Aidan (The Doherty Mafia Book 2) Read online

  Aidan

  Kasey Krane

  Savannah Rylan

  Copyright © 2021 by Kasey Krane & Savannah Rylan

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Leah

  2. Leah

  3. Aidan

  4. Leah

  5. Aidan

  6. Leah

  7. Aidan

  8. Leah

  9. Aidan

  10. Leah

  11. Aidan

  12. Leah

  13. Aidan

  14. Leah

  15. Aidan

  16. Leah

  17. Aidan

  18. Leah

  19. Aidan

  20. Leah

  21. Aidan

  22. Leah

  23. Aidan

  24. Leah

  25. Aidan

  26. Leah

  27. Aidan

  28. Leah

  29. Aidan

  30. Leah

  Sneak Peak at Colin

  About Kasey Krane

  More Books by Kasey Krane

  About Savannah Rylan

  More Books by Savannah Rylan

  One

  Leah

  I sat at a window seat, looking out at the scenes passing me by. It was all a blur, my eyes didn’t focus on anything in particular.

  I knew this terrain by heart, even though I hadn’t been back home in over five years.

  But I guess you don’t forget the place you were born. The place you grew up.

  The train inched closer to the station and everything looked familiar. It felt familiar. I even recognized the smells lingering in the air.

  After five years of living as far away from my hometown as I possibly could—I was back.

  Even though I didn’t want to be.

  I didn’t keep in touch with my family, and I figured they preferred it that way.

  After all, I was the daughter who had embarrassed and insulted them. I had brought shame to the family by getting pregnant out of wedlock.

  Hadn’t they taught me better?

  Hadn’t they tried to drill it in my head to keep my legs shut?

  Wasn’t God watching all the time?

  I was in high school and my parents were religious.

  And when I say that, I don’t say it lightly. I mean—Grace before every meal and praying on your knees before bed every night and waking up and crossing yourself in gratitude to God for letting you live another day.

  Yeah, my parents were those people.

  Church going and saintly. I was their only child and they hoped I would honor them by living a life of religion and good manners too.

  For a few years in my early childhood—that was all the life I knew.

  That was until I met Aidan. Then, everything changed and I was officially ‘spoiled’.

  The train stopped at the station at the same moment that Aidan’s name entered my thoughts. I was glad for it. Glad for the distraction. I had tried very hard for all these years to keep him off my mind. To not say his name aloud.

  Instead, as I grabbed my bag and stepped off the train, I tried to recount the phone conversation I had with the nurse five days ago.

  I had just returned from a twelve hour shift at the nursing home. I was tired, exhausted and just needed a shower. So when the lady on the phone told me she was looking for Belinda Michael’s daughter—I almost laughed and hung up the phone.

  I never thought of myself that way anymore—as Belinda or James Michael’s daughter.

  I was just Leah.

  The lady on the phone spoke fast, telling me how the cancer was detected very late and had spread to almost all my mother’s vital organs, which were consistently and systematically failing her. She didn’t have long to live.

  My father had died three years before from a sudden heart attack that nobody saw coming. I wasn’t invited to his funeral.

  I didn’t know what the nurse wanted from me now, and I remained silent through most of that phone call.

  “So, will you come? She is all alone here with nobody to visit her in her last hours. Will you come and be with your mother?” the nurse asked.

  I ended the call before I burst into tears.

  I didn’t know how long my mother had to live and I hadn’t decided how long I’d be staying in town.

  The good news was that I had all my vacation days saved up. I never took a day off. My manager at the nursing home was so pleased to hear that I was finally taking some time off, she suggested I take as much time as I needed.

  I had to give up my apartment because I couldn’t afford rent as well as pay for accommodations here.

  Before I got here, I managed to find a serviced apartment near the hospital I could rent for a few weeks. It was going to be expensive and I wasn’t sure I could even afford it—but now that I’d made the decision to spend the last days with my mother, it had to be done.

  I went to the apartment from the station directly. Took a shower. Got something to eat.

  Basically, I tried to do everything I could to delay going to see her at the hospital. I knew I couldn’t avoid it forever but I felt like I wasn’t prepared. The last five days were not enough to prepare me to see her after all these years, in this condition.

  The truth was, I didn’t even know if she wanted to see me. Maybe the nurse just thought she was doing a good deed by calling me.

  I remembered the look on my mother’s face when I told her I was pregnant. I had sincerely thought she would understand. That she would try and help me. Maybe she would even be happy for me, and to see her first grandchild.

