Maybe he regretted it.
Did I regret it too?
But it’d felt so good. It’d felt so right.
“I have to go. I need to speak to the rest of the family about you. Come up with a plan,” he said. He was already at the door. He wasn’t leaving me with any instructions. What was I supposed to do while he was gone?
Ever since Aldo came into my life, I had lost all sense of freedom and freewill. I wasn’t sure if I was capable of making my own decisions anymore.
“Okay,” I replied in a small voice.
He gave me a nod and then left. Just like that.
I had no idea when to expect him back. If he’d ever come back.
It seemed like he tried to run as far away from me as possible.
Six
Tristian
“Where’s Brendan?” I asked, walking into my father’s office at the family home.
The rest of my brothers were there, talking excitedly to each other.
“He’s at home with his brand new family,” Aidan replied, thumping my shoulder with the smack of a hand.
“I can’t believe he’s a dad. Brendan’s a dad! We have a nephew!” Nolan exclaimed with a chuckle. The others shook their heads in disbelief with big smiles on their faces. We had a new Doherty in the family. One we hadn’t been aware of for the past three years. It was a pleasant surprise for all of us.
Our father walked in and he looked like he was in a good mood.
Things were looking up for us. No matter what Aldo tried to do, and all the ways that he tried to get to us—we prevailed over and over again.
The general consensus was he’d eventually give up and scurry away when he realized he wasn’t going to win this war.
“You’re a grandad!” Killian said.
Our father laughed and looked proudly at us, shaking our hands.
“I can’t wait to meet the little kid, but Brendan said they all need some time to adjust to the new life. Apparently, the kid had no idea Brendan’s his dad.” Dad spoke to us with a shine in his eyes.
I wanted to rejoice in the shared excitement my brothers experienced. I was happy for Brendan too. I knew he was in love with Rosalie. They’d be good for each other. Most of all, they’d be good for the kid. But my mind was stuck on something else.
Someone else.
Elsie Harlow and how fuckin’ hot she was.
I hadn’t yet done a good job of resisting her. It hadn’t even been a full twenty-four hours and we’d already crossed the line.
I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to hold myself back from all the other things I wanted to do to her.
She seemed pretty shaken up after what happened. I wasn’t sure if she regretted it. If she was mad at me and herself.
The sexual chemistry between us was undeniable.
And what if I was wrong about her? What if Brendan was right? What if she played me.
My insane need to fuck her colored my rational thought.
I needed someone else’s point of view and opinion on Elsie. I needed to be sure I could trust her.
“What do you have to say about her?” It was Colin. His voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I blinked several times, trying to regain my presence in the room.
“What? Who?” I asked, looking around, a little dazed.
I realized the rest of my family had a conversation this whole time while I was lost in thoughts of Elsie. How fuckin’ pathetic.
“The chick you have in your apartment. The one who rescued Davey. What’s up with her?” Colin clarified.
I looked at my brother’s faces. They all waited for an answer.
I shrugged.
“Nothing’s up. There’s nothing to report,” I replied.
I just hoped they believed me.
“I spoke to Brendan and he’s not sure she’s telling the truth,” Killian added.
They didn’t seem to notice the deer-in-the-headlights look in my eyes.
I would’ve hated to have to admit I made her come with my fingers. And she liked it.
I was supposed to keep an eye on her. Make sure she was under surveillance the whole time so she couldn’t fuck us over. The last thing my family needed to hear was I wanted to fuck her.
“Brendan is being cautious. This girl saved his son’s life, he should be grateful,” Aidan said. He’d always been the softie in the family. Colin shook his head and exchanged a glance with Killian. I knew what they were thinking—they were in agreement with Brendan.
We couldn’t afford to be too quick to put all our faith in a chick we knew nothing about.
“What do you think? You’ve spent some time with the girl,” Dad spoke up. It took me a few moments to realize he was talking to me. I was still trying to pull myself together. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to talk about her with a straight face.
I shrugged again. It was the only thing I could do to pretend to not give a shit.
“She hasn’t done anything to make me suspicious. She told me she’s been cooking the books for him.”
“Is she an accountant or something?” Dad asked and I nodded.
“So she’s on his payroll?” Killian asked.
“According to her, he’s forced her to work off her father’s debt.”
“What kind of debt?” Colin cut in.
“One that he had to pay for with his life and his wife’s.”
That made them shut up. This was serious stuff. If Elsie was to be believed, Aldo had already killed her family in cold blood.
We took that shit very seriously in our family. We knew what it meant to lose someone who meant something to us.
I sensed it made our father visibly uncomfortable.
“But she hasn’t given us any reason to believe her story,” Colin reiterated.
“She hasn’t given
