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

When the rest of the Dohertys found out that I had a son who had been kidnapped by Aldo Baron, they all wanted to be there to do their part.

Rosalie was lying on the couch, curled up and softly sobbing when the rest of my clan stormed her apartment. She sat up with a jerk, surprised to see so many of us together.

But there was no time for introductions or niceties.

Aidan and Tristian were the only ones to even acknowledge her presence there, while the others just jumped on the problem at hand.

“We have men on the streets, trying to collect information on where Aldo could be holing up with the kid,” Killian said.

“I’m collating a list of all his local warehouses and holding cells,” Nolan added. “We’ll check every one of them.”

“He wouldn’t have taken him to one of his usual sites of business. Besides, we’ve already done rounds of those when we were searching for him,” I said.

Over Tristian’s shoulder, I saw Rosalie still on the couch. She looked shell-shocked. She wasn’t expecting to be surrounded by my brothers, and I was sure we probably looked intimidating to her when we were gathered together like that. We looked intimidating to everyone.

“But if we have no other leads on where to start looking, we’ll have to hit up the warehouses and storage facilities,” Aidan said.

I clenched my jaws and nodded.

“And we will burn them down,” I growled.

My brothers stared at me. They knew what the implication of those actions would be—yeah, we had been at war with the Barons for a few months now, but burning down all their holding cells would be a direct act of violence. It would give the Barons the excuse they needed to retaliate. But kidnapping an innocent child was worse in my books.

Once we started burning each other down, there would be no stopping the extent each family would go to win. There was only one way to end something like that once it snowballed—total and complete annihilation.

“I don’t give a shit what happens after this. I’m going to do everything it takes to bring Davey back. I’m not letting him go,” I continued.

Tristian slapped a hand on my shoulder.

“Neither are we, brother. We just wanted to make sure we are all on the same page.”

“One hour. That is how long those motherfuckers have to release Davey back to us. If they don’t do it in that time, I’m going to start burning down everything they own.” I could feel the blood rushing into my ears. My veins felt like they were about to burst.

I would burn down this whole city if I had to in search of my son.

Rosalie offered everyone coffee while we all waited together to hear from the Barons. None of us were able to get a hold of Aldo directly either, so we had no other choice but to wait for him to reach out to us.

I had a feeling he wasn’t going to.

He was tripping on the power and control he had over us now by kidnapping Davey. He was probably having us watched right then too, enjoying the way we were losing our shit.

I stood at the window, keeping an eye on the street. My brothers were spread around the living room, discussing their versions of the game plan. I didn’t need to discuss any of it. I knew what I would do—whatever it took to bring Davey back in one piece.

I didn’t notice Rosalie. She may have been standing beside me at the window for several minutes.

“It sounds dangerous, what you’re about to do,” she said in a quiet whispery voice.

“It is going to be what it’s going to be,” I replied.

We turned to face each other.

I was in love with her. I could admit it to myself now—there was no point denying it. I loved her from the first moment I met her, before I even knew she was the mother of my kid. I had never been this obsessed with anyone before.

But now I didn’t know if I could get past what she had done. What she had kept from me. The danger she had put our son in.

It was my fault too. I should have sensed something was fishy when she told me about her stalker the previous night. I should have known Aldo had her followed and watched. I never should have left Davey’s side.

“I just…want you to be safe. I want you both to be safe,” she murmured.

Rosalie’s eyes were so watery and so blue. She looked angelic and delicate when she cried. Her nose and cheeks were all flushed pink and if the circumstances were different, I would have kissed her right then.

“Davey is going to be safe. I’m going to make sure of it. No matter what it takes, he is coming back to you,” I said.

She leaned towards me and planted a soft kiss on my cheek.

“That’s just for good luck. I don't expect anything in return. Davey is…he is very lucky to have you and your family to look after him,” she said.

She had no idea what I did, what my family was involved in. Maybe she wouldn’t consider Davey to be that lucky once she found out, would she? What if she didn’t want him involved in the mafia? It was a dangerous world. She wouldn’t be wrong to want to stay away.

But I couldn’t think about that now. The hour was almost up and it was time to put my next plan into action.

We drove in our cars to the first warehouse on our list. The plan was to hit each and every one of them in the next few hours. Killian had already called for backup and more of our men were going to meet us at the location.

Tristian was in the passenger seat while I drove, gripping the steering wheel till my knuckles turned white.

“We’re going to find the kid,” he said. Probably in a bid