“If you’re about to give me your resignation, I refuse to accept it,” Leon clipped abruptly from where he was once again seated behind the desk in his study.
Kieran stood stiffly in front of that desk. “I need to do this—”
Leon’s fist landing loudly on the leather-topped desk stopped Kieran from continuing. “No, you—we need to find the bastard or bastards that did this.” He rose restlessly to his feet. “I also need all the men we have left, and that most definitely includes you, to protect my family and Janina until we can hire and train more bodyguards we can trust.”
Leon had insisted upon helping this past hour as they transported the dead bodies from the grounds to the security bunker. Carefully. Silently. Grimly.
During all of it, Kieran felt the heavy weight of the death of each of his friends.
Sean and Patrick had returned from the city a short time ago to report that no shooter or any sign of one had been found on any of the rooftops of the buildings neighboring the restaurant.
Kieran released a shaky breath. “Jericho—”
“Has every confidence in you,” Leon bit out.
His eyes widened. “You’ve already spoken to him?”
“Only because I knew it was what you would do at the earliest opportunity, but with your own version of events,” Leon added dryly as he leaned back against the desk. “Jericho and I are in total agreement that none of this was your fault and that you should continue as head of my security until Jericho returns.”
Kieran frowned his frustration. “Your phone call wasn’t enough for him to come straight back?”
“He’s on his honeymoon, and I ordered him not to,” Leon dismissed.
Kieran winced. “I left my post—”
“Yes, you did,” the older man acknowledged evenly.
“You really need to fire me.”
Leon gave a dismissive huff. “I think I’m more able to know what I need, and right now that’s men I can trust to protect my pregnant wife and baby son. I spoke to Janina a few minutes ago,” he continued briskly before Kieran could comment. “She said she heard someone moving about in the hallway outside the nursery.”
“Yes.”
“In all likelihood the killer.”
“Yes.” Kieran had no idea where Leon was going with this conversation.
“Which means the shooter could have gone into the nursery and killed both Janina and Marco, but chose not to do so.”
“Possibly,” he allowed. “But I’m sure he’s intelligent enough to know that if he had harmed Marco that you would have hunted him to the ends of the earth. Although why he didn’t take the opportunity to kill Janina, at least, is questionable,” he added with a puzzled frown.
“Not if he’s a sick fucker who needs to be put down,” Leon rasped.
“I don’t— You think this bastard’s playing with us?” Anger edged Kieran’s voice.
The older man’s top lip turned back with disgust. “What I know is that he’s experienced enough to turn out the lights and then shoot out every single security camera that might have captured an image of him entering the estate and the inside the house.”
Kieran nodded. He’d checked all security feeds, and not a single one had caught so much as a shadow of their shooting.
“I also know he had the opportunity to shoot both Janina and Marco,” Leon stated bluntly. “He chose not to do so.”
“Time—”
“It would have taken seconds to eliminate them both.”
If Leon said that one more time, Kieran thought he might actually throw up on this expensive rug!
“When Jericho gets back—”
“Your job description is going to change.”
“To unemployed.” Bitterness edged his humorless smile.
Leon shook his head. “To lead on the task force you and Liam are going to put together.”
“What the hell…?”
“There have been several attacks recently, from Federov’s men and now this hired killer,” Leon continued grimly. “Jericho and I have been talking for the past few weeks about the need for more security than we currently have. Specialized security. You’re a martial arts expert, and Liam is a sharpshooter. Once Jericho is back, we want you and Liam to put together a team of men who could take out any future attack.”
“Let me get this straight.” Kieran frowned. “I completely cocked up tonight, and the results could have been catastrophic, and instead of firing me, you’re promoting me?”
“We all, every single one of us, did exactly what the shooter wanted us to do tonight,” the older man snapped. “It’s something we’ll all have to live and deal with. But not right now,” he added briskly. “Right now, I want you to go back to your house and kiss the woman you love.”
He recoiled. “I don’t—”
“Don’t fucking lie to me,” Leon warned harshly. “I saw your face earlier when you couldn’t reach any of the men at the house.”
“Marco…”
“I know how much you love my son, Kieran. I’ve seen you, when you don’t think anyone is looking, playing ‘Round and round the garden, lost my teddy bear’ with him.” Leon grinned. “I love to hear his giggles when you get to the ‘tickle you under there’ bit. So yes, I know how much you love Marco. But what I saw on your face earlier when you realized he and Janina could be alone here and completely vulnerable was pure terror.”
“You would have killed me if anything happened to Marco,” Kieran pointed out the obvious.
“I would have let my wife have you first,” the older man drawled before sobering. “But your look of terror earlier wasn’t because of that. Nor was your dangerous driving immediately after that because you were so desperate to get back here to protect my son.” He straightened. “We’ll talk about forming this new task force once Jericho returns. For now, the most important thing we need to do is make a list of everyone who knew Carla and I were going out to a restaurant this evening.”
“Already done.” Kieran pulled a printout from the pocket of his trousers. “Half the men on that list are dead. The other half were with you at the restaurant,” he stated flatly as he placed the unfolded piece of paper on the desktop.
“Hm.” Leon perused the list before grimacing. “I trust every one of the men listed here. Especially you.” He gave Kieran a pointed glance before releasing a heavy sigh. “You missed one person off this list.”
“No, I don’t think— You’re talking about Janina?” he asked incredulously. “Have you forgotten she’s the target?”
“No.”
“You and Carla aren’t on that list either,” he defended.
Leon stilled. “I beg your pardon?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean either of you would have deliberately revealed you were going out to dinner this evening. But one of you might have mentioned it to someone else, who then mentioned it to someone else, until eventually the killer heard it too.”
