Killian Read online

  The doorbell went off as Killian rose from the recliner and made his way over. Calm and peaceful was how I’d describe the last few hours. After Killian screwed me ten ways to Sunday, I got back to work, and Killian pulled a football game up on the television. It wasn’t my team, go Ravens, but that didn’t mean I didn’t watch my fair share while I worked.

  Killian pushed the button on the monitor, and Ollie appeared on the screen. Killian opened it, greeting him. Ollie stepped into the room.

  “Hey,” I called out.

  He lifted his chin, giving me that badass ‘hello’ without any words.

  “We need to talk,” Ollie said to Killian who nodded and started to lead the way out of the living room.

  Oh no, he didn’t.

  Pulling the blanket off of me, I hopped up and stated, “I want to know what’s going on.”

  “Business,” Killian tried, but in my gut, I knew whatever Ollie had to say had to do with me.

  “No, you don’t. It’s about me, and I want to know.”

  Killian said nothing, and neither did Ollie. So I did. “If you don’t do it out here, I’ll just listen at the door,” I threatened, knowing they were going to Killian’s office and would shut the door.

  “Ellie…” Killian started, but I shook my head.

  “No. Tell me.”

  “You’re not going to give this up, are you?”

  “Nope.” Hands on my hips, I glared at him, wanting my point to be taken.

  Killian nodded to Ollie.

  “Found out what’s on the flash drive.” Ollie’s eyes darted from me to Killian before he continued. “CI information.”

  “CI?” I asked.

  “Confidential Informants,” Ollie responded. “But there’s more. It’s a database of people in the Witness Protection Program.”

  “Fuck,” Killian barked out. “No wonder the flash is priceless.”

  Witness Protection. I’d watched “In Plain Sight” with the kickass blonde and her male partner. They protected people in the program. Some of the witnesses were innocent, simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then while others should have been locked up, they had made some deal with the government that landed them in protection.

  There were always battles and bad guys trying to get at the ones in protective custody. That was what ‘the boss’ wanted. He wanted to know who was on that flash to do only God knew what to them. From what I'd gone through with the man, those people wouldn’t end up in a good way.

  But we were running out of time.

  Not knowing where Khloe was, Killian and his guys couldn’t protect her. Bri was on twenty-four-hour watch, and Eli was even more on guard as usual. The bar had security as well.

  In other words, it was a clusterfuck that didn’t see any good ways of ending.

  There was no doubt in my mind this asshole would follow through with his threats. One thing was for sure, this would be over. And I could go back to my normal life at the bar. Right?

  “We need to start rounding up Viktor’s men one by one until we find him.”

  “Are you sure Khloe is alive?” Ollie asked, and I sucked in a deep breath. He looked at me, his eyes softening just a bit. “Sorry, but she’s been MIA during this whole damn thing. Her folks and sister have no idea where she is. Khloe’s place has been tossed and trashed. It obviously wasn’t there, or they wouldn’t have come after you.”

  “You really think he killed her?”

  Killian came to me and wrapped me in his arms. “This is why you don’t need to hear this shit.”

  I pulled away, looking at him. “I’d rather know than sit here and wonder what the hell is going on. Knowledge is power. And I need some of that. I just want this over with.”

  “You and everyone else,” Killian said, kissing the top of my head. “You gotta be ready for the possibility she’s gone because that’s the road we’re heading down.”

  “Right. So crazy guy wants this flash drive.” I pulled out of Killian’s arms, needing to think. He always meddled up my thoughts. “It’s not at her place. Have you looked through Bri’s place?” I asked Ollie.

  “Nothing. Clean.”

  “Shit.” My thumb went to my mouth, and I started chewing on my nail. “Khloe doesn’t have keys to my place, but she could’ve broken in and …”

  “You’re clean,” Killian said, making me stop in my tracks.

  “Huh?”

  “I checked your place and didn’t see anything.”

  My eyes narrowed on him, but I didn’t say a word. Of course, he'd gone through all of my stuff. He probably found my BOB in the bedside table as well. Whatever. He’d already seen all of me; this was just another thing.

