Riley: #4 (Kelly Clan) Read online

  He nodded, and she turned back to the waiter.

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  Riley watched Anna from across the room, her sexy red dress showing off all her delicious curves. It was driving him insane. He knew she wasn’t wearing a bra, as he’d watched her put on the outfit earlier.

  He also knew exactly how he planned on taking it off and the many things he planned on doing to her once he did. If only he could get her to follow him out onto the veranda.

  He frowned when Conor jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow.

  “Would you stop undressing your woman with your eyes?” he said. “It’s pissing me off.”

  Riley frowned. Why did Conor even care?

  “It’s pissing me off, too,” he said. “I’ve tried to convince Anna to step outside with me, but she keeps refusing.”

  Conor nearly choked on the drink he was nursing. “Fucker,” he said. “If I’m not getting any, you aren’t either. This gala shit meant our honeymoon had to be short.”

  Riley raised a brow. “Sorry, I don’t go for that solidarity bullshit. Every man for himself.”

  A waiter stopped over in front of them and smiled as he offered them two red drinks.

  Riley scanned the crowd. The red dress was gone from his sight, much to his frustration and disappointment.

  Conor eyed the drinks. “Did you ask for these, Riley?”

  He shook his head.

  “A gentleman had these sent over for you,” the young waiter said.

  Riley raised a brow at the red drinks on the tray. Conor frowned as he picked one up.

  “What are they?” he asked.

  The waiter smiled. “Red Russians, sir.”

  Riley snapped his attention over to Conor.

  “Get Claire,” Riley said quickly. “I’ll find Anna. Go find Finn. Don’t call. We can’t risk anyone overhearing the conversation.”

  Conor grabbed a hold of his arm before he charged into the crowd.

  “You’re right, but also remember when you find her to keep things quiet,” Conor said to him. “We’re already being watched by the police. Any rough activities are going to make us look guiltier. That’s definitely not going to help Claire’s position on the City Council.”

  Riley nodded. Keeping things quiet and under the radar was something he knew how to do.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Anna followed the waiter back through the kitchen. The wait staff hurried back and forth as the catering crew quickly sent out more appetizers. At least that part of the event was still going well.

  But she couldn’t have someone getting sick in the back. If everyone that came ended up with some sort of illness, they would never be able to live it down, and it’d destroy Claire’s reputation with potential donors and contacts.

  They traveled deeper into the hotel stock rooms, passing tons of rooms with locked doors and shelves of food for when the dining hall was fully functional. She followed the waiter even farther back into the storage shelves and then even farther until they reached a small area near the back of the hotel.

  Unease seeped into her bones. Something seemed off about the situation, and she started to doubt if anyone that sick would walk such a long distance.

  She winced and wondered if illness wasn’t to blame, but maybe on the job drug use. Someone ODing at the gala would be even worse than someone spreading a little food poisoning.

  Anna stopped just outside the room. “Are you sure this is where they are? I mean we’re on the other side of the hotel.”

  “Inside,” the man barked, his tone commanding.

  She turned to frown at him but caught the hint of a tattoo on the side of his neck. Anna shook her head. It couldn’t be what she thought.

  It was just a tattoo. It had to be. Tons of people had tattoos these days.

  “Just tell them to go home,” she said. Her voice shook as she spoke. “I’ll make sure they get paid for the entire night if that’s what they are worried about.”

  The man stepped up to her. His rough hand grabbed her by the arm.

  Anna cried out as he twisted it and forced her to step inside the room. She wanted to be surprised to see three men sitting inside, but her fears had been correct. The Russians had found them.

  Her gaze first landed on the scary man to the left. A large cross was tattooed on the side of his neck, and he had scars all over his face. Sitting next to him was a more clean-cut man. He was middle-aged with gold chains around his neck. Behind him sat a younger man with a gun held out to his side. They all looked vaguely bored.

  Anna turned to run, but the waiter behind her shoved her farther into the room. She stumbled to the floor and cried out as her knees scraped the concrete.

  The two older men started speaking in Russian and gesticulating. Though she couldn’t be sure what they were saying, it seemed like they were arguing about something.

  Whatever they were discussing, the fact that they were speaking in Russian confirmed her fears about who she was dealing with.

  The man with the chains stood over her now. He reached out a hand and ran it over her battered knees. The gesture made her stomach roll as he continued to stroke her. Anna tried to scoot away from him but stopped when he grabbed ahold of her thigh in a vice-like grip.

  “That is no way to treat a lady,” he said with a smile to the other man, his voice thick with his Russian accent. “A good man treats a woman well.”

  “My boyfriend’s here,” she said. “I’m betting you already know who he is and who he works for.”

  The men laughed, and Anna shivered at the sound. Her stomach lurched at their confidence. Of course they knew that her boyfriend was there. It was all a trap.

  “You make too easy,” the other man said, his accent even thicker than the first. His cross tattoo stood out against his neck. “You on the news showing all your moves with your fighting in apartment.”

