Chapter 5

5

KELLAN

T he meeting with Rossi rolls around far faster than I want it to.

Admittedly, I have been too wrapped up in Kacie to track time or plan the way I normally would. I've spent the entire drive over to the meeting place on the outskirts of the city thinking of her. I can hardly bring her with me, not to such a dangerous and unknown scenario, so she's back at the safe house.

The rest of my closest circle is with me, Easton driving, Darragh and Louis in the backseat, and enough weaponry between us to stock a small army. This talk is supposed to be a peace negotiation, but I wasn't born yesterday. I've been in this business enough years to know that even if you're meeting with your allies, you don't go unarmed. Rossi and I seem to share the goal of creating peace between our sides, but it would only take one word from him to make this whole thing go sour.

The car rolls to a stop outside the crumbling warehouse, and we make a quick exit from the car. Louis stays back, swapping out with Easton, in case we need a fast getaway.

The air is balmy and the sky is an array of pinks, oranges, and deep purple as the sun descends below the skyline. I inhale deeply, pushing my emotions to the side and settling into the mask that presents nothing but calm and serious. Right now, I can't afford to be perceived as anything less than the dangerous, driven leader of the Irish Mafia.

With a swift nod to my men, I stride towards the warehouse and through the propped-open service door.

It's dark inside, just enough light to be able to see the men lined up on the other side of the building. I recognize Rossi immediately, standing at the head of the pack, his hands clasped in front of him. His expression is relaxed, but one of the men behind him glares at me when I walk in, setting me on edge.

I feel Easton and Darragh tense as they flank me, facing off against the Italians. For a second, nobody speaks or moves, awareness straightening our spines and sharpening our vision.

"Rossi," I greet, wanting to be the one to speak first. "How nice to see you face to face."

"Indeed." Rossi nods, then gestures towards me. "I trust your injury has healed nicely?"

I bristle slightly at the mention of the stab wound his man inflicted but refuse to show it. "It has," I answer, the truth thanks to Kacie. "You asked to meet to prevent more issues like that, did you not?"

"I don't desire a territory war, and I assume you feel the same," Rossi says, and I nod in agreement. "Things have gotten out of hand, and it's time we reel it back in, no?"

"Then I assume your men will retreat from my territory and cease fucking with our supply routes and storage?" I ask, raising a brow at Rossi, uncowed. The Italian laughs, inclining his bald head in my direction in acknowledgment.

"If I can assume your men will stop stepping onto our side to pick fights?" Rossi shoots back, a slight tilt to his lips like he's amused. I am, too, but I won't show it.

There's a little more back and forth, details hammered out, but by the end, I feel confident that we both have the same goal at heart. Neither of us has time for gang wars or street fights after all.

"It's a deal, then?" I ask, holding my hand out for Rossi to shake.

"A deal," he agrees, stepping towards me to take my hand.

But before we can seal the deal, one of his men steps out of line behind him.

"We deserve more than this bullshit!" he shouts, metal flashing as he raises a gun. "I won't submit to these bastards! This city should be ours! "

The bang reverberates through the building as he pulls the trigger. Chaos erupts as a fiery pain grazes my arm, but I'm already moving.

Behind me, someone shouts out as another shot goes off, and I pull out my gun, aiming at the man who dared to shoot at me and mine. But Rossi, to my surprise, beats me to it, his aim steady and true as he takes down his own man with no hesitation.

Silence descends as the man slumps to the floor and Rossi lowers his weapon.

If ever there was a sign that Rossi means to keep good on our deal, shooting one of his own men for daring to aim at us is a damn good one. Before I have time to say anything about it, though, Easton shouts my name.

"Kellan!"

The fear and urgency in his voice turns my blood to ice. I spin on my heel and rush over to where Darragh is collapsed on the floor, a pool of scarlet-red blood coating the concrete around him.

"What happened?!" I yell as I get to his side, meeting Darragh's pained eyes.

"Fucker got a shot off at me," Darragh growls through gritted teeth. Easton has his hands pressed down over Darragh's right shoulder, where the bullet must have hit. I'm not a doctor, but I know it can't be a good sign that Darragh's two shades paler than usual and the blood around us seems to grow by the second.

"Shit," I curse under my breath, my mind spinning at a hundred miles an hour. "Fuck, Darragh can you walk?"

Darragh's a tough fucker, but his legs shake as he tries to stand. Easton and I stand on either side of him, holding him up between us as we stagger out of the warehouse. I hate to turn my back on an armed enemy, but I guess Rossi isn't technically an enemy anymore, and getting Darragh out of here takes priority.

Thankfully, Louis has the car ready to go for the whole meeting. The second he sees us rushing out, he throws open the doors to the car. Easton and I shove Darragh inside, and Louis floors the gas.

