life to protect me, and now it was my turn to do the same with a death in order to protect him. I looked to the pillows, wondering if they smelled like him or if they were replaced like in my apartment after he killed Malcolm’s brother. I twisted to reach for one when the closet door opened, my hands flailing to grasp the palms tightening around my neck. My throat constricted, drying up beneath her piercing fingernails. I struggled on the mattress, falling backward and bucking my hips to free myself from her hold. She fell with me, tumbling to the side with her long brown hair fanning around her face.

  “Maureen!” I screamed, jumping from Julian’s bed as she approached. Her blue eyes were frenzied. She twisted a knife in her left hand, its shimmer mirroring her deranged grin.

  “Stop!” My voice cracked. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting revenge, Aideen,” she cried, her words explicit and cold. I was paralyzed with trauma, my heart pounding. I didn’t know how she got in, how long she’d waited, but I was rigid as I thought only of losing Julian…and Liam.

  “Julian and Liam,” I uttered, backing away from her. “Don’t do this to them.”

  “I love my brothers, but it’s my turn now, and you all need to get used to it or…die. I suppose. Well, you are going to die.” She winked, spinning her knife in her hands.

  “Or die? Maureen, you’re playing with fire right now. In your pearls, your fur, walking around your big brother’s home like it’s your kingdom,” I rebuked, my voice wavering. “They know you were with Regan behind their backs, Maureen. It’s over.”

  “Small price to pay to win.” She shrugged. “Edward was my in. We both wanted my grandfather out of the way, and framing him for your murder in Julian’s eyes was the best way to do that.”

  I wanted to vomit. I needed to run. I need Julian. I was in the doorway of his room, unable to grab the doorknob fast enough as our chase entered the hallway. There wasn’t anything to throw, nothing to delay her intent as I crept backward further into his home. Nobody will hear my scream. I slammed into the door of our bedroom, thankful its panel was closed as Maureen ran toward me. I swerved from beneath her hand, grabbing her wrist and twisting it around her back. She shrieked, a sound that pierced the calm air of Julian’s home, and I tightened my restraint, coming around her and shoving her against the door. I was in control, her knife was in my hand, and we were alone.

  “I can’t believe it was you.” I whispered the thought as it tumbled into my brain.

  “Of course it was me,” Maureen snarled, her bright lips parting in a horrendously beautiful grin as my fingers tightened around her gaping jaw. I lifted the knife to her throat, scratching the strand of pearls as the blade tugged on them.

  “They never thought I had the courage,” she roared with deranged humor, “but here we are with the mistress and little sister, and only one of us is going to survive.”

  I studied her blue eyes, mesmerized by the sparkling darkness within. I kept my forearm against her chest, willing my strength to continue as I pressed her against the door.

  “How did you get in here?” I demanded, panting through my words as I held my knife against her.

  “I know his security code, Aideen,” she cackled. “I just needed to wait for him to leave you alone. It’s too easy to get to you in here. I paid David to let your slimy friends in to kill you.” Oh my God. Our bodies were pressed together, mine shivering with each evil beat her psychotic heart pumped into my chest. Maureen laughed, a chuckle at first that she fought to prevent, but her sinister sound overtook the room.

  “He’s going to leave you. Someday. It’s what men in my family do. They drive their women insane and kill them.”

  “You’re mistaken,” I breathed, placing my cheek against hers, the knife poking her throat. I watched her skin bend beneath the pressure from the blade, wondering how far my heart would take me. “I’m not dying.”

  “You’re not standing in my way,” she seethed, lowering her head to meet my eyes. “He’ll leave you, whether it’s because we kill him or you. The details don’t matter,”
she winked, “babby.”

  “I’ll never leave her,” Julian declared from behind us, his voice petrifying. The knife fell from my hand as I reached to cover my ears from the whizzing bullet screaming by my head. “My family, my rules.”

  Maureen’s head fell against my left shoulder, the trickle of blood cascading down her hair and onto my cheek.

