Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

FIONN

“You give my men access to the security cams or I blow your brains out. You choose.”

I cock my nine into the back of the man’s head, his body shaking before a set of computers.

“I—I could lose my job. Please?—”

The barrel digs in deeper. “You will lose your life, so you decide. You’ve got five seconds. Because once I kill you, I’ll get the footage anyway. May as well save yourself.”

His hands quiver, his eyes staring at Pierce, one of my guys.

“Your time is up.”

“Okay! Here!”

He jumps off the seat and starts for the door, but before he can get far, Pierce grabs him from behind and puts one into his head, killing him almost instantly. He saw us. There was no other way this could go.

“Hurry up,” I tell Pierce. “We need her info ASAP. Then we stuff him into the luggage and get him out of here.”

“Yes, sir.”

While one of my men keeps eyes outside, Pierce starts clicking keys, eyes concentrating on the footage while I pace back and forth, hating that I have to kill a woman. But she’s a witness, and she has to go. I’ll make it painless.

“Okay. Got it. Amara Edwards.” He shoots off an address. “She lives alone. Young. Want to see her?”

“No.” The more I disconnect with this, the better.

“Want me to take care of it, boss?”

It’d be easier if he did.

“No. I’ve got it. You two take care of this before someone catches wind of what happened to him.”

“Don’t worry. We’ve got this.”

While they take care of the body and the cameras that could ID us, I head into my car, hating the job I’m about to do.

I arrive at a small one-story home, an older blue sedan in the driveway. The lights in the house are off as I sneak into the back, hoping she isn’t looking out the window.

Thought about hiding my face, but it doesn’t matter either way. She’s gonna be dead.

Removing a small screwdriver from my pocket, I slip it into the lock, thankful I keep this shit on my keychain.

After a few seconds, a click resonates, and when I twist the knob, I know it worked.

My eyes adjust to the surroundings: a small square kitchen, a narrow hallway running perpendicular. The wood floor creaks beneath my feet as I start in that direction, where all the rooms must be.

Fingers curl around the nine at my waist, a syringe in my pocket. I’ll drug her, then kill her. Better she doesn’t know what’s coming. Don’t want that. It’s not her fault she was there.

As soon as I step left, a woman’s roar causes me to jump back and something hard hits me on the arm. When I look down, I notice the plastic Tupperware bowl.

Was she aiming for my head? That’s cute.

I let out a laugh. She was waiting for me.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Ms. Edwards. We wouldn’t want you hurting yourself.”

She gasps with a low cry, but I won’t let that affect me.

“P-p-please, leave us alone.”

As those words leave her mouth, my heart beats so fucking loud, I almost wonder if I heard right.

It can’t be her . There’s no way in hell.

“Say something else,” I demand.

The darkness still clouds her face, but shit, it was her. It had to be.

I should turn on the light and see for myself. But I can’t do it. If it is her, it means I came to kill the one woman I’ve lived and breathed to find these past years.

“I beg you,” she whispers.

I close my eyes, that voice feeding this insatiable void I’ve carried all this time.

“I won’t say anything. I promise, Fionn.”

Fuck! It’s her!

“Emily?”

But that’s not her damn name. All this time, I’ve been looking for someone who didn’t exist.

Taking a slow drag of a breath, I attempt to dispel my rage. But it’s pointless. Finding the nearest light switch, I turn it on.

It takes me a few seconds to take her in. Those hazel eyes. That dark hair. Curves I’ve been dreaming about.

It’s her. There’s no denying it.

The shock of seeing her after all this time sends me back a step. I’m staring at the woman I’ve been unable to forget.

And suddenly, the only thing I want to do is take her in my arms and kiss her.

“What the hell?” My tone comes out harsher than I meant it.

She backs away, planting herself against the wall, her body shaking, eyes full of fear.

Of me .

Fuck. She saw me kill someone. Of course she’s terrified.

Stalking closer, I reach for her face, slowly feathering my fingers over the soft skin of her cheek while she shivers. And that kills me.

“Stay away from me!” She plants a hand between us, but I easily wrench it away.

My pulse pounds, unable to believe she’s really here.

“Emily… Fuck!” Anger races through my veins. “That’s not your name. I’ve been fucking thinking about you all this time, and I didn’t even know your name.”

“Are you serious right now?”

Her head shakes with a scoff, and I finally see it. Disappointment.

“I just watched you kill a man, and you wanna talk about my name?” she whisper-shouts. “You…” She digs a finger into my chest. “…have no right to judge me. Just get the hell out of here!”

A smile winds the corner of my mouth. Because she touched me. She can be as angry as she wants if she keeps touching me like that.

“I thought you were a good guy, but you’re a criminal! I can’t believe I’ve spent any time thinking about you at all.”

