Cillian set another stack of papers aside as his phone rang. He was almost pathetically grateful for the distraction. As much as he enjoyed his job, doing it for hours on end wasn’t his idea of a good time. While Aiden was off doing what was necessary to get information that would help them figure out what the hell was going on, Cillian needed to clear off as much work as he could so he would be able to focus solely on that project when it showed up.
But a break wouldn’t hurt him any now.
He grabbed his phone, grinning when he recognized Olivia’s number. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“Are you busy?”
He straightened at the tone of her voice. He’d heard her pissed and turned on and amused, but he’d never heard her sound so…vulnerable. Almost like she was scared. Every instinct he had demanded he go to her, but that was a damn problem since he didn’t know what was going on or where she was. Then find out, asshole. “What’s wrong?”
She laughed, the sound soft and broken. “I probably shouldn’t be calling you right now. When push comes to shove, we barely know each other.”
If he let her keep going, she was going to talk herself out of the original reason she’d called him. Cillian took a deep breath and made an effort to sound as calm and soothing as possible. “You can trust me.”
“That’s just it. I don’t have a choice right now. You know that saying ‘Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t’? In this case, it’s dead wrong.”
He pushed to his feet, adrenaline spiking through him. She was in trouble. She wouldn’t be talking this way if anything else was going on. “Where are you? I’m walking out the door right now.”
“Wait.” Olivia took a deep breath and, when she spoke again, she sounded more centered. “I’m sorry. I’m just rattled. That bastard always gets the best of me.”
The roaring in his ears didn’t abate one bit. Someone had threatened her—that much was clear. The realization didn’t do a damn thing for his blood pressure. “Tell me what you need and it’s yours.”
“Just like that? What if I said I needed papers for me and Hadley to have new identities and enough money to disappear forever?”
That was one thing he could do. He’d had connections before he took over as the moneyman for his family, and now he was the one who would coordinate that kind of thing if any of their people needed to disappear. The thought of sending Olivia off and never seeing her again left a bad taste in his mouth, but she’d called him for help. From everything he knew about her, the fact that she’d even picked up the phone was a goddamn miracle. “Then I’d make it happen.”
This wasn’t about him and his needs. This was about a woman in trouble—a woman he cared about. He’d never considered himself a guy with a hero complex, but apparently some of Teague’s white knight attitude had rubbed off on him, because he cared more about keeping Olivia safe than keeping her close to him. Though if there’s some other option…
No. He’d spent the majority of his life thinking only of himself and being a selfish little shit. Now wasn’t the time to backslide into that.
And she still hadn’t said a damn thing. He rubbed the scar on his shoulder, wondering why the hell it decided to start aching right now. “Is that what you need, sweetheart? It’ll take me a little time to put together, but I can make it happen.” He had money of his own, though he rarely touched it for anything other than his clothing. It would be nothing to withdraw the amount she’d need to land on her feet somewhere else. He didn’t have to think twice about it. The papers would be slightly more complicated, because he needed to keep that information out of O’Malley hands.
“You’re being for real, aren’t you? You’d just write me a check and let me go.”
She sounded so shocked, he almost smiled. “Well, I wouldn’t write you a check, since that shit can be tracked. But a duffel bag full of cash wouldn’t be a horrible idea.”
“I don’t even know what to think of you, Cillian O’Malley.”
Yeah, he didn’t know what to think of himself most days, either. He leaned on the edge of his desk. “I just need the names you want the papers under and I can get started.” He didn’t want to. Fuck, it hurt just thinking about it—a whole lot more than he would have expected. He’d do it, though. For her, he was starting to realize that he’d do damn near anything.
You’re a goddamn sucker.
Probably, but that was neither here nor there.
Something rustled over the line as Olivia shifted. “God, you have no idea how tempting that is. But I can’t take you up on it.”
It took him two seconds to process her words. She wasn’t going to disappear. Relief was quickly followed by a strange mix of fear and anger. “If it’s dangerous enough that you were thinking of running in the first place, then that’s what you need to do. Letting your pride get in the way of your safety is fucking stupid, Olivia, and you damn well know it.”
“I don’t need to owe another man, okay? I’ll find another way.”
Damn it, he was fucking this up. He closed his eyes and counted to ten, protective instincts he hadn’t even been aware of clamoring for him to do whatever it took to keep her safe. There had to be another way—something he could do that she wouldn’t see as charity. A thought blossomed, one guaranteed to get him into a shit-ton of trouble with his family. He leaned against his desk. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been there before. He’d deal with the fallout, and it would have the added bonus of keeping Olivia close. “I have another idea.”