  “Let her fall,” Julian ordered. I lowered my hands from my ears, holding Maureen’s shoulders beneath my palms, chilled with how quickly warmth vanished from her body. I tried to guide her down as I hesitantly stepped backward, but her dead weight pressed heavily against my chest. In another life, one that didn’t exist without Julian, I would have screamed, I would have fainted. In this life, the only life I ever wanted, I spun around to meet Julian’s warm palms as they extended toward me.

  His hold engulfed me, squeezing the last particles of air from my lungs. He lifted his right hand to stroke my hair, pushing my head more securely against his pounding chest. I listened to his heartbeat, its violent stammer a new melody to me. He just killed his sister.

  I didn’t know what to do except remain exactly where I stood, wrapped in his strong arms as we comprehended the magnitude of the moment. I wiggled my hands free from his stomach and wound my arms around him, spreading my fingers against his back. His soft tremble rippled through my skin and into my heart. He just killed his sister!

  “How did you know?” I finally uttered words, not even sure if they came out coherently.

  “I didn’t know she was here, Aideen,” he whispered, his voice cracking with shock. I looked up at him, his eyes like ice.

  “How did you do it?” he breathed, pressing my head against his chest. “He’s dead, babby. Tell me how you fucking did it.”

  My gaze flickered between his lethal stare, the determination potent and accusatory, dominant and sensual. My knees weakened, forgetting his sister lay limply behind us, and I lifted my palms to his pecs, rewarded with his heavy panting for air.

  “Poison.” All their bullets, knives, and warfare, and I helped topple an empire with arsenic. Julian nodded approvingly, but his brows remained furrowed above his lost stare. I tried to free myself from his hold, but he wouldn’t let me go.

  “And,” Julian swallowed, “…Malcolm?”

  I stepped on my tiptoes, grazing my lips against his throat. “Bullet.” He watched me, uttering nothing while I felt his soul scream at me through his broken stare.

  “We can’t leave, Julian. We belong here. You’ll lead like you’re meant to, and we’ll be behind you.”

  “Liam and Aideen,” he scoffed, finally looking away from me as his hold released.

  The fog of death hung heavily around him in that moment, nestling itself into his veins while I tried to liberate his heart with a kiss. Without another word, Julian turned from me and went into his kitchen. I heard him growl into the phone, the scrape of metal, and shattering glass.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  JULIAN

  I fucked up. My house was destroyed in my tantrum, the explosive emotions I couldn’t contain while absorbing the consequence of killing my sister after watching my grandfather die. I was meant to tear life from his chest; his blood should have been on my hands. It was my job to protect her and, in the end, she saved me. But I fucked up. I left her in the hall with a corpse, shattering my home after calling for Maureen’s body to be handled, and hid like a callous monster in my bedroom. I fucked up by letting them get to her, giving Liam a chance to shine while I faded, while the gaping wound of everything Aideen carried on her shoulders in my absence stung with the salt of reality.

  We started over twice in two months, and I was determined to do it again. I heard the shower turn off in her bathroom, happy she could function while horrified at my neglect. I’m going to fix this. I’m going to marry her. I’m going to keep her as I promised. I jumped from my bed, the destructive and hopeless thoughts shrouded beneath the need for Aideen’s skin against mine. I was met with billowing steam in the hallway before I even reached the bathroom door. Everything ached for her, twitching restlessly with a need to consume her, to apologize and make us whole again. I tapped once on the door, her silence burning my ears. I struggled to breathe when she unlatched it, the steam inviting me in with Aideen’s permission.

  She stood in front of the sink, staring at the foggy mirror with her knuckles whitening against the countertop. I lingered in the doorway, watching as her silhouette hardened every last piece of me. I approached Aideen from behind, my hands quivering with desperation to touch her, and she spun to face me.

  The tie of her robe slipped through my fingers, separating the layers of fabric to reveal an intoxicating hint of her skin. I held her gaze tentatively, waiting for her permission. My skin throbbed in anticipation, rewarded only by the small trail of her flickering gaze that traveled between my eyes and stomach. It was her yes and my undoing.

