Brendan (The Doherty Mafia Book 4) by Kasey Krane (summer reads TXT) 📗

I had no right to keep father and son apart.

When I rushed out of the room and searched the apartment, Brendan was nowhere to be found. He’d left already.

Then I searched the place for a note but there wasn’t one. Not even one with his phone number.

The realization hit me that I had no way of getting in contact with Brendan. I didn’t know his number, where he lived or worked. Even though we had spent the past few days together, I still knew fuck-all about him.

“Mommy?” Davey came out of his room, dragging his teddy bear with him.

“Good morning, honey,” I said, trying to sound chirpy. I wasn’t sure what to make of Brendan’s disappearance. It was possible he just needed to leave for work, or something came up.

Or he had done a runner, just like he did the first night we met.

Had I been a damned fool for trusting him?

“Where’s Brendan?” Davey asked. I could have slapped myself for involving my son. I should have kept him away.

The facts still remained unchanged. Davey didn’t have a father.

Maybe Davey could sense my bad mood. He was snappy with me from the moment he found out Brendan was gone.

I tried to make up an excuse about how he was busy and had to go to work, but Davey insisted that Brendan had told him they were going to spend the day together.

Brendan may or may not have said that. Davey was three and his imagination ran wild. I only wished I had the energy and the mental capacity to handle it right after I realized Brendan had abandoned us.

It was a struggle getting Davey to brush his teeth. We had a battle while I tried to get him dressed. He said he didn’t want any of the breakfast options I offered him. He refused to leave the kitchen and walk out of the apartment with me.

I was already running late for my shift at the diner and if Davey delayed me any more, I was sure to lose the job. Jim was a fair boss, but he was also looking for excuses to drop the extra employees he couldn’t afford.

“Davey, please! Just this once, will you just listen to me and do what you’re told?” I yelled.

I never yelled at him, and he wasn’t used to this reaction from me. I saw his face turn red and then he burst into tears. I felt like I was close to tears too. It would have been a whole lot comforting if I was able to cry with him. But I didn’t have that luxury. I had to drop him off at kindergarten, and I had to get to work.

So I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the apartment.

“We can talk about it after school, Davey, but right now, I really need you to cooperate with me.”

He wasn’t listening to a word I said. He screeched and threw a fuss as we went down the stairs together. My head felt like it was about to burst. I wished I could just go hide somewhere.

We stepped out of the building just as a big black van pulled up in front of us. I barely even noticed it because of how focused I was on collecting myself. Davey walked ahead of me, still groaning and complaining about how he didn’t want to go to kindergarten.

I didn’t see the men jump out of the van at first. Two men, dressed in black. They came into my line of vision when they blocked Davey’s path. I was confused at first. The wires in my brain felt crossed. They were malfunctioning.

Then they grabbed my son’s arms and I cried out, lunging forward. They dragged Davey into the van while he kicked and screamed. I ran after them but they were already sliding the door shut.

The van screeched to a start and zoomed past me while I threw myself into traffic. I couldn’t hear anything, not even my own voice as I screamed and screamed. Cars honked at me, people shouted. I saw the van swerve in traffic, narrowly missing a few cars in its path.

“No! Davey! No!” I cried, collapsing to my knees.

My son was gone. Someone had taken him and I didn’t know where, or why. This was every mother’s worst nightmare and it was actually happening to me.

Twenty-Four

Brendan

I knocked on Tristian’s door furiously. When he opened he looked like he’d just woken up.

“What the fuck are you doing? More importantly, what the fuck are you doing here?” he groaned. My brother wasn’t an early riser.

I shoved past him into the apartment.

I’d been riding my bike around the city for hours since I left Rosalie’s apartment. I hadn’t been able to make peace with what I figured out. Nothing made sense anymore.

I had unknowingly been father to a boy for the past three years. It sounded like a joke to my ears.

“Something going on with you?” Tristian asked as he started to make coffee.

I hadn’t said a word since I came in. Just been pacing, looking wildly around like I saw ghosts.

“I have a son,” I blurted.

My brother turned to me, stopping midway with a big spoon of ground coffee in his hand.

“What did you just say?”

“What you heard. I have a kid.”

“And I’m Princess fuckin’ Diana,” he said with a laugh, turning away.

I strode up to him, stopping right up close behind him, forcing him to look at me again.

“I know it sounds like a fuckin’ joke, but it’s not. I have a kid who is three years old. That is the reason she pushed me away.”

“She? Who? What are you talking about?”

“Rosalie.”

“The chick from the bar? The one you’ve been running round in circles chasing after?”

We glared at each other while Tristian tried to connect the dots.

“You know how it works, right? Knocking up a chick. Pregnancy. All that. You met her like three days ago.”

I wanted to punch him in the face for