KYLE: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 4)

The Callahans, Book 4

Bonus: My second box set. Enjoy!

Copyright © 2016

All Rights Reserved
. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Billionaires In Love

Remember Us

Pizza My Heart

Nothing Bundt Trouble

Dangerous Attraction

TAKING CHANCES

Amelia

“Keep a close eye on him. We weren’t terribly sure about the dosage,” Mickey said, slipping a room key into my hand. “And make sure you get to the chapel by four.”

“He has no idea what we’re doing?”

“No. But you can trust me. This will all work out for everyone.”

I watched him walk away, fear pounding in my chest as I turned to the hotel room door. I’d never been in the guest rooms before, never had a reason to be. But this moment had the power to change everything.

I closed my eyes and another moment burst across my mind. My mother and father fighting, my father screaming at the top of his lungs like some sort of child. I hadn’t thought about those fights in years, yet they were suddenly right there, ready for me to snatch whenever I needed one.

Or didn’t need it.

I remembered how splotchy my father’s face was when he came to my school to tell me Mother had left him. I remembered the name he spoke, the man who’d ripped our family apart.

Brian Callahan.

This was my opportunity to fix all that had gone wrong in my life, in my father’s life. I could at least repair some of the damage and return things to a livable condition. And what difference did it make if Brian Callahan’s son was hurt in the process? He hadn’t cared when his actions destroyed me and the future I’d had planned for myself.

I took a deep breath and used the key to open the door. He was standing by a table at the back of the room, repeatedly removing the lids from room service dishes.

“What is this? Are we having dinner?”

“We are, Mr. Callahan.”

“Lovely. I enjoy having dinner with beautiful women.”

He crossed the room and came to me, taking my hands in his. He was nothing like what I’d expected. He was tall and dark, his hair cut so short as to not be there, his features so delicate that he almost resembled a china doll, if a china doll could be masculine.

He was beautiful. And he thought I was, too.

“I seem to be having some trouble with my memory,” he said slowly. “Did I invite you up?”

“Yes. You did.”

“Lovely.”

“You’ve been drugged, Mr. Callahan,” I said softly. “So that we can use you and do things that we shouldn’t be proud of. But when it’s all over, some of us will walk away better than how we came into this game.”

“Good,” he said with a bright smile. “Let’s begin this game, then.”

Amelia

He was sitting at one of the blackjack tables, his dark expression letting the whole room know that he wasn’t terribly happy with the way things were going. But, again, that was already obvious. He’d been losing fairly steadily for the last few hours.

“He’s pretty, isn’t he?”

I blushed, turning away as I picked up a fresh tray of drinks. “Just a customer,” I said.

“‘Just a customer,’” Joy, my coworker said. “Yeah. But he also happens to be the son of the guy who owns this place.”

“Ian Callahan? He’s not old enough to have a son.”

“Ian isn’t the owner; he’s also the owner’s son. No, that’s Kyle Callahan.”

“Kyle?”

“His father is Brian Callahan…you know, CEO of MCorp in Boston? That guy who was arrested last month on RICO charges?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Brian Callahan owns this place. Ian just manages everything for him with Mickey. And that,” she said, pointing to the man at the blackjack tables who was losing so badly, “is Kyle, his son. From what I understand, Kyle, Ian, and several of their siblings are adopted, which explains why he looks almost nothing like Ian.”

I nodded, my thoughts suddenly whirling. “Does that mean he’s got a trust fund, like Ian?”

“I suppose so. From what people around here have been saying, he’s worth quite a bit. Never fails to pay his gambling debts even when they’re in the thousands. And he tips really well. Last time he was here, he gave me a hundred dollar bill as a tip. And Lacy, on the day shift? She said that he once gave her over a thousand.”

The subject of our conversation shoved his hand across his chips, cursing loud enough to make it pretty clear that this hand hadn’t gone any better than the last few. He sat back and studied the dealer—who was trying to look indifferent, but his amusement was dancing in his eyes—trying to decide if he should go one more round.

“He likes to pick a girl and lavish her with dinner and drinks when he’s done for the day,” Joy said near my ear, as she headed out with her own tray of fresh drinks. “Last night was Candi. She says he has quite a talented tongue. And the night before was Miranda. She told me that he’s like the Energizer Bunny…he keeps going and going and going.” She laughed at the shock on my face. “That’s a wonderful thing, my dear, chaste friend. Maybe he’ll chose you tonight.”

She winked as she walked away.

I delivered my drinks, hyper-aware of the sounds coming from the blackjack table. People were standing around, egging him on. They seemed interested in watching him go all in, but he was coming up with all these excuses as to why he shouldn’t. I watched, fascinated by his charm. Even though he was clearly annoyed, he was being incredibly polite to these strangers.

“Hello, little lady,” he said to one woman, who was standing just beside him with a man who looked like her grandfather—though I was pretty sure the man was her husband. “Would you mind coming a little closer? Maybe your nearness will impart a little luck on me.”

She giggled, but sidled up closer to him, resting her hand, almost hesitantly, on his shoulder. He smiled up at her before asking for another hit. The card he’d wanted came up, and the crowd cheered as he raked in a significant amount of chips for the win.

He spotted me as I sidled up to the table, dropping off a drink for one of the other players.

