Colin (The Doherty Mafia Book 3) Read online

  Colin

  The Doherty Mafia #3

  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. Marley

  2. Colin

  3. Marley

  4. Colin

  5. Marley

  6. Colin

  7. Marley

  8. Colin

  9. Marley

  10. Colin

  11. Marley

  12. Colin

  13. Marley

  14. Colin

  15. Marley

  16. Colin

  17. Marley

  18. Colin

  19. Marley

  20. Colin

  21. Marley

  22. Colin

  23. Marley

  24. Colin

  25. Marley

  26. Colin

  27. Marley

  28. Colin

  29. Marley

  30. Colin

  Sneak Peak at Brendan

  About Kasey Krane

  More Books by Kasey Krane

  About Savannah Rylan

  More Books by Savannah Rylan

  One

  Marley

  It took a full twenty minutes for all the coffees to be prepared to the exact specifications of my coworkers.

  Granted, I wasn’t the one making them, but I was tired of standing there and watching the boy make coffee art while I could be out there catching bad guys.

  Just the thought of it made me roll my eyes. How pathetic did that sound?

  Did my ambitions sound like the ones a child would have? Was I just being naive imagining I could ever be taken seriously?

  “Here you go,” he said, winking as he pushed the holder towards me. It was going to be a chore carrying all these cups back to the precinct. I was going to have two full hands.

  I knew I was a rookie and I expected there to be some level of roasting when I was first posted here. I mean, I wasn’t an idiot—I understood the hierarchy in organizations like this. I’d been through the training, I’d taken the tests; I knew there was a gender imbalance in the system and a power struggle in play.

  Not only was I very young and inexperienced, but I am also a female. It was like I had every reason to fail and yet, I was determined. No matter how much they pushed me around and made me feel like I had nothing to contribute, I kept on going.

  I’d been in Las Vegas for close to three months now. I was a qualified detective with a thirst for solving crime and doing the right thing. My educational qualifications proved I was smart and had the capacity to do a good job—and yet, here I was, spending half my days on coffee runs.

  I carefully carried the coffees back to the precinct, being forced to push the door open with my back. I took the elevator up to the third floor, hoping I might magically walk into an opportunity of being assigned a new and exciting case.

  But really, who was I going to impress with my coffee carrying skills?

  None of the men sitting at their desks or standing around in groups even lifted their eyes up to look at me. It was like I was invisible.

  The only time any of these guys took notice of me was when they remembered to check me out and undress me with their eyes. Sometimes I wondered if I’d only been hired for this role to provide entertainment for the men.

  My cheeks flushed red and I was angry as I walked to the end of the room and put down the coffees on a large table. I’d already made up my mind; I wasn’t going around offering the coffees to them one by one. They could come get it themselves.

  “Your orders have arrived!” I yelled, to make myself heard.

  Most of them interrupted their conversations and jokes to look in my direction. None of them looked impressed.

  “You didn’t get any muffins?” one of the guys complained.

  A grumble rang out in the room, like somehow, I had managed to deeply disappoint them.

  It was like they’d collectively decided to wear me down.

  Any other girl in my place would have broken down in tears by now.

  I had no choice but to carry the coffee for our chief to his office, he was expecting it.

  I kept my head down as I walked down the room, leaving a trail of snickering men behind me.

  The chief’s door wasn’t completely shut so I could hear voices when I came to a stop there. He was on the phone with someone, so I decided not to interrupt him. He probably wouldn’t have been pleased if I did.

  I had the coffee in my hand as I stood at the door listening. Eavesdropping was certainly out of character for me but this was the better alternative right now to walking back to the room full of men gossiping about how incompetent I was at everything.

  Then, the phone call got my attention when I heard a few key words.

  “Yeah, you mean Patrick Doherty?” he said. “They are here in town on business?”

  I had a vague idea who he was talking about. Was Patrick Doherty the boss of the Doherty mafia out in New York? The mafia hadn’t been my area of interest so I didn’t know much about them.

  “Well, they aren’t normally in our jurisdiction since they are based in New York, but we do have several open cases here from when they have been in town. What we need is a mole. At this point, the only way we can build any kind of case against them is through inside information.”

  I held my breath as I listened intently. It sounded like he was worried about this. Maybe he was working on borrowed time and had to come up with a case on a deadline?

  “If there’s one thing we’ve learned about them it’s that they’re not snitches,” he continued. Then he mumbled something else in the phone and ended the call.

  I almost stumbled into his office, cursing myself for my clumsiness. He looked up, surprised.

