Page 53 of Killian (The Doherty Mafia)
“Connor is dead?”
“Yes.”
She moved her hands up to her mouth, rapidly blinking her tears away.
“Okay…so…this is my chance, right? Our chance. We could maybe…”
“Be together?” I asked. I filled in the gaps for her and she nodded.
“That is not how this works. You should know that by now, Reese. We owe you back to Aldo. My family owes him. You were never actually married to Connor.”
“Which means he can trade me with something else again. It’s a big win for him, right?”
I glared at her, hoping she would see what I actually wanted her to do. I wanted her to go back to her stepfather and tell him she wanted to be with me. But I wasn’t going to put words in her mouth.
If all she wanted was freedom, then she would have to go looking for it somewhere else.
I couldn’t be responsible for her. I’d already taken on too much responsibility.
“I’m doing the best I can for you,” I said.
She shook her head, storming past me. It felt like it was going to be a long night.
* * *
I was right. It was a long night. And not because I could take her one last time, or because we spent the whole night awake and fucking.
She slept in the guest bedroom where Isabelle slept when she was here.
In my bedroom, I spent the night awake, thinking about her.
Was I making a mistake?
Should I have fought my dad on this? Fought my family’s rules? Should I have claimed Reese for myself?
Aldo was an important ally to the family. I knew my father didn’t want to piss him off. And if he found out I helped Reese murder the man he’d given her to, and then I kidnapped her and claimed her as my own—he would take it as a personal offense and make my family pay for it.
And the truth was—I still didn’t know how she felt.
How she truly felt.
I couldn’t figure out if she was just using me to get her way, or did she feel the way I did? Like a lovesick teenager.
I woke up hating myself.
I despised myself for being so weak to a woman. I also hated myself for not finding a way to keep her.
Reese refused to speak to me in the morning. When I offered her some coffee, she just turned away from me.
I stared at her long and hard. What if I never saw her again? I wanted to remember her. I wanted to commit her to memory.
Aldo and his men arrived early. Much earlier than I expected them.
I had hoped I’d get some more time with Reese but it wasn’t meant to be. Just like our relationship.
When Aldo’s cars pulled up outside the cabin, I saw the fear in Reese’s eyes.
Shit.
That was when I knew I should have given it more time. I should have tried to find out more about Aldo. What really happened between them?
They knocked on the door and Reese shuddered.
“Hey…” I spoke softly, but she ignored me again.
I had never been given the cold shoulder by a female before, and neither did I ever give a shit.
With Reese it felt like a physical ache inside me.
She went to the front door like she wanted to willingly surrender herself.
I followed her there, standing back when she opened the door with Aldo and his men on the other side.
“Looks like you bring bad luck everywhere you go,” he snarled at her.
“Hold up!” I growled, just as a guy grabbed Reese by the arm and yanked her out of the house.
I hated seeing her being manhandled like that. She didn’t even look over her shoulder at me. It was like she had resigned herself to her fate and wasn’t going to fight it.
Aldo had a smile on his face. He turned to me, giving me a mock salute.
“Hope she wasn’t too much of a pain in the ass for you. Thanks for keeping an eye on her,” he said.
I stood at the door with my hands clenched in fists, anger rising in waves inside me. All I could do was watch as they pushed her into the back of a car. Aldo got in the front. Then they drove away.
The moment she was gone, I knew I wanted her back.
Twenty-Eight
Reese
I wasn’t a prisoner in a secluded cabin in the middle of the woods anymore.
I wasn’t tied up in the basement with no fresh clothes to wear.
So technically, I should have been rejoicing with my newfound freedom.
But who was I kidding? Being back in that house—in my stepfather’s house—was no freedom at all.
In fact, for some reason, Aldo had amped up security around me and the men who watched me were given strict orders to keep me in my room.
It had been three days since my return to this place and I hadn’t been able to step out of the house once. If I left the room, two men followed my every move. I couldn’t even eat in peace. Every last shred of freedom and independence had been stripped from me.
