Into the Blackness (Blackness Series Book 4) (46 page)

The guys’ faces are pale and wearing varied levels of astonishment as the kids stops in front of them. The two groups stand and stare at each other, two ends of a fifteen-year continuum assessing the other.

Kav snaps out of it first, approaching slowly. He stops a foot in front of Cara and inspects her from head to toe with love and hurt shimmering in his blue-grey eyes.

“I’m Aaron Kavanagh,” he says in his deep bass voice, extending a large mitt toward her.

In order to shake his hand she’ll have to let go of Dane, that’s not happening.

“I’m Cara,” she says softly.

Kav pulls his hand back and rubs his buzzed brown hair vigorously.

“I’ve been searching for the last fourteen years to find anyone that could hold a candle to Kid. You’ve just ended my search, Baby Girl,” he says with that cocky Kav grin on his lips.

Cara’s face turns bright red and a giggle bursts from her lips, causing the room to release a ton of the tension that was sinking down on us. Kat and Shanny beam knowing smiles at each other.

“No way you’re gettin’ dibs on this one,” O’Sullivan chides Kav, nudging him out of the way. “I’m Brian O’Sullivan. I’m funnier than any of these idiots and you’re simply breathtaking.”

The blush that Kav created has bloomed even more, causing Cara to hide her face in Sawyer’s shoulder.

Callaghan strides toward her without uttering a word. He simply stands in front of her and holds her eyes for a long while in silence. She stares at him with the strangest contented look on her face. I look to Shanny who’s now holding tears at bay. Her and Callaghan have this connection where they don’t need words to communicate and I think Cara has just created the same thing with him.

Cara peels away from her boys and steps right into Callaghan’s space before reaching her slender arms up, barely circling his neck. Effortlessly, he scoops her off the ground, allowing her feet to dangle a half foot off the ground as she buries her face in his neck.

“I’ve got you,” he murmurs into her hair.

She nods in return, squeezing him harder.

“Okay, Cal’s got us fuckin’ beat,” Kav grumbles, not meaning a word of it.

“Whatever. I’m not a quitter,” O’Sullivan huffs.

Callaghan sets Cara back on her feet and offers her a dazzling dimpled smile and she beams right back at him. It’s a short lived moment as she scurries back to her boys and Cole wraps his arms around her from behind while the other two interlace their fingers with her.

Time to introduce my family.

“Guys,” I say with a chin lift, pulling Kat toward the group. “This is Kat Russell.”

“Hey, Kat,” Kav purrs.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Kat says through a sweet smile.

“Cooper where’d you find this one? She’s…hot,” Kav compliments.

“No shit! Gorgeous,” O’Sullivan says, placing a kiss on her knuckles.

These guys are obnoxious.

“She’s the kinda girl you marry,” Callaghan says with a broad smile.

“Huh?” Kat asks.

“Two types of girls in the world. The kind you…uh…well…sleep with and the kind you marry,” Kav stutters, trying to avoid his usual foul language.

“I’d like to think I’m both,” Kat says with a quirked brow.

“Love her,” Shanny beams through her announcement.

Cara whispers something to Sawyer before turning her green eyes up to him with a questioning look.

“Marry, sweetheart,” he says gently.

Her face lights up as she snuggles further into Cole’s arms.

“No question,” O’Sullivan says, offering Cara a wide Cheshire grin.

“These are our boys,” I introduce. “Sawyer, Cole and Dane.”

“It’s like goin’ back in fuckin’ time,” Kav says with a chuff in his voice.

“Dude, if we’re lookin’ at our future I get to be you,” Dane says with a huge smile on his face.

“Good choice,” Kav responds through a chuckle.

“Then I’m O’Sullivan,” Sawyer pipes in.

“Better choice,” O’Sullivan goads Kav.

“You’re idiots. I’m Callaghan, gettin’ the hugs from hotties,” Cole finishes with a toothy grin.

“Best choice!” Callaghan shouts.

Kat pulls my ear down to her mouth and whispers, “And Jake will be you. He gets the top spot.”

My heart pounds in my chest at the sweetness of her words as I smash my lips to hers.

