Page 1 of The Mobster’s Daughter (Massachusetts Mafia #2)

Caitlin

“C aitlin!”

She swung around, her long blonde hair hitting her face as the wind caught it.

Her boyfriend, Bobby, jogged toward her; his dark brown hair fell over his face, and his T-shirt looked like it had shrunk four sizes.

Thanks to the chill fall air, his nipples noticeably poked against the thin fabric.

He smirked at her, a look she once found attractive, but now it filled her with dread.

If she could have faded into the background and disappeared, she would have done it.

Caitlin didn’t have the energy for him at t he moment.

He slid to a stop in front of her and leaned down for a kiss.

Caitlin turned her head at the last second, so Bobby’s lips grazed her cheek.

He huffed and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.

He kissed her again, his lips pressing hard against hers.

It didn’t even feel like a kiss; it was a declaration of ownership.

“Let’s go out to dinner tonight, ” he said.

She tried to pull back, but his grip on her chin tightened. “I can’t. I have a crap ton of homework to do, so I need to stay in and get it done.”

Bobby laughed. “You can do it later.”

Caitlin pushed his hand away, breaking his hold on her, and shook her head. “My father isn’t paying for me to fail law school. We can go out anoth er night.”

“Your father is an ass, and you know it,” Bobby muttered. “Besides, he’s fucking loaded. He can afford to pay your tuition to law school several times over. If you fail, just do it again.”

Caitlin’s skin bristled. While it was true she had a contentious relationship with her father, she didn’t like it when her asshole boyfriend talked shit about him. He didn’t understand what it was like living with someone like Sean O’Reilly.

“I don’t want to argue—”

Bobby cut her off. “Then don’t. I’ll pick you up at seven.” He didn’t give her a chance to protest; he just turned around and left without sayin g goodbye.

For the hundredth time in the last week, Caitlin wondered why she was still dating Bobby.

He exhausted her, was an asshole, and wasn’t worth the trouble anymore.

At first, being with him had helped keep her mind off the man she really wanted in her life.

A man she could never have. And her father never would have approved.

But sometime during the last six months, she’d grown tired of fighting with him and denying her feelings for the other man.

Her cell phone vibrated in her back pocket. She took it out, and a smile spread across her face. Speak of the devil. Caitli n smirked.

“Hello?” she answered, purposely cheerful.

“I dealt with the problem with your car.”

“Well, hello to you, to o, Grady.”

“I don’t have time for your shit, princess,” her father’s second-in-command snapped. “Your car is in the shop. You can pick it up on Friday. Try not to fuck it up again.”

“The accident wasn’t my fault t his time—”

“It’s never your fault,” he muttered. “Nothing is ever yo ur fault.”

The low growl in Grady’s voice turned Caitlin’s stomach inside out. What she wouldn’t give to hear that sound while he was inside her, fucking her brains out. She closed her eyes, and the image invaded her head.

“Caitlin?”

“ Uh, yeah?”

“Did you hear wha t I said?”

She giggled. “No, sorry. My mind drifted for a seco nd there.”

“Your father wants to know when you’re coming home to visit,” Gr ady asked.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “Look, I have to go. I have class.” She disconnected the call.

Why did the one man she wanted more than anything in the world have to be not only her father’s best friend, but his second-in-command, completely off-limits, and twenty-one years older than her? It wa sn’t fair.

“ Life isn’t fair ,” her father’s voice echoed in her head. “ The sooner you figure that out, the better off y ou’ll be .”

After arriving home to her small apartment, Caitlin dropped her purse and backpack on the kitchen table.

It was a one bedroom close to NYU, with a kitchen and living room combination, a small bedroom, and a bathroom.

The apartment was tiny, but cozy. She had decorated it herself, picking out furniture she liked and making it feel like home.

Just as she kicked off her boots, someone knocked on the door.

She sighed and looked through the peephole.

The person standing in the hallway didn’t look familiar.

“May I help you?” she asked in a rai sed voice.

“Is, uh, Bobby here?” the m an yelled.

“No. He doesn’t live here,” Caitli n replied.

“Can I come in and wait for him?” He shifted from foot to foot, repeatedly scratched his arm and peered into the peephole, so close Caitlin could see flecks of dandruff in his eyebrows.