"Heard the shots, what the hell happened?" Louis shouts as he breaks the speeding law.

"One of Rossi's men wanted more than he was owed," I seethe. "Rossi handled it, though. We got our truce."

Louis gives me a grim nod in the rearview mirror before returning his focus to the road.

Even at his speed, the drive back feels like it stretches for years. The second the car stops outside the safe house, we're moving. Louis and Easton grab Darragh, hauling him from the car as I run ahead to open the door and warn Kacie to ready her kit.

The scene I find as I rush through the front door is just as horrifying as the one in the car. My mind spins as I take in Kacie standing over a slumped body, anger in her eyes and what looks to be an empty syringe clutched in her fist.

I move so fast she jumps, startled by my presence.

"What the fuck happened?" I shout, grabbing her and hauling her against my chest, needing to feel for myself that she's safe, alive, and well.

"I'm fine." She cradles my face between her hands, soothing me when it should be me soothing her.

"Who the fuck is that?" I ask, stepping forward and guiding Kacie behind me protectively.

"Some asshole who broke in when you were out," she says, sounding way too calm. "Yelled something about being sick of Rossi's rules and going out on their own? He lunged at me, so I grabbed the needle and knocked him out."

Pride fills me as I spin back to her, holding her tight and kissing her head. "My brave little doctor," I murmur, and she laughs a little.

Suddenly, she pulls back with a gasp. Her eyes are wide as her hand goes to my arm. "You're bleeding!" she cries.

Before I can answer, Easton and Louis burst into the room with a nearly unconscious Darragh hanging between them.

"Trust me, Darragh's bleeding a whole lot worse!" Easton calls out, sounding out of breath.

I watch, fascinated, as Kacie's expression transforms into the determined, professional mask of a doctor. "Kellan, lay out the table," she orders, rushing to help the others steady Darragh.

I do as she says, then help the others haul a limp Darragh up onto the top of it. Kacie sets us to work, cutting off Darragh's shirt as we grab her supplies and trash bags. Thank God she spent all that money on medical shit because there's no way in hell our bare essentials in the first aid kit would be enough for the hole in Darragh's shoulder. I'm no stranger to blood, but I can't even look at it for too long without feeling sick.

There's so much fucking blood.

A low groan yanks my attention away from my girl injecting anesthetic into Darragh. The man she'd knocked out with a similar syringe moans on the ground, moving slightly as he blinks heavy eyelids.

I storm towards him, dragging him up and out of the room. He's barely conscious and puts up a pathetic little fight as I forcibly move him away from my injured friend and my girl.

I couldn't do any more to help Darragh, but I sure as fuck could do something with this asshole.

Footsteps sound behind me before Easton joins me in the spare room and I throw the man to the ground. Easton closes the door behind us, the lock snicking as it secures us in. I roll up my sleeves, dried blood crusting the fabric.

"Louis stayed to help Kacie," Easton tells me as the man she knocked out stirs back to full consciousness. "Figured I'd help you crack this one open."

I give Easton a grim smile. He knows me well. I can't count how many times we've worked together to get information out of someone like the man before us. But never in all my life have I craved the feeling of making someone pay like I do right now.

This man tried to hurt my girl. Tried to lay a hand on her.

And that's fucking unacceptable.

"Ah shit," are the first words out of the man's mouth as he looks up at us, his eyes wide.

I don't say anything back at first, letting my fist speak for me. Sharp and fast, my knuckles meet the guy's nose, and it crunches under the strike. Satisfaction floods me as the guy spits blood.

He groans in pain, and I chuckle cruelly. "Oh, I'm just getting started," I snarl. "You're not gonna be able to make a single fucking noise by the time I'm done with you. You came for what's mine. You got near my girl! I should take your whole fucking hand for that."

Easton's hand lands on my shoulder, and I inhale deeply, understanding his silent signal. I need to cool it. If I lose my shit right now, we're not going to get any of the answers we need from him. Like who the hell he is and what the fuck he was doing here.

With Easton keeping me in check, the real interrogation begins.

"Who are you?"

Through a broken tooth, thanks to my knuckles, the man whines like a pathetic animal. "Quinn."

"Who do you work for?"

When he doesn't answer, Easton gives him a kick to the gut, prompting him to start talking.

"Nobody!" he cries out, sneering up at us through blood, snot, and tears.

"I don't believe you," I taunt, shaking my head.

Finally, after some more coaxing , Quinn gives us some proper answers.

He wasn't entirely lying. He doesn't work for anyone, not anymore. But he did work for Rossi up until this morning.

He and his friend, the now-dead man who Rossi shot for fucking up our meeting, disagreed with the truce. While his friend delayed the meeting, Quinn was supposed to take advantage of this safe house being "empty" to break in and steal whatever he could. Except it wasn't empty. Kacie was here. And he got more than he bargained for with my fierce little doctor.

