I shot out of my chair and stalked close until my chest was pressed against the barrel of the gun.

“Since when do you care so much?” I growled from deep within the very chest that was seconds—or one wrong word—from being blown away.

I assumed he could only be speaking of Sheldon. The girl who I gave my heart to all those years ago. She had finally decided to let me go after I stomped all over hers for the last time.

“Since I had to pick up after you. You have no idea what you left behind, but you’re about to find out.”

The threat hung in the air between us as we watched each other in silence, letting our eyes say what our mouths wouldn’t. Keiran had never been one to hold back so for him to do so now must have meant this was big.

I simply concentrated on trying not to care. Curiosity killed the cat, after all.

“What am I supposed to do about this mess? I have a client who will be here in less than an hour.” I changed the subject to avoid Keiran getting the look in his eyes again whenever his mood turned deadly. Despite having seen a dead body before, I still freaked out a little inside at the sight of the corpses lying at our feet. Keiran, however, barely batted an eyelash.

“We need to dump the bodies.”

“How? It’s broad fucking daylight.” Fortunately, nothing else was around due to the economy and the high price of office space.

“First, call and cancel all your appointments and lock this place down,” he ordered. “I’ll take the bodies to the back.”

* * * * *

It took the rest of the day to dispose of the bodies and clean up the shop. We waited for the cover of darkness before making our move. I thanked my lucky stars I had skipped breakfast that morning, because whatever I’d have eaten would have been lost when it was time to dump the bodies. Or rather, the body parts.

“You can go now,” I huffed when he continued to hang around after we returned to my apartment. Neither one of us had spoken since dumping the four men.

“You know that’s not going to happen.” He looked around the apartment with a scowl on his face. I was never really here outside of sleeping and showering so the place was clean. The upscale design was certainly nothing to frown on.

“Do you have a problem with my place?” I lowered to sit on the black leather couch where I kept a nine hidden under the cushions.

“Doesn’t matter. Are you ready to say goodbye to it?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I whipped the gun from under the cushion. Keiran looked from me to the gun without a hint of fear as if he had anticipated my move. The smirk on his face made me want to shoot first and ask questions later.

The problem was he actually believed I wouldn’t shoot.

“That was a bitch move. You’re better than that. I taught you better than that.”

“All you managed to teach me was how to get through life by fucking people over and using their weaknesses against them. Yeah, you taught me so much.”

“We were never good people, Keenan. What did you expect? We were doomed from the moment we were born. I may have been a killer, but at least I’m not a fucking coward.”

“So not wanting to turn out more like you makes me a coward?”

“No.” He stalked closer as he spoke, maybe hoping to intimidate me, but I didn’t back down as expected. After all, it was he who had taught me how to make people fear me rather than me to fear anyone. “Running away from your responsibilities makes you a coward. You left them behind and didn’t look back.”

“Them?”

I was sure confusion was written all over my expression, but the loud vibration of his phone distracted him.

Deep, angry lines formed along his forehand as he stared down at his phone. He was so engrossed in his phone that he completely forgot about the gun pointed at his head.

When the infamous vein appeared on his forehead, I finally lowered my arm. He angrily punched at the screen before bringing the phone to his ear.

“Keiran!” I could hear what sounded like Lake scream over the phone.

“What’s going on?” All that could be heard over the line was the sound of Lake crying. She was saying something, but I could barely understand her and when Keiran cursed into the phone, I knew his patience had run out.

“Fuck, baby. Stop crying and tell me who hurt you.”

“Not me,” I heard her groan. “It’s Sheldon.”

My heart rate tripled and then quadrupled its pace when I heard Sheldon’s name. She was hurt?

I didn’t realize my fist was balled and my nails were digging deep into my skin until I felt the first drop of blood.

I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation, and by the time I cleared the murderous rage clogging my senses, Keiran had ended the call.

“What’s wrong with Sheldon?”

“Keenan…”

“Fucking tell me or I really will kill you.”

The gun shook in my hand as I watched him take a deep breath and scrub his hand down his face in a clear sign of agitation. “She’s been shot. She—”

My fist connected with his face before I even realized I had moved.

CHAPTER SIX

SHELDON

“YOU DIDN’T HAVE to call him.”

My voice trembled with the many emotions I was currently feeling. The physical pain was nothing compared to the feeling of being completely helpless.

“Are you kidding me? Do you know how much shit he is going to give me for waiting as long as I did? You were shot in the head and unconscious for almost twenty-four hours. He’s going to kill me!”

“You and I both know Keiran is too selfish to deprive himself of you, and I wasn’t shot in the head. It grazed me.”

“Sheldon, Kennedy is missing. We need to tell him. The sooner, the better.”

“She’s right, honey. If anyone knows who was behind her kidnapping, it would be him,” John spoke up. He only just arrived a few hours ago. Lake had to call him when she couldn’t get in touch with Keiran. Fortunately, I regained consciousness in time to stop—no beg—her from calling him before I’d spoken with the police.

We all knew what would happen when Keiran found out Kennedy was gone. He just might kill me along with the bastards who took her.

If she was ever found.

“Oh, God.” Sobs forced their way through me as I thought of the monsters that had stolen Keiran when he was an infant. Lake rushed over and started rubbing my back. I knew she was just as scared as I was though she was better at hiding it.

I and everyone else were deadly sure the kidnapping was related to Keiran’s past somehow. Who else would attempt a random, careless kidnapping in broad daylight unless there was something big to gain?

Mitch.

It had to be him. He’d done it once with his own son. There was no reason to believe he wouldn’t do it to Kennedy. He’d once again managed to escape and stay hidden for four long years.

Keiran never stopped searching even though we all believed he was likely dead after owing so much debt with no way to pay.

Panic ensued as my imagination ran rampant with thoughts of where my baby might be and if she was okay or suffering for reasons that she couldn’t understand.

Every second she was gone I died a little more inside.

And to make matters worse, the father of my child could be returning with Keiran, and he had no idea she even existed. I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer that Keiran hadn’t caught up with him before the phone call. It might have been selfish, but I would do anything to protect my child.

“Are you sure you told the police everything you knew?” Lake asked for the umpteenth time.

“I’m sure. It all happened so fast so there wasn’t much to remember.” But what I could remember, very vividly, was the screams of my daughter as she was being forced away from me.