Leon’s eyebrows were high on his forehead. “I really don’t think that many people are eager to hear gossip about Carla and me. Besides,” he added briskly, “Carla only booked the table at our favorite restaurant yesterday.”
“So, that gave the shooter twenty-four hours to learn exactly where you would be this evening, and that half your security guards would be there with you.”
Leon stared at him for several seconds before nodding. “Okay, put Janina, Carla, and me on that list too,” he instructed. “Check who we spoke to about our plans for this evening.” He moved back behind his desk and sat down. “But not tonight. Carla has been through enough of a scare for one night.”
And if anything happened to Carla, or this pregnancy, Leon would go on a rampage of revenge against the people responsible the likes of which New York had never seen before.
Kieran would willingly join him.
“In the meantime,” Leon continued firmly, “I want everyone to carry on as normal. It’s going to infuriate the shooter if we all behave as if nothing happened here tonight. Maybe enough he might do something stupid to give himself away. I certainly don’t need you going rogue or vigilante on me,” he added pointedly. “And there will be no more talk of you resigning.”
That, Kieran knew, new task force or not, would depend on who was still standing at the end of this situation.
“What are you doing?”
Janina looked over her shoulder to where Kieran stood in the doorway of the bedroom. She straightened abruptly. “I was just finishing unpacking.”
His eyes narrowed. “I thought you already did that when you moved in.”
She shrugged. “There were just a few toiletries left in my bag that I hadn’t taken out.” She zipped the top of the bag to hide the fact that everything she’d unpacked when she moved in was now back inside the hold-all. “What’s happened?” she prompted when she saw how ravaged he looked. “Or rather, what else has happened?” She was mindful of Leon’s words of earlier regarding the need for the two men to talk together shortly.
“You mean besides six of my men being gunned down in cold blood?” Kieran came back harshly.
Janina flinched as if struck. “I am so sorry—”
“You didn’t kill them,” he snapped as he stepped fully into the room and began pacing.
“Neither did you,” she reasoned.
“As good as.” He gave a grimace of self-loathing. “I left my post, and by doing so, I left you and Marco unprotected. Because of that, six of my men were killed.”
Janina shook her head. “And if you had been here, it would have been seven men and not six.” Even the thought of that made her feel nauseated.
Whereas Kieran looked as if he would have preferred that outcome rather than being the one who lived. “Those men were my friends, damn it. Most of them men I’ve worked with for the past ten years. I don’t—” He stopped speaking as his voice broke emotionally. “Leon and I have spent the last hour helping to transport their bodies to the security bunker in the grounds until their families can claim them. We’ll deal with the burials ourselves if they don’t have family,” he added.
Janina’s wince was pained. “If you want, I can be with you when you telephone their relatives…?” It was the least she could do in the circumstances.
He shook his head. “Leon, as their employer, has insisted on being the one to do that.”
She eyed him knowingly. “What else has Leon insisted upon?”
Kieran shot her an irritated glance. “He refuses to accept my resignation.”
“I would hope so!” She frowned fiercely. “I doubt even if you’d been here that, as you were inside the house with Marco and me, you could have prevented those men outside from being killed. As I’ve said, I’m sure you would have ended up being shot alongside them.” She gave an inward shudder. “If anyone is to blame for their deaths, then it’s me,” she added shakily, her vision having blurred as tears stung her eyes. “I’m the one the killer is really after.” She shook her head. “I still don’t understand why he didn’t just enter the nursery and finish the job.”
“Leon thinks he’s playing with us.”
She looked sharply at Kieran. “And what do you think?”
He grimaced. “I think he’s playing too. I also think his success tonight will only have made the bastard’s ego even bigger. But I also think this man isn’t stupid enough to have tried to shoot you in the house and by doing so taken the risk of harming a hair on Marco’s head. If he had there would be no place on this earth he could hide that Leon wouldn’t find him and take pleasure in killing him himself. Very slowly.”
Janina trembled. She had no doubt of what her bratva father was capable of if either of his daughters were harmed. She felt sure that Leon, debonair and charming on the outside, was also more than capable of being utterly ruthless if either Carla or Marco or his daughter Natalia were ever harmed or killed.
It was another reason why Janina needed to leave the Brunelli estate, and by doing so, hopefully take the immediate danger away with her.
Six men had already died tonight, she couldn’t bear for any more lives to be taken when she was the true target. If leaving here also meant she made herself completely vulnerable to this killer, then that was the way it had to be.
Speaking of which, she really needed to leave now before the cab driver gave up waiting for her and drove away, leaving her stuck here for another night.
She feigned a yawn. “It’s very late, and I have to work tomorrow.”
Kieran scowled. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go to the hospital until this situation has been resolved.”
“I’m not going to be bullied or frightened into not doing my job,” she came back stubbornly.
“It isn’t a fucking question of—” He broke off, breathing out his frustration as he glared at her. “Men have been killed tonight, Janina. As such, it would be pure stupidity on your part to return to work as if nothing has happened.”
“As far as the people at the hospital are concerned, it hasn’t,” she reasoned.
Kieran’s jaw tightened. “Leon also seems to think we should all act as if nothing happened here tonight.”
“Leon is a sensible man.”
“You—” Kieran broke off, tilting his head as he obviously listened to something coming through over the radio in his earpiece. “Really?” His green eyes were as glacial as an iceberg as he spoke into his radio but continued to look at Janina from between narrowed lids. “Is that so?” he answered mildly. “Give the driver a twenty for his trouble and send him on his way, will you?” His gaze turned challengingly. “Tell him there’s no one here requiring a cab.”
Oh shit.