My fingers snap around her wrist, and I pin it against the wall, taking her other one too, both trapped on opposite sides. “You’ve thought about me, baby?”

Her chest flails, eyes wild with fear, yet I can taste her desire too.

“How many times?”

She visibly shudders. “Not that many.” Her cheeks flush.

“Liar.” I groan, pushing my body into hers, my mouth slowly skimming her lips.

She gasps, and that only makes me hungrier for her.

“Amara…” My mouth drops to her ear, teeth clenched. “It’s gonna take me a while to get used to calling out your real name while I jerk myself off, thinking of filling your pussy with my cum.”

She sucks in a breath. “You’re insane to be talking about that when you just came to kill me!”

She’s just as beautiful as I remember. Maybe her hips are slightly rounder, but I fucking love it.

“You think I could ever harm a hair on your head?” My tone deepens, threaded with my insatiable thirst.

It’s been so damn long…

“It doesn’t matter. You were gonna kill whoever you thought I was.” Her eyes narrow. “I’d never be with you again. I truly hope you understand that, because if not, maybe it’s time you got your head examined.”

I let out a short breath of laughter, dragging my nose across her throat before pressing a lingering kiss to the spot under her ear.

“I don’t remember needing your permission, little rabbit. You’re mine now. There’s no escaping me anymore.”

“Oh yeah?” She pushes at me with her body, forcing me to look at her. “And what are you gonna do? Drag me out of here on your back while I’m kicking and screaming?”

“Sounds perfect.” A slow, calculating grin lifts one side of my mouth.

“Stay away from me.” Anger stomps through her gaze, like a vicious ocean I’d die to get lost in.

She has no idea how long I’ve waited for this moment. To find her again. I’ll never lose her. I don’t give a shit how old she is anymore. Though she’s no longer nineteen, so her age is not even a factor now.

She pushes her palms against my chest, groaning when she’s not strong enough.

“You fighting me like this only makes me want you more. So please, baby girl, keep going.”

My smirk infuriates her, and she lets out a growl before I’m grabbing her wrists and pinning them above her head this time.

“You’re a monster.”

She’s not wrong. I am.

But I’m her monster now.

My thumb strolls across her fuckable mouth. “Don’t be afraid of me. I’d never hurt you, baby.” Clasping a palm across her warm cheek, I stare into her eyes. “My God, I can’t believe I’m looking at you. Touching you.” I lower my forehead to hers. “I’ve never been able to get you out of my head.”

Pulling back, I feather my knuckles down her throat, and her exhales grow raspier, her body moving into mine like she wants more.

“Please…please just go. I—I won’t say anything.” But she doesn’t sound like she wants me to go, her tone growing huskier.

I tip up her chin with the back of my hand. “Not going anywhere. And I don’t think you want me to either.”

I can see it in her eyes: that desire to fight me. Fight this connection between us.

But I won’t let her forget.

“Please…I—I can’t.”

With my knuckles, I trace her rounded jaw, my nose sinking into her hair. I can still smell the same shampoo she used last time.

When I look back, her eyes fasten shut, brows knitted.

My mouth lowers, brushing over hers. “Look at me.”

When she shakes her head, I say it again.

“Open your eyes, Amara.”

She obeys, those long lashes feathering as her sweet, innocent gaze holds mine.

“I can’t, Fionn. I can’t do this. You’re not the man I thought you were. Everything I wanted…” Her voice cracks.

I know she wants this. Needs this.

“Of course I am. You just need me to remind you.”

Before she has a chance to resist, I take her mouth in a vicious kiss.

And I know right now, I’m gonna marry her.

Letting out a little moan, she slides her hands into my hair. Mine coast down her back, squeezing her ass and pressing her into my rock-hard erection. It’s damn good to feel her hands on me again. She doesn’t even attempt to push me away. I knew she’d see reason once she felt how good we are together.

Even if she refuses, it makes no difference. I’m gonna make her my wife.

The way I see it, we both get something out of it. She wants to live, and I get to protect myself and my family if she does something stupid like go to the cops. We’ve got plenty on our payroll, but not all of them.

Twisting her hair around my wrist, I take her deeper, my tongue invading and taking everything that belongs to me. Her palms push against my chest, and with a groan, I move back a fraction, grinding my jaw as I take in her flushed expression.

“I—I, um…” She traces a single finger over her lips, and a smirk tips up my mouth.

“You felt it too, didn’t you? That damn connection we still have.” My fingers slide into her hair, fisting all those luscious waves. “I’m never letting you go. You understand that, right?”

“No.” Her face turns white. “Please. I promise you that I would never ever say a word. I don’t care what you do, okay? Just please walk away. Let that one day we had be how I remember you.”

