Locked Hearts: Keir & Sailor #2 (Chained Hearts Duet Series) Read online

  “How do you know it’s yours?” I ask, my brow raised in challenge.

  “Don’t play with me, Sailor.”

  Oh, wow! Now that’s a rarity. He used my actual name. Keir scratches his head as he thinks about who knows what.

  I let him be because at least now his stupid phone is off, and he isn’t pacing anymore.

  My eyes gaze down at the cute tiny bundle of joy in my arms and wonder how you can compare any other love to this. This right here is the meaning of love.

  “It’s a girl.” His voice is quiet and oddly subdued for him.

  “I know. You can go now,” I whisper, too caught up in watching her. I don’t give him any more attention to see if he leaves, focusing my eyes solely on her perfect face as she makes cute little noises and starts to fuss. She’s currently lying on my naked chest—skin to skin as they suggested—and I move her to the side, positioning her to my breast to start feeding her. The midwife steps in to help, and as soon as my beautiful girl is latched, she leaves.

  When I peek up again, Keir hasn’t moved, but now he’s watching us both with eager eyes.

  “You don’t have to stay. I’m sure you have people to kill and lives to destroy,” I say, smirking at him.

  He says nothing, just stays where he is, watching us. I look back down to my baby and smile as I run my hand through her hair. She has a lot of it, not unlike her father. When I glance back up, he has stepped closer.

  “She looks like Dillan, right?” I say with false confidence I’m not proud of. And I know it’s wrong when it leaves my mouth, but I just want Keir to go.

  “No, she looks exactly like I did as a baby.”

  I bite my lip and tear my gaze away.

  Goddammit! He never falls for my bullshit.

  “Why are you still here? It’s not a boy, you are good to go…”

  He runs his hand down his face, which now that I really look at him, appears pale and completely exasperated. “That’s my child.” I hear the certainty in his tone, and my chest tightens at the reality of the situation unfolding in front of me—of my baby being his daughter.

  My blood fights to boil or run cold, I’m so sick with resentment.

  “No, you’re wrong. She’s mine,” I say, smiling. “Her name is Wren. Wren, why don’t you say hello to Keir before he leaves.” She finishes suckling, and I lift her up onto my chest to burp her. Keir’s dark eyes are locked on me, and they’re unmoving.

  “I’m not leaving.”

  “Yes. You. Are. We don’t need you. Just be glad that I’m not after anything from you.”

  “You never did want anything from me.”

  “And I never will,” I add, steadying my breath. Kissing Wren’s head, I change boobs and she latches on right away to which I smile before I glance back to Keir.

  “I’m not her. That woman was chosen for you. I don’t want nor need you. Please leave and let us be.”

  “I’m not leaving. Are you deaf?” That last part slides over his tongue with venom.

  “Now you’re throwing insults. That’s just great. No, I am not deaf, but I want to sleep. I’m exhausted.” Wren starts to fall asleep on my breast, so I lift and burp her again before lying her in the crib next to the bed. I turn away from Keir and face my beautiful little girl, and it isn’t long before my eyes become too heavy to keep open any longer.

  It’s his voice that wakes me, but it’s not his usual voice.

  He’s singing. Who knew he could sing?

  When I open my eyes, Keir has Wren in his arms, rocking her back and forth as he sings to her. If I didn’t just have a baby and didn’t know what a dick he really is, it would make me want another.

  But I do know who he is. Maybe not all of him, but enough, and none of it is good. Well, apart from the sex, that is more than good.

  But look where that led me.

  “Keir.” He stops singing, and some part of me wishes I didn’t speak. Though, the better part of me knows better. “Give me my baby.”

  He regards her once more, and it’s the first real smile I have seen him pull. He steps closer but makes no move to hand her over. “She’s beautiful,” he whispers.

  “She is.” I don’t disagree because she is the perfect blend of the two of us. And let’s get our facts straight—Keir is a beautiful man. Very much so. “Give her to me,” I repeat, stronger this time. I sit up and reach for her, and for just a short breath of a moment, I wonder if he will take her from me and that sets panic racing through my veins.

