Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

Sloan couldn’t breathe. She stood in the middle of Callie’s living room, watching her older brothers snipe at each other like rabid junkyard dogs. Teague looked half a second from pummeling Aiden, and Aiden was right there with him. The only saving grace was that they’d sent their men away and closed the doors, so it was just the three of them.

“You betrayed the family.”

Teague rocked onto the balls of his feet. “I did what it took to protect our sister.” He was sporting a black eye that she suspected was courtesy of Jude, and it made him look like a completely different person. Or maybe it was the wildness in his dark eyes. “Something you haven’t even tried. Not with Carrigan, not with Keira, and sure as fuck not with Sloan.”

Aiden took a slow step to the side like he was sizing Teague up for weakness. “And how’s that protection working out? She’s here, looking like shit, and it was Carrigan who brought her back. You had your chance. You fucked it up. She’s leaving.”

“The fuck she is.” Teague’s fists clenched and unclenched. “She’s staying right here. You have no idea what’s going on.”

“Wrong. I know a whole hell of a lot more than you bargained on.” Aiden crossed his arms over his chest. “Or were you just going to slink away and hope no one noticed you were informing to the fucking feds?”

“Stop it!” Sloan screamed, her hands going to the sides of her head as if she could contain the massive headache sprouting there. “I am not staying in Boston. I came back of my own free will. I was not retrieved like some naughty child. Stop acting like I’m not standing right here.” She wasn’t even going to touch Aiden’s comment about Teague informing on the family. That wasn’t why she was here, and it wasn’t her problem. She didn’t want it to be her problem.

Though that explains why Aiden is here so quickly—he’s been watching Teague.

They looked at her like she’d grown a second head. Teague took a cautious step toward her. “You don’t know what you’re saying. I know you think—”

“Don’t you dare.” She backed up, wanting to scream again in frustration. “I am an adult, though I’ve allowed you to treat me like an invalid up until this point. That ends now. When I leave Boston this time, I’m leaving for good. You will stop looking for me. Just…let me go.”

Aiden narrowed his eyes. “You choose this?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying all along.”

Teague spoke over her. “She was targeted by Jude motherfucking MacNamara. He preyed on her and now she thinks she’s in a relationship with him.”

Aiden shook his head, looking disgusted. “When you fuck something up, you really fuck it up, don’t you, Teague? You’re so damn sure you know better than everyone else that you stomp all over what they want.”

Sloan was losing them. “Will you just listen to me?”

“It’s okay. We aren’t judging you for any of this.” Teague took another step closer, approaching like she was a wild animal. “You couldn’t have known.”

“You are not listening to me. You don’t know him.” She realized her mistake as soon as Teague looked at her like he wanted to sedate her and lock her up until she came into her right mind—like she was certifiable. Oh God, I was so wrong to come back here. “I am turning around and walking out of this house. You are going to let me.”

Teague shook his head. “We can’t do that, Sloan.”

“The fuck we can’t. You’re not listening to her. Again.” Aiden’s fists were clenched, and he looked half a second from punching Teague in the face.

“The fuck I can. I don’t answer to you anymore, and you’re standing on Sheridan territory. If you aren’t willing to do what’s right for our sister, then I am.”

Her throat tried to close, but she forced the words out despite that. “You can’t be serious. You’re threatening Aiden. What is wrong with you?” Jude had been right, and she’d been a fool for thinking the best of her brother—for thinking she could reason with Teague. He’d always see her as the sweet little sister who needed to be protected, who couldn’t think for herself.

If Cillian were here…

But it wouldn’t matter. Teague was half of the head of the Sheridan family, and though Aiden now appeared to run the O’Malleys, they weren’t on O’Malley territory. Teague outranked Aiden. He outranked her.

She lifted her chin. “This is your last chance. I’m leaving.” She turned for the door, but Teague stepped in front of her.

“Don’t make me call my men. This doesn’t have to come to violence.”

Behind her, a phone rang. She turned as Aiden took it out of his pocket and answered, his gaze never leaving her. “I’m with her right now. We’re having a…difference of opinion with my brother.”

“Is that fucking MacNamara?” Teague raised his voice. “Tell him to run. If he sets foot on my territory, I’m going to hunt him down like the mad dog he is.”

No.

Sloan marched across the room and shoved Teague. “Teague Patrick O’Malley, I swear to God, if you don’t stop acting like a Neanderthal, I’m going to call your wife. She will listen to me.”

He took a step back and glared at her. “Callie and I are of the same mind when it comes to this.”

“Liar.” She knew Callie, and so she knew better. The woman could be fierce, but she didn’t let Teague steamroll her—and Sloan doubted she’d take too kindly to him doing the same to his sister.

Except there’s Jude to consider.

Aiden cursed. “You should have told me that to begin with.”

Sloan turned, starting to respond, but the words died on her lips. Aiden wasn’t talking to her. He was talking to Jude. From the determined set of his face, he had just discovered that Dmitri Romanov intended to murder Callie and her father. “Aiden—”

He held up a hand and put the phone on speaker. “I have men in the area. You know where he’ll strike from?”