  “Khloe didn’t just vanish. Even if she’s dead, her body has to be somewhere,” Killian said then looked at Ollie. “Grab the men. Talk to everyone you all know and get the word out that we want information on Khloe. Someone out there knows what’s going on. Find it.”

  “On it.”

  Ollie turned on his booted foot and marched out of the house.

  “When this is all over, I’m going to take a vacation. I’ve never gone on one.”

  “You haven’t?” Killian asked, sitting on the couch while I stood next to the recliner.

  My head shook. “Nope. I don’t waste money. Save every penny I can. But after this, I’m going to a beach for a week to lay in the sun and hear the waves crashing against the shore. One week of quiet.”

  “Am I invited on this vacation?”

  My brow quirked. “We’ll see.”

  At my answer, he jumped up from the couch and came at me. I tried darting away, but my ribs were sore, and I couldn’t move fast enough. Killian was gentle with me, but I couldn’t stop laughing. And laughter could hurt when you had cracked ribs.

  “Let’s get you settled,” he said, holding me in his arms. “I’m going out to hunt, and you need to stay in this house. In here, you’re safe. No one can get in, and you’ll know before they do that they’re out there if they come. They won’t get through the traps outside.”

  “You have traps?”

  “Fuck yeah. This is the one place I needed to be a safe haven. Someplace where whatever I did that day could be erased.”

  “What is it exactly that you do?”

  A slow smile crept his lips. “A little bit of everything.”

  “That isn’t an answer. You know Bri told me the town thinks you’re a commando or mercenary.”

  He chuckled. “Come here.” We moved to the couch, and Killian started to pull me to his lap, but I cringed a bit. Seeing that, he set me next to him. “There’s a lot of shit I do. Most of it I won’t be able to tell you about because it’s confidential. Not bein’ an asshole about it, but that’s a fact. I do what needs to be done to get the job accomplished. It could be anything, Ellie. You need to know this.”

  “You’re in danger a lot. Aren’t you?” I felt a twinge of fear settle in my gut.

  “Not gonna lie to you or sugarcoat this. Yeah. When we go after skips…”

  “Skips?”

  “Yeah, someone trying to skip out on bond. It gets messy. They don’t want to go to jail, and the people who hired us want their money back. We’re not dealing with the nicest of people.”

  “So you’re a bounty hunter.”

  He shrugged. “I’m a little bit of it all.”

  “That is so vague.”

  He grabbed my hands, holding them tight. “Yeah, it is, babe. I don’t want to freak you out.”

  “What did I say about knowledge being power?”

  His smirk was sexy as hell. “Yeah. I’ve had cases that involve kidnapping, search and rescue, skips, theft… You name it, I’ve been a part of it.”

  “Does Eli know all this?”

  “Yeah. We work with the cops when it suits us. But we don’t always go according to their laws. It’s a fine line that gets crossed all the time.”

  “Right…” Thoughts swirled in my head. Killian laying on the dirt
y floor, blood oozing out of him.

  “Talk to me.”

  I let out a huge gust of air. “I’m scared for you, and I don’t know how to wrap my head around the danger you’re in.”

  “You will. It takes time. There’s a risk in everything you do in life.”

  “Why did you start this?”

  “Life led me down this path. I worked for a company for a while, but I didn’t like the way they handled things. So I started my own company, finding the best of the best men and women. They have my back, and I have theirs.”

  “So, us. This is going to be my life? Locked up behind shutters … if we…” I trailed off, apprehensive to say it out loud. We hadn’t talked about all of this, but we needed to.

  “First. We are together. That’s not going to change. You know it. I know it. Second, this shit will be over soon. I’m not saying there’s a chance of something going down because that’s life, babe. But I’ve worked damn hard keeping this place safe, and that’s not going to change.”

  “You need to know, I’m not sure about this. It’s going way too fast for me.”

  “No, it’s not. You’re just making shit up to try to get away. Not happening.”

  “Am not,” I fired back.

