Escaping: A Mafia Romance (The O'Keefe Family Collection #2) (2 page)

Two.

Fallyn with a Gun

Killian stomped toward his baby sister. “What are you doing? I told you to get in the car!”

She ignored Killian, grabbed her gun from her purse and a spare silencer, and tore out of the house. She headed out on the direct route to the address she’d sent Carrigan to, not caring if anyone saw her.

Killian was hot on her heels, grabbing her from behind to stop her mad dash. “No, Fally! If the cops are coming this way, you can’t run. You’ll draw attention to yourself and they’ll connect you to the murders.” His arm wrapped around her shoulder as he slipped his gun into his belt. “Slower. If Carrigan’s hurt, we don’t want to miss him.”

Killian’s eyes were sharp, zeroing in on every rustling bush. He kept his head down to avoid being recognized if anyone happened to peek out their windows at four in the morning. Not that they would report any mischief. The neighbors had grown so afraid to step outside their own property that they turned a blind eye to nearly everything that happened after the sun set.

Fallyn kept her gun at her side between her and her brother. “This way,” she whispered, turning down the street she’d sent Carrigan to. “He should be over there.” She pointed to a rundown house that had been a cheery white once upon a better time. “Did you hit the house yet?”

“No. We were about to go in when you called us home. We can hit it another day. Right now we just need to focus on getting Carrigan and busting out of here before anyone notices us.”

Fallyn’s gaze fell on movement around the outside of the house they were walking toward. The torn and missing paneling made it easy to spot a person sneaking by. “There!” she whispered.

“I see him.” Killian picked up their pace, keeping his head down and holding his sister tight to his side. “We grab him and run, okay?”

“Okay, I—” Fallyn stopped short, watching with dread as Carrigan entered the house through the torn out screen of the backdoor by himself. “He thinks you guys are inside! Go!” She broke into as silent a run as she could with Killian, crunching spiny weeds and bramble underfoot as she barreled through the backdoor with her brother.

Killian barked at her to stay outside, but Fallyn stopped listening. All she saw were the targets that would tear down her brothers if she didn’t act fast. The pudgy woman lunged at Killian from her place on the duct taped couch. She had powder under her nose and stringy hair that was so thin and greasy, it barely moved when she took a bullet from Fallyn, dying quickly on the carpet.

“I had her,” Killian said in lieu of gratitude.

“Good for you.” Fallyn was in no mood to play backup. The job was to clean out the dealers’ houses, not wait out fist fights. As much as her brothers were overprotective of her, she was just as vicious. The moral debate left her completely when anyone tried to attack her brothers.

Carrigan turned the corner in the living room that smelled of cat pee and pot soaked deep into the brown carpet, startled to find his siblings. “Where did everyone go?” he demanded. His gun was aimed downward, and clutched in two hands, ever at the ready.

“Cops!” Killian whispered. “Let’s clean out this house and run. Fallyn, wait outside!”

Fallyn didn’t respond to her brother, but rather aimed her gun at the footsteps she heard coming down the hallway that Carrigan hadn’t completely investigated yet. “Hit the floor!” she ordered.

“Hey! What’re you doing in my house?” said the man, revealing a mouth with several teeth either rotted out or missing completely.

Carrigan ducked with wide eyes three seconds before Fallyn’s gun went off. Two bullets to the face ended the criminal’s life in a breath.

Fallyn didn’t stop to listen to the shredding sound her conscience made inside her chest. She was only business, and wanted the job done quickly. “I’ll get the rooms to the right. Kill, you take the upstairs. Carri, hit the basement.” She didn’t wait for them to obey; she simply moved past her dumbfounded brothers, stepped over the dead homeowner and walked silently to the first bedroom. She didn’t have it in her to feel relieved that it was empty. Her nerves had hit their peak, making her hyper focused.

When she slowly pushed open the door to the second bedroom, she found a passed out woman with dried blood under her nose and several tattoos on her butt. She was spread out nude across the filthy mattress on the floor, with two stark naked men on either side of her. The men looked like they’d seen weeks of bathing in beer and cigarettes instead of the standard soap and water. A line of coke was on a mirror on the carpet next to a small mountain of beer cans strewn about on the floor. Fallyn judged by the stripper heels with a fistful of cash stuffed in the toe and lycra mini outfit discarded on the carpet that the woman was a prostitute. Fallyn took a deep breath, fired off three shots that felt like cheating since the victims were asleep, and pocketed the cash so it looked like a robbery. Also, she had no idea how long they would stay at the safe house, and wanted to make sure they didn’t leave a credit card trail on the way.

