O’Brien had looked him dead in the eye, suddenly seeming very sober.
“Cormac, if ye want my business,you’lltake the girl. Marry her. Or else I’ll give my business to another lad. I want my flesh and blood involved in my business even if she’s a girl. My men will honor that if ye marry her. Ye’ll have it all.”
Cormac had shrugged, uninterested in the girl. He could take the business back from whatever idiot O’Brien chose over him if his boss decided to give the keys to his kingdom to someone else.
“Ye should see her, Cormac… we almost caught her once… my man snapped a picture of her.” O’Brien pulled out his phoneand pulled up an image. It was of a girl in her late teens, with long, wild red hair tumbling down her shoulders. She stood on a street corner, waiting at a bus stop. Cormac nearly choked on his own drink. The girl wasbeautiful. He had to have her, had to own this creature. He could marry her and do what O’Brien wished, it wouldn’t be a hardship having that woman in his bed every night.
“Fine. I’ll marry her.” He could still take mistresses if he ever got bored, but at least he’d ownher. “Where is she? I’ll marry her now.”
O’Brien’s gaze grew distant. “Kara’s in the wind, lad. Her mother has kept her hidden from me. This picture was taken a few years ago. Almost had them both, then we lost her and her mother right afterward. She’s got to be twenty-five now…a real beauty like her mother, no doubt.”
“Then keep looking,” Cormac said.
Kara…her name haunted him. God, how he wanted her now that he’d seen what could be his.
“Oh, don’t ye worry. She can’t run forever.” O’Brien’s smile was grim. Then he’d left Cormac to finish his inventory.
O’Brien had died six months ago, and Cormac had set up his command of the business in Dublin. Then he’d flown to New York to settle his running with the Westies, the local Irish gang that answered to Sean O’Brien. It hadn’t been as easy as he’d expected. One of the leaders had challenged him, and he’d killed the man. That hadn’t fixed his loyalty problem.
The Westies knew about the search for Kara, and when Cormac told them he intended to find her that had quelled some of the rebellious looks. They’d told him they’d accept his leadership if he married O’Brien’s daughter. It seemed O’Brien had created a fair amount of loyalty with the New York gang after all these years. After the meeting with the Westies had ended, Cormac put his men on tracking down Kara O’Brien. Shewas the only way he could secure the control of the Westies, and he had to have that control, or his transatlantic business interests would fail.
After he’d returned to Ireland he used the Westies’ resources to scour the American cities, but had no real hope of finding her. The girl was a tiny needle in a very large haystack. Still, he wasn’t about to stop.
A man appeared in the doorway. “Callahan?” It was Jim Leary, his appointed second in command.
He shoved the side the paperwork. “Yeah?”
“We might have found her.”
He straightened. “Where?”
“Chicago. One of our men thought he saw her working at a soup kitchen the past couple of weeks. He had tailed her from Virginia and been watching her to see when he could snatch her. He tried to grab her but some asshole got in the way so he had to make it look like a mugging. He got a good look at the girl, though, and he’s convinced it was her.” Jim waited for orders.
Cormac studied Jim. “You think this man is reliable? That he knows what he saw? I don’t want to leave New York to go chasing a false trail.” It wouldn’t be the first time, and each time, Cormac grew more furious as his hope of finding Kara dwindled.
“He’s good,” Jim said. “I trust him. He has a way of getting into places that he shouldn’t and finding what he’s looking for.”
“Tell him to expect men in Chicago. I want to see where the girl’s been living and anything else you can find. But tell him, no more stupid attempts to grab her, not until I’m satisfied it’s her. We can’t have her going to the police even with our inside man there. She could still get a protective detail. The last thing I need are Chicago cops looking for our men. The Cabrini’s rule that town and I can’t afford to make enemies of them, not yet.”
“Yes, sir.”
After Jim left, Cormac leaned back in his chair, thinking… planning. This woman had been running for years. She’d be independent. Willful. She wouldn’t simply accept herself as his. That wasn’t so much of a problem as an annoyance. Sometimes women got their heads full of ideas and forgot their place. So he wouldremindthem. Eventually, Kara would accept the role given to her, she would be his property, Sean O’Brien’s pretty daughter… all his.
He couldn’t deny he was eager to get his hands on Kara. She had starred in so many of his fantasies of late. Now he was finally going to get what he wanted. No one would be able to challenge his claim to O’Brien’s enterprises if O’Brien’s daughter belonged to him.
Chapter Four
Kara left Angelo to rest, but her mind was still whirling from the unexpected turn her life had taken as she rejoined his family in the waiting room.
“How is he?” Francesca asked. She grasped Kara’s shoulders gently and studied her face for answers. “Was he happy to see you?”
Kara nodded. “He… um… told me he wants everyone to go home, eat dinner tonight, and rest.” She hadn’t forgotten his worry about her. “Me included,” she added with a somewhat awkward smile.
Matteo and Francesca nodded in agreement.
“All right. Home it is,” Francesca stated as if that settled the matter.
“I just need to stop at my place for a few things. I can meet you at Angelo’s home.” She still had Angelo’s wallet and the bag holding his things with her. She could double-check his driver’s license to find his address. Kara knew could call Jared since he was in Angelo’s cellphone. It was nice to know she had a failsafe of sorts.
