Page 54 of Possessing Paisley

Grady steps between us, pressing his hands to my chest to keep me back, his jaw tight. The normally chill guy I know is gone. He looks like he’s ready to murder me. “Dude. You need to fucking chill. He’s cleaning the wound. He isn’t intentionally causing her pain. Now, quit fucking scaring Paisley with all your yelling.”

I look at my girl and wince. She needs me, and I’m being an asshole to the people trying to help her. Nodding, I meet Grady’s gaze. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

Grady blinks several times and looks around in confusion. “I must have misheard you. Can you repeat that? There’s no way you said what I think you just said. Paisley’s making you soft, eh? Teaching you some manners?”

My lips twitch. “Fuck off.” Then I turn back to Paisley and pull her face against my chest while I stroke her hair and let the doctor finish his job.

“What are you going to do to Chuck?”

At times like this, I’m going to regret giving Paisley a no-lying rule. The last thing I want to do is bring her into the dark side of my world. I want her to live in blissful ignorance where everything is sunshine and rainbows. I won’t lie to her, though. I’ve been on the receiving end of dishonesty before, and I won’t be that kind of partner.

“You shouldn’t ask me those questions.”

She’s tucked into bed, propped against a dozen pillows with a movie playing in the background. It was a fight to get her to rest. She didn’t give in until I actually found a pad of paper and wrote Paisley’s Spanking Tallies on it. The look of pure shock on her face when I put a mark on there was the best thing ever. If she thinks I’m going to take it easy on her just because she’s hurt, she has another thing coming. Grady is wrong. I’m not getting soft.

“You said there would be no secrets between us.”

I turn to look at her, my elbows resting on my knees as I sit on the edge of the bed. She doesn’t shrink away from me like most would. “There won’t be. But you know what I do fora living. You know I’m a dangerous man. The specifics aren’t something you need to know.”

Several seconds of silence pass between us before she sighs. “You can’t just go around killing anyone who wrongs me, Kieran.”

Turning, I reach out to grab her chin and lean in closer. “That’s where you’re wrong, Little one. I will kill everyone who wrongs you. Every last one of them. You are mine to protect, mine to take care of, and mine to avenge.”

She studies my face. I expect her to argue with me. To tell me I’m a terrible person. To tell me all the awful things I already know about myself.

“All I ask,” she says, her voice strangled with emotion, “is that you don’t kill my brother. Please, Daddy. For me.”

My chest grows so tight that I start rubbing it. Her brother was top on the list of people to find and end, but the thing I’m learning is that I’ll do anything for Paisley. No matter how badly I want to see him dead.

“I promise, baby. I’ll spare your brother’s life. Anything for you.”

She crawls out from under the layers of blankets and wiggles her way onto my lap. I handle her gently as she nuzzles into me.

“Anything?” she whispers.

“Yes, Little one. Anything.”

“I want you to love me forever.”

I clear my throat, my eyes suddenly burning. “Forever, Paisley. You and me. The only end is death.”

Throughout my years in the mafia, I’ve made dozens of vows, but that one is the one I mean the most.

Grady, Ronan, and Patrick join me when I head to the warehousewhere Chuck and Adam are being held. It took a while for Paisley to get comfortable enough to sleep, but once I put a heating pad under her back, she dozed off.

I hate leaving her, but she’s at Bash and Chloe’s, so at least I know she’s being watched over. If she wakes up, Bash knows to call me immediately, and I’ll race back there. I’ll let Chucky-boy and his dipshit offspring rot in their cells if I have to. Paisley comes first. Always.

Patrick keeps step beside me while Grady and Ronan follow, deep in a conversation about one of our clients falling behind on loan payments.

“Kieran, I have to apologize for not helping Paisley today. I feel awful. I should have sensed something was off since she told me this morning she’d be off work at her regular time. She’s been working long hours lately, so I didn’t think anything of it,” Patrick says.

Glancing over at him, I consider his words. He’s grown up in this life, and he’s been loyal to us. He’s taken bullets for Cali and Scarlet, and I know he would do the same for Paisley if it came down to it. This isn’t on him. As much as I want to blame someone, including myself, Bash and Grady were right. It’s only on the man who’s going to die tonight.

“No need to apologize, Patrick. There was no reason to think someone at her work would do this. Going forward, though, no more keeping your distance. She’s going to have a fit about it, but I’ll deal with that.”

He quirks an eyebrow, obviously amused by that statement. I’m sure he knows just as well as I do that me dealing with it will mean reddening my girl’s ass until she agrees.

“Come on. Let’s get this shit over with so I can get home to my baby girl.”

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