Well, hello, my lovelies. I'm here with another chapter for all you wonderful people. I told you that I was working on making the chapters more frequent. I hope you are surprised. This chapter doesn't have much in it about Lacey, that's in the next chapter. This one is more of a lead up to the next chapter and just a little snippet of Rose and Jasper for those of you who are curious. Because as you know, book 3 will be about the two of them.
Anyway, please enjoy and wait for the next chapter to be uploaded.
*******
Killian's P.O.V
We were lucky to have escaped from the warehouse. I knew the feds were watching us, but I wasn't aware that they had planned to raid us.
"How the f**k did this happen?"
Levi looked just as confused as I felt. My informant at the FBI never mentioned a raid. And Levi's informant never said anything of the sort either. Either the feds were much more prepared than we give them credit for, or we had a double agent in our mix.
"I don't know what to tell you, boss. I was never told of a raid. I'll do some digging on my end to try and get to the bottom of this."
I nodded. I didn't blame him. In fact, I trusted him completely. He would never do anything to betray me. I knew this because of how much love and respect he had for Red.
"You do that. Mik will follow up on our side."
I turned to Mik, but he was giving me an irritated look. Instantly I knew what he was thinking about. He wanted to know what just happened between me and Lacey.
"Are you really going to ignore the big f**king red and black elephant in the room?"
That was exactly what I had planned to do. I didn't want to discuss Lacey with anyone. At least, not until I had a chance to talk to her myself.
"We are not talking about that right now."
Mik being Mik, ignored the warning in my voice and continued. And for the millionth time, I reminded myself of the reasons I considered him my brother. Had it been anyone else, they would have been on the receiving end of my gun.
"About what exactly? The fact that she's the spitting image of Lilly, or that she just coincidently happened to be part of the raid? Or better yet, you and her seems to be in some kind of f**ked up relationship? Which one are we not talking about?"
My eyes narrowed at him. Sometimes I just wanted to shoot him. Levi cleared his throat, alerting us to his presence and the other men.
I ignored Mik. "Good job today, Levi. Take the others and finish unloading the shipment. I'm going to make sure that our other places are secure. We don't want another surprise visit like today."
He nodded his head, "Sure thing, boss."
He gathered the men, and they went about their task. I knew that Levi was curious about Lacey, but he knew better than to ask, unlike Mik who just would not let the topic go.
"What the f**k is going on, Killian? Who the f**k is this chick really?"
I didn't know what gave him the impression that I had the answers to his questions. I had just started learning about her as well.
"I f**king told you I don't want to discuss it and you still f**king persists."
He shrugged his shoulders, "I need to know what I'm dealing with, so when the time comes, I can save you from yourself."
He was right. I always looked to him to be my conscience whenever I'm faced with a dilemma that remotely involved Lilly. I couldn't make sound decisions when it comes to her or anything pertaining to her.
Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair. "I don't know what to tell you, man. I can't explain why it is she looks so much like Lilly, and I definitely can't explain my strange connection to her. However, I'm going to find out one way or the other what it all means. My gut feeling is telling me that she's connected to Lilly somehow."
Mik swore, "I see now why you asked me to ask her brothers if she's a twin. I thought that you were just being the paranoid f**k that you are, but I guess your suspicions might be right."
I frowned at him. "You're an ass."
He smiled at me, "I'm just speaking the truth, brother. Ever since Lilly died, you've been seeing her ghost everywhere, even on the face of living people. So, you did not expect me to believe you when you said that this FBI chick looked like her, did you?"
I didn't blame him. My behaviour has been a little eccentric over the years, which has caused me to do some weird shit. However, seeing the ghost of my wife is what kept me alive for all those years.
"There's so much about her that reminds me of Red. She does and says things that make me forget for a minute that she isn't my wife. When I'm with her it's like I'm with Lilly. I just can't explain it. I know it's f**ked up and I should just walk away from her, but something is telling me that I'd regret it if I did."
Mik looked at me like I'd finally lost the plot. He rolled his eyes and looked at the heavens, sighed then looked back at me.
"Relationship is not a multiple-choice question, it's not just a simple task of choosing between A or B. It's more complex than that, she can't be Lilly's stand in just because you need to fill the void that Lilly's death left."
He was starting to piss me off because I knew that he was right. However, as much sense as he was making, my heart refused to listen to him.
"No one can be Red's stand-in."
No one can come close to what I felt for Lilly, but I couldn't deny that being with Lacey made me feel less lonely. I still missed my wife, but when I'm with Lacey that void doesn't seem that deep, or dark.
"You're playing a dangerous game, Killian. F**k, I'm glad that you're finding your happiness again. However, the way you're finding it is unhealthy. You're not moving on from Lilly. You're keeping her alive in the body of another woman. You claim to have a connection with her, but it's just one you've fabricated because of her resemblance to Lilly. Can you honestly tell me that you would have given her the time of day if she had looked any different?"