  “Your coffee, sir,” I smiled at him.

  He tipped his head towards the table where I set it down.

  I didn’t know why, but I waited a few moments in the hopes he would have something of importance to say to me. Anything other than how he liked his coffee.

  “What?” he groaned, snapping his head up to me.

  I wanted to say something about my interest in working on the mafia case. I knew I was inexperienced and had a lot to learn, but I was determined to prove myself.

  “I just…I haven’t been assigned a case yet,” I managed to say.

  He narrowed his eyes at me, like he was in shock that I’d brought this subject up.

  “I’ll assign you a case when I decide you can handle it.”

  “How do you know what I can handle when you don’t know me at all?” It was a slip-up. I knew I shouldn’t have spoken to him like that, but I was too frustrated to care at this point.

  “Keep this attitude up and you can bet I won’t have any interest in getting to know you at all,” he replied.

  Two

  Colin

  We all knew we had shit to contend with in the days ahead.

  Just because Aldo Baron and his men were on the down-low the last couple of weeks didn’t mean they had shut shop and called quits. We knew he was planning something.

  My brothers clearly decided they were going to keep poking him like a voodoo doll until he exploded. First, Killian literally stole his stepdaughter away and was now about to marry her. Then, Aidan’s ex was being threatened and manipulated by the B
arons so he went ahead and killed a bunch of his men.

  Okay, yeah, I helped him do it. Because he’s my brother and because Aldo Baron is an asshole and deserved what was coming to him.

  In any case, it was obvious that the man was not happy. He was obviously going to look for revenge. The war that we started with him hadn’t come nearly close to its conclusion yet. It was going to end up affecting our business and our daily lives. We had to be armed and prepared for an attack…but at the same time, it was also a time for celebration.

  Killian was getting married in a few weeks and we still hadn’t done anything about his bachelor party.

  So I decided to do something about it.

  It wasn’t like a Doherty man getting tied down to one woman was a common occurrence. We needed to mark the occasion.

  I gathered my brothers and we landed up in Killian’s cabin in the woods in the middle of the night. Reese had already been informed of what we were about to do so she wasn’t alarmed.

  Killian was in his underwear when we dragged him to our waiting Jeeps.

  “Where the fuck are you assholes taking me?” he growled, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

  “Vegas!” I replied and the other whooped.

  “You should have let me get some clothes at least,” Killian complained as we zoomed out through the woods.

  “Clothes are unimportant where we’re going,” Brendan declared with a laugh and Killian laughed at that.

  “Are we fucking driving there?” Killian asked.

  “No,” I said with a laugh. “We have a private jet booked with the hottest flight attendants I could find.”

  “You know I’m getting married right? I’m committing myself to this woman. Whatever you have planned, there better not be any chicks involved.”

  “What? Not even strippers?” Nolan was genuinely aghast.

  I caught how Killian and Aidan exchanged knowing looks and it made me want to roll my eyes. They were the two out of the five of us, who had found women they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with—and somehow that made them superior?

  I wanted to laugh at that.

  Didn’t they see how ridiculous that idea was?

  Who would want to carry around a ball and chain all their lives? Come home to the same face every night?

  “No strippers,” Killian groaned.

  “More for us,” I said with a chuckle and the others laughed too.

  As much as I adored Reese and Leah, I was determined not to fall into the same trap Killian and Aidan did.

  We were at a bar that was pumping music fit to make any person’s ears bleed. Electro music? Techno? I wasn’t sure what anyone called it—but it seemed like the sort of stuff everyone else enjoyed except me. I preferred music I could actually hear the lyrics of and decipher. Call me old fashioned.

  It was a large space with stages up on different levels where people were dancing and throwing themselves at each other.

  At least Killian seemed to be enjoying himself.

  We stood at the bar, ordering drinks for each other. The aim was to get Killian wasted before the night was up. He didn’t want strippers this weekend, but he hadn’t made any objections to getting flat-out drunk.

  Nolan and Brendan had already found some chicks to talk to. Aidan and Killian stood with me, drinking and making jokes about the bar and its abominable music.

  “Who enjoys this stuff?” Killian complained, knocking back another glass of whisky.

  “Clearly a big bar full of people,” I replied. Aidan nodded, looking around at the people falling over each other.

  “Sometimes, it’s interesting to see how another crowd lives,” Aidan added.

  “And gain what from the experience?” Killian asked.

  “A chick to bang,” I murmured, looking over his shoulder at the brunette who was dancing at some distance.

  It was the first time she caught my eye but I wasn’t going to be able to look away. Killian followed my line of view until he saw her too.