  But instead, she had locked me in my room while I could hear my parents fighting downstairs. I was sick and terrified. I wanted to be with Aidan. But they cut off all access and communication to him.

  After hours of quarreling about it amongst themselves, when they finally came up to my room again, they had a plan. My father refused to even look at me while my mother waved a printed ticket in the air.

  “You’re leaving and you’re never showing your face in this town again.” She hissed at me like she had no love left for me in her heart.

  I was eighteen years old. Practically a child myself. I was pregnant and wanted to be close to my family. I needed to be close to Aidan.

  “Mom…”

  I could still hear the desperation in my voice that night, but she walked out of my room and said there was no time to pack. I had to catch the first train out of town that very night.

  They were washing their hands off me.

  The nurse led me to the room my mother was in and then she left me there at the door.

  For several minutes, I just stood there in the corridor, too afraid to even look in.

  When I did eventually peek—I saw a frail and gray woman sitting up in bed eating Jell-Owith a plastic spoon. She stared up at a small TV with vacant eyes and didn’t look in my direction, even when I walked in.

  “Mom?” I had that same desperate note in my voice.

  She put the spoon in her mouth and took a moment to breathe in deeply before she turned to me.

  “Leah. You’re here.”

  She sounded hollow. Like there was nothing left of her inside. I couldn’t tell if she was pleased to see me.

  “Hi, Mom. How are you?”

  It was a stupid question but I had nothing else to say. I kept my distance from her like I was still afraid she c
ould hurt me.

  “I’m well, my dear. I’m doing okay.” Her eyes brightened a little as she scanned me slowly.

  I had written two letters to her in the past five years. The last one had just contained my address and phone number if she ever needed to reach me. The only time she had written to me was to say that Dad had died.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Mom. I wanted to…wanted to come and see you.”

  “Before I die and reunite with your father in Heaven?”

  It amazed me that she still so strongly believed in all that.

  “I wanted to be here with you because I didn’t want you to be alone.”

  She placed the Jell-O cup and the spoon on the table beside her, then she held out her hand to me and I came forward.

  Touching her broke me. Her hands were boney and cold and now that I was closer to her, I could see how much pain she was in.

  There was a time when I never thought I could forgive her or my father for what they had done to me. I still wasn’t ready to forgive them now. But I was glad I made this decision to come here and see her.

  I wasn’t going to abandon her like they had abandoned me.

  My mother lifted my hand up to her lips and touched her mouth to my fingers.

  “Thank you, Leah. Thank you for coming. I have been thinking about you. I knew I didn’t have the right to ask you to come here, but I wanted to see you, dear.”

  I could feel the tears rising up in my chest, making it hard for me to get any words out.

  “Did you bring…my grandchild?” she asked.

  She knew nothing. Boy or girl. Twins? Nothing.

  My mouth went dry and I pulled my hand away from her. I wished she hadn’t brought it up. I looked away.

  “I put my baby up for adoption right after I gave birth. I knew I couldn’t be a mother to the child.”

  I sat with my mother in her hospital room for over an hour, until she fell asleep.

  I informed the nurse I was leaving and then I walked out of the hospital.

  I was back in town five years later and I didn’t know where to go. What to do.

  I had some old friends from high school I sometimes spoke to. None of them knew I was back because the last five days had passed in a blur.

  I thought about calling one of them now. Maybe I could meet her for a coffee somewhere. I tried to keep my mind off Aidan—wondering where he was and what he was doing. If I might get to see him again. Even from a distance.

  First, I needed to go get some groceries for the apartment, so I headed to one nearby.

  It just took me a few minutes in the store and soon, I was walking back to the apartment. As I walked, I could sense eyes on me.

  At first, I thought I was just self conscious because I was back here and afraid of people watching me and judging me. How much did people around here know? Did they recognize me?

  I kept my head down and hurried back to the apartment building, but the feeling didn’t leave me—of being watched. By the time I had the key in the lock, I was sure I could hear footsteps behind me.

  I hurried to get the door open and two hands appeared on either side of me, pushing the door open and shoving me in.

  It all happened so fast. One man wrapped his arms around me with one hand strapped to my mouth to keep me from screaming.

  The other guy shut and locked the door.

  “You breathe one word or make a sound and you’re dead,” the man hissed in my ear before releasing me. I fell backwards, banging against the wall while struggling to catch my breath.

  I could still feel how tightly he had held me. Like he was going to squeeze the life out of me. I shuddered in fear because this seemed so unreal.

  Who were they? What did they want?

  But I had been warned not to say a word—and hadn’t I always been a girl who did what she was told?