She quietly flipped the deadbolt and pushed the button on the doorknob so the door was locked. “I told you Bobby doesn’t l ive here.”

The man slammed his first against the flimsy wooden door. Caitlin jumped and stumbled back. Her knees hit the couch, and she fell onto the cushions. She stared at the door until she heard footsteps retreating down the hall.

“Fuck,” she muttered under h er breath.

Caitlin had long suspected Bobby was involved in less-than-legitimate activities and while she was definitely not one to judge, she hated he had brought something like that into her life. Moving to New York was Caitlin’s escape from the mafia world, and now Bobby had dragged her bac k into it.

If her suspicions were correct, he worked for Aldo Moretti, an Italian mobster with a frightening reputation.

The O’Reilly family had dealt with the Morettis on and off for years, and recently, the O’Reillys had been involved in some kind of negotiations with them, though she didn’t know exactly what they were.

After certain promises made by her father fell through, Sean O’Reilly had been reluctant to let Caitlin move to New York for school, worrying about her safety.

She assured him everything was fine. Her father would go insane if he found out she was dating someone involved with the Morettis.

Yet another reason to break up with Bobby. Caitlin waited a few minutes before she got up to grab her phone. She pulled up Bobby’s number to text him, but before she could, his name popped up and a message appeared on h er screen.

[Bobby: I’m on m y way up.]

“Shit,” she mumbled under her breath. She perched on the edge of the couch to wai t for him.

Bobby came through the door a few minutes later, using his key to get in. He sat down beside her, grabbed her arm, pulled her against his body, and pressed another one of those hard kisses to her lips.

Caitlin put her hands on his chest and pushed him away.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she mumbled, staring at her feet.

“Then stop pouting,” he said. “Let’s go grab s ome food.”

“I told you I have homework. I have a paper due for my ethi cs class.”

Bobby laughed and shook his head. “Are you joking? You’re writing a paper on ethics? Are you planning to mention that your father is paying for your education with money he earned i llegally?”

Caitlin frowned. If what she suspected was true, he didn’t have room to talk. “Knock it off. I’m not in the mood for y our shit.”

He propped his feet on her coffee table.

“You just don’t like it when I point out the obvious.

What are you going to do with your fancy law degree, anyway?

Are you going to work for the family, keeping thugs out of jail?

Or maybe you can help your father figure out how to wash all that dirty money he earns. You have so many options.”

“I’m going into environmental law,” she retorted. “You k now that.”

“Yeah, until your daddy wants you to help keep his people out of jail. You’ll cave. You don’t have the guts to stand u p to him.”

Caitlin got up and went to the kitchen. She took a glass out of the cupboard and filled it with water from the sink. Her hands shook as she raised it to her lips.

God, she wished she’d never confided in him about her family and where her money came from.

That had been at the beginning of their relationship, when everything was brand new and she hoped she might fall in love with him.

Caitlin usually kept those things private, but when they first started dating, Bobby swept her off her feet, and she thought she wanted to share her life with him.

“You don’t have any room to talk,” she said. “Haven’t you been working for Aldo Moretti?”

Bobby shot off the couch and stalked across the room. He grabbed her upper arm and squeezed. “How the hell do you k now that?”

Caitlin slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

He clenched his fists and glared at her. “I asked you how you know I’m working for Aldo Moretti.”

She snorted, dumped the water in the sink, and put the glass on the counter.

“How do you think? I listen. And it’s not like you’re quiet when you’re on the phone.

You sure the hell aren’t trying to keep it a secret.

What have you been doing for him? Selling drugs?

I know the Morettis are deep in the drug trade, so it makes sense he’d use you to do that. ”

“Forget everything you’ve heard, sweetheart,” Bobby said. “Aldo Moretti isn’t a man you want to m ess with.”

Caitlin laughed. “Neither is my father.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I think you s hould go.”

He took a step closer and raised his upper lip in a snarl. “I’m not leaving.”

She stood her ground. “I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. We’re done. I don’t want to see you anymore. Get out of my apartm ent. Now.”