“There’s a small apartment across the street from the restaurant. That’s where I’d hit from.” Jude paused. “But it’s entirely likely that he’ll have a backup location—several.”

“We’ll set up a perimeter. You take the apartment.”

Sloan glared. “You just gave him the most dangerous task.”

Aiden glared right back. “He seems to think that you two are going to ride off into the sunset together. You choose him? Fine. So be it. But he’s got to prove himself.”

“You are so ruthless.” She sank as much disgust into the word as possible. Aiden was knowingly putting Jude in a situation where he might be hurt—or worse—and he didn’t have the grace to so much as pretend he was sorry.

“Sunshine.”

Her throat burned at the nickname, and she wanted nothing more than to snatch the phone out of her brother’s hand. There wasn’t time. “Jude.”

“Are you hurt?”

He was going to do it. It didn’t matter that her brother might have an ulterior motive for allying with him—temporarily or not. He would go into that apartment and do what needed to be done.

And there wasn’t a single thing she could do about it. “I’m fine.”

“I’m keeping my promise, sunshine. I’m tying up this last loose end, and then I’m coming for you, whether your brothers give their blessing or no. You know what will happen if they get in my way.”

She knew.

Aiden cleared his throat. “I gave my word, MacNamara.”

“We’ll see if you keep it.” Jude hung up.

“What the fuck was that?” Teague looked at Sloan and then Aiden. “Explain. Now.”

When Aiden didn’t immediately jump in, Sloan wrapped her arms around herself. “Dmitri Romanov is going to try to kill Callie and Colm—and he’s going to make it look like Jude did it.”

Teague was already moving, throwing open the door into the hall. “Micah. Call the men on Callie. Secure the entrances to the restaurant. Double the team in the restaurant.”

Callie.

Just because Jude thought he could handle the situation alone didn’t mean he could. If her family’s dealings with Dmitri Romanov had taught her anything, it was that the man had a nasty habit of doing the unexpected. If he was as smart as everyone said, he had to know Jude was having second thoughts about finishing the Sheridans.

If he thought Jude would break his word…

If he knew that Aiden was working with Jude…

Oh God. What if it was a trap designed to take out multiple enemies in one fell swoop? She looked at her brothers. They didn’t care about Jude…but they would move heaven and earth to keep family safe. “We have to go to them.”

Teague shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere. Our men can handle it.”

“Like they handled things at the house on Orcas Island? You don’t understand. Jude’s better than all of you combined. This is what he’s been training his entire life for.”

The confusion cleared from Teague’s face, leaving only fear in its wake. “He’s going after Callie?”

“Colm.” He already hated Jude. Telling him who he was gunning for wasn’t going to change that. But maybe it would ensure they took her with them.

Teague already had his phone out. “Triple the men on her. I don’t care if it’s rush hour. I’m on my way.” He pointed to Micah without looking up from his phone. “Put my sister in one of the guest rooms. Do not let her leave.”

“Aiden, you said you gave Jude your word!”

Her oldest brother shook his head as he typed a number into his phone. “Teague’s right on this one. You’ll be safest here until this is over. If your man is still alive at the end of it, we’ll talk.”

She barely got a cry of protest out when Micah did Teague’s bidding, hauling her up the stairs none too gently. Aiden’s last words all but confirmed her suspicions. He might not want Jude dead the same way Teague did, but he wouldn’t necessarily step in to save him if something happened.

I have to be there. I have to fight for Jude.

No one else is going to.

*  *  *

Jude used the cover of pedestrians to slip through the door that led to the loft above the little shops littering the street. When East Cambridge underwent the gentrification process back in the nineties, most of the old factories had been turned into commercial buildings and residential lofts. He’d snagged a loft across the street from the restaurant the Sheridans frequented ten years ago, paying out the nose for the location.

His phone rang as he hit the stairs, and he cursed at the now-familiar number. “What do you want?”

“As convenient as it would be for me if you took a bullet to the chest—again, from what I hear—I want Romanov more than I want you.”

Jude had spent enough time as a man on a vengeance mission to recognize that trait in another person. As much as Romanov wanted the O’Malleys dead and gone, it appeared Aiden wanted the same for him—with interest.

Still, all Jude wanted was to take out whomever Romanov had sent to frame him and get Sloan somewhere where they would be left alone. “I’m not interested in whatever war you’re planning.”

“Not war. Never that.”

“You’re wasting my time.” He started up the stairs.

“I know Romanov wants to use you against Colm.”

That brought him up short. “You seem to know a whole hell of a lot that you shouldn’t.” He might have tapped his brother’s phone, but there’s no way he could have tapped Jude’s. It struck him that he’d underestimated Aiden, and that didn’t sit well in the least. “I’m listening.”

“Romanov won’t take your double-cross well. There’s little he hates more than someone breaking their word. He’ll bring everything in his power to make an example of you.”

That was what worried him more than anything else. He could keep Sloan safe. He wasn’t worried about that. But Sloan was a woman who would crave roots—her time in Callaway Rock had more than proven that. It might take some time, but eventually she’d resent him for keeping them on the move and under the radar.

And that wasn’t even taking the kid into the equation. A life on the run was no way to raise a child. “You have thirty seconds to give me your pitch before I hang up.”