“Too much mushy shit for me to stomach,” Kav says with a gag as I pull away from a snickering Kat. “Come on boys, I’ll show you where you’re stayin’.”

The boys and Cara follow Kav and Callaghan to the giant staircase at the end of the great room. As they walk away, all I can imagine is what the next fifteen years hold for Cara and my boys.

“So that was fuckin’ weird,” Shanny points out the obvious, passing Johnny off to O’Sullivan who immediately starts eating the baby’s cheeks to his giggly delight.

“That it was,” I agree.

“Kid, she’s like a damn carbon copy of you. That shit felt like freshman year all over again. My dick didn’t get hard this time though,” O’Sullivan admits through a snort.

“That was pervy back then. Now it would be illegal and buy you the business end of my gun,” Shanny replies with a pointed look.

“Last I checked you liked the perv that I was.”

“Is that so?”

“Oh you can try to lie about it now, but you thought I was a sexy piece of meat and you were ready for dinner.”

“You were like beef jerky that I wanted to feed a dog, Sully,” Shanny says through a chuckle before sweeping Kat away from my side.

“Your boys are ten times better than my guys were back then. Don’t worry about Cara bein’ with ’em,” Shanny reassures her, leading us to the world’s largest horseshoe sectional known to man.

“I’m standing right here, Kid,” O’Sullivan complains.

“I see you,” she deadpans.

Kat and Shanny flop down and Kellerman and I wrap an arm around each of our women while O’Sullivan drops to the floor to roll around with Johnny.

“Should I go up and check on Cara?” Shanny asks the group.

“She’s good with the boys,” Kellerman reassures his fiancée.

“Realtor tomorrow?” Kat asks me.

“Yeah.”

“There’s no rush. You can stay here as long as you need to. Aidan’s at a conference this week. Aidan is the baby Callaghan brother,” Shanny clarifies for Kat. “He lives here too. Finn, the oldest Callaghan, lives a couple miles away, but he’s here all the time.”

“So you’re just surrounded by men all the time?” Kat asks with a little mischief in her voice.

“That I am,” Shanny responds with a smirk on her lips.

“It’s a nice view.”

“No question.”

“You two are trouble. Maybe we should look at houses in Alaska,” I grumble.

“Isn’t the male to female ratio in Alaska like two and a half to one?” Shanny asks in her I know you’re full of shit voice.

“Not the place to scope for pussy,” O’Sullivan chuckles, flying the baby above his head while he lies on his back.

“You don’t scope for pussy anymore,” Shanny says pointedly.

“Uh, scoped, sampled and savored last night, Kid.”

“Is that so?”

“Yup,” he responds popping his
p
.

Shanny furrows her brow but doesn’t respond as Kellerman nudges her to shut up.

“Your sons are rolling a lot today,” Shanny grumbles, trying to find a comfortable position.

“They’re happy to be home,” Kellerman beams, placing a large hand on her swollen belly.

I can’t wait for Kat to get that far in her pregnancy. I’m ready for the hand on the belly move. Even though she’s sick all the time right now, she’s still got that pregnant glow about her. It keeps my dick at a semi most of the day.

“When are you due?” O’Sullivan asks Kat, quirking an eyebrow at me.

“August fourteenth,” Kat says with a shine in her voice and a rub of her flat stomach.

“So we’re workin’ a baby every two months at this point huh? Kid in April. Kieran and Quinn in June and you two in August. Who’s pickin’ up October?” he jokes.

“You,” Kellerman and Shanny say through a laugh.

“I like my baby gravy smothering buns not uteruses. Plus, I like pussy too much to settle on one flavor,” he scoffs.

“You just haven’t found your favorite yet,” I inform him with a cocky smirk.

“Kieran said the same thing. What the hell? Who would’ve thought you and him would ever be givin’ out that kinda advice?”

“Shit changes,” I answer with a shrug.

If you told me six months ago I’d be where I am right now I would have laughed in your face and advised you to get your head checked. I found my flavor though and I can’t imagine wanting a different one in this lifetime. And apparently I’ve turned into a pussy, so there’s that.