Bobby grunted something incomprehensible, spun on his heel, and walked away. He stopped at the door, looked at Caitlin, pulled back his fist, and punched the wall, putting a hole in th e drywall.

Caitlin stumbled back a step, fear wrapping its cold fingers around her heart.

“This isn’t over.” He yanked open the door and left.

Ethics papers and alcohol did not mix. Caitlin sat back and rubbed her forehead, angry with herself for giving into the urge to drink after the fight with Bobby. She knew better than to let stuff like that g et to her.

Two hours and half a bottle of wine after her now ex-boyfriend stormed out, she remembered he had a key to her apartment.

Caitlin kept expecting him to walk through the door, uninvited.

If she was at home, she could have called her father, and he would have sent someone over immediately to change the locks.

It was the first time in months she missed being in Boston.

Caitlin picked up her phone, opened her contacts, then put it down again. She couldn’t call him. She didn’t need to call him. Grady McCarthy didn’t answ er to her.

Grady had been around since she was a teenager and friends with her father longer than she had been alive.

She hadn’t paid attention to him when she was younger; he was always there, but he ignored her, and she did the same to him.

It wasn’t until Caitlin started causing problems—rebelling—when she went away to college that he became a staple in her life.

That had been shortly after her sister Olivia disappeared to avoid marrying a man she did n’t love.

Unable to deal with his daughter himself, Caitlin’s father instructed Grady to watch over her. If Caitlin got in trouble or needed help—which she frequently did—Sean O’Reilly told her to contact Grady. Her first phone call was always supposed to be to him.

She didn’t know when or why he became her father’s leascheannasaí —second-in-command—though she remembered it had happened after her father was injured in an attack at J. Fol ey’s Café.

Caitlin would never say it out loud to anyone, but Grady was Caitlin’s fantasy man, the older man she longed to be with, even if it was only for one night.

The only older man she’d ever found attractive.

For years, he was at every family gathering, hanging around their house all the time, and he went everywhere the family went.

Caitlin couldn’t get rid of him if she wanted to.

Not that she did. He was easy on the eyes and damn attractive with his salt-and-pepper hair, neatly trimmed beard, and hazel eyes.

He was well built, too. Huge biceps, one of which had a tattoo rumored to be the McCarthy family crest, though no one knew for sure.

Then there was the six-pack abdomen and the chest ready to burst from the too-tight T-shirts he favored.

He also had an ass you could bounce a quarter off.

The man was a walking GQ ad, and he didn’t eve n know it.

The only thing marring his perfect looks was the perpetual scowl on his face. Caitlin never saw him smile. He was all business and insanely devoted to her father. Grady McCarthy’s only mission in life was to do as Sean O’Reilly commanded.

Caitlin wasn’t sure when she first realized she was attracted to Grady; it certainly didn’t come out of nowhere.

More like a gradual thing happening over time.

One day he was the annoying asshole who tried to keep her in line; the next he was mildly annoying, and she didn’t mind when he showed up to fix her messes.

Eventually, Caitlin caused problems so Grady would come around and bail her out of whatever trouble she got herself into.

She daydreamed about him, imagining scenarios she knew would never come to fruition.

Her mild crush on him had become an o bsession.

Caitlin knew nothing would ever come of her feelings for him.

The man was twenty-one years older than her and worked for her father.

He couldn’t possibly be more out of her reach, so any relationship between them had to remain platonic.

Anything else would be a scandal, taboo, and irresponsible.

However, that didn’t stop her from fantasizing about him every chanc e she got.

Dating Bobby had been an attempt to flush her system of Grady.

He made it easy to forget about her unattainable crush.

During the last two or three months, things changed, and she discovered Bobby wasn’t the man she thought he was.

He was an egotistical jerk who took advantage of her and treated her like a p ossession.

Caitlin should tell Grady about Bobby. If something happened because she broke up with him and she didn’t give Grady a heads up, he would be pissed. She picked up her phone and set it down again. Maybe she would wait until morning. No sense bothering him this late.

Homework was a bust for the night. Forget the paper; she would finish it before class. She shoved her books and laptop in her backpack, laid down on the couch, and turned on the TV. Hopefully, losing herself in some mindless show would help her stop thinking about her pain-in-the-ass ex- boyfriend.