“You aren’t the cause of this. If she wanted to kill you and you alone, she wouldn’t have done it like that. She knew Keira was there, and so she wanted to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.” Aiden shook his head. “This isn’t about me, and it’s not about you. It’s a political hit aimed at both the O’Malleys and Romanov.”
That was just it. Charlie didn’t know if she could live in a place—with a man—who got into bed with enemies to take out other enemies. She’d allowed herself to forget, to focus on the good that they were doing and ignore all the rest. To ignore the truth. The law had no place here, and she was mostly convinced thatshehad no place here. “I can’t do this.”
“Charlie…”
She dodged his reach. “Why do you even need me if you’re not going ahead with Romanov?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Romanov is no friend of mine.”
That didn’t quite answer her question. It struck her that one of the very things she’d admired about Aiden was what made him so dangerous. He’d do what was good for the family, no matter the cost. A couple weeks ago, that had meant removing Romanov. But the second that didn’t fit, he switched lanes without so much as a backward glance. She didn’t work like that. She couldn’t. “I needsome air.”
“We’re standing on the porch.”
She shot him a look. “You know what I mean.”
“It’s not safe.”
He kept saying that, which meant he was completely missing the point. She started for the stairs leading down the back of the town house. “Unless you plan to put me under house arrest, I’m leaving.” She held up a hand when he moved to follow her. “Space, Aiden. You just dropped a lot of information on me that you’ve been withholding, and I need some time to process. If you’re serious about making a go of this, you have to respect the fact that you can’t keep me on a leash.” It was a low blow, but she could feel panic boiling up inside her. If she didn’t get out of here now, she’d say or do something that they’d both regret. “Please.”
He stepped out of her way, and she felt his eyes on her as she descended the staircase. It was too much to ask for him not to send some protection detail to follow her, but as long as she could put some distance between herself and the O’Malley house, she didn’t care. Charlie picked up her pace, the comforting feeling of her shoes hitting the sidewalk allowing her to draw her first full breath since Aiden asked her to withhold judgment.
Withhold judgment. How am I supposed to do that?
He’d had more than one chance to tell her that things had changed. When Romanov contacted him initially. Before he went to meet the man who was supposed to be the enemy. Immediatelyafterthe meeting. He’d decided to keep his plans from her every single time, and then turn around and talk about dating for real. About marriage.
He was out of his goddamn mind if he thought she’d tolerate this kind of crap from a boyfriend, let alone ahusband.
No matter how much she cared about him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Charlie’s phone rang and she jumped, having taken it with her by reflex. She sighed when she recognized the number.As if my night could get any weirder.“It’s not a good time, Dad.” She had nothing to say to him at this point. Whatwasthere to say? He wouldn’t approve of her choices for the last two weeks—he’d made that explicitly clear—and he certainly wouldn’t understand how conflicted she felt about Aiden. To him, Aiden and his family were criminals who needed to be in prison. There was no nuance. No give.
Her life would have been much simpler if she could view them the same way. But it was too late for that. Charlie had already spent days on end up close and personal with Aiden and everyone in the house. She knew that he cared about the people around him, no matter how tightly he kept those feelings locked down. She knew that Cillian was a great dad and loved both his wife and stepdaughter to distraction. Sheknew that Keira had a bright future ahead of her if she could just get out of her own way.
She knew that the O’Malleys had a whole hell of a lot more loyalty than her father did.
“Listen very carefully.” He spoke low and intense.
Charlie stopped, straining to hear him. “What?”
“There’s a car coming. It will be at your side in fifteen seconds. Get in the backseat. I can get you to safety.”
Safety?
Just like that, it clicked into place. “We talked about this. I’m where I want to be.” She wasn’t sure if that was true anymore, but Aiden O’Malley hadn’t kidnapped her and locked her up in his house. She’d agreed to go. If she changed her mind and left, she was reasonably sure that he’d let her leave. He wouldn’t be happy, and she doubted it would be the last time she saw him, but he’d let her walk out the door.
“That bastard is using you to get to me.”
She turned to look down the street, eyeing the cars that approached. “Dad, Aiden could give two fucks about you.” He’d tracked down her real name, and Aiden wasn’t the type of man to leave anything to chance, so she had no illusions that he hadn’t put two and two together about who her father was. But he hadn’t said anything about it, and he hadn’t tried to press her for potential information…and she had bigger fish to fry in the form of Dmitri Romanov.
“You really went into that house knowing that he was using you.”
Anger rose, black and ugly. “At least he’s doing something about his problems instead of just ignoring them and pretending like they never existed. I want justice. Aiden is going to give it to me.”
“You are so goddamn naive, Charlotte. Someone within the O’Malley household is an informant. Their identity is classified information, but Aiden O’Malley picked you in order to get back at me for what he perceives as a betrayal.”
The fact that he was telling her this now meant that either the information was compromised…or he was so worried about her that he was doing whatever it took to get her to safety.