Fallyn cleared the bathroom and met Carrigan in the kitchen. Their guns were pointed downward, but they were ready to aim and shoot at a moment’s notice. They both exhaled when Killian moved soundlessly down the steps from the second floor. Carrigan and Killian closed in around Fallyn when they stepped out into the open air. The sound of a patrol car a few streets over made them pick up their pace to a slow trot, but they stuck to the darkness. They were careful to avoid any house with their porch lights on, and moved between homes that were in various stages of disrepair.

When the sirens began adding up, Carrigan led them forward at a quicker pace. Fallyn held tight to Killian’s hand that was sweaty from fear, adrenaline and sleep deprivation. The three dropped down flat onto the grass in unison when a cop car drove past. There were too many emotions swirling inside of Fallyn as she pressed her face to the ground. She didn’t like the idea of murder. She didn’t want to think of this as their only option. Vince had appealed to the police, but it had gotten to the point where the cops didn’t have the manpower they needed to dismantle the empire Papa D’Amato had set up.

“We’ll never make it out if we don’t go now. They’re going to block off the streets soon.” Carrigan’s eyes were sharp, taking in the patrol cars to see if he would be easily recognized by the drivers.

Carrigan counted to three and then stood with his brother and sister, leading them across the street quickly, their hearts pounding. They broke into a run when they heard the police sirens a few streets over, knowing the cops thought they had only one house to investigate, and not the dozens of bullet-ridden shacks they would discover by morning.

When the three made it into the house, Fallyn grabbed a trash bag from under the kitchen sink and swept the ammo into it. She gathered the bloody rag from Vince’s injuries and any other incriminating evidence. She shoved it all in the trunk, ignoring Killian’s demands that she “get moving, already.”

She threw her purse and cardigan into the backseat for Carrigan to hold. Since Carrigan was a cop himself, he didn’t want to be recognized by his coworkers on their way out of town. He laid flat in the back, his face covered by Fallyn’s pink cardigan.

Killian’s car crawled along at a snail’s pace, taking the circuitous route out of town where he knew no bodies would be discovered. The car’s occupants were completely silent, fearing the sound of their own breath until they crossed over the train tracks and made their way to the safe house an hour north.

Three.

A Prince or Something

Killian broke the silence with a harsh, loud bark that filled the car and made his siblings jump. “What were the two of you thinking? Carrigan, when the only way we can communicate is via cell phone, don’t you dare turn yours off! And Fallyn? At what point did you imagine me asking you to go find Carrigan by yourself? You could’ve gotten yourself killed!” He pounded his palm on the steering wheel as he drove. “You were supposed to be in the car halfway to the safe house by now. Never again! Do you hear me?”

Fallyn didn’t answer, though she had plenty to say. She looked resolutely out the window as she fought to compartmentalize and deal with the night without making her fear the main attraction.

“Sorry, Kill,” Carrigan offered. “My phone must’ve died. I don’t know what happened.” He sat up and pulled his device out of his pocket, firing it up without issue. “Well, I don’t know why it’s working now. That’s weird. Stupid phone.”

Fallyn wanted to scoff, but she didn’t have it in her to make a noise. Even after Killian calmed down, she kept to herself, staring out the window with a blank expression on her face as she watched the city disappear to the quiet of the countryside. They stopped for nothing, making it to the O’Keefe family vacation cottage just before the sun rose.

Fallyn hadn’t been to her family’s wood cottage in years. The expansive green framed by tall pines was breathtaking. The pond on the back of the property had made the perfect beachy getaway, doubling as an ice rink in the winter. Technically the property was under her father’s fake name he’d set up most of his lavish purchases under, but it was theirs, and provided sufficient cover for their many sins.

Instead of moving into the long loft wood cottage, Fallyn ignored her brothers and walked to the back of the property, sitting under the weeping willow she’d read many a book underneath growing up. She stared out onto the water, letting the gentle stillness of the glassy surface soothe her aching and groaning conscience. It had been ages since she’d shot anybody, and most of the time those hits had been to wound in self-defense, not to kill. Fallyn laid down on the grass, determined to make her bed out in nature rather than sleep under the same roof as Carrigan.

It seemed like her eyes had only just shut when Carrigan came out to get her. “Don’t sleep on the ground, Fally. Come inside. We saved a bed for you. Danny put sheets on it and everything.”

Fallyn closed her eyes in lieu of a response, hoping that sent a clear enough message.

“Stop being difficult.” Carrigan threw out his arms in exasperated defeat and sat down beside her head. “I know you’re pissed I beat on Vince a little, and I don’t care. You shouldn’t have kept this from us, and you know it.”

Fallyn refused to be baited. She kept her mouth and eyes shut as she lay in the fetal position in the grass.

“Well, what was I supposed to do? Just sit back and let it happen? Let Vince take advantage of you, like he’s been doing?”

Fallyn bit down on her tongue to keep from opening her mouth and spewing years of venom at her brother.

