THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series (67 page)

“What does this have to do with me?”

Pops glanced at Kyle. I followed his gaze and watched my brother push away from wall where he’d been standing.

“Carmine has a daughter,” he began. I knew where he was going instantly, and I began to shake my head.

“You’re fucking playing with me, right?”

Kyle held up his hands as if he was trying to stop me from leaving the room. But I wasn’t going anywhere. I wanted to hear this.

“It was Carmine’s idea. He thought if we literally merged our families, it would keep us from going back on the deal at some future date and vice versa.” Kyle glanced at Pops then focused on me again. “He originally wanted it to be me, but he didn’t know I was already married.”

“He wants me to marry his daughter?”

“You’re the only one of us who isn’t already married,” Kyle said.

“Sean’s not married.”

“Sean’s living with Jack’s daughter,” Sean helpfully interjected himself.

I felt like a cornered dog. I backed away from Kyle’s encroaching movements, nearly tripping over a chair that suddenly sprang up behind me. I sat hard, catching myself on the arms of the chair.

“It would only be for as long as necessary to keep the peace and to find Kevin. After that…you could get an annulment if you wanted.”

I shook my head. “Did anyone consider how I would feel about this? Maybe I don’t want to marry a stranger.”

“I understand,” Pops said. “And we wouldn’t ask this of you if we had any other option.”

“Of course you have another option! What about one of Jack’s sons? What about one of his men? Why does it have to be me?”

“Because Jack’s sons are all married and it needs to be someone close to Jack. You boys are as close as we could get.” Pops knelt in front of me, an act of submission that was humbling to us both. He touched the back of my hand. “Just meet her. If you simply can’t stand her, then we’ll figure something else out.”

“This is really important to you?”

Pops nodded. “We need this street war to end as quickly as possible so that we can concentrate on finding Kevin and putting an end to his war against me. We need to stop the chaos and get things back to the way they should be. The sooner we can do that, the better.”

I could see the strain on Pops’ face. I knew how heavy all of this chaos with Kevin had been on him. There was a scar on his lip from where the federal agents beat him when he was arrested. And there, in his eyes, was the guilt over Brianna’s kidnapping, the hitman who nearly killed Killian, the chaos on the streets that had led to the deaths or arrests of many of Jack’s men, our brothers in the organization. Men he grew up with or watched grow up. It was all too much to know that it was his own son, his favorite, who was behind it all.

I rested my hand on his shoulder. “Okay, Pops. I’ll meet her.”

“We can invite her to our dinner party,” Killian said helpfully.

The idea of having my brothers around when I met her was something of a double-edged sword. They’d be there for support if she was what I expected her to be—I mean, her father wasn’t the best looking man in the world!—but they’d be in the way if she was someone I wanted to get to know.

I couldn’t think about Carrie right now. That would just make all this impossible.

Mia

“I won’t! I don’t want to marry some stranger!”

My mom came up behind me and rested her hands on my shoulders. “You know how important this is to your father.”

“He’s only doing this to get me away from Spider.”

She met my eyes in the mirror. “To him, it’s a win-win situation. He gets you away from that boy…and he saves his people from a street war.”

“And what if I meet this man and decide I just can’t stand him?”

My mom kissed my temple. “Then your father and I will have a discussion.”

I turned and looked up at my mother—my tall, gorgeous mother—and studied her face for a moment. It was so familiar that it almost hurt. I was happy to be home, really I was. I’d missed my family in the four months I’d been living with Spider in Chicago. I don’t know how many times I cried myself to sleep, regretting my impulsive decision. I was almost relieved when I got onto that bus to come home after my dad was shot. It was a bad thing to be relieved when your father is shot. Maybe that was why I’d agreed to this crazy scheme in the first place.

I’d already been stuck with one guy I didn’t love for longer than I should have been. I didn’t want to immediately find myself in the same situation—even if it was for a better reason.

“Based on everything I’ve heard, this Ian Callahan is a good man. Good with computers. And honorable.”

“That’s what Daddy said.”

“All the Callahans are…unique.” Momma lifted my face so that she could see my eyes. “I know it’s difficult, having to marry a man you hardly know, especially a man who a month ago was your father’s sworn enemy, but your father wouldn’t put you in this position if he thought he was doing you a disservice.”

“What about Spider? What about my right to choose the man I love?”

She touched my cheek lightly. “Your father loves you, Mia. He’s trying to protect you in his own strange sort of way.”

“But Momma—”

“Can you look me in the eye and honestly tell me you love Spider?”

I couldn’t. I let my eyes drop to the floor. She lifted my chin again and studied my face.

“You meet this man tonight, talk to him for a while, and if you really don’t want to have anything to do with him, we’ll confront your dad together. We’ll make him find another way to stop the street war.”

