Page 26

Rome

Present Day–Six Months Later

Paradise Brew wasn’t open to the public tonight. Instead, it was decorated in blue streamers, balloons, and a table in the center, covered in baby gifts. The place was still, however, filled with bikers in their cuts, drinking beer. It was just that they were also eating blue cupcakes and finger foods that Pepper Abe had provided.

The baby shower was a little late, but the original date had been canceled when my little man decided he was entering the world a month early. He had come out fighting mad until he heard his mother’s voice. I still got choked up when I remembered him going quiet, his little eyes looking around for her. She laughed and cried as she held him in her arms. I’d fucking cried, too, because they were mine.

I hadn’t been sure we’d get that moment, and I’d been okay with it. As long as I had Salem, that was all I needed.

Van Cayson Bower let out a wail, and I started to get my son from Nina, who was currently holding him, but Salem was there already. Her long, dark hair was pulled back in a low ponytail because our little man loved to get himself a handful and pull it. I’d told her I couldn’t blame him because I liked doing that too. Which had gotten me a scolding look that made me laugh.

She was already back in her pre-pregnancy jeans, but tonight, she wore a soft, strapless blue dress that was fitted at the top, showcasing her tits, which I wasn’t crazy about, but she’d argued that the dress made it easier to nurse Van. Thankfully, her tits were all it showed off. It then flowed freely, almost to the floor. She was stunning, and, fuck, she glowed. It was hard to see anyone else in the room. She walked around with her own personal spotlight on her.

Smirking, I figured she’d always done that though. Even as a girl. When she walked into a room, everyone else faded.

Nina gently handed over Van, and Salem talked to him, causing his angry wails to soften. It was time for him to eat, so he’d start up again if she didn’t get him fed, but for a moment, his mother’s face and voice had him transfixed.

Like father, like son.

Brick slapped me on the back as he leaned against the bar beside me. “You did good. Probably gonna be the prettiest boy I’ve ever seen, thanks to his breeding, but we’ll make sure he’s a badass one.”

I grinned and picked up my glass to take a drink.

“Water?” Brick asked as if I had lost my mind.

“I’m driving my woman and kid. Yes, it’s fucking water,” I replied.

He nodded as if he still didn’t understand. Then he sighed and rubbed his neck. He did that when he was uncomfortable. I studied him, and he cleared his throat.

“I, uh, need to admit something to you,” he began.

I waited, curious as to what the hell had him so tensed up.

“That note, uh…the one, you know, that Salem said she left you at the shop…”

Yeah, I knew what fucking note he was talking about.

I nodded.

“I, uh, well, you were young. Your momma had just passed, and you were a wreck. You’d let that tramp suck your cock, and Salem catching you had you so torn up. I just…I hated to see you so wrapped up in a girl at that age. Boys grow up in their twenties, and they change. Their taste in women changes. Things…” He let out a heavy sigh. “I see now that I was wrong. Salem wasn’t just some girl. She wasn’t a first love. You’d found your one all those years ago, but I didn’t give you the letter because I was trying to help you out. You didn’t have a dad, and I thought if I had a boy, that was what I’d want for him. Freedom to grow up completely before getting all locked down to one female.”

I set my glass down and narrowed my gaze. “What are you saying, Brick?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer to that question.

He hung his head, and his wide shoulders rose and fell. “I took the note,” he admitted.

A range of emotions ignited with that admission, and although my hands fisted, I didn’t move to do anything with them. This was Van’s baby shower, and I wasn’t going to ruin it by beating the fuck out of my oldest friend here for changing the course of my life.

He reached into his back pocket and slipped out a folded piece of paper. “I tucked it away to show you one day, when you had found the one. When you had fallen in love and settled down. I figured, at the time, you’d read the note and thank me. It was a mistake that I wish like hell I’d never made,” he said gruffly. The regret in his tone was heavy.

I stared at the folded piece of paper, unsure if I could handle reading it. Those memories and the pain I’d caused Salem were my darkest demons. We weren’t the same people we had been then.

Brick was right about one thing. I’d grown up. That boy was no more. I’d changed in all ways but one.

My soul belonged to Salem.

Finally reaching out to take the note from him, I said nothing. I didn’t think there was anything I could say that wouldn’t end with me putting my fist in his face. I held it in my hand, wanting to read it alone, but then what was the point? Brick had already read it. He was the only one who’d read it.

