First and Only (Callaghan Brothers #2)

Shane shook his head. “There were rumors, of course. Some said Lexi got herself pregnant and went to some distant relatives to have the baby. Others say she finally snapped and threatened Kayla and her mom and Brian had to send her away for help. But neither of those things are true,” Shane said emphatically. “No way, not Lex. She was protecting someone, and I’d bet my left nut it was one of us, probably Kieran.”


Shane drained the last of his beer, standing. “I’ve never seen anyone take the abuse she did and not fight back. She’d just get all quiet and go off by herself. Used to drive Kier crazy, but there’s no way she went postal, not her. And as far as the pregnancy thing went, well, Lexi was a good girl, you know? Not to mention we would have beat the shit out of anyone who dared to change that.” He shot Ian a pointed glance. “That’s another reason we tried to keep her away from you. Dad would’ve been really pissed if we killed one of our own.”

Ian had the distinct impression that Shane was warning him that they still would. He’d been right in assuming his father and brothers would not take kindly to the knowledge of where Ian had been last night and what he’d been doing. Apparently those old protective instincts were very much alive and well. So he did the only thing he could for the moment: he ignored it.

Shane’s face grew very somber. “I do know that right before she disappeared, Lexi started missing a lot of school. And I overheard Kieran telling Dad that he’d seen some cuts and bruises on her that didn’t look right. Dad went to Brian again, told him he had to do something. Shortly after that, Lexi was gone. Apparently Kieran was the only one she told; the rest of us didn’t find out till later.”

“The official story was that Brian had sent her to stay with some distant relatives of his late wife’s. Wouldn’t tell anyone exactly where, Dad knew. She’d legally changed her name to her mother’s maiden name – Kattapoulos. He’s kept tabs on her all these years, sending her birthday cards and shit. That’s how he knew where to contact her about Brian’s death when no one else did.”

Shane paused, letting all that sink in. “Dad said she didn’t want to come back for the funeral, but he talked her into it. Told her that it was the right thing to do, that she’d regret it later if she didn’t pay her final respects, blah, blah, blah. But now, after seeing what happened today and tonight, I’m wondering if maybe she was right.” He shook his head. “She doesn’t deserve to be treated like that, you know?”





Chapter Eight




By the time midnight rolled around, Ian conceded that Shane had been right; Kieran wasn’t coming back tonight. The only reason Ian was able to sit tight and refrain from showing up at her door was because deep down, he knew that Kieran would take good care of her. Better than he could, in fact. Because if Ian was there with her now, he wouldn’t be providing her with a brotherly shoulder to cry on. He’d be buried deep inside her, making her forget her own name and every bad thing that had ever happened to her, and that probably wasn’t what she needed right now.

Instead, Ian went upstairs and fired up the bank of electronic devices that took up an entire wall in his room and went to work. Sitting at his computer, his fingers began to fly across the keyboard. Gathering intel was his specialty, and he had lots of questions. If he couldn’t openly fish for the answers, he’d find out for himself.

He paused, briefly remembering how he had accused his brother Jake of being a creeper when he’d asked Ian to look into Taryn’s background. Jake had disagreed, arguing that his gut told him that Taryn had needed their help, therefore justifying the request. This wasn’t exactly the same situation, but it was close enough that Ian figured he could rationalize his actions as well.

It was his wholly irrational, clawing need to know more about her that was harder to justify.

After several years of compiling dossiers on radicals, terrorists, and assorted persons of interest, pulling together a bio for an average citizen was child’s play for Ian, especially since most of the information was a matter of public record. People really had no idea just how much of their private lives were out there, sitting on servers or clouds, just waiting to be read by anyone with even a basic understanding of digital security and code decryption. If they did, they would probably never shop online or join another social media site again.