The Absolution of Aidan(53)
You fucked with the wrong guy, motherfucker.
“Fucking Ryan.”
I scroll down to the next text. My hands are shaking, but not out of fear. I want to kill him.
Where the fuck are they?
If you think I’m scared of you or the scum you associate with,
then you’re more fucked up in the head than I thought.
I will find them.
I run my hands through my hair. The urge to throw my phone across the room, to pound into Ryan’s flesh over and over, takes every goddamn nerve in my body. I jolt when the phone vibrates in my hand again.
One more thing.
Stay the fuck out of my business,
Unless you want me to come after your son and his whore of a mother!
Fear claws into my throat. My fucking heart is pounding. The enormity of how serious this irrational son of a bitch is strikes me right in the center of my chest. Who in the fuck would threaten a baby and a woman? A sick fucker, that’s who! He wants to bring my family into this, wants to pressure me to back off over a goddamn text. He has no idea what kind of monster he has now created in me. I will kill for both of them. They’re mine.
He’s leaving me with only one thing to do. Two actually. The first one is to call Salvatore and give him the go ahead to find this piece of shit and call for the hit to kill him.
The second is to call my cunt of a mother, to feel her ass out, make sure she really doesn’t know what her son is doing while she’s off with god knows who on a damn vacation. For once in her pitiful life, she better step the fuck up and be my mother. If she doesn’t, I may turn into that cold-hearted bastard she’s called me my entire life.
I’m done protecting her from her own threat.
“Mother. Fucker.”
“Aidan, what is it?” Deidre’s worried voice echoes down the hall.
Goddamn it. This is the last thing she needs to know about. She may be strong, but this, it would send her back to a place I know she never wants to be again. She can never know that somehow Ryan knows about our son. No fucking way.
“Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about,” I lie. I turn around to see her and my boy standing there. Her face is showing her worry. She still steals my breath with her beauty, her vitality to prove to herself how good of a mother she is. The irony of it all is that, right here in this very moment, I know I’m in love with her. God, I fucking love her. But I’m nowhere in the right state of mind to tell her that. She deserves my undivided attention when I do. She deserves every part of me she believes in. All of the self-worth she’s pulled out of me just by her very existence.
“You sure?” she questions.
“I’m sure, baby. Bullshit from work. Now, let me have him so you can shower and get ready for your day with Alina.” I reach out and pluck my son from her arms.
“Okay,” she retorts tensely. I know her too well. She’s not buying it. But I’m not giving her any more than that. Her feisty little attitude along with her need to protect will rear its head. I move around her and walk out of the room. The minute I hear the bathroom door close and the shower turn on, I call Jackson. I need him here now.
Then I text words I’ve wanted to say to him in person. My fingers are moving furiously across the screen, adding all capital letters. The little prick.
YOU’RE GOING TO DIE, JUST LIKE YOUR FRIEND. ONLY A PUSSY WOULD SEND SOMEONE TO DO HIS WORK. BUT THEN AGAIN, YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN ONE.
When Deirde is ready, I kiss the two of them goodbye, thankful Deidre is spending the day with Alina, then grab my bag and make my way out the door. Deidre didn’t mention her concern again, but I saw it in her face, heard it in her shaky voice, felt it in the way she clung to me a little longer than she normally does. It’s not like her to keep her mouth shut. No one knows this better than I do. I can only hope she believed me. “Goddamn it,” I curse under my breath. This is splitting me apart, keeping this from her. She would really break down if she knew Diesel was being threatened. She’s come so far, all for the sake of our son. For her to lose it now would take her away from him and from me. I won’t allow it to happen.
Pinching the bridge of my nose when I enter the elevator, I realize now that reality is facing me dead on. I stand and watch the floors decrease until I hit the lobby. Like a mad man on a mission, I haul ass through the lobby and hit the door for the underground parking garage. I find my bike, strap my bag down, and straddle the bad bitch. My hands move over the handlebars, the muscles in my entire body clenching to feel the rumble of this bike.
Once she purrs to life, the adrenaline shoots through me like a rocket. I flip my visor down on my helmet, shoot out of the parking lot, and make my way to the apartment building we all live in.