Glancing up, I looked across the room at Salem cuddling Van to her chest with the nursing-shawl thing she’d bought for my sake. I didn’t like the idea of anyone seeing her tits but me. She was sitting in a chair, laughing at something Goldie had said to her. My heart felt so goddamn full that I didn’t know how much more it could take without bursting the fuck open.

This note was our past. A piece of our story. Maybe if I’d read it, we’d have had this sooner, but you couldn’t change the past. Fate had righted the wrong.

Unfolding the note, I dropped my gaze to her neat script, slightly faded over time.

Rome,

I held out hope all summer that you’d come see me. That you’d change your mind once we had some distance. I didn’t bother you, but I thought about you every day.

I miss you.

I’ve been awarded a scholarship to Rhode Island College of Art and Design. It’s a full ride, and it includes a dorm and a meal plan. Vanna wanted me to go there so badly, and it seemed the in she’d had there came through.

I leave in three days, and if you want to see me, just to talk before I leave, I’ll be around. Just call.

And if you wait until the last minute to decide you want to see me, my flight date and time and my new address when I get there is below.

There are things I want to tell you. Things you should know.

You hurt me deeply, but I love you. I will always love you. And when you love someone, you forgive them. You don’t hold their wrongs against them.

I’m here. Waiting.

Love always,

Salem

I closed the note slowly and lifted my gaze to see her sitting there with our son. Salem turned, and our eyes met. The soft smile that touched her lips was a balm to the old wounds the note had opened up.

Then she mouthed the words, I love you .

She was my home.

Brady

She’d had a baby. I hadn’t seen that coming, but then I hadn’t seen the feckin’ cowboy Mafia coming either.

My mistakes were piling up with age. My limp wasn’t as noticeable anymore, but that was thanks to endless physical therapy. Probably should count myself lucky that the cowboy king hadn’t put a bullet through my head and gone for my limbs instead. Bastard was known for his brutality.

Yet here I was.

Blaise Hughes had warned me that the next time he pointed a gun at me, it would be the last time. But I’d made a promise to my brother. And I liked her. Not the way Eamon had, but she was interesting. Even though she despised me, I’d enjoyed her company. There was a fight in her. Eamon hadn’t known her as well as he thought. He had protected her like a fragile flower.

Salem Murphy—eh, correction: it was now Salem Bower—wasn’t fragile. She was hesitant, but when pushed, she survived.

“She found him, brother,” I whispered. “And she’s finally a mom. I hope you’re happy.”

The bikers had surrounded this place with their death wheels. Celebrating the birth of her baby at a bar. It was almost Irish of them. Except this place wasn’t the kind of pub where we’d throw one back. Miami was a dirty city with too many people trying to fit into one place. I preferred my sprawling land and fresh air.

I had satisfied my curiosity, and there was a yacht at port, waiting for me to board. Straightening, I stretched my bad leg out, then bent it at the knee a few times before walking back in the direction of where I’d parked my rental car. It was next door to the bar where I’d tracked Salem.

This time, I’d had to use a little more effort since she no longer had the earrings that Eamon had given her. They’d been left behind in Ireland. I had found them sitting on the mantel below the wedding portrait of them that hung in the master bedroom suites.

Since I preferred to live, I hadn’t expected to see her, just get information on how she was doing. I felt I owed it to my brother. I’d promised to watch over her after all. And in the six months since I’d last seen her, there had been no bothersome agents showing up in Dublin, asking questions. Our operation had been left alone. It had become almost too easy. My fear that she’d talk and I’d have our security shaken had been misplaced.

Seemed she had moved on with her life and left the Murphy family to carry on in peace.

“I think I did my job, brother,” I said quietly. “She’s happy and safe.”

My first few steps were always the most difficult. No longer painful, really just a pain in the arse to get moving forward without stiffening up.

When I was about to step over the marker from one parking lot to the next, a female voice stopped me.

I glanced back, not sure if she’d called out to me or someone else. The view, however, had me turning around. I wasn’t one to ignore a stunner like the blonde walking toward me. Tight, short, faded denim miniskirt that showed off golden-tanned legs that ended in a pair of pale blue cowboy boots. Or was it cowgirl if a female was wearing them? I wasn’t sure.