"Are you gonna kill me now?" Quinn spits, bruises blossoming on his skin.

I consider it, I really do. But then I hear Kacie's voice filtering in from the other room, murmuring something I can't make out from here, and reconsider.

"No," I say, surprising both Quinn and Easton. "I'm not gonna kill you. See, despite your efforts, the Italian and Irish sides have a new understanding. No more violence between us. So, I think I'll give my new ally a gift, huh?"

If it was possible, Quinn pales more. "What?"

I grin and pull out my phone to call Rossi. He answers immediately, and I give him a short explanation, saying I've got one of his wayward traitors here that I thought he might want back. He thanks me, and ten minutes later, there's a knock at the door.

Quinn struggles as Easton and I drag him out the back door, so Kacie won't have to see him or be interrupted, and round to the front of the house where Rossi's waiting.

"Much appreciated," he says to me.

"Consider it a show of goodwill about our new agreement," I answer, shoving Quinn between us. The man falls to the ground, shaking. I don't know exactly what Rossi is going to do with the traitor, but I know it won't be good. He deserves it.

None of us hang around. The second Rossi's car pulls away, Quinn in the back seat, I turn on my heel and head back inside. I need to see my girl. Need to reassure myself that she's not hurt once again. To promise her that nothing like this will ever happen again.

I keep my footsteps light as I enter the room where Darragh is laid out on the medical table, Kacie's eyes trained on him. There's significantly less blood now, thank God, though from the full trash bag in the corner, I assume our towels were sacrificed in the process.

Kacie looks up, meeting my eyes and offering me a smile. "It's all right. He's knocked out, you can come in," she tells me, peeling off gloves as she steps away from Darragh.

"Is he okay?" I ask, glancing between her and Darragh. I can't help the worry working through my body still. In our line of work, being injured isn't unusual. But my men are my family, and seeing Darragh so torn up was … well, fucking shit.

"He'll be fine," Kacie assures me. "Bullet's out and missed any major organs or arteries. He lost some blood and will be in pain for a while, but with rest and medication, he'll be just fine."

Relief soars through me and I sigh heavily. In two long steps, I cross the space between us and pull Kacie into my arms. She melts against me, and I hold her tight, savoring her warmth and the scent of my soap on her skin.

I pull away faster than I want to because we're not alone. Darragh is out for the count on the table, and we need to get him to an actual bed.

I start to help Louis and Easton carry him to a room, but Kacie stops me, tutting her tongue off her teeth.

"Sit down," she snaps, glaring at me in a way that makes my heart beat faster and my cock jump in my pants. I love her fierce streak. "You're still bleeding."

I'd forgotten entirely about the graze on my arm, and now that she mentions it, I realize it's been slowly bleeding this whole time.

Louis and Easton both give me a nod, silently telling me they'll be fine watching Darragh, and I sigh before sitting down in front of Kacie. She shuts the door behind the others, leaving us alone.

"Stop looking at me like that," Kacie says, but she's smiling and shaking her head.

"Like what?"

"Like you want to slam me against the wall and fuck me," she answers as she pulls out some bandages. Her cheeks are pink, and it's the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen.

I can't help but grin. "But that's exactly what I want to do. Wanna show you just how grateful I am for you. Just how amazing you are. My precious, perfect Blondie."

"Is the blood loss making you delirious?" she teases, rolling her eyes as she crosses to me with supplies in hand.

I snort. "Nothing affects me the way you do."

Kacie's eyes glitter as she brandishes a pair of fabric scissors, holding my eyes as she slowly cuts my shirt off my body. My cock is so hard I think it might break through my fucking zipper as she peels the fabric off me with soft, gentle hands and discards it.

I hold as still as physically possible as she wipes away the dried blood from my arm and hums in thought.

"Just a graze, but it needs bandage and some cleaning up," she murmurs as she works. After she's bandaged my arm, she grabs my hands and examines my knuckles. They're a bit worse for wear after meeting Quinn's face so many times. Shaking her head at me, she cleans them up too while I stare at her in awe.

The second she's done, I drag her onto my lap, loving her little squeak of surprise.

"You're so fucking incredible," I tell her, my mouth so close to hers. "Talented and sweet and gorgeous. And mine ."

"Kellan," she breathes, shivering in my arms.

I push to my feet, scooping her up and ignoring the way the movement tugs at the newly bandaged wound. With long strides, I move us out of the living space and down the corridor to my room. I need a door with a lock and to take her somewhere with soft furnishings and no blood stains.

I kick the door closed behind me and lock it, setting Kacie down.

I tangle my hand in her hair, tipping her head back and staring into her eyes, letting her see my emotions shining through. I can't deny what I'm feeling, and fuck, she deserves to know.

"I'm so fucking in love with you, Blondie."