“You know he’s with Maria, right? I mean, I saw them together not two months ago. He’s not for you, Fally. I mean it. You’ve got no idea what kind of guy he is.” He quieted when he saw his attitude wasn’t making any headway. “No matter how pissed you are, it doesn’t matter. End it. I mean it, Fal. End it today. Let him sleep off his injuries, sure. But as soon as he’s awake, break it off. I don’t care how you do it, just end it.”

Fallyn sat up, brushing stay bits of grass off her cheek as she sat up to face her brother. “Listen good, because I’m not going to have this argument with you for the rest of my life. I’m with Vince. You throwing a temper tantrum isn’t going to change that. Vince isn’t taking advantage of me. I’m not some weak little victim. I run my own business, live in my own house and I can date anyone who doesn’t have a problem with those two things. Vince gets me. He knows how hard it is for me, and he’s been there for me.”

Carrigan’s mouth twisted like he’d eaten something sour. “How hard what is for you? We’re always around to help with whatever you need. You don’t need Vince.”

“That’s exactly my point! You’re always around. I can’t go on a date without the poor guy getting scared away by you lot! I don’t want to be sixty, asking you all to leave your homes with your wives and kids to come over and help me change a lightbulb!” She leaned against the tree’s trunk and pounded her free fist to her chest to punctuate her point. “You have to let him love me! You took away James, you ran Jeremy out of town, you…”

“Jeremy cheated on you! We had every right to do what we did.”

“No! I can handle myself, and you should’ve just been there for me. You care about territory too much. All I’m asking you to do is nothing. Just big, fat nothing. Let it play out. If it’s not a good idea, don’t you trust me to know that? Do you really think I’m so stupid that I’d let Vince use me?”

Carrigan squirmed, caught in a word trap. “You know it’s not that simple. No one thinks you’re stupid. But Vince is a bad idea for any woman, especially an O’Keefe.”

“Then do what you should’ve done when things went south with Jeremy. Be there for me. If it blows up in my face, hold me till it stops hurting. And don’t lecture me on choosing the wrong person. Do I need to remind you about Janelle? Theresa? I didn’t run them out of town in your honor. I made you cookies and watched crappy monster movie marathons until you got back on your feet. I was there for you. Be my brother, not my dad. This is the first time I’ve ever been in love, and I can’t share it with my best friends in the world because they want me to be alone.”

“He’s not good enough.”

“Who is, then? Give me a name.”

Carrigan’s shoulders loosened. “I dunno. A prince or something.”

Fallyn softened her tirade, staring at her brother with too many emotions flooding through her. “How about the prince of the west side?”

“An
Irish
prince,” Carrigan amended.

“Okay, then. If an Irish prince stops by, I’ll throw Vince to the curb. Until then, leave him alone. I mean it. This is important to me.”

Hands in his pockets, Carrigan was at a loss. “I can’t promise anything, Fal. I’ll try to not beat him up again, but if he pushes me, I make no promises.”

“Not good enough. Go back inside with the guys if that’s all you can give me.”

“What do you want me to say, Fal? He’s a murderer responsible for the largest drug ring in the county! He spat on Mama’s casket! I can’t count how many crimes he’s committed.”

“Really? Really? I just murdered five people in cold blood. You want to talk about crimes on people’s hands? Take a look at our family’s books, Carri. How many kneecaps have you busted over the years because Daddy told you to?”

Carrigan flinched, knowing he should’ve chosen a better argument. “Don’t expect me to make nice with him. And I’m only keeping your secret because it would break Killian’s heart, and Seamus would murder Vince without blinking. We didn’t go through all we went through tonight just to undo the alliance.”

“Leave him alone. That’s all. Keep it to yourself and leave Vince alone.”

“Fine. But this is on you. If it blows up, I knew nothing about any of it, and I’m not on your side.”

“I know,” Fallyn sighed. “Go get some sleep. I can’t really look at you anymore. You broke my heart tonight.”

“That’s a hell of a thing to say to me.”

“You’re my best friend, Carri, and this is all I get. I’m in love with him, you know. I’m actually in something real for once, and my best friend doesn’t love me enough to be happy for me. I think I deserve more from you than this.”

“Yeah? Well, this is all I can give you.”

“Then go away. We’re done.”

“Just like that? You’ll throw me away over Vince?”

Fallyn kept her eyes on the water, willing its tranquility to lull her warring insides into relaxation. “No, Carri. I’ll let
you
throw
me
away. That’s what’s happening here. I won’t fight to be somewhere I’m not wanted. I’m with Vince now. Love me as I am, or go.”

Carrigan stood, turning away after a few moments of contemplation and heading for the cottage, leaving his sister to sleep on the grass with only her misery to keep her warm.