Mob Bride (The O’Rourke Brotherhood #5)

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Shane

She’s got a whole fuck ton of things to explain to me. Even more than before. It’s almost midnight, and she’s still at Bartlomiej’s house. I saw her go this morning. She was there for hours, then she went for a walk with four guards. I watched a car slow down, and the woman in it spoke to Carrie. I snapped a photo of the car’s plates and sent them to Finn.

Sure, we have access to the same database as law enforcement, but we have access to an entirely different one. We got a guy—fuck, that makes me sound like a Guido—who keeps tabs on stolen and fake plates we use, and we come across. He tracks who they belong to and on what vehicle we found them. It definitely wasn’t a POV—personally operated vehicle. It was definitely a government car.

It made me wonder if the woman was her new handler. I camped outside the house Carrie went to and spent four hours at. My heat seeking binoculars told me there were two women and a man inside. Carrie, the woman from the car, and a second handler is my guess. It was nice and dark with a tree with plenty of thick foliage, so I attached a camera that points at the safe house’s driveway and garage. The average person looking up at the tree won’t spot it. It’s the camouflaged kind hunters use, but extra small. I’ll keep an eye on who comes and goes. In any situation other than this, I’d be labeled a fucking stalker.

I am a fucking stalker.

But I’m not doing it with ill-intent toward Carrie. Maybe Bartlomiej. Definitely Jacek—if the fucker isn’t dead. Last I heard, he’s in the ICU in a coma. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving piece of shite. I’m doing it for Carrie and Meredith’s safety, my family’s safety, and my apparent infatuation bordering on obsession.

I glance at my watch again. It’s twelve-thirty, and I’m exhausted. I’d rather be home, sleeping in my bed. But I’m watching Bartlomiej’s house instead. I recognized the sports car and SUV that arrived around eleven. The Armenians—Andranik—have something going on with the Poles. Drugs? Guns? Those are the two most likely. Whichever it was, now I know for certain who Bartlomiej planned to sell the bratva shipment to.

And now I know why Bogdan and Niko shot up the lumberyard. If they’d wanted Bartlomiej or Jacek dead, neither one would have left in anything but a body bag. It was a warning. Apparently, one Bartlomiej won’t heed.

There was a light on in the living room, but I couldn’t see any others while Andranik was there. The main bedroom light went on about three hours ago, but it turned off within fifteen minutes. Maybe there’re lights on in another bedroom at the back of the house, but I doubt it.

It means Carrie is not only spending the night, but she’s spending the night in bed with Bartlomiej. This is going above and beyond the call of duty. Agencies and police departments don’t expect undercover cops and agents to sleep with their marks. It might get intimate to keep up the story or to avoid harm, but having sex with a suspect isn’t the norm.

This means she’s pretending to be his girlfriend. That sparks anger in me I don’t recognize. Anger I don’t want to analyze. I wonder if she knows about the three sidepieces Bartlomiej has.

Actually, he’s only been to strip clubs in the last five or six months for meetings. Usually, he sneaks into the back at the ones he owns to fuck one of the three women he rotates through. He knows better than to fuck any of the dancers at any club the Four Families own, especially not bratva ones. The Kutsenkos and Andreyevs will castrate, then murder any man trying to turn their establishments into whorehouses. The rest of us rough the guys up, toss them out, and ban them from coming back.

Maybe he really is that into her. He hasn’t been hanging out at his regular haunts. Is she into him? Is it some kind of Stockholm Syndrome? Is she just pretending she doesn’t care for him when she’s with me?

That stirs an inexplicable rage inside me, and it only continues to grow the more I think about it. It’s really none of my business, and I should back off. I don’t want to contemplate why I’m so angry she’s spending the night with him. It’s not merely every minute she spends with him, the greater the danger she’s in.

It’s more personal than that. It’s more intimate than that.

The night passes slower than molasses in January, and the morning isn’t much better. She’s in there until nearly one o’clock when she finally goes back to her apartment. Then I’m staking out that area, too. She’s down to only two guards. I guess Bartlomiej feels more confident than he did yesterday. Or she’s convinced him to back off.

Whatever the reason, I watch her eventually slip out again close to eleven p.m. when she heads over to that house she was at last night. She drives this time, and I wonder what she did to get past the guard I’m sure waits outside her door and the one I see at her building’s front door.