A pause. “I’m listening.”
“My family has a house out in the country in Connecticut. It’s isolated and sits on twenty acres or some shit. It would be child’s play to set up a perimeter with a few men. No one could sneak in or out without us knowing, so it’s as safe as we could get without you pulling a disappearing act.”
“We?”
“Sweetheart, I’m going with you.” Another thing his family wouldn’t be happy about, though his taking a near-stranger there would overshadow pretty much everything else. The house in the country had come from his father’s side of the family, and it wasn’t used by anyone who wasn’t directly related to them. Growing up, it had been that one oasis in the middle of the politics and shady dealings that he hadn’t understood until he was older. Out there, even his father relaxed and became less of a hard-ass. He still wasn’t going to win any Dad of the Year awards, but he’d actually cracked a smile on occasion.
Another pause, longer this time. He could picture her thinking it over, but the truth was that if she was calling him for help, she was backed into a corner and didn’t have a damn thing going for her. She wouldn’t have picked up the phone if she had any other option. He had no illusions about that.
Finally, she said, “I don’t like this.”
“If you’re worried about owing me, I take payment in sexual favors.”
She laughed. It was nowhere near her infectious one he’d heard the other night, but it was a start. “You’re insufferable.”
“That’s what my mother tells me every day.” He hesitated. He didn’t want to push her, but it would take some maneuvering to get things in place if they were going to leave as quickly as possible. “What do you say?”
“You’re not even going to ask what happened that made me need to rabbit?”
“It’s irrelevant.” And, yeah, he was definitely going to ask, but getting her to safety was more important than knowing all the dirty details. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
“I really don’t know what to make of you most days.”
Hell, he didn’t know what to make of himself right now. He was still wrapping his mind around the fact that he’d offered to help her disappear without hesitation. So he waited while she thought it over.
A voice in the background sounded, a little girl. He couldn’t make out what she said, but the innocence made his heart skip a beat. It was one thing to know Olivia had a kid. It was entirely another to hear evidence of her daughter. She’s going to be bringing that kid with her, so you better get used to the idea real quick.
Her daughter—Hadley, that was her name—was part of the Olivia package. He’d already decided that he wanted her and everything that came with her, so he’d just have to deal with it.
She murmured something and then she was back. “Okay. I’ll go with you. Tell me what you need from me.”
He let go of the breath he hadn’t even been aware he was holding. She said yes. “I need your address and an hour. Pack a bag with everything you need for you and Hadley and I’ll text you when I’m outside.”
“An hour.” She cleared her throat. “Right. Okay. I can do that.”
God, she sounded so shaken that he wanted to reach through the phone and hug her. “It will be okay, sweetheart.”
“I…Yeah. You’re right. Cillian?”
He was already up and walking through the door of his office. “Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
His heart gave an alarming thump. “I’ll see you in an hour.” He hung up and immediately dialed the one person he knew he could talk to about this without it getting back to his father. The phone rang a few times before his brother picked up. Cillian took a deep breath. “Teague, I need a favor.”
His brother didn’t hesitate. “What do you need?”
Any of his other siblings would have demanded an explanation before offering—even Sloan. Maybe especially Sloan. Not Teague, though. He offered help without any strings attached. It’s a damn good thing that Callie has a ruthless streak, or they’d be in all sorts of trouble. He hurried up the stairs and through the door into his room. “Do you still have keys to the Connecticut house?” Cillian had lost them sometime over the years, and he’d never needed to replace them since he never went out there alone.
“Of course.”
“I’m going to swing by in a little bit and pick them up.” After he’d figured out how the hell he was going to swing protection without anyone noticing that half the muscle were gone. He almost asked Teague, but that wasn’t his brother’s problem. Besides, having Sheridan men out there would be yet one more thing guaranteed to make his father blow a gasket. Better to waylay Liam and figure it out from there.
“Okay.” The background sound muted, as if Teague had closed a door. “What kind of trouble are you in?”
“It’s not me, for once. It’s a…friend.”
“You know you’re going to catch hell for bringing this friend of yours out there.”
“I know.” She was worth it. She was more than worth it. “It’s only a temporary arrangement.”
“I’ll have the keys ready.”
Yeah, his brother’s white knight complex had definitely rubbed off on Cillian. He grabbed a bag from his closet and started tossing clothes into it. “Thanks. I really appreciate it. And if someone asks…”
“I know nothing.” He could almost hear Teague grinning. “Though if you change your mind about needing anything else, I’m only a phone call away. If you’re in trouble—”
Everyone was so damn eager to assume he was the one with the sky falling down around him. Yeah, he’d been there more than a few times over the years, but fuck. “I’ve got it covered. Thanks, man.”