  “Man, I’m relieved I’m out of the game,” he said with a sigh. I didn’t believe it for a second. Why would you want to be out of a game when you could procure delicious meat like this one?

  “I don’t think Colin is actually listening to you,” Aidan said. But he was right, I wasn’t listening to either of them.

  All I could do was watch the way the girl moved her body.

  She was wearing a black dress with a low neckline that showed off her heavy cleavage. She had very wide hips that curved spectacularly. Her ass jiggled when she moved her body from side to side.

  It was obvious that she was completely lost in the music. She hardly even noticed the guy who was dancing with her. This guy had one hand on her hip and his eyes were fixed on her tits the same way mine were.

  She had the kind of body that would turn heads wherever she went. Her ass, her thick thighs, her long dark hair that swirled around her shoulders as she moved to the beat.

  She thrashed her head from side to side in tune with the music. Her eyes were pressed close. She was in her own world, and she had no idea I was just about to land in it.

  My brothers didn’t try to hold me back as I weaved my way through the crowd in the direction of the girl who danced like nobody was watching.

  It was a phrase I’d heard often but never witnessed on full display before.

  There was something about this chick I knew I had to have.

  Neither the guy dancing with her, nor she saw me coming. There were too many people around and the music was very loud.

  I stood behind her, watching her move, like I was transfixed by the sight. I hadn’t even taken a good look at her face yet. She didn’t stand still long enough for that.

  I watched as the guy with her leaned in to whisper something in her ear, but she kept dancing like she hadn’t heard a word. I wasn’t sure if she was drunk or just high on the music—but whatever it was, I wanted some of it.

  I was about to reach out and touch her, but instead I stepped up to the guy. He saw me before the girl did.

  “Hey!” he yelled over the music when I grabbed his elbow and yanked his arm away from her hip. She finally opened her eyes when she sensed movement. “What the fuck are you doing, man?”

  The guy was as annoying as a fly buzzing dangerously close to my face. I said nothing but put my hands on his shoulders and gave him a shove. He stumbled backwards, his eyes were crazed and wide. He looked more shocked than angry at this point—not expecting this to happen in the middle of him coming on to this chick.

  “What the fuck, man?” he groaned again when I squared up to him. The girl hadn’t said anything, but just stood back, watching us. I could sense her eyes on me—on my back. I stood between her and her ex-dance partner.

  Or boyfriend? I didn’t give a shit.

  I needed to hear her voice.

  “All you have to do is walk away,” I said, peering into his eyes.

  He considered the problem, searching my eyes, trying to sum me up. I said nothing more, giving him time to decide. I was willing to take it as far as it had to go to have this girl for the night.

  Maybe he saw it in my eyes. He knew what I was capable of. Either way, he took a few steps back.

  “You’re a smart guy,” I said and he gritted his teeth. He wasn’t taking it as a compliment.

  I waited until he took a few more steps back and then got sucked into the crowd of drunken revelers.

  I turned and saw the girl staring at me. Surprisingly, she didn’t look as shocked as the guy had. She had stopped dancing by then and had her arms crossed over her tits. She had very blue eyes, they were large and wise.

  “So you just take what you want do you, big guy?” she remarked, like she wasn’t one bit afraid of me.

  Three

  Marley

  I couldn’t believe this guy.

  Did he actually do this? He literally ripped the other guy off me?

  I wanted to scream at him—I was dancing with him! In
fact, I had spent half the night flirting with him. I’d put in a lot of energy and time into getting close to that guy because I wanted a good lay tonight. After the shit day I had at work, which was exactly like all the other shit days I had at work usually.

  But today was especially shit because the chief had made it clear that my career was going nowhere. He had no faith in me, and he had no interest in giving me a chance. I’d spent all my adult life pining for this job.

  I’d put myself through all the rigors it took to becoming a detective. Nothing mattered to me more than being good at my job and proving myself—and today, something had become quite apparent to me. That I was about to go nowhere because I was too young and I am a female. It was out of my hands.

  I’d been so focused on getting this job the last few years that I’d neglected everything else in my life. I was twenty-four years old with no close friends, and I’d never been in a serious relationship. I was in Las Vegas, which was not my home and I didn’t know anybody here. My coworkers, who all happened to be men, went out drinking together every night but never invited me.

  The only thing they saw me as was a piece of eye candy around the office. My only job was to be a part of their fantasies. Sick.

  And just when I zoned in on a guy at a random bar, who I wanted to bang, this other dude showed up and yanked him away from me. Who did he think he was? Did he think he owned the place?