But if he comes now, he’d be dead.
“There are no network signals in this godforsaken house!” I yelled in frustration.
Ronan just smiled and ignored me.
Myles sat back down next to Zoe and handed her his own phone to play on. “We had a jammer on so you couldn’t use your phone. I just turned it off.”
I stared at Ronan’s evil, twisted smile, those green eyes that looked so much like Calum’s—minus the warmth. “Why are you doing this? He’s your nephew, for God’s sake.”
Ronan’s green eyes turned to ice. “In my business, when he fucks with me, I fuck with him. I don’t care who he is.”
I gasped in terror when Ronan spoke into the phone.
“Calum!” He greeted with a grin, as if he had found a long-lost friend. “Finally, we speak, my son. I’ve got your girlfriend and daughter here. I’m taking them to the diner where you and I made our first business deal.”
Bile rose in my throat.
Who am I kidding? Calum is just like Ronan.
But he isn’t! He’s sweet and kind and generous.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as Ronan delivered the rest of his warning.
“You have till midnight. If you don’t come alone, I’m throwing these two girls of yours to the dogs.”
Chapter 15
Calum
The front door slammed shut behind me.
I’d spent hours on the boat, but the waves had refused to comfort me. Nina was gone, so was Zoe.
My mother was sitting on the living room couch. I could feel her gaze on me as I yanked the fridge door open and pulled out a bottle of water.
“Talk to me, Calum. You can’t keep this inside you.”
“They’re gone,” I said simply, never looking at her.
“I know. But you and I both know it’s not safe for them out there.”
I dropped a spoon hard into the kitchen sink. “You should’ve let me stop them. It was a mistake letting them out of my sight.”
“You couldn’t force her to stay here. What were you going to do? Lock her inside? Restrain her?”
I finally looked at my mother. “I wanted a chance to explain. If I could’ve talked to Nina, I would’ve made her understand. I could’ve explained why I joined the mafia in the first place. Why I joined those murderers. Ronan killed my father.”
My mother paled and twisted her fingers together, staring at the rug. “You should’ve let that go a long time ago. You should’ve never gone to Ronan.”
“You know why I did. I wanted to get him for what he’d done. I needed proof to get him behind bars, to make him pay for killing Dad.”
“And what happened?” Isabel cried, lurching to her feet. “I’ve spent years without saying this to you, but look what you achieved. You ruined your life. You ruined all chances of being happy with Nina. You can’t even be a dad to your daughter. Ronan is in the business of destroying lives, Calum.”
My heart twisted painfully as I realized my mom was right. “I never expected to fall in love with her. I wasn’t looking for love. She came along and it happened. I was going to get out of that world, build a life with her. I already had the proof I needed to get Ronan to stand trial for my father’s death.”
“But it didn’t work out that way. Your plan failed. Calum, I’m not blaming you for anything, but look at how much you’ve suffered already—how I’ve suffered. And now, there’s Nina and Zoe who’ll suffer.”
“I’ll get her back here. I’ll make her see the truth. I know she loves me enough to understand. She’ll have cooled down in a couple days and I’ll go to her.”
“I called her. But her phone is turned off.”
“I know.” I stared to the window. “I’ve been calling her for hours.”
My phone rang shrilling from the dining table where I’d left it. I whirled around, snatching it up. Hope flared in my chest. “Hello? Nina?”
“Finally, we speak, my son. I’ve got your girlfriend and daughter here. I’m taking them to the diner where you and I made our business deal.”
“Ronan! You lay your hands on them and I’ll make you regret ever being born!”
“You have till midnight. If you don’t come alone, I’m throwing these two girls of yours to the dogs.”
The phone went dead. Fear chilled my arms, my legs. It took considerable effort to remain standing. I wanted to rage, to break everything in sight. There was a storm of regret swirling inside of me.
My mom’s voice made me gaze up at her through burning eyes.
“Calum? Please tell me it isn’t true.”