  Fucking Jason. All he’d managed to do was expose her to the Russians. All this time they had stayed quiet, but he brought them out. She hoped after his trial that he rotted in prison

  “Maybe you should be with a real man,” the well-dressed man said. “Not an Irish bitch whore.” He ran a hand over her cheek, but she could see his eyes were directed down her dress.

  Anna spit in his face. For a moment he seemed shocked that she’d done it. She wasn’t really sure where it came from, but she had to do something or this bastard was going to try for more.

  After all the crap with Jason, she didn’t care who was messing with her. She was tired of being a victim.

  The back of his hand cracked hard across her face, and she tasted blood in her mouth.

  She spit on him again and smiled when her blood splattered across his face.

  “Fuck you,” she said.

  He clucked his tongue. “Such a mouth. You’re not using it right. Maybe I have to train you how to be a lady.” He laughed this time and wiped the blood off his face. “I will teach you.”

  Tears pooled in her eyes. Riley would come. She knew he would come for her. He would come and save her from these men. She just knew it.

  Riley moved as quickly as he could through the crowd of people, trying to keep as low a profile as he possibly could without allowing the Russians to gain too much of a lead on them. She had to be somewhere in the back. It was the only place that made sense, and if he were going to perform a hit, it’s where he’d go.

  If they killed her some place with too many witnesses, it’d only be a matter of time before the police got someone to spill, and the local cops would love to drop the full weight of the law on the invading Russians almost as much as the Kellys wanted them taken out.

  Riley pressed between the double doors leading into the kitchen and glanced around. Several of the wait staff avoided him, but from their behavior and appearance, none seemed to be connected with the Russians, which was a good sign.

  He slowly crept through the halls, going deeper and deeper into the bowels of the hotel, his guns now ou
t.

  He paused at the sound of someone’s cry out off down the hall. He growled.

  The sound of Anna’s cry pierced through him, but he had to keep his wits about him. More than anything he wanted to make sure he got Anna out of there safely, and the best way he could do that was by making sure he was the trained killer he knew how to be.

  The Russians had picked the wrong woman to fuck with.

  He turned the corner and found a waiter standing outside a door. Or at least a man dressed as a waiter. The gun in his hand indicated otherwise.

  He turned and pointed his gun at Riley.

  Riley raised his own guns.

  “We have your woman,” the man said. Riley kept his guns trained on the man and made his way over to the door. Inside he spotted Boris and Stefano waiting for him. They were flanked by another thug packing heat.

  Anger coursed through him as he found Anna sitting on the floor. Her cheek already was turning purple, and blood pooled on her lip.

  “You came,” she whispered.

  Boris glared at him from the other side of the room. Riley could see the hatred from the other man and knew he hadn’t forgotten Riley’s role in the death of his cousin.

  Riley didn’t give a shit. The Russians shouldn’t have fucked with them. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

  Stefano was the first to speak. “I think you and my brother have a beef,” he said. He chuckled to himself as if this conversation was hilarious. “I think sometime you two will have to… work things out. Be big friends.” He laughed.

  Boris gave a wide smile as he patted the piece at his side.

  Riley raised a brow. One of his guns remained pointed directly at Boris. “Whenever you’d like, princess.”

  Stefano waved his hand, indicating that he didn’t really care about their fight.

  “I think maybe it’s in your interest to not shoot,” he said. “Having a gunfight at such a big party might cause people to get ideas. Bad ideas. People talk.” He tapped his forehead.

  Riley grunted. It was clear that Stefano was actually the brains of the family. He seemed to understand the social complications of getting into a gunfight at a party like this, that it would benefit neither of them to get popped by the police.

  “Besides,” the man said, nodding toward Anna. “We wouldn’t want your pretty lady friend to be hurt.”

  Riley didn’t dare look at Anna. If he did, it would take his mind off the situation, and he needed to have all his focus. He was outnumbered, and if he dropped his guard, he’d be dead in seconds.

  Stefano stood from the seat he had been in and made his way over to Anna. He stared directly at Riley as he did so.

  “I have a message for your leader,” Stefano said. “This town. This is my town now. He has a choice. Blood or no blood.”

  The message was clear. Finn would either need to step down and let Stefano seize control the area, or he would need to be ready for war. Riley knew which one Finn would go for.

  There was no way in hell he’d give his city to these murderous Russian gangsters, even if it meant the Kellys couldn’t go straight for years.

  Boris stepped forward when Stefano waved for him.

  “Maybe we need to drive the message home,” Boris said. His eyes went to Anna who sat on the floor. “I think, you know, actions more important than words.”

  Riley step forward but stopped when the waiter behind him grabbed ahold of his arm.

  “Don’t you fucking touch her,” Riley said.

  Boris gave a harsh laugh. “I don’t think you give orders here, bitch whore.”

  The Russian stopped when Stefano placed a hand against his chest. He turned to the thug standing behind him and nodded to Anna. The thug walked over and yanked her to her feet.

  “I will fucking kill you,” Riley said to the man. The thug laughed and pulled Anna away as she tried to struggle against him.

  “Let me go,” she shouted.