  They stood in front of me. Tall burly men with tattoos and beards. They snarled at me like wild animals and in that moment, I knew it was not a false threat. They really would kill me if I took one misstep.

  “You’re Aidan’s chick, aren’t you?” one of them asked.

  I shook my head because it wasn’t true. I hadn’t belonged to Aidan in a very long time.

  “Don’t you fucking lie to me!” The other one lunged at me, pinching my cheeks with his thumbs and pulling me towards him. He gripped me so hard that my face ached. It felt like my neck was about to snap. I was convinced I was going to die.

  “Yeah you are. We saw you two together. You liked riding his bike as much as you liked riding his dick.”

  They laughed at that.

  How did they recognize me? I didn’t even know who they were.

  The guy gripping my cheeks released me.

  “You should know you’re being watched, bitch,” he said.

  “Someone from the Baron family will always be watching you,” the other one chimed in.

  I didn’t know what he was talking about. I had never heard of the Baron family. I had a vague idea that Aidan’s father was involved in some under the rug business. That his family had connections with the Irish mafia—but nothing else. I was clueless.

  But now, I was scared.

  They turned to go and I almost breathed a sigh of relief at that. They were going to leave. But before they did, one of them lunged at me again, grabbing me by the back of my hair.

  I could smell the stench of stale beer on his breath.

  “We’re going to find him. This is war,” he snarled.

  With tears streaming down my face, I fumbled with the lock until I was satisfied the door was finally locked. But that didn’t mean they wouldn’t return or they couldn’t kick the door in.

  My body ached from being thrown around. I had goosebumps on my skin.

  I didn’t even want to look through the shutters to see if they were still there. I was sure I had come to within inches of dying.

  My first instinct was to reach for the phone and dial 911.

  But what would the police do? How would they help me? And even if they came over here and took a statement, it didn’t mean they could keep me safe from being attacked again.

  What if they targeted my mother in the hospital next?

  I paced around the room, my phone clutched tightly in my hand.

  The only other option I had was to call Aidan and tell him what happened. What they had threatened me with. After all, it seemed pretty obvious that this was connected to him, so maybe he would have some answers.

  But after all these years—and after the way I disappeared from his life without an explanation—why would he even want to help me?

  Two

  Leah

  I realized I’d dropped my bag of groceries outside when the men shoved me in. I was too afraid to even step outside and retrieve it.

  I wasn’t sure how I would ever leave this apartment again.

  However, I still hadn’t been able to decide what to do about Aidan.

  My hand shook uncontrollably every time I looked at my phone and thought about getting in touch with him. Technically, it wouldn’t be hard to find him.

  My old friends and acquaintances would be able to help me trace him.

  However, the thought of facing Aidan again shook me to the core.

  Things had been peaceful all these years that we were apart. It had been one of the hardest things I had to do—second only to giving up my baby. Nonetheless, I got through the years and became accustomed to living without him and the baby we made together.

  I had trained myself to survive by myself and I wasn’t sure if I could even change that now. If Aidan rejected me, which he had every right to, it would kill me.

  I gasped when my phone rang in my hand. It was an unknown number.

  I threw the phone to the floor like it had burned me.

  The call ended and then it rang again. The same unknown number.

  I waited several more rings before answering.

  I didn’t know what to expect or who it coul
d be. The only thing I knew for sure was it wasn’t going to be good news.

  “Leah Michaels.” It was a deep male voice on the other end. Formal and to the point.

  “Yes?”

  “This is Aldo Baron. I believe some of my men recently had a chat with you.”

  I slid down to the floor, feeling my legs about to give way.

  I didn’t know who this man was or how he got my number. I wanted to scream and tell him to leave me alone. That I had nothing to do with Aidan anymore and I had nothing to give him.

  However, there was something about this man’s voice that told me I needed to shut up.

  “I am going to send a car to your apartment in twenty minutes. You’re going to get in and come and see me. There are a few things we have to discuss.”

  “I don’t know what you want from me,” I managed to squeak.

  “You’ll find out soon enough, Leah. Just do as you’re told and for now, nothing is going to happen to you.”

  For now?

  More tears filled my eyes. I felt helpless and desperate to wake up from this horrible nightmare.

  “I don’t want to meet you, or anyone else. I just want to be left alone!” I screamed into the phone. It was a little too late for self control.

  Aldo Baron waited in silence for a few minutes. Like he was giving me a chance to calm down. Then he sighed before he spoke again.

  “Don’t make me force you, Leah. I’m sure you have figured it out by now. You don’t have much of a choice.”