The road she takes is narrow and winding. She’s not headed where I expected. This takes her toward her parents’ house. I’m not sure if that’s where she intends to go. I follow her three car lengths behind until I see it’s another meeting spot. It’s the same woman I saw in the car yesterday. I park and walk closer. Fortunately, there are plenty of trees for me to hide among. I’m light-footed as I approach, making sure I don’t inadvertently snap any branches. I can hear them speaking before I find a tree with a thick trunk to hide behind.

“I can try to find out. Nothing’s new except Bartlomiej has another meeting with Andranik in a couple days. I overheard that as I was walking past his office this morning. I don’t think he realized I’d come downstairs.”

“How do things stand between you?”

That’s exactly the question I want answered, so I’m glad this woman asked.

“We had some rough spots while we were talking the other day, but it seems to be back on course. I gave enough pushback as though I’m scared to be with him for it to be plausible. He seems to believe I’m conflicted about our relationship, and I’m not sure what I want.”

“How close did he think you were to breaking up?”

This woman is a mind reader, a fount of knowledge and wisdom about which questions to ask.

“I think he believes we were pretty damn close because when I said I didn’t want to be treated like a prisoner last night and I wanted to go home, I convinced him I only need two guards instead of four.”

“What’s the plan going forward for this week? Anything other than his meeting with Andranik?”

“Not that I know of yet, but he said he wants me to travel with him. He said we’d go on a trip in a couple days, so it makes me wonder where this meeting will be.”

That makes my stomach twist as I think about her leaving town with him and not having the protection of her fellow agents to back her up. There’s no way in hell that’s happening.

“Do you think that’s wise? Do you think you can get out of it?” God bless this woman and her curiosity.

“I don’t know. Part of me definitely thinks I shouldn’t. I don’t want to be in some small, enclosed spot with him while we’re in a rocky place in this relationship. But the other part of me knows not going would only make it far, far worse. I’m torn between the two, but I think I’m going to have to concede and go.”

The fuck she is .

“What about the other syndicates? Are there any major players involved?”

She doesn’t hesitate, at least not outwardly, but there’s a moment where her left hand flexes in the dark. I don’t know if this woman sees, but I can because of the streetlights behind them.

“No, not yet. Only the bratva when they showed up at the lumberyard. Besides that, it’s been quiet. I really think Bartlomiej is on everybody’s shit list. I’m sure the other syndicates heard about what happened at the lumberyard and are keeping their distance.”

“Well, we need him to be in the same place at the same time as the bratva, or we need to get a new wiretap on him. Can you slide that in for us?”

“I can try, but the man brings his phone and practically sleeps with it instead of me.”

Practically sleeps with it instead of me? They share a bed. Does that mean they’re not having sex? Just the thought of him touching her—and worse, her touching him—makes me want to hurl. But there’s nothing I can do right now. There’s no point in wasting energy on things I can’t change immediately.

I force myself to focus on Carrie describing being in bed with the piece of shite.

“I’ll see if I can get to his phone tonight once he falls asleep. He’s a pretty deep sleeper. He often lets it fall next to him since he works on it after I pretend to fall asleep. I’ll try to change out the SIM card and put the tap on it.”

“Alright, we have to move this forward, Carrie. This is taking too long. They’re going to pull you out if we don’t make some headway.”

“I know, but I’ve been in this too long to give up at this point. I haven’t put my life in danger for this many months to just be told, ‘Nope, sorry, we’re done.’”

“I know that, but you also know that’s not how the agency works. You can’t have an indefinite amount of time.”

“I do, but if we can score this and not only bring down the Polish but the Russians as well, then it’s just steppingstones until we can move on.”

Does she really mean that, or is this just playing her partner to buy more time? Would she go after my family next?

“Who do you have your sights set for the next family to target? I think it should be the O’Rourkes.”

“No, definitely not them. I don’t think they have enough going on right now to make a difference if we bust them.” She’s quick to reject us as her next target.

“They always have something going on.”

“Yeah, I know, but I really think the Diazes or the Mancinellis would be a better use of our resources. You know I’m not able to go in again, so we need somebody who’s a fluent Spanish speaker or somebody who’s got Italian. Nobody has Gaelic. At least not yet. All these families switch back to their native languages whenever they want to speak in private. That’s why I had to learn Polish.”

“True, but I still think the O’Rourkes would be our next best target.”

“That might be what you believe, Angela, but I’m the one who picked the Poles, and so far it’s been a good play. It’s only been the last few weeks that things have gotten complicated.”

“Yeah, ever since you got beaten up.”

It hangs in the air, and it almost sounds like an accusation. But Carrie doesn’t flinch. I can see her face now that she’s moved to have more of the light from the buildings beyond her shining on her face.