“I know that you do extensive research on both enemy and ally, and that you know things no one else can seem to pin down. I want what you have on Romanov—all of it.”

It seemed a small enough thing to ask, but Jude wasn’t the trusting sort. “I’ll pass it over with the condition that you tell me exactly what you’re planning—and keep me updated on the process.”

“Yes to the former. No to the latter.”

“Aiden, this isn’t a negotiation.” He needed warning if he was going to get Sloan out of wherever they were before Romanov brought his wrath down upon them. He paused at the top of the stairs. “Take out whatever Romanov has set up as a backup plan and we’ll talk when I deliver the information to you.”

“We’ll talk about my sister, too. We’ve reached the restaurant.” Aiden hung up, leaving Jude more irritated than he should be. His life had been so much simpler when he kept to the shadows and didn’t tangle with powerful men. Aiden and Dmitri might think themselves so different, but they were just two sides of the same coin. The only difference that mattered to him was that one had tried to blackmail him and the other was willing to work with him.

He took a careful breath, and then another, letting all that fall away. There was a fight waiting for him on the other side of the door, and he couldn’t afford to be distracted.

The door opened before he could move, revealing a man with tattoos crawling down his arms and up his neck, and whose face was marked with scars. His eyes went wide, but Jude didn’t give him a chance to call out a warning. He chopped him in the throat, grabbing his body as he started to tumble and shoving him into the loft.

The man hit the ground, gurgling, and Jude shut the door behind him and locked it for good measure. Someone could kick it down, even with the reinforced wood, but he’d hear them coming and have warning.

He kicked the fallen man, the force of it flipping him onto his back, where he lay still. He wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. Jude stalked farther into the loft, avoiding the creaky boards. There wasn’t furniture to deal with, because he’d never bothered to furnish the place, and so he had a clear line of sight to the second man kneeling before the window, a rifle in his hands, his attention on the building across the street.

“Stop.” The man didn’t look up, didn’t move, his Russian accent confirming what Jude already knew.

He slipped his hand behind his back, palming the .45 he had tucked into his waistband. “If you pull that trigger, I’m going to shoot you in the back of the head.”

“And you—”

Jude whipped his gun out and shot him in the back. He rushed across the distance and yanked the Russian away from the window just in case he got some funny ideas about trying to shoot Callista even with a bullet in him.

It turned out to be for nothing. His shot had aimed true. The man hit the ground, his eyes vacant with death. Jude walked back and put a bullet in the still-struggling second guy. He needed all his focus for what came next, and having some piece-of-shit Russian shoot him was not on the agenda.

He walked back to the sniper setup and knelt in the same place the man had, hissing out a breath when his bullet wound protested so much movement in such a short time. The rifle was an M4, which was fucking pathetic, but they didn’t need the range of a true sniper rifle. Still, there were a dozen better choices for this job. He took out his phone and dialed Aiden, putting it on speaker as he used the scope to scan the buildings across from them.

“I’m busy.”

“I’ve removed one sniper.” Jude paused at the building next door, taking in the dark-dressed man with a rifle similar to his own. “There’s another one in the building to the south, second floor, three rooms from the street. He’s overlooking the alley where the restaurant’s back door leads.”

Aiden’s voice became muffled, but Jude still heard him order two of his men to deal with the threat.

He finished searching those windows and moved on. “Do you have my side of the street covered?”

“We’ve dealt with the threat we found two buildings down.”

Three men. Romanov hadn’t been taking any chances. He watched the man across the street get taken down by two O’Malley men. “I don’t see anyone else.”

More murmuring, though this time Jude couldn’t pick up on the words. Finally, Aiden came back on the line. “We’re moving them.”

“I’ll provide cover.”

“See that that’s all you do.”

Jude hung up and watched as a group of people hurried out the back door into the alley that he’d just helped clear. He saw Callista, her blond head close to her husband’s, his arm around her shoulders. Behind her…

He went still.

Colm Sheridan looked the same as he had the last time Jude observed him, his hair gray though it hadn’t thinned in the least, his face weathered and old. Even his shoulders were hunched as he walked in the middle of his men.

He had a clear shot. All he had to do was pull the trigger and he could avenge his family’s memory. His mother’s memory.

Jude’s finger stroked the trigger, the feel of the metal a comfort and a torment. It wouldn’t take much, the slightest bit of pressure, and this would all end.

It wouldn’t be the only thing that ended.

Sloan might forgive him for killing Colm. She understood his need for vengeance, and there was no arguing that man more than deserved death at his hands.

But the O’Malley men wouldn’t see things his way. Callista Sheridan wouldn’t, either. If he killed Colm now, there would be no alliance with Aiden. There would just be him facing down O’Malley, Sheridan, Romanov, and possibly even Halloran.

Sloan didn’t deserve that.

Their child didn’t deserve that.

Jude hissed out a breath as a dark SUV pulled up to the curb and Colm disappeared from view. He waited for the guilt of a missed opportunity to pull him under, but there was nothing except a growing need to hold Sloan. To reassure himself that she was whole.

First, though, he had one last task to accomplish before he could go to her.