Page 35 of The Mobster’s Daughter (Massachusetts Mafia #2)

Two days later, the doctor released him from the hospital, even though Grady was covered in bruises from not only the events at the strip club but those at Chertok’s house.

His side ached with every step, the medication made him nauseous, and he was dizzy.

He’d never been much for pills; liquor was his preferred painkiller.

As soon as he got home, he planned on drinking an entire bottle o f scotch.

Conor picked him up. For a split second, he wondered if it would be Caitlin. Not that she’d want to see him after what happened. He doubted she’d ever want to see him again. He bit his tongue to keep from asking wher e she was.

All the way to the airport, Conor cracked jokes, giving Grady a hard time, asking him if he’d gone soft after being cooped up in a hospital bed for two days. He took it in stride, though every laugh pulled at the stitches in his side.

The O’Reilly’s private jet sat on the tarmac, waiting to take him home. He couldn’t wait to crawl into his own bed and sleep f or a week.

Sean and Declan were waiting for him when he walked through the plane’s open door. His boss pulled him into a tight bear hug, holding him until Grady grunte d in pain.

“Sorry,” Sean mumbled. He took a step back as he looked Grady up and down. “How are you?”

“Still standing,” h e replied.

“Thank God.” Sean sat down and gestured for him to do the same.

“You look like hell,” Declan interjected as Grady eased into an open seat.

“Feel like it, too, ” he said.

Sean poured four glasses of Glen Livet scotch and passed them around. “You know, that’s two members of the O’Reilly family you’ve saved. I owe yo u a debt.”

Grady shook his head. “It’s been repaid a thousand ti mes over.”

“No. This was … above and beyond the call of duty. Not only did you keep my daughter safe from harm, but you took a bullet for her. I don’t know how to thank you for what you did. For Caitlin. It’s not something I’m going t o forget.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” Grady murmured. “I did it for her.”

“I know,” his bos s replied.

Grady stiffened, and his gaze locked with Sean’s. This could go so many ways—Sean could kill him, banish him from the family, demote him, or a million other things. He had no way of knowing how the man would react to the knowledge that his best friend had sex with his daughter.

“And?”

Sean downed the liquor in his glass. His expression didn’t change, but there was a flicker of something in his eyes that Grady couldn’t make out. “We’ll discuss it later.”

After nearly a minute of the two men staring at each other, Declan cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence stretching out between them. “How long are you going to be down?” he asked.

“As long as he needs,” Sean said.

“There’s still work to do,” Declan continued. “Chertok is gone, but the fallout from what he did will be around for a while. The Bratva is watching and waiting to see how this p lays out.”

“Speaking of the Bratva,” Grady interjected. “I had to, uh, make certain promises to Dmitry Sokolov so he would tell us where Che rtok was.”

Sean’s fists clenched. “What promises?”

“One that is yet to be determined,” he explained. “I don’t know what he wants, but I’m sure it won’t be good.”

“Shit,” Declan muttered.

His boss rubbed the center of his forehead. “We’ll deal with it when it happens. For now, I’m just grateful Caitlin is safe.”

Grady had another question. “What about Angus? Have we dealt with that situa tion yet?”

Sean smiled. “I thought you might want to take car e of him.”

“God, yes.” Grady chuckled. “Can I take care of it like I want to?”

Sean leaned forward. “As long as you make that little shit suffer, yes, you can do whatever the hell you want.”

“Good.” He shifted uneasily in his seat. The pain had escalated from a slight annoyance to a deep ache in his side. “By the way, where is Caitlin?”

“At home,” Sean replied. “She needs time to recover after everything she’s been through. So do you. Everything else can wait until you are back on your feet. Including Ang us Hayes.”

The pilot came on and asked everyone to fasten their seatbelts. Grady rested his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes as the plane lifted int o the air.

Al most home.

He coul dn’t wait.

When they rose from their seats to disembark, Sean grabbed Grady’s arm, leaned close, and whispered, “You’re riding with me.”

Grady nodded and mumbled, “Su re, boss.”