My gaze slowly traveled back up her body to the formfitting black shirt that didn’t quite meet the waistline of her skirt, giving a peek of her flat, toned stomach. Something glistened at her navel as the sun caught it, and I realized it was a piercing.

When she reached me, she stopped and placed a hand on one hip and flashed dimples with her smile. Perky tits were outlined by her black top, and I read the words Paradise Brew across the top.

Is she a waitress at the bar? I wondered.

“How can I help ye?” I asked, wishing I had more time to spend charming this one out of her knickers.

She licked her lips and batted her lashes at me. “An accent. Hot and accented. Where are you from? Scotland?”

I winced. Americans . I wouldn’t hold it against her though.

“Ireland,” I replied. “A superior country and accent.”

She looked slightly embarrassed. “Oops,” she said with a slight shrug. “I, uh, was just bringing out the trash and saw you walking by. I thought you might be lost.”

What a terrible lie, but I couldn’t fault the girl for needing an excuse to talk to me.

I might be able to lure this one into my rental and take her to the yacht with me. It would have to be a quickie, as I wasn’t taking her with me back to Ireland, but she’d be a good ride.

“Not lost, but thanks for yer concern.” I took a step closer to her, and her breasts rose and fell as her breathing picked up. This might be too easy. “I could use some company, if yer available.”

There was a flicker of something in her eyes that caused me to pause. My hackles rose, but before I could define it, the hard muzzle of a gun was pressed into my stomach.

“Jaysus, Mary,” I hissed. Who the feck was this?

“You’re gonna need to add Joseph and the twelve disciples, too, if you don’t get the hell off my property,” she snarled.

It shouldn’t be a turn-on, but it was.

“I was unaware it was private,” I said, wondering if all the waitresses carried guns. That practice would end badly in Ireland for sure.

“It’s a bar. It’s not private. But you were told to stay the fuck off our soil.”

Two things to note: she was angry, and she knew who I was.

“It seems yer at an advantage. Ye know me, but I don’t know ya,” I told her, leaning in closer to smell her hair.

“Are you fucking smelling me?” she bit out.

“I am,” I replied. “Yer a fiery little lass, aren’t ya?”

She narrowed her eyes at me and shoved the gun harder into my gut. “Salem is happy. She’s a mom. She’s married to the man she loves. I’ll put a bullet in your stomach before I let you ruin things for her. Stay the fuck in Ireland.”

I studied her face. She’d had some excellent breeding. The face was perfection. But it seemed I wouldn’t be getting her to remove her knickers. There wasn’t enough time to work my magic on this one. She was going to require extra work.

I held up both hands in a mock surrender of sorts. “I was just here to check on her and make sure she was doing okay. I promised it to my brother on his death bed.”

She scoffed at me. Actually feckin’ scoffed.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think he told you to abduct her, haul her off to Ireland, and point a gun at her, did he?” she said accusingly.

“Those weren’t my finer moments,” I agreed. “But I thought it was for the best at the time. Protectin’ the family and her. The DEA was already followin’ her.”

She pursed her lips. “Marlana Newbury. That’s the DEA who was checking into her. And Marlana isn’t a threat. Not to Salem at least.”

I nodded my head. “Good. I’m glad to hear it. She is happy and safe. I’ll be on my way, if ye would kindly take yer gun from my person.”

For a moment, I thought perhaps she wasn’t going to, but then the hard piece was gone.

I dramatically sighed in relief and smiled. “It was a pleasure to meet ya.” I paused, not knowing her name and wanting to very much.

“I can’t say likewise,” she drawled with a fake smile. “Now, go while I stand here and make sure you leave.”

“Ye won’t even give me yer name?”

She raised her eyebrows, as if I was thick. “No. I don’t think I will.”

I bowed my head slightly. “Very well.”

I could find it out easily enough. I’d once been the ghost, had I not? My face and identity were no longer a secret—at least not to the Southern Mafia and those connected to them. It seemed this beauty was in the know. I’d need to find out why.

“Go,” she ordered me. “I’m still holding this gun, and I’m an excellent shot.”

The delighted laugh begged to be freed, but I held it in. She’d likely shoot me if I didn’t.

Turning to hide my grin, I walked away.

For now.