  Then he proved me stupid by grabbing the back of my neck, pulling me to him, and kissing me until the only thing I could think of was Killian.

  16

  Ellie

  “This is ridiculous,” Bri grumbled, arms across her chest. Her brothers had places to be. Not giving Bri a second to breathe, they elected Ollie to bring her to Killian’s house. Bri had been avoiding Ollie for some reason, which was odd.

  She didn’t have a problem getting in a car with him when this whole ordeal started, and she didn’t know a thing about him. She shouldn’t now. There was something there.

  It was time the woman spilled.

  “What’s up with you and Ollie?”

  Bri’s body stilled, eyes looking anywhere but at me. Oh yes, my dear friend was hiding something.

  “Don’t ignore me. Talk, woman.”

  She huffed out a huge breath, falling to the couch with a grunt. It was couch time. This should be good.

  “You’re a pain in my ass,” she started out, and I chuckled. That was the thing with best friends—no matter how big of a pain they were, they were always by your side.

  “Stalling.”

  Her eyes narrowed on me. “Shut it!”

  I quirked my brow.

  “Fine. Nothing. Nothing is going on with Ollie.”

  “That’s a lie,” I called her out.

  “No, really. I thought there might be something, but it was all a figment of my imagination.” She stopped as I glared at her expectantly.

  “I’m going to put superglue in your shampoo,” she fired at me.

  Note to self: change shampoo.

  “Talk!” Her body jolted at my tone.

  “After Killian and Ollie rescued us from the party, I was a bit shaken up when we got back to my place. Ollie ended up laying next to me because I couldn’t sleep.”

  “You’ve been holding out on me.”

  “Nothing happened, Ellie. Swear it. While he was watching over me, we talked. He appeared to be a good guy…” She trailed off.

  “So he’s not a good guy?”

  She huffed out a breath. “I kissed him.”

  My eyes rounded in surprise. Not that she’d made a move, but she didn’t tell me. “And you didn’t think to tell me this piece of information?”

  “It was one time. After I went to my brothers, he called me, but I didn’t answer. Today was the first time I’d been forced to actually talk to him on the ride here.”

  “And you talked about…” I prompted her. Damn, it was like pulling teeth to get the story out of her.

  “It was weird. The part of the kiss that… Dammit, this is embarrassing.”

  I felt my heart squeeze for her.

  “He didn’t kiss me back. I caught him off guard, at least that’s what he said. But seriously, Ellie, what red-blooded male wouldn’t kiss a woman back? He had to think I was pathetic, or worse—didn’t like me in that way. It’s not like I’m disgusting or anything.”

  “You’re not. What else did Ollie say?”

  Her head turned, and she met my eyes. “I didn’t give him a chance. Hearing that I was a horrible kisser or I just didn’t do it for him was too much. He’s gorgeous and probably has a different woman every night. Whatever it was is now over. I need to move on.”

  “You like him.” I could tell in her tone. This one really hurt her, and I had half a mind to go and kick Ollie in the shins. Idiot!

  “It doesn’t matter. One humiliation per person is all I can take.”

  The door swung open, and Killian and Ollie stepped through. My eyes narrowed on Ollie, and he quirked his brow.

  “I’ve got my eyes on you,” I growled, and Killian laughed.

  “What did ya do to piss her off?” Killian asked Ollie who shrugged.

  Bri reached over and squeezed my hand in a silent ‘shut the fuck up’ gesture. Fine. For the moment I would. But he was a dick, and soon I’d tell him exactly what I thought.

  The bar was crazy tonight. So many people, so little time. Corey and Aiden had to be off. Therefore, I needed to get my ass in here. It felt good to have a bit of normalcy, even if only for a few hours.

  My life had been focused around this bar for so long, and after not being here for the past few days, it had been an adjustment to get back in the swing of things.

  But it was like riding a bike; it felt like home. All the commotion and friendships built here had made this into my family.

  It didn’t mean that Vane and Diesel weren’t watching my back because they were in my line of sight. Every time I moved, they moved with me.