“Could I get a vodka and cranberry?” he asked, a touch of a Bostonian accent making his words slightly warmer.

“Yes, sir.”

I walked away, sliding my tips into my pocket before returning the tray to the bar and calling out a new set of orders. When I returned to the blackjack table, he was watching, his warm eyes like a bath of caramel rushing over my flesh. I’d never seen a man quite as handsome as he was. There were a lot of people who came and went through this town, a lot of them rich and dressed in clothes that I couldn’t afford in a year of tips, let alone the paltry salary I drew from this dead-end job. But none of them were quite as handsome as he was, even the occasional celebrity we had come through here.

I could feel my hands shake as I set the glass in front of him.

“Thank you,” he said softly, his eyes sliding slowly over me. He dropped a handful of bills on my tray, winking before he turned back to his game.

Mickey came up behind me a little less than an hour later.

“What time are you off tonight, Amy?”

“Midnight.”

“I can have Joy finish your shift.”

“Why?”

Mickey—he was a short, stocky guy, who looked like a caricature of all the mob guys in all the movies Hollywood has ever made—smiled as he ran his hand nervously over his well-greased, slicked-back hair. The smile was clearly forced.

“I know you don’t like this kind of thing, but one of our VIP guests would like to take you to dinner.”

“Which VIP?”

“Mr. Callahan.” He leaned a little closer, the stink of his sweat reaching my nostrils just before the overwhelming woodiness of his cologne. “As in Callahan Industries? The people who own this place?”

I glanced at the blackjack table, but Kyle Callahan wasn’t there anymore.

“He asked for me?”

Mickey inclined his head. “I know you don’t like this stuff, but this guy—”

“It’s fine. I’ll go.”

Mickey’s eyebrows rose. “Seriously?”

I shrugged. “He’s the owner’s son, right?”

Mickey’s eyes widened slightly, but he smiled. “That’s right. So, why don’t you run along, go pretty yourself up, and go to the Presidential Suite at eleven?”

“Okay.”

Mickey’s eyes seemed like they were ready to pop out of his head as he watched me put my tray down and head for the door. He really was expecting a fight, and that shouldn’t have surprised me. I did fight him whenever he suggested such things. I wasn’t a prostitute, and I wasn’t going to pretend I was. Sleeping with the guests was something the other girls did quite willingly, but I still insisted on holding onto the tattered cloth of my dignity. I hadn’t wanted to take this job, and I hadn’t wanted to even come to this God forsaken city.

But this was different. This guy could be the answer to my prayers.

I drove home to my crappy, little, economy-sized apartment and quickly stripped, jumping into the shower. I smelled like the bottom of a booze bottle, one of the perks of working as a cocktail waitress. The other was the bruises on my ass from all the guys who thought it was okay to pinch me. But bruises on my ass were a lot better than bruises on other parts of my anatomy, I supposed. Wouldn’t they be amazed if they knew the truth about me? Most of these guys assumed I was just like the other girls, willing to do just about anything to make a buck or two extra. The truth was, I needed this job and I desperately needed the money I made from it. I had expenses, expenses most of these people would never understand. My life was not as simple as they might believe.

I wasn’t a high school dropout like Joy. I was valedictorian at my high school—and nearly graduated college summa cum laude.

I wasn’t a single mother like Callie—not that there was anything wrong with that.

I wasn’t a drug addict or in recovery of any kind.

I didn’t run away from an abusive father or a mother who drank her breakfast. I missed my family with everything I had.

I wasn’t any of those things. I’d lived a life of privilege and comfort. When things changed, I could have turned my back on the struggle my father found himself fighting. But I didn’t. I was here because it was the only way I could help.

And the kind of money Kyle Callahan had, the kind of influence his family had, could change everything. I could fix things for my dad.

I
had
to fix things for my dad. After all, it was my fault he was in the mess he was in.

I showered quickly and looked myself in the mirror. I wasn’t a bad-looking girl. I had dark hair that used to sport these perfect blond highlights, but now they were faded and sort of brass-colored these days. But I had a good figure—even if my breasts were a little bigger than I would have preferred and my ass was a little flatter than I would have liked. At least my belly was flat and the scar that ran along my hip wasn’t all that visible anymore. It was a stupid accident, a horse-riding incident. I’d hit the metal fence and it had ripped the flesh from my hip. But it’d healed nicely and the scar, as I said, was barely visible anymore. I had a long, straight nose, a few freckles scattered along my cheekbones that were easily hidden with a little foundation, and blue eyes that most guys seemed to find exciting. I didn’t see what was so exciting, but my college boyfriend used to go on and on about them.

I thought about Kyle’s milk chocolate skin and those caramel eyes, and I found myself both thinking about how great it would be to jump into that sweet dish of ice cream and feeling the cold fingers of dread as I realized everything I would have to give up to convince him to do what I needed him to do.

It wasn’t as if I knew what I was doing. I’d never tried to manipulate anyone before. Hell, I’d never even flirted with anyone, really. I mean, a little innocent joking here and there, but not the kind of flirting women on television were capable of. Or the other waitresses. Most of them got better tips than I did because they could flirt much better than I ever could. What if I couldn’t do it? What if I couldn’t convince him to…?

There was no room for “what ifs” now. I had to do this, or everything I’d ever known would be gone.

This had to work.