It wasn’t until they were in Sean’s limo, seated across from each other, that Grady’s nerves got the best of him.

His hands shook, and his heart thumped wildly in his chest. This man was his best friend, had been since they were kids.

Their lives were inexplicably intertwined, in ways most people couldn ’t fathom.

“Tell me about your relationship with my daughter.”

Grady sighed. “Are you sure you want to h ear this?”

Sean scowled. “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.”

“Okay.” He cleared his throat and picked at the seam of his jeans. He couldn’t look his friend in the eye. “I, uh, well … I slept with her.”

Sean was silent, his only reaction a tightening of his fists.

“I don’t know how it happened,” Grady continued. “One minute she’s fucking annoying the shit out of me, the next I can’t keep my hands off her.” He snapped his mouth shut. Not what Sean wanted to hear. He tri ed again.

“Caitlin drives me out of my fucking mind, but that’s part of her appeal. She challenges me, makes me rethink everything about myself. She … when I’m with her, I can believe I’m not the bad guy I always thoug ht I was.”

Sean sighed. “You are not a bad guy.”

Grady snorted. “You don’t know w hat I am.”

Sean tapped his fingers on his legs. “Tell me ab out Oona.”

“What?”

His friend glared at him. “You heard me. Oona. Your former girlfriend. I want t he truth.”

“I don’t know wha t you’re—”

“Yes, you do. And it’s time you got it off yo ur chest.”

Grady exhaled, staring at the ceiling for almost a minute before he spoke. “Oona helped put the bomb in the cafe.”

Sean was silent, waiting for him to continue.

“She … she was a set-up. A plant.”

“The Muldoons?” S ean asked.

Grady nodded. “Oona got comfy with me so she could learn your patterns, schedule, shit like that. Donovan Muldoon wanted to take you out, and he used her to do it. She told him we were supposed to be at the cafe that day. They planted the bomb. When she went to the bathroom, she called and gave them the go-ahead to detonate it.” He swallowed.

“When it didn’t kill you, her job was to shoot you. I got in the way.”

Sean’s hands fisted in his lap. “What did Dante have to do with the bombing?”

“Nothing. He took the blame when he didn’t have to because I let Oona run.”

“Dante’s a good friend,” Sean said.

“Yeah, he is.” He cleared his throat. “Two years after the attack at Foley’s, Oona showed up on my doorstep. She told me she still loved me, and she wanted us to disappear together.”

“Obviously, yo u didn’t.”

Grady shrugged. “O bviously.”

Sean shifted in his seat and straightened his pant leg. “What happened?”

He shrugged. “She’s gone and she won’t come around again. Do you understand what I’m tryin g to say?”

“I do.” Sean cleared his throat. “Does Caitlin know ab out Oona?”

“No.”

His boss looked out the car window and rubbed his chin. Grady knew that look. The contemplation, the concentration, all of it. He brace d himself.

“I don’t like it,” Sean sneered, his voice low, menacing. “She’s twenty-one years younger than you.”

“I know. That’s one reason I ended things with her.”

“What?”

“I told her it won’t work,” Grady continued.

Sean raised an eyebrow. “How did she take it?”

“How do you think she took it?”

“If I know my daughter, she was pissed. And she made sure you knew it.”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Yeah, she did.”

Sean chuckled low in the back of his throat. “That’s my girl.”

Grady laughed, too. “She is definitely your daughter. Tough as fucking nails. She’s strong, resilient, intelligent. One in a million.”

His boss leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “You care about her, d on’t you?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?” he asked.

Sean grinned. “Ye ah, I do.”

He took a deep breath. “I could fall in love with her. She … she makes me whole. It’s been a long time since somebody made getting out of bed in the morning worthwhile.” Grady closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I’ll be fine.”

“Grady?”

He glowered at his friend. “I said I’ll be fine.”

Sean put his hands up and shrugged. “Okay, okay. But if you want to talk, I’m here.”

A loud guffaw burst out of him. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happ en. Ever.”