  “Make sure he’s still alive to give message,” Stefano said, his accent thicker all of a sudden. “Shame we can’t make you look like that one ugly one. Noel? Yes. That one.” He looked over to Anna. “We take her for later.”

  It was now or never. Riley felt his adrenaline explode as the killer instinct took over. He reached behind him and yanked the arm of the man holding on to him. It snapped with ease, and while the man was busy writhing in pain, Riley wrapped his arm around the man’s neck. With a swift pull, he cracked the bone there and dropped the gurgling man to the floor.

  Faster than anyone could think, Riley fired his weapon, hitting the thug holding Anna directly between the eyes. The loud gunfire echoed in the small room, and for a moment, his ears rang from the sound.

  He didn’t stop moving. Boris was deadly, and Riley knew it. He pointed his gun directly at the Russian bastard.

  Both men aimed their guns at Riley. Anna struggled against Stefano’s grip.

  “There’s two of us,” Stefano said to him. “You’ll never make it out of here alive.”

  Riley shrugged and turned his gun on the leader. “I’m sure a minute ago, you were thinking, ‘There’s four of us.’” He shot a wicked grin at the man. “Besides, if I don’t make it out of here alive, or my woman doesn’t, then neither will you.”

  He watched as his words settled over Stefano. His threat was clear. If the last thing he did was shoot Stefano, that would be the end of him. Boris was fearless, but Stefano clearly feared death. The man reached over and lowered the other man’s weapon.

  “You don’t need to send a message,” Riley said, “if you want an answer. I’ll give you an answer. We’ll never surrender to you. If you want a war, you’ve got one.”

  Stefano glared at him. Maybe no one had ever dared to challenge him, but Riley knew the truth of it. The local Russians might have the backing of several other Russian families at home, but they were all the way on the other side of the world, and he’d bet money they wouldn’t put forth the effort to come out their way just for a fight. It was likely why they had to slither around like snakes instead of just coming straight at the Kellys.

  Stefano shoved Anna hard toward Riley. She stumbled into his arms as the two men slipped out the back exit, Boris holding up his middle finger.

  Movement behind Riley caught his eyes, and he spun, Anna still in his arms, but his guns up. He lowered them at the sight of Conor.

  The other man raced to the back door, but it was too late. Boris and Stefano had slipped away into the night like the vermin they were.

  Riley took his jacket off and wrapped it around Anna as she shook in his arms. His gaze found Conor across the room.

  “You need to get her out of here,” he said, nodding toward the bodies. “I’ll deal with this.”

  Conor stared hard at him for a moment and nodded. He knew just like Riley did that they all had a job to do. This was his.

  He could feel her eyes burning into him has Conor guided her out of the room. He couldn’t look at her. How could he ever look at her again? This was who he was. A monster who killed.

  And now she had seen the true him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Anna sat nervously on the couch. She had been watching the news for hours as it rolled over the screen. They were calling the whole thing an explosion in the kitchen. She couldn’t believe they would say that when she’d seen all that blood.

  But when the police finally arrived on the scene, everything seemed to have already been handled. No one spoke about the bodies or blood.

  Not that it mattered to her. Those men had been bad, terrible, and cruel. They were going to do awful things to her and who knew who else they had done those sorts of things to.

  Riley struggled with his past and his actions, but the men in that room didn’t even seem to give a single thought to anything but how harming another person might help them.

  A car pulled up out front, and she walked with Daisy to the window to watch as the guard at the front of Riley’s house made his way down the steps
to greet Riley.

  Her heart hammered in her chest. What if he didn’t want her there? She couldn’t just leave like that though. She had to know he was all right, especially since he wouldn’t look at her before.

  Riley opened the front door and seemed surprised to find her standing there waiting for him. Quickly, he glanced away when her eyes caught his.

  “I didn’t expect to see you,” he said softly.

  She watched as he crouched down to scratch behind Daisy’s ear and then patted her on her back.

  Anna dropped to the floor in front of him, surprising both Daisy and Riley. She didn’t give him a moment to push her away. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him with everything that she had.

  “I was so worried,” she said. “I didn’t know if the police would take you away.”

  Riley tried to pull away a little. Anna loosened her hold on him but kept her arms around his neck. He stared at her with such pain in his eyes, and it tore her up to know how upset he was.

  “You asked what I did,” he said. “That’s what I do. That’s me.”

  Anna shook her head. She placed her hand against his cheek and didn’t let him look away this time.

  “You saved me,” she said. “Those men were bad, and the ones who got away were even worse.”

  Riley shook his head. “I killed them, and I didn’t even think twice about it. This is who I am.”

  “Good,” she said.

  She watched as Riley’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  “There are bad men in this world, and there need to be good men to stand up against them,” she said. “Those men are no longer around to hurt someone else, and I won’t feel sorry for that.”

  Riley sighed. “How can you want to be with someone like me?”

  Anna leaned in and pressed her lips to his. Riley moaned softly and wound his hand around the back of her neck. When she pulled away, she stared deeply into his eyes.

  “Because I know the real you,” she said. “The one that’s there when all the bad guys aren’t around. The one that saves a puppy on the side of the road and takes care of a woman that needs it.”