But that wasn’t really reasonable, either. My two brothers were out there on the street, trying to keep the Italians from killing the Irish. One came home two days ago with a knife wound on his arm after breaking up a fight with a couple of his men and a young Irish guy. His wife was eight months pregnant, crying her eyes out when she called Momma to tell her what’d happened. We thought for a while she’d go into labor from the stress.

I couldn’t be responsible for something bad happening to one of my brothers, or my sister’s husband. But the idea of marrying a man I didn’t know, who was Brian Callahan’s son, a man I’d learned to hate since I was a toddler, was just too difficult to wrap my mind around.

It didn’t matter if I liked him or not. It was simply against everything I’d ever been taught to even talk to the man, let alone build a life with him.

However, I’d rebelled against my family once. I wasn’t sure I could do it again.

“I can’t go by myself.”

“Of course not. Seraphina’s going with you.”

I tried to imagine that. I was supposed to meet my betrothed at a dinner party at his brother’s house. It all sounded so common, so normal, but Daddy had railed against Jack McGuire and Brian Callahan, the Irish jackasses who were ruining his business by constantly encroaching on his territory and luring away his customers and his men, for years. I’d been taught that the name Callahan was to be spit upon. And not just me. My brothers, Carlo and Carmine Jr., and my sister, Seraphina, too. And Seraphina…to her, the Callahans were the devil.

Seraphina was married to Aldo, and Aldo was one of my father’s lieutenants. He was there whenever anything significant happened, such as the shooting that left my father in the hospital these last few weeks. The Callahans were probably the last people with whom she wanted to sit down and break bread.

I turned back to the mirror and studied our reflections. Momma was tall, her complexion a classic olive, her eyes dark, her hair black as night. She had high cheekbones, a narrow jaw, and a svelte figure that could have given her a job in Hollywood if she’d ever tried. She was beautiful. Everyone always said so. Seraphina looked exactly like her, even after three kids had widened her hips ever so slightly. And my brothers…well, they looked a lot like Daddy. They were tall, but they tended toward heavy, too. Me? I didn’t look like either.

I was slightly taller than average, but not nearly as tall as Momma and Seraphina. I had curves where they were more model-esque. My hair was dark, like theirs, but I had blond highlights that shot through it. And my eyes were a deep green where everyone in the family had dark brown—almost black—eyes. My skin was like cream, and I burned like a redhead whenever I went out in the summer. The family used to joke that I was some sort of alien, that I’d come to the family through some sort of accident. In truth, Momma pulled me aside and confided that there was a blond in her ancestry and that likely explained my paler coloring. But I’d always felt like the odd one out.

Plus, I was the baby, some five years younger than my siblings were.

And this, this betrothal, didn’t help.

“You look beautiful,” Momma said.

I half nodded. I was wearing a simple green dress that dipped low between my full breasts and fell into a skirt that touched the tops of my feet. Momma pulled my hair back into a thick ponytail, allowing just one or two strands to curl around my face. I rarely wore makeup, but I’d done a little mascara and some lip gloss for the occasion, not sure if it was for the benefit of my betrothed or myself. Probably just me.

Momma kissed my temple again, tears in her eyes.

“This is going to be okay.”

“It is.”

I studied her face, aware that she was as frightened by this whole thing as I was. And that gave me strength, the strength to make this okay for her.

***

Seraphina didn’t speak much on the drive across town. Her hands gripped the steering wheel, her massive engagement ring tap-tapping in time to music that was only in her head. She glanced at me once or twice, but whatever might have spilled from her lips on other occasions was dammed up by something I wasn’t aware of, or didn’t understand.

The house she turned into was behind a gate that protected the entire neighborhood. It was a large, brick house with all the amenities of an upper-class home. It was clear the Callahans were doing well in their connections to the Irish mob, not to mention their positions at MCorp.

Seraphina leaned toward me to look up at the house, too.

“Nice.”

“Not as nice as Daddy’s house.”

“No. But give him time.”

She got out of the car and came around, holding out her hand to me. My heart was pounding. The Callahans had been built into such monsters in my head that I almost expected a two-headed cyclops to open the door when she knocked. Instead, it was an attractive blond woman who opened the door. She was older than me, closer to Seraphina’s age, and she had a baby—about six months old—on her hip.

“Hi,” she said with a big smile. “I’m Stacy, and this is David.”

Seraphina surprised me by immediately reaching for the baby’s little fingers, leaning in, and making those cooing sounds which only moms knew how to make. I found myself studying the woman’s face, the paleness of her features. She might have looked sickly if not for the color on her cheeks. And the light dancing in her eyes.