My mother was white as a sheet. She’d guessed right.
“He has them. He has them.” I said in disbelief. “The bastard already has them.”
Isabel burst into tears, sobbing loudly. I stood in the middle of the house. It was eerily silent, except for the sound of my mom’s heartbroken wails.
“I promise, Mom. I won’t allow anything to happen to Nina or Zoe.”
Isabel sniffled and stood up. She wrapped her arms around me and I held her tight.
I was in a hurry. I pulled away too soon, and had already reached the door when Mom called my name.
“You know what Ronan is capable of, Calum. I want my family safe and sound, please. You, Nina, and Zoe. I want all three of you back safe.”
I couldn’t make any promises. I knew for a fact that Zoe and Nina were coming home safe.
About myself, I didn’t give a damn.
Even though I hadn’t been at that diner in over a decade, I knew exactly which one Ronan was talking about.
I was eighteen when Ronan had brought me here for the first time, asking me to join his ‘business’. I’d turned him down and gone to college instead. A week after I completed my MBA, my father was killed. That was the day I’d called him back to this diner and agreed to join Ronan’s business. All to infiltrate the mafia and discover the truth about my father’s death.
My reverie was cut short. A man slid into a barstool next to me and ordered a coffee.
Expressionless, I stared ahead, waiting for the man to make his presence known. He waited for his coffee, and I stayed seated in silence. His cup clattered gently into the saucer after he took a sip and placed a ten-dollar bill on the counter. “Let’s go.”
That’s all I heard.
I slid out of the barstool, my eyes on the wide back of the man walking ahead of me. One of Ronan’s thugs. The diner’s parking was empty, just three cars parked near the door. Under a streetlight across the lot, a black van with tinted windows stood parked at an angle. I could hear the engine running. Ronan’s thug pulled open the door and waited for me to get inside.
I slid into the seat. Two men patted me down, undid my shirt to check for wires. They dragged their hands along the sides of my pants, searching for weapons. Once they were satisfied, they sat back wordlessly.
There were four men in the back with me, and two men in the front. I knew the army of thugs that would greet me wherever it was that Ronan held Nina and Zoe.
Zoe and Nina were there, counting on me to get them out.
The car turned off a main road, onto gravel. The tires crunched loudly, and I prepared for a fight. Outwardly, I was calm. Mentally, I was preparing for war.
I had to convince Ronan to let my girls go free. There was no other way. I had no weapons, and if I fought, I’d be fighting an army with my bare hands. If that was the only way I could get Nina and Zoe out alive, I was up for it.
The van finally stopped, the tires crunching on gravel. The four men in the back of the van bolted into action. I followed them out and walked toward the dark, abandoned warehouse.
Ronan certainly hadn’t lost his flair for dramatics. Brining me to a warehouse could only mean one thing: he wanted to remind me of the explosion three years ago. He wanted to torture me by giving me a hint of what was coming.
If Ronan had his way, Zoe, Nina, and I would perish in the warehouse tonight.
I wouldn’t
let Ronan get his way. I had way too much at stake. I was calm, and prepared.
The door opened and I strode inside. My composure received a harsh beating. Regret and agony almost made me double over.
I spotted Nina, holding Zoe in her arms. At least a dozen men surrounded her on all sides.
“Calum!” Nina called, her voice strong and unwavering.
My emotions took a beating. But I was proud of her. She wasn’t sobbing, or shaking, or on her knees in helpless terror. She held my gaze, strength resonating from her stance.
She was still so young—barely twenty-four-years old. In the three years since she’d known me, she’d seen so much violence. And now, Zoe was suffering the name fate. I wished fervently that Zoe was asleep in Nina’s arms. As if on cue, Zoe stirred in Nina’s arms and Nina clutched her tighter.
A large metal door to my left clattered open, the sound reverberating in the massive open space. Ronan appeared, his face a mixture of elation and victory. He thought he’d already won. I wasn’t going to let him. No matter what happened, Ronan would lose tonight. The alternative was unthinkable.
