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His words hit me like a knife to the gut.
Find somewhere to belong…
Implying that I didn’t belong here with his family… of course. They were his family after all. Not mine. Mine had been destroyed by his.
My face crumpled, and he didn’t miss it. Of course, he didn’t. He saw every chink in my armor. He saw every gap in my defenses and went straight for it.
That was why he’d kissed me… to throw me off.
“I think you’ve overstayed your welcome by this point. It’s getting a bit pathetic if I’m honest, how you cling to them.” His tone was so soft, so even and casual like he was just reading out the weather forecast, not slowly ripping me apart.
He just kept twisting the knife and leaving me bleeding. How long until I was all bled out? Honestly, I wished it would hurry up. I couldn’t take much more of Aidan O’Callaghan.
I wanted to argue back, I wanted to get in his face and tell him to go to hell… but I couldn’t find my voice.
“That’s what I thought.” He looked me up and down, disdain coloring his green eyes a vile shade. Then he turned, grabbed the door handle and breezed from the room.
How did he do that? Flip so quickly between the boy I’d loved all those years ago, to the wicked man who’d stomped on my heart. I raised my hands to my chest, trying to keep all of the little pieces of my heart inside as it exploded … I’d need them all if I had any hope of stitching it back up again, but a glint on my wrist caught my eye.
I lifted my arm to my face, studying the charm that swayed from the bracelet… how had he put that back on without me noticing?
He’d fixed the clasp, I noted, and next to the clover hung a new charm… a solid silver suitcase.
His message couldn’t be clearer.
Get out of town… get out of my life.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Aidan
When I left Cait’s, a newfound sense of peace swept over me.
I hated what I’d said to her. I hated that I’d had to be such a fucking asshole to her again, but it was the only way to keep her safe. I’d seen the look on her face when I’d left. There would be no way she could stick around and face me every day now.
Her hatred toward me had been renewed, and although it hurt to know she hated me, sometimes what you wanted, was not as important as what someone else needed.
And she needed to start a new life away from this wretched city.
While I’d been gone, Brady had texted me to tell me that our men had located Mom and Quinn’s killers and were holding them until I got there. They all knew I wanted to be the one to end things.
Carrick, Niall and Brady were waiting for me when we reached the compound, a black SUV already running in the driveway.
“Are you ready for this?” I asked the guys, reaching for my gun to check it was fully loaded. They all nodded stoically, and we piled into the car.
Niall was driving, whilst Carrick and I sat in the back with Brady riding shotgun, a large automatic weapon in his lap.
“Ready?” Brady asked.
I nodded. These would be my first kills. I guessed it was fitting that it was the men who’d taken my mother and sister.
We drove in silence until we reached the warehouse where Sam had found them. We parked just down the street and made our way on foot to the warehouse. It was still daylight, which wasn’t exactly the ideal time to be doing this, but the sooner it was over, the sooner we could all move on with our lives.
Inside, our men had strapped the three Italians to rusty chairs in a circle, all facing each other so they could watch what was being done to them. They looked up when I entered, blinking in the dim light of the warehouse.
I glanced around, noting it’s bare state. They were basically in charge of air. That was how important they were to the Loro Ombra.
I guessed that was why Enzo had no trouble handing them over.