“Understood.”
“By the way, congrats on the pending member of your family.”
“Thanks. We’re pretty excited.” The sheer joy in his brother’s voice staggered him. Was that what came from being a father? He’d never associated happiness with kids, because their father never had taken much interest in them until they hit high school and became creatures he could reason with.
It was something to think about.
“I’ll be there in a few.” He hung up and immediately made a second call. This one had to be handled more delicately, because Liam might be the most sympathetic of his father’s men, but he was still his father’s man. As expected, Liam answered after the first ring. “Neale.”
Here they went. “Liam, it’s Cillian. I’m heading out to the country house for a while and I need protection duty. Discreet protection duty.”
A pause. “Am I to assume your father doesn’t know about this?”
Well, hell, he cut right to the chase. “Ideally, I’d like him in the dark for as long as possible.”
“Fuck.” Liam sighed. “You kids don’t make my life easy, you know that?”
Considering Liam was Aiden’s age and hardly an old man, Cillian only had so much pity. “At least life is never boring.”
“That’s the damn truth. How much heat am I likely to take over this?”
“I’ll handle it. My idea, my order. You were just being a good employee.”
Liam muttered something too low to hear, but it didn’t sound complimentary. “I can spare five men.”
Five men to cover twenty acres. Cillian bit back a curse. He couldn’t have it both ways. He couldn’t keep this under the radar and still take a small army with him. He went back to his closet and reached up to grab the .45 he kept there. He didn’t normally carry it with him—too many things could go sideways in a conflict when someone pulled out a gun—but his father had made sure he knew how to use it. “That’ll have to work. Can you have them ready in twenty?”
“Jesus. Yeah, I’ll light a fire under their asses.” He paused. “Do I want to know what this is about?”
“The less you know the better. Have them meet me in the garage.”
“Will do.” Then he was gone, off to coordinate.
Cillian checked the clip in the pistol, and then dug through the dresser to find the holster Aiden had bought him years ago when he’d bitched about the gun ruining the line of his suits. Shoving one into the waistband of his slacks might look cool in the movies, but it wasn’t comfortable, and it was hardly safe. Cillian was rather fond of his ass—he didn’t like the idea of shooting off part of it. Not to mention the chafing was a bitch.
He shrugged into the holster, fastened it, and then slipped the gun into place. A few practice draws were all it took to have muscle memory kicking in. As long as he kept his jacket unbuttoned, he’d have a clear line. He wasn’t as good as the men they had on protection duty, but he wasn’t a slouch, either.
One last walk-through of his room, and he had everything packed that he needed. There wasn’t much need for three-piece suits in the country, so he’d unearthed a few pairs of jeans and Tshirts that he tended to forget he owned. He checked his watch. Right on time.
Down in the garage he found the five men Liam had promised him. Mark, Jacob, Grant, Rodger, and Finn. They were all solid guys, though he’d had the most experience with Mark. The man in question stepped forward. “Do you need an escort or do you want us to go straight there and get set up?”
The mantle of leadership wasn’t one that Cillian craved, but there was a first time for everything. He thought quickly. He didn’t know what danger there might be in the immediate future, but if Olivia wasn’t panicked enough to be running without a plan in place, then there was no reason to think that he wouldn’t be able to get her out of state on his own. “Go straight there. I’m leaving the city inside of an hour.”
Mark nodded. “Got it. We’ll watch for you.” He and the other four men slid into one of the Hummers they kept for special occasions. The trio of vehicles were outfitted as small tanks—the kind of thing a person only took if they were expecting the worst kind of trouble. Since Cillian didn’t know exactly what kind of trouble to expect, he appreciated Mark’s choice.
For himself, he chose a Beemer. It was fast when the situation called for it, but it was nondescript enough that it didn’t call attention to itself. Add in the customizations of bulletproof glass and a reinforced body and it was the best option. Cillian threw his bag into the backseat and headed out.
Technically, he was going by Teague’s for the key, but the truth was he wanted a few minutes to talk to his brother and get a backup plan in place. Olivia might not like the idea of disappearing, but if she was scared enough to consider it, he wanted her to have that option. Maybe she wouldn’t take money from him, but legitimate papers could go a long way. If Cillian was out of town, he wouldn’t be able to get that ball rolling…but his brother could.
He just had to get him to agree to it first.