My responding chuckle is low and deep. “It’s too late for that. You saw what you saw. My brother’s men know who you are. So just because I won’t kill you, it doesn’t mean one of them won’t.”

“Oh God!” she pants, terror bathing those beautiful eyes. The ones I wanna get lost in.

“There is a solution, though.”

Of course she won’t like it, but she’ll come around.

“What’s that?” Hope springs in her features, and I’m about to crush it.

“If you want to survive, all you have to do is marry me.”

“Um, what?” She coughs a laugh. “You’ve got to be joking. Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Not at all.” I tug her chin into my palm. “If we’re married, you can’t testify against me, so my family would have no reason to come after you. That’s what we call a win-win.” My face curls with a rapacious smirk.

“Are you insane?”

No. Just obsessed with you.

I stroke the outline of her jaw with the back of my hand right before my fingers wrap around her delicate throat. Our eyes lock in a brutal stare.

“Let me explain how things are going to work, little rabbit. You will marry me or you die. It’s that simple.”

Her ire melts away, and in its place, there’s fear. It’s almost enough to undo me. To tell her I’ve changed my mind. Because she has no idea that no one would touch her without my permission. I just needed her to believe she had no choice in the matter. Once she’s mine, I’ll make her see that I’m still the man she remembers.

“Please, I?—”

“Mama!” The sound of a child’s cry cuts her words, startling the fuck out of me, like I’ve gone insane.

Because there’s no way she has a kid.

Right?

“Mama!” the little girl calls again.

Amara’s face grows ashen, eyes expanding by the second. “Please…”

I don’t even know what she’s begging for. All I can hear is the child’s voice. A child she had with someone else.

My palm squeezes tighter around her throat. “Are you married? Whose child is that?”

Her body trembles, choking on the words that don’t come. My nostrils flare while her irises fill with panic. Loosening my grip, I attempt to control this damn jealousy, these murderous intentions.

Because whoever he is, the man’s already dead.

“Mama!”

“Please let me go see her. We can talk after, alright? I promise.”

“I’m coming with you. Don’t fucking try anything, you understand?”

She nods as I tug her hand in mine. Leading us down the corridor, she enters a small room containing a toddler bed with rails on the left side.

And in it is the most beautiful little girl I’ve ever seen.

She looks just like her mother. Dark curls, and with the nightlight, I can almost tell that her eyes are the same color as Amara’s.

Amara. I can’t get used to that.

Running a hand through my hair, I stand back as the child curiously glances at me, holding a straw cup.

“I want water, Mama.”

“O-o-okay, sweetie. Let me go fill this up for you.” She glances back at me, trying to control her fear.

“We’ll be okay,” I tell her, winking at the little girl. “You can go.”

“Who’s this, Mama?”

The girl’s eyes jump between us, and Amara forces a panicked smile.

“I’m Fionn. Mommy’s friend. And what’s your name, sweetheart?”

“My name is Fia.”

“How old are you, Fia?”

“I’m four.” She holds out four fingers in the air and grins, and something hits me hard, something I can’t explain.

And I know right now, I’m gonna be her father.

Fia… The similarity between our names doesn’t escape me.

A questioning brow arches as I stare at a stricken Amara. “We need to talk after she goes back to bed.”

She nods.

The child is four… Could she be mine? The math adds up. But she could also be that bastard’s kid.

My fingers curl around my gun, completely hidden from the child’s view. If I didn’t have a reason to kill that asshole before, I just found another.

It doesn’t matter whose blood weaves through this girl’s veins, though. She’s mine because her mother is.

“Go get her that water, Amara. I’ll stay and keep her safe.”

My reassurance does nothing but cause her to fear me even more. She grabs the sippy cup, and as she moves toward the door, her shoulder brushes with mine.

“Please don’t do anything to hurt her. She’s all I have.”

Her tears are like daggers to my heart. And when she places a hand on my chest, I slowly unravel.

“I know you’ve already made up your mind about me, but I’d never hurt either one of you. I swear. Trust me.”

She laughs brokenly as she swipes under her eyes. “I’ll be right back.”

When she rushes out of the room, I’m left alone with the little girl who doesn’t even look remotely tired now.

“You have to go back to sleep so you can get big and strong.”

“Mama says I’m big and strong already. Look!” She flexes her biceps, snapping her teeth as she giggles.

I can’t help but chuckle. “Wow. I think yours are bigger than mine.”

Her laughter is innocent and pure, and that voice is so damn cute. “You’re silly.”

“There you are, baby!” Amara returns and hands her that cup, smiling at her daughter.

Our daughter.

Let her try to fight me on that. That child is mine, whether she wants her to be or not.