Does she know I’m here? Can she tell I’m listening? Did she do that so I can see her?

I don’t think so. I don’t think she has any clue I’m listening, but I think she wants to see her handler better to get an easier read on what’s happening.

“That was a mild setback, but it’s not left me the worse for wear. Bartlomiej has been more attentive to me and more forgiving. He’s been glued to me whenever I’m over there. If I can get him even more on the hook, he won’t think I’m a threat. I think he’ll propose soon. He asked me to move in with him the other day.”

What the ever-loving fuck?

There’s no way that’s happening.

Again, that jealousy that leads to anger boils in me, clawing to rise to the surface. I’m not accustomed to feeling jealousy like this. My entire life there’s been five other guys I’ve shared everything with, and I never hesitated to do it.

My cousins were raised more like brothers to me than relatives from separate sets of parents. My aunts and uncles are second and third parents to me. I know it’s how the other guys feel, too. We’ve always shared without hesitation, and we always will. It’s not because we have to. It’s because we want to, so I’m unaccustomed to envy or jealousy.

Even though Sean and I are mirror images of each other, and the only way people outside the family can tell us apart is the freckle on the left side of his throat, I’ve always felt like a separate individual from him. Our parents ensured we wore what we wanted, we got the gifts we wanted, so no one would treat us as interchangeable.

Outside the family, people guess who’s who, so even as kids, when people confused us, and someone wanted to hang out with him or asked him and not me to do something, it never made me feel jealous the way I do now.

It’s unreasonable.

“Look, I have to get back to my apartment. The longer I’m out, the greater the chance somebody’s going to figure out I left. Let me do what I need to do, and I’ll keep you posted. If I end up going on the trip, my guess is Boston. Something’s going on with the Polish up there.”

“Is he working a deal with them and the Armenians?”

“I don’t know if it’s just a change of location, or he’s got something going on with a syndicate up there. Either way, he’s tempting fate, and he’s going to come out the loser if he takes us up to Boston. You know the shit that’s been going on with the Albanians up there over the last few years. If he draws in people from the other syndicates, he’s just going to piss off the Colombians, the Italians, and the Irish here. For his sake, I hope he knows what he’s doing. Otherwise, he’s going to screw all of us over, too.”

“Check in with us in a few days.”

“I will.”

I watch the women head back to their cars, and the handler leaves before Carrie, which is perfect. I pull out and catch up to her. I drive alongside her, putting down my window and gesturing to her. It only takes a moment before she looks over. I point to the exit ramp we’re coming up on, and I give her a look that tells her I’m not joking, that she better follow my instructions.

She pulls ahead of me and gets off at the exit before I lead us to a warehouse. I pull around to the back, and we park beside each other, but we say nothing until we’re in the building. Once we’re inside, I use my phone flashlight to guide us to the interior office where I can turn on the lights. We glare at each other. She speaks first, both of us understanding a staring competition gets us nowhere.

“Shane, this is none of your business.”

“Oh, but it is. You didn’t argue with me or stop me when I made you come. You wanted me as much as I did you.”

“That was just in the heat of the moment.” She tries for nonchalant but fails miserably.

“It was very real. You and I both know that.”

“It wasn’t for me.”

“Liar.”

She knows she is. A moment later, we’re tangled together for a kiss that rocks my world. I graze my teeth up her neck until I nip at her earlobe. I know it makes her shiver. I fist her hair as I lean back to look at her.

“You’re mine, Carrie. You have been since the moment we met.”

I dive in for another kiss, and she moans as her hands press my arse, wanting my cock closer. I keep one hand in her hair as I unbutton her shirt, nearly ripping off the last one. I yank down her bra and squeeze her right tit until she whimpers. But it’s one of frustration, not distress. I’m happy to indulge in my desires, so I suck on her nipple before tugging it with my teeth. I bite, but not so hard as to break the skin. She arches her back, pushing her tits together. I move to the other side as she lifts that one even higher toward my mouth.

She lets go of the one I just finished devouring. With a popping sound, I release her nipple and lift her. She wraps her legs around my waist, and her fingers dig into my shoulders. I carry her to the desk and unfasten her pants. I ease them and her thong down as far as I can until she brings her feet up to the desk and lifts her hips. I reach the promised land as I continue to lean over her, but now I pull her jeans and panties farther down and kiss my way along her belly until I get to her pussy.

She’s shaved bare, and I have another moment of insane jealousy as I think about Bartlomiej. She might have sex with him, but I’ll make sure it’s my name she wants to scream.

She pushes at my shoulders just as I’m about to lick. I stop immediately.