  The argument with Killian to get here was rough.

  “You’re fucking kidding me,” Killian barked out, eyes narrowed and pissed as hell.

  “No. My girls have shit going on tonight, and I need to be there.”

  “Have Aiden do it.”

  I stared at him in puzzlement. “How do you know about Aiden? I mean, do you know her?”

  It might have come out a tad bit pissed off, but whatever.

  Killian smirked. “Not personally, no, but she can handle shit while you stay here.”

  “I’m not going to let my bar go to shit over this asshole, Killian. We have a few more days to find his stuff. Me being here tonight isn’t going to change that. You know that.”

  He tilted his head up to the ceiling. “You’re going no matter what I say.”

  “Damn right.”

  His gaze hit mine. “You’re a serious pain in my ass.”

  It was my turn to smile. Not only was I getting what I wanted, Killian was letting it go. I called that a score.

  I even agreed to have the guys come just to make him happy. Truth was, I wanted them here too. I wasn’t stupid by any stretch of the imagination.

  There was danger. I saw it, felt it, and lived it. No way in hell did I want to go back to that. For a group of men to beat the shit out of me, yeah, no telling what they’d have done if I had their stuff. I was just the damn go-between.

  Killian hadn’t really given me an update on anything, keeping me out of the loop; which I did not like. Whenever I asked him, which was a lot, he would say he was handling it. Yeah. That sounded great.

  While part of me knew it was to protect me, the other part wanted to kick his ass.

  A damn hard ass, but his ass still the same.

  Marybeth came up with an order at the side of the bar. As she read it out to me, I started mixing, leaving the theatrics to Carter. He could put on a hell of a show. Me, I could just sling drinks like no one’s business.

  Vane and Diesel were on either side of the bar, and everyone was giving them a wide berth. Considering they looked like they’d eat little children, it was the safest bet. It didn’t stop the barflies, though. In their tig
ht little mini-skirts and tits practically hanging out, they tried getting the guys attention.

  Once I saw Diesel smirk, but that was all.

  Vane’s gaze was very alert at every second. No way in hell would he allow someone to hurt me like before. He felt so horrible for it, and he beat himself up more than I ever could about it. Therefore, I let it go; not saying a word.

  He was a good guy under all those bad boy tattoos.

  Bri was supposed to meet me here. Her brother Brayden came and picked her up from Killian’s, saying she had to go home and get some things to sleep over at Killian’s tonight.

  It was nice having her around. Like old times. I felt safe with Killian and knew it was the best place for both of us.

  While I missed the bar, part of me wanted to go back to Killian’s. It was starting to feel way more comfortable than it should. It kept slipping my mind that Killian would more than likely move on after all of this was done. I’d tried preparing myself for it, but it didn’t work well. I just kept blocking it out of my mind.

  Finishing up the drinks and setting them in the waitress area, three more drinks were called out. I filled, took the money, and cashed them out. There wasn’t any downtime in the bar. It made the nights go crazy fast.

  My phone buzzed in my back pocket, and I pulled it out and looked at the display. It said ‘Bri Calling’.

  A flashback to the mess we had earlier flickered through my brain. Lord, please let this be that she’s on her way. It was déja vu, though, considering I was in the same spot as when I answered that time.

  I held up an index finger to the other two bartenders, getting a chin lift, and then made my way to the office.

  “Yeah,” I said into the phone, plunging my finger in my ear so I could kind of hear.

  “Ellie!” Bri screamed in a terrified way that freaked me the hell out. Chills ran down my spine. When she didn’t say more, my heart about jumped out of my chest.

  “Bri! Where are you?” I screamed into the phone as I shut the door to my office. It was so much quieter in here that it literally sounded like I was screaming.

  “Come out back. Now!” The phone line went dead. I dialed her number, and it went straight to voicemail. Taking off like a shot, I threw the door open and barreled through the crowd, waving at Vane and Diesel. Remember, I said I didn’t have a death wish? Yeah, these guys were needed for whatever was happening behind my bar.