Ronan came to stand in front of me, his green eyes as steely and cold as mine. He took his time watching me, derision dripping from his gaze. “You’re just like your father, Calum. Always fucking getting in my way.”
I exhaled harshly and grated my teeth in suppressed anger. “I’m the one you’re after, Ronan. Let Nina and Zoe go. I’m here. You have me. Do what you want, but the girls go back home.”
Ronan chuckled, an evil mirthless sound. “You’re no fool, Ronan. You and I both know none of you are walking out of here alive.”
“Zoe is a baby!” I hissed. “Let her go with her mother. They are not a threat to you.”
Everything happened too fast. Ronan reached for his gun and pulled it out. It went off.
I ducked to the ground as all hell broke loose.
Ronan hit the ground on his face. Unmoving. One of the men who stood next to Nina and Zoe swung his arm to the side, his gun erupting with hot bullets. Ronan’s men hit the ground like bowling pins.
Even through the burst of hot fear racing up my spine, I saw the gun-wielding man push Nina and Zoe behind his body, sheltering them. Confused, my heart beating a gazillion beats a second, I broke into a run. The man kept shooting at everyone but me. Sharp hot pain sliced my upper arm but I kept running, ignoring the fiery burn and the warm liquid seeping through my shirt.
I pulled Nina behind some barrels and grabbed a gun off the floor.
I looked up, and my brows shot together. I heard the sound of choppers circling the warehouse. Lights were flashing through the cracks in the roof and the high windows. The gunfire was sharp and fast as Ronan’s men returned fire. Police and FBI filed inside, their guns drawn and loud.
Ronan’s men were outnumbered. One by one, they dropped their guns and surrendered. I flung my gun to the side and reached for Nina. She handed me a soft bundle instead. Zoe. I held her tight against my chest. Nina clutched the side of my shirt as if her legs couldn’t support her weight.
I emerged from the warehouse into bright, flashing light. Medics rushed forward to take them. I turned on my heel to head back inside.
“No, Calum!” Nina screamed. She clutched my shirt, yanking me along with her. “Don’t go back inside. Don’t.”
“It’s okay.” I cupped her face and kissed her hard on the mouth.
“You’re hurt!” she sobbed, her hand sliding tenderly over the spreading red stain of blood on my shoulder.
Belatedly, I remembered I’d been shot. “I’ll be with you. Go with Zoe. Go get her away from this hell. I don’t want her to see this.” Tears burned my eyes as Nina released my shirt reluctantly and ran toward the ambulance after Zoe.
I returned to the warehouse. It was time for me to face the music. There was no more hiding.
I approached the FBI agents that were cuffing Ronan’s men. Ronan lay in the dust on his face, and I felt nothing. The man who was responsible for my family’s misery. The man who had killed his own brother, my father. And then destroyed the next few years of my life. He’d gotten away with so much.
“It all ends now,” I said to him.
Just as paramedics arrived to take him away, Ronan’s eyes fluttered open. He looked straight at me. The cold evil was gone, all replaced by dread.
That look healed the miseries of my past.
“You deserved much worse, Ronan.”
I knew he heard me because he spit blood out of his mouth onto the stretcher.
“You’re Calum Lynch?”
I swallowed and turned toward the sound. I prepared to be cuffed, taken into custody. “That’s me.”
“We’ll have to bring you in for questioning. For your involvement with Ronan Lynch. Is he a relative?”
“My father’s brother.”
“We have evidence. Tapped phone calls and emails that prove you were part of the syndicate.”
Nina’s heart would’ve broken watching me get arrested. And Zoe? Watching her father in cuffs would scar her for life.
“But those same emails also prove that you were never involved in any of the crimes Ronan Lynch committed. We also have correspondence that proves Ronan Lynch had discovered you only joined his mob to get proof that he killed your father.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. The same Ronan who had ruined years of my life, had somehow unknowingly left behind proof that my hands were clean. I was no criminal.