“Isn’t this what you want?”

“It is, but this can’t happen. What I said the last time doesn’t matter.”

“Everything you say to me matters. We both want this, cailín . You know that as well as I do.”

She looks conflicted as she gazes into my eyes. She glances down between us to where my thumb rests on the inside of the juncture of her thigh and hip. My jeans covered cock presses against her bare pussy.

She opens her mouth twice before she speaks. “All you have to do is look in my direction, and I want you. I need you to know—to understand—the things I do with him are for work. No one expects me to have sex with him, and I don’t. He believes I’m a good Catholic virgin waiting for marriage. The other things that have happened were to dissuade him from breaking up with me or when I feared he’d finally lose his temper and lash out. But this is not about work. This has always been about us, and that’s why it’s never been a good idea.” The sincerity in her voice makes me pray she’s not lying. “When this is done…”

She trails off and doesn’t finish her question. I think I can imagine what she’s thinking.

“When this is all done, Carrie, you are mine. I’ll keep saying that until you understand.”

Our kiss is sloppy and fierce. I ease my way back down to her pussy, kissing along her inner thighs and around her pussy lips until she’s begging for me to do more. She kicks off her shoes, and I yank her jeans and panties off. I lick her from top to bottom. I breathe warm air on her, making her writhe. Then I breathe cool air, making her shiver. I go back and forth between the two until she’s pushing her hips up, again offering herself to me. I circle her clit before my demanding tongue invades her cunt.

I don’t relent as she squirms on the desk before me. My hands grip her hips, my fingers digging into her arse, holding her in place exactly where I want her. She’s moaning and begging to come.

“Sir, please, I need to come… Let me come… Please… Please .”

The sound of her calling me sir makes my cock pulse inside my pants. My jeans and boxer briefs are way too tight. The temptation to thrust into her with my bare cock and spill is more consuming than any desire I’ve ever had for another woman. The moment I’m truly inside her, no other man will ever have her. And the moment I come inside her, she will never belong with anyone else.

“You can come, Carrie.” I give her permission, and she wails as her entire body tightens. I watch her cheeks flush as she tries to catch her breath. She pants so hard I worry she can’t breathe properly.

“I’m all right. That just was—that was—unlike anything else. I’ve never—I’ve never—I have no words for it.”

I want to hear she feels the same thing I do. I think she gets that because she tries to articulate her thoughts.

“It’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven, and you’re waiting for me there. Yet you’re the devil tempting me with something I should never have. You bring me such pleasure. You’re everything I could possibly want, but nothing I can have right now.”

“Call it delayed gratification, cailín . You will eventually. Then there will be no doubting we belong together.”

“But Shane, that’s impossible.”

Her words come down as though they’re torrential rain on a campfire. She’s bringing us back to reality, and it’s not a place either of us wants to be.

“Shane, even when this assignment is over, it doesn’t change who I am. I’m a DEA agent. I work for the federal government. My job is to go after people like you. My job is to provide evidence to the Justice Department to prosecute syndicate men. And that’s exactly who you are. Eventually, things will calm with the Polish and Russians, then attention will turn toward you. I won’t be able to hide you forever. I won’t be able to protect you.”

The sadness in her voice and her eyes makes my heart ache. My hand runs through her hair that’s spread out beneath her head. I brush the back of my fingers along her temples, and my kiss is gentler than any I’ve given before. I cup her cheek with my free hand, brushing my thumb over her cheekbone.

“Carrie, you don’t have to worry about protecting me. I’m the one who does the protecting. I will make sure none of this blows back on you, and I will make sure Bartlomiej can’t come after you when this is done. You’re safe with me. That’s one thing I can always promise. No matter what, protecting you is more important than anything else.”

“You can’t say that. We both know that can’t be true. I can’t be more important than your family and I can’t be more important than your men. They have to come first.”

“That doesn’t mean they’re more important to me. Maybe those responsibilities are what I have to face and handle before I come to you, but it doesn’t mean they’re a higher priority to me than you are. I will protect you above all else, cailín . I know who you are, but that doesn’t change how we feel. If it did, neither of us would feel what we do. We wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t be holding you, and you wouldn’t be letting me. You know protecting you is more than just about your badge and my gun. You know it goes beyond that. You know when I tell you I want to take care of you I’m not just saying I want to make you come. You know there’s far more to it than just that. Everything that comes along with it is what I want to give you.”

She looks at me, and there’s confusion in her eyes. Maybe she doesn’t understand exactly what I mean.