“I’d like to head up to Chicago to check in with Kieran after we finish up house shopping,” I say to Kat.

“All right,” she responds tentatively.

She knows what I’m going to do in Chicago. She’d rather be at my side than here in Kansas City, but I’ve got to do this on my own. It’s time to remove the demons. I’m ready to rid this world of the evil that has caused the people that I love torture and anguish. I’m going to kill my uncle once and for all.

Nick

“I’m worried about my swimmers,” Kieran grumbles as we sit and wait for my uncle to be brought into the visitation room at the federal penitentiary he’s currently serving a life sentence in.

“How’s that?” I ask, thinking that’s the weirdest thing he could say to me right about now.

“You knock up Kat after one maybe two tries. Kellerman knocks up Shannon in one shot…with twins. It took me a few months with Quinn. There’s gotta be somethin’ wrong with me.”

“You’re fuckin’ insane,” I say through a chuckle.

“No Mancini Family left in the city. I took the last two out last night,” Kieran informs me bringing us back to business. “We take care of your uncle today and you’re good to go, man.”

“I owe you.”

“Nah, this motherfucker’s had it comin’ since he went after Shannon. He fucked with my family, so I killed his,” he states nonchalantly.

The door opens and my uncle staggers as his eyes land on my sapphire blues. No more contacts after today. I’m coming back to the life I fought to earn.

The guards sit the stunned old man down and handcuff him to the table before leaving the room with knowing nods at Kieran. I’m not here as Agent Nick Cooper. I legally changed my name when I joined the DCA, but today, I’m in this room for the last time as Nick Scarso, nephew and enforcer for Vito Mancini. Today Nick Scarso dies right along with his uncle.

“Nick,” my uncle says in a haunted voice.

“Vito,” I return coolly.

“So the feds got to you?” he asks in a resigned tone.

“I am the fed. I’ve been the fed since I walked into your office almost eleven years ago,” I admit confidently.

His classically Italian features harden at my admission. I see him plotting who he can get to carry out a hit on me. Nice try old man. Not happening. He’ll be dead before he can get to a phone or a contact in here.

“You fuckin’ ratted on your own family?” he growls in disgust.

“I did my job and helped bring down the biggest piece of shit to ever grace the streets of Chicago and I did it with fuckin’ pride.”

“And now you’ve aligned with this fuckin’ mick?” he spits.

“This fuckin’ mick has eliminated every last person in your family,” Kieran snarls.

“You’re a sad excuse for a boss, Delaney. Your day’ll come sooner than later,” Vito threatens.

“I’m not a stupid old man that kidnaps women and sells his own children. I’ll take my chances, Mancini.”

“Sells my own children?” Vito questions.

“I found Cara,” I state simply. “I’m here to find out what the fuck you did with her.”

“How?” he grunts.

“How did I find her or how am I gonna find out what you did?”

“How’d you find her?”

“Naked in my backyard runnin’ from a sex slave dungeon,” I growl, feeling my fury begin to boil at the memory.

“Deidre Murphy was a fine piece of ass,” he says through a grin.

“I guess you have a thing for sex slaves,” Kieran grumbles.

“She’d been on my cock for two years before I offed her pussy husband.”

“So you lied about how you killed her?” I ask trying to get answers to questions for everyone involved in this crazy shit. When Vito was finally brought down last year he pled guilty to the murder of Shannon’s mother. Only he fucking lied and said he killed her a few months after he murdered Shannon’s father and tried to kill Shannon.

“I didn’t kill her. She died a few months after she gave birth to Cara from complications from the birth or some shit.”

“Why the fuck did you say you killed her then?” Kieran demands.

“Didn’t want anyone pokin’ around for Cara,” he answers blankly.

“What’d you do with Cara?”

“Gave it to a black market baby selling ring. I couldn’t keep a baby with me when Deidre died. I didn’t want the kid anyway. I only let her keep it because she didn’t want an abortion. Horny as hell when she was pregnant. She didn’t want that fuckin’ baby. She never paid it any attention. More work than it was worth in the long run. Killed Deirdre in the end.”

“You’re a sicker motherfucker than I gave you credit for,” I huff.