The agent’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Go home to your family. We’ll call you in for questioning when we need you to testify against Ronan Lynch.”
I couldn’t believe it. Home. I was going home. A free man.
But I needed to know something first. “How did you know Ronan was going to be here?”
“A few months ago, official documents were leaked to the Irish mafia, and we discovered that one of our agents, Myles Walsh, was working with Ronan Lynch. We’ve been watching his every move since then. For months, we remained on Walsh’s trail so we could nab Ronan Lynch. During this time, we infiltrated the mafia with one of our clean agents. A few hours ago, we got word from that agent that Nina Johnson and her child were being held hostage here.”
I extended my hand. “Thank you. Thank you for saving my family.”
The agent patted my back as he shook my hand. “Go on. Go see your family.”
As I walked out of the warehouse, it felt like I’d shed the weight of a thousand regrets. I had a completely different life, a completely different future to what I’d imagined.
When I’d walked in that warehouse, I’d expected never to walk out alive.
I was walking out a free man. I didn’t have to hide anymore. I didn’t have to curse Nina to a life in Newport as a fugitive. I could have my family.
Moisture burned my eyes, then slid down my cheeks as I glared ahead.
In the midst of the flashing blue light, I saw the ambulance. Nina and Zoe were in the back, and just as one of the medics was about to pull the back shut, Nina saw me.
She jumped out of the ambulance and began running toward me. I broke into a run and met her halfway. My arms wrapped around her shoulders just as hers wound around my waist. I pushed my lips fiercely in her hair, shaking in relief. She sobbed in my arms like her heart would break.
My bloodshot eyes settled on a confused Zoe. I smiled for her benefit, and released Nina.
Nina quickly wiped away her tears. We stood holding one another, and smiled at Zoe.
“Should we go home, sweetie?” I asked Zoe.
“Cottage?” she asked with that adorable lisp.
I glanced at Nina. “No, not the cottage. We’re free to be a family wherever we want.”
Epilogue
Nina
One year later
It was right outside the bedroom window.
The last time I’d looked through this window, six months ago, I’d just seen the evidence of Calum’s involvement with the mafia. Six month
s ago, looking out this same window, I’d been heartbroken and shattered and angry and scared. But today, I was the happiest woman on earth. That same view had been transformed.
Strands of white flowers wrapped around the arch on a raised platform. The white chairs were lined neatly, silk flowing down the back of each chair, swaying in the seaside breeze. The Newport cottage had transformed into a flower wonderland. My favorite white lilies were adorning the stone path that led from the front door to the arch.
I bit my lip and looked down, smoothing my hands over the white silk dress.
Reluctantly I pulled away from the window where the guests were seated. The pastor had taken his position underneath the arch.
Calum had flown seventy of our closest friends and family to Newport by private jet. And I was ready—so ready—to become his wife.
In the full-length mirror in the bedroom, I caught sight of my reflection as Calum’s bride. I had refused to change any furniture of décor, because it reminded me of the time Calum and I had found each other. Three years of forced separation, and we’d met here. The cottage held too many memories.
I picked up the bouquet off the table and smiled at my reflection.
The day was coming a couple years too late. If it hadn’t been for that explosion three years ago, I would’ve married Calum a long time ago. Calum and I, we were meant for each other. There was no doubt about it. He was my true love. And I’d been by his side when he achieved what he’d set out to do all those years ago, when he joined Ronan Lynch’s criminal syndicate.
He’d tried so hard, and fought so hard for years.
I could still remember the calm serenity in Calum’s eyes when the judge read out the verdict.
Ronan Lynch had been found guilty of murdering Calum’s father, Danny Lynch. I’d stood next to Isabel and Calum as the sentence was read out: life in prison without parole.
There was a knock on the door and I turned. Zoe entered, wearing a tiny replica of my own Vera Vang dress, holding a basket of flowers.
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