“Carrie, I want to take care of your physical needs and your emotional needs. I want to be the one you turn to and know my shoulders are broad enough to carry the weight of the world for you. This isn’t just about sex. I believe you know that. Deep down, no matter what—no matter whether you work for a federal agency, or I work for my family—there’s something between us neither of us is going to ignore. And that means you putting your trust in me just like I put my trust in you. That we’ll get through this together.”

“You make it sound like this will be an actual relationship.” She scoffs. “That’s not possible. There’s no way your family and your men would ever accept you being with a federal agent. And there’s no way I could ever keep my job if anybody found out I was with you. We’d never be together. We’d always have to sneak around. And the more we have to sneak around, the greater the chance somebody’s going to catch us. The less time we could have with one another. I don’t want to be in a relationship with someone I can’t see, can’t walk down the street with, can’t tell anybody about.”

“But you’re not saying you don’t want to be with me.”

Our gazes lock once more, and we stare at each other. I kiss her forehead, her temple, and her cheeks before I press my lips to her.

“ Cailín , you are the one for me.”

“What does that mean? I’ve never gotten the chance to ask.”

“Little girl.”

Her eyes widen in surprise, and she cups my jaw. She smiles.

“Does that mean you’re my daddy?”

We both stop—frozen—surprised by her question. I don’t think she knew she was going to say that. My hand gripping her hip eases down to her pussy. My fingers slide into her wetness. She’s so ready for my cock it makes me ache. My thumb is slow as it circles her clit, and my fingers sweep against her g spot.

“That’s exactly what it means, cailín . I know you’re not a Little, and I don’t want one. But you are somebody who deserves protecting. You have been ever since the moment I met you, and you know I haven’t stopped trying to do that. Why do you think that is? It’s not because I think you’re incapable, that you really are a little girl. But you are mine to take care of and mine to protect, and that’s what daddies do. So yes, that’s what I am to you.”

“I’ve never wanted a Daddy Dom. You’re right. I’m not a Little. I don’t want to be treated like one, but I feel safe with you. When I think that word, it’s not my father who comes to mind. It’s you, and it’s being safe in your arms, and it’s being happy with you. That’s what I equate that word to, but I still don’t believe we can have that. I still don’t see how that’s possible, Daddy. No matter what we want.”

“Then we work it out. We do this together. I will do whatever I have to, to get you the information you need to finish this assignment. Yeah, it would serve me and my family, but I’m scared for you, Carrie. I know you embedded with the Poles months ago, but he is not a sane or stable man. Any time now, you could say the wrong thing, and he’ll explode. It shocks me he’s been willing to wait and hasn’t pressured you into more.”

“He says he loves me.” That hangs in the air.

I don’t want to ask, but I have to know. “Do you tell him you love him?”

“Shane, of course I do. I have to, but there is nothing about me—not even a follicle—that thinks I want him, that I could love him. Nothing. I say what I have to say, but what I show him is the part of me that has to be there, the part that’s never off the clock. When I’m with you, it’s the only time I can forget my job. It’s the only time I can forget my oaths. When I’m with you, I’m just Carrie. When I’m with him, I’m somebody else. I don’t even use my real name. Everything about it is pretend. Now that I know you—now that you’ve touched me—now that I’ve kissed you—when he touches me, it makes me feel ill. It used to make my skin crawl, but now all I want to do is shove him away and run. I’ve had that impulse before, but it nearly consumes me now that I know you, now that I want you. I don’t know how I’m going to continue this lie, but I have to.”

“I know. Let me help you.”

“Daddy, I can’t do this because I’m betraying you every time I’m near him. I—I…”

We stare at each other, and I help her sit up when she lifts her shoulders off the desk. I pick her up, and she wraps her legs around me again. I’m tall enough to sit on the desk easily with her comfortably in my lap. Neither one of us says anything until we’re both reaching for my pants. I unfasten them and push down my boxer briefs.

Then it’s heaven. I’m inside her. I’m bare.

“Carrie, I’ve never had sex without a condom. I’ve always, always been careful. Practically double-bagged it. But this is how we’re supposed to be. I told you my cum would fill you and replace Bartlomiej’s, but I’ve never done this before. I’ve never come inside a woman. At least not inside her cunt without a condom. Even though now I know you’ve never had sex with him, I still want my cum in you. I want it to fill your pussy. I want it to drip down your thighs. I want it inside you the next time you see him. I want that to be our secret. That it reminds you, you belong to me, no matter where you are or who you’re with. That I can silently say, fuck him, when you’re with him because you have a part of me still inside you. Is that what you want too?”