  I raised my hands to her shoulders, unfolding my burning fists to feel the heat of her skin beneath my palms as I grazed them along her neck. I tickled her skin, slowly pursuing contact with her shoulders as my touch pushed the robe from her body. The fabric pooled at her feet, leaving Aideen wearing only my heart and her diamond necklace. I cupped her shoulders, our eyes devouring each other with unspoken need.

  Her eyes locked on mine, and I died. The darkened glow of Aideen’s blue eyes scalded me with her burning gaze, the deliberate blink of her long lashes, as her soft lips spread into a grin. Her fingertips pierced my lower back as she wound her arms around me, pressing her warm body against mine. I held her in the hospital, cared for her there, saw her gloriously naked body in her apartment, made love with her, but the purpose in each of those moments was to protect her and love her. This time is to devour her.

  I was rewarded by her fingers crawling up my back, the tingling poke of her fingernails against my shoulder blades. I held my arms around her bare body, spreading my fingers along the soft skin of her back. My right hand glided down her spine, following the slim line of her figure until my palm found the curve of her bottom. Her lips parted against my chest with a soft moan before I deepened my hold against her behind and pulled her to me. Aideen’s head tipped back, revealing the length of her throat and my mind went wild. All I wanted was to consume her—skin, soul, heart, body.

  I tightened my hold while lifting her up, welcoming the thrust of her hips above mine as her legs wound around my waist. Her skin was melting beneath my touch, a warm puddle of desire that promised to destroy me—and I was ready. Insatiable.

  The past few months were gone in a blink, but their damage hung its poison around us, as though we felt even the smallest moment of intimacy would end. But I refused. I planned on devouring each taste of her, of us, and memorizing every octave of her moaning voice as I shattered the past with one kiss.

  The silence of our voices met with panting breaths and soft moans of ecstasy. Words weren’t necessary, as we communicated by touch alone. I knew her body, every curve and goose bump my touch caused. It was all mine. I carried her to the counter, prepared to finish what we started weeks before in my bathroom, but I couldn’t wait. We didn’t need words. We needed so much more.

  I glided my left hand from the curve of her backside up to her neck, stabilizing her quivering body as I lowered my face to hers. Her fingernails pierced my biceps, our bodies smashed against the granite countertop, a tangled mess of skin and sweat glistening upon us in a sheath. I tipped back her head, letting my mouth hover over her throat, briefly distracted by the sparkling chain that dangled in its memory of the night our truth became the honesty which strengthened Aideen’s wings.

  She hummed my name, each syllable shooting like a damn arrow into my pants. The sound of toiletries tumbling off the counter in response to her shove joined the symphony of panting breaths and beating hearts. Aideen’s grasp tightened around my neck, her fingers greedily tugging on my scalp as she pulled us onto the counter. My right palm spread against the mirror above her as sh
e once more reached for me, indulging in our desire.

  A lifetime. An eternity. Months tortured physically and emotionally, and there we were. Her wings spread around us as we came undone, both gasping for air through blissfully tortured breaths.

  I woke to the hum of my vibrating cell phone, my limbs knotted with Aideen’s. I tried to move without waking her. The only thing more beautiful than Aideen sleeping next to me, the hint of a smile on her calm face, was the flush of her cheeks while coming undone beneath me. Above me. Everywhere. Slipping from her hold and putting a pillow in my place where we slept on the floor, I crept to find my pants and answer the call. Liam’s number flashed on my screen, and I considered the guilt hanging heavily around us. I didn’t have a chance to tell him about Monroe.

  “Hey,” I answered once I took the phone into the living room.

  “I realized, in all of this, that there are still people out there placing bounties against us, brother.”

  I licked the taste of Aideen from my lips, thinking of her naked body curled in a blanket on the floor. “Are you alone?”

  “Would you want me any other way, Julian?” He scoffed, and I could hear the despondency cloaked with alcohol in his voice.

  “Liam,” I whispered, staring out the window next to the fireplace. “I really don’t know how to thank you for everything you did for her. I owe you my life.”

  “Did you know she talks in her sleep?” She did in the hospital. I tried not to let his words prod as deeply as they attempted to do, fighting a jealousy I knew didn’t exist. She’s mine. I’m hers.