She didn’t seem all that threatening.

“Please, come in,” she said, gesturing to the entryway that opened up behind her.

Seraphina gestured for me to go first. I thought my heart might stutter to a stop as I stepped onto the marble floor, my modest heels making a tiny sound. We could hear voices coming from deeper in the house, but—for the moment—we were alone. Seraphina touched my arm, making a supportive gesture with the rising of her chin. I straightened a little, trying to remember that I was a Rossi. I was strong.

“The guys are just through here,” Stacy said. “They’re having drinks on the back deck before dinner.”

“Sounds nice,” Seraphina said.

I wasn’t used to my loud, almost obnoxious, sister being so polite. I glanced at her as Stacy led the way through a lovely living room with comfortable furnishings. I found myself drawn to the warmth of this room, wondering what it must be like to hang out here after a long day of…whatever.

Laughter, deep and very masculine, came toward us from the French doors at the back of the room. Stacy glanced back at us, a soft smile on her lips. I was suddenly hit with a bit of panic, my chest tightening and my breath refusing to leave my lungs. I paused in my steps, but Seraphina didn’t notice. She continued out the door with Stacy, asking her something about the color of paint on the walls of all things.

“They won’t bite,” a warm voice behind me said.

“Are you sure?”

There was amusement in his voice when he said, “They haven’t actually taken a bite out of anyone since they were in junior high.”

My heart pounding, I turned and found myself face to face with the monster himself, Brian Callahan.

I stumbled a little, and he caught me, his hand on my upper arm. Somehow my hand came to rest on his chest, just below his heart. He was thin, this man who’d so tortured my father and brothers all these years. Thin and tall and almost handsome. And solid. He was very solid.

“You’re not a monster.”

He laughed, and that’s how I came to realize I’d said it out loud. I hadn’t meant to.

“No, I’m not a monster. Just a man.”

“I’m sorry. That was rude.”

“It’s fine.” He stepped back slightly and studied me for a moment. “I met you once. When you were about this tall,” he said, holding his hand out to his side about hip level. “You were just as beautiful then.”

I blushed as I inclined my head. “Thank you.”

“You probably don’t remember. It was a very brief meeting.”

“I don’t, to be honest.”

His eyes searched mine for a long moment. “I’m not supposed to be here. I just stopped by to pick up some papers.” But he didn’t move away, and he didn’t say anything else.

“I should…” I gestured with my thumb over my shoulder.

He nodded. But then he stepped into me, setting his hand lightly on my shoulder.

“Ian’s a good man,” he said softly. “He’s been through hell, but he’s come out of it so much better than he might have if not for my Abigail. He just needs someone to smooth the rough edges, you know?”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I nodded.

He studied my eyes a second longer, then kissed my forehead lightly, as though we’d known each other all our lives and he had the right to touch me. I let him, too stunned by the sudden act of affection to respond any other way. Then he was gone, disappearing through a door at the back of the room I hadn’t noticed until that second.

“Mia!”

Seraphina was in the doorway, glaring at me. “Get your ass out here!”

That
was the Seraphina I knew.

Somehow, the encounter with Brian Callahan made it easier to step out onto that back deck. If I’d been expecting ogres or something, I was again surprised by what I saw.

They were all tall, gorgeous men. Not one of them was unattractive. The man standing beside Stacy, greeting me with a hand held out, was dark and broad shouldered, intense green eyes that seemed to see everything about me. Another, beside him, had red hair like Brian’s and blue eyes that also seemed to take in the world with great curiosity.

“This is my husband, Killian Callahan,” Stacy said, as the first man took my hand. He smiled widely, a smile that spoke of great pleasures and a little curiosity.

“Nice to meet you,” I mumbled as he let my hand go. It was quickly replaced by his brother’s.

“Sean Callahan,” the redhead told me. “And this is Delaney Doherty.”

My eyebrows rose a little. I knew that name. She was CEO of Heavenly Match, a dating website my girlfriends and I frequented when we were first out of high school.

“It’s really nice to meet you.”

Delaney smiled. “You too, Mia.”

A dark man came around Delaney, playfully pushing her to the side so that he could stand in front of me.

“I’m Kyle,” he said. “I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to meet you.”

“You’re Kyle?” Seraphina suddenly interrupted.

“I am.”

Once again quite uncharacteristic for my sister, she threw her arms around his shoulders and gave him a hug that was all at once intimate and emotional. We sort of stood back and watched, confused for a moment. Even Kyle seemed overwhelmed, despite the fact that his arms came around Seraphina and he held her almost as tight as she held him.

“Thank you,” Seraphina said through tears when she pulled back. “You saved our father and my husband that night. Without you my children might be partial orphans today.”