I thought about what he said, and I knew that once again, he was right. If she hadn't looked so much like Red, I wouldn't have given her a second glance. Maybe I was fooling myself into believing that the connection I felt to her was real. However, I still believed that she was somehow related to Red.
"You might be right, and I might be projecting my feeling unto her, but at this moment, I'm too far gone to care."
I was in way over my head, and I didn't care. Watching as she risked her job and possibly her life for me earlier, was all I needed to solidify what I already knew deep in my heart. I was going to keep her. Come hell or high water, she was going to be mine.
Mik shook his head, "You're a f**king lost cause. I don't even know why I even try to f**king reason with you?"
I looked at him in amusement as he once again looked to God for help, then he ran his hand through his hair in frustration.
"One day, you're going to get us all f**king killed."
He didn't wait for me to reply to him. He turned and walked away, mumbling to himself about spending more time with his family before I send him to his death.
I laughed. Mik thought that I was going to be the death of him, but he was wrong. I would never risk his life because I wanted something I shouldn't have. If it ever came down to it, I'd make sure that Mik was far from any danger and take the risk myself.
*********
"I didn't mean it, Jasper. It was an accident."
When I came home Jasper and Rose were having an argument. Apparently, Rosey did something that upset Jasper and he was telling her that he'd made up his mind to transfer schools.
"Brave, do you think it's fair for you to treat me like shit in front of your friends every chance you get, and I must just accept it and your half-hearted apologies every time you do it?"
She bit her lip, looking guilty, then shook her head.
"No, it's not. But in my defence, it is a little weird and creepy how you are always there. It's kinda like you're stalking me."
Jasper grunted, "I want to protect you. Don't you get that?"
"Yeah, but you don't need to. I can protect myself, my dad made sure of that."
That made me smile. I did make sure that she'd be able to protect herself, but I never minded Jasper keeping her safe either. Especially from little bastards like Billy Bob.
"Fine then! You don't need me, so why are you trying to stop me from leaving the school? You should be happy that you're weird, creepy stalker won't be there anymore, and you can finally have freedom."
Rose stomped her feet and folded her arms. "That's not what I meant; you're twisting my words. I don't want you to leave, I just want you to act like a normal person and not follow me everywhere like a pervert."
Her hand flew to her mouth when she realised what she said. Jasper lost all the fight in him as he sighed deeply. His shoulders slumping.
"I'm sorry that I'm not a normal person, Brave."
He turned and walked away from her, heading towards the door. Gabe was already out in the car with Freya waiting for him. Both he and Freya had made up and were back to being an annoying young couple.
Rosey ran after him, calling after him but he ignored her and kept walking. She ran up to him, reaching out to touch him, but he shrugged her touch off, causing her to fall.
"Ahh." She yelped.
Jasper turned around and was at her side in an instant. I wanted to go over to her because watching her in any kind of pain broke my heart. However, I stayed back and let Jasper handled it.
"Rosey, are you okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
My daughter, being the drama queen that she was, decided to use that to her advantage. She held her knees that were slightly bruised and started to cry. I knew that they were fake tears because she'd tried them on me several times.
"It hurts Jasper, it really hurts."
Jasper's face looked horrified and guilty. I could see that he was blaming himself for causing her pain. Rose saw it too and she continued to make him feel worse.
"You pushed me away, and I fell. Why did you do that?"
The waterworks were fully blown, and Jasper was falling under her spell. I laughed because that behaviour was all her own. It wasn't from me, and it definitely wasn't from her mother.
"Rosey, I didn't mean to. I promise you, I didn't. I would never purposely hurt you."
He tried to help her up, but she pulled away from him, much like he did. He reached out to her again, but thought better of it, pulling his hand back to his side.
"Then why did you pull away from me? Why are you trying to leave me?"
I smiled because he had lost even before the game started. My daughter was going to have things her way even if she had to guilt-trip him into it.
"I'm not. I swear, I'm not."
She sniffed, wiping at her fake tears. "So, you're not gonna leave me? You're not gonna leave school anymore?"
He lifted his hand and tucked her hair behind her ear. She blinked up at him, with her fake sadness lingering in her eyes.
"Huh, Jasper?"
With a sigh, he replied. "No, I'm not. Whatever makes you happy, Brave."
Her face lit up in a smile and she jumped to her feet. Pain forgotten. She clapped her hands, happily and cheered.
"Great! So that means, I'll see you in school on Monday."
She didn't wait for him to reply. Turning, she skipped back into the house, mumbling a song to herself.
Jasper stood there confused, wondering what just happened. Gabe walked up to him and rested his hand on his shoulder.
"You just got played, little brother. You just got played."
I stopped watching and made my way to my study. Their interaction still lingering in my head. I started to wonder what Red would think of our daughter and the way she dealt with the situation? Would she be proud like I was, or would she think that her behaviour was uncalled for?