  “I’m leaving.” Keir hands Wren back, and the instant rush of relief I get does not go unmissed by him. “A driver will take you back to your house tomorrow.” Then he finally leaves, without another word.

  And I’m left to wonder what the hell just happened.

  The driver Keir sends is Joey, who has a black eye and a broken wrist.

  “Hi,” I say as he steps into my room. His eyes lift then they fall to Wren in my arms before they find mine. “Not to sound rude, but why are you here?” I ask.

  “I’m your driver.”

  “I realize that! Is this your punishment?” I ask.

  He ambles in, grabs a bag, and lifts it with his good arm. “Is this all?” He ignores my question, then stares at me expectantly when I don’t answer.

  “That bag over there too.” I nod to the bag behind me, and he hefts that one up too.

  “Is this your punishment? I’m guessing you told him since he turned up and stalked me,” I push again while standing. I asked him not to tell Keir I was pregnant, at the time though, I had believed I could not carry. And that was the case, until Wren.

  “Yes,” he finally answers. “Can we go now?” Joey makes a move to the door, and I follow closely behind him.

  “Did he do that to you?” I ask when we reach the elevator.

  He harrumphs in reply but doesn’t say anything more as he enters the elevator and pushes the lobby button.

  “When did you tell him?” I keep pushing because I want to know.

  As soon as the doors open, he marches straight out the exit to a waiting car. Opening the back door, there’s a car seat already installed as he heads to the trunk to put our bags inside.

  “Do you need help securing her?”

  “Have you ever put a baby in a car seat before?” I ask.

  “Once, but she wasn’t that small.” Joey nods to Wren.

  “Her name is Wren.” I smile at him. “It’s okay, I took lessons so I should be fine.” I place her in the seat, and it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Thankfully. When she’s safely buckled in tight, I shut the door.

  Joey has the car started, so the air is already running to cool the car to a nice temperature.

  “Did he do that to you?” I ask Joey again.

  “Yes,” he answers. “Though, I deserved it. And don’t you dare go back to him saying I told you.”

  “Why did you tell him?”

  I didn’t think he would.

  I had hoped he wouldn’t.

  “I didn’t. He found out somehow, he has his ways. Then he put two and two together and knew I knew.”

  “He couldn’t have found out,” I say, confused. “I left right away.”

  “When Keir has an obsession, it doesn’t take long for him to find it if it goes missing.” Joey ends the conversation by walking to the driver’s side and getting in.

  I climb into the back seat and watch Wren the whole way home. “Is he coming back?” I ask when we stop at my place. I look up at the old house which is nothing like what Keir is used to. His house is a five-star palace, while mine is an old, run-down, needs a new coat of paint and possibly everything else you can think of, but it works. It works for me.

  “Do you need help getting out?” He avoids the question. Of course, he does.

  “Joey, is he coming back?”

  “It’s you. And as I stated, he always finds his way back to things he is obsessed with.”

  That shit doesn’t sit right with me, so I climb
out of the car and grab Wren. Joey walks into the house with our bags and for some reason I let him. He turns his nose up when he enters which is an insult, but I guess he’s used to living in luxury, and this is far from luxurious.

  “You can just put the things down and go. No need to stay longer than you have to. Thank you.” I spin around to face him and watch his eyes scouting the place.

  Benny walks out with a bottle of beer in one hand. “You’re back. And that’s nice of the hospital to send you with a driver.” Benny walks over to Wren and smiles. “She looks so much like you, apart from that hair. You had none as a little one.” Benny nods to Joey before he walks off again.

  “You live with a man?” Joey closes his eyes and takes a breath so deep I can hear it. “That isn’t your father. Shit! I’m asking for a second black eye.”

  “Benny is old,” I say, shaking my head. “I care for him, and in return I live here in my childhood home. He is my uncle.”

  “You grew up here?” He turns his nose up again, eyes squinting in disbelief, and if I didn’t have a baby in my arms, I would literally kick him out.

  “You need to leave.”

  “I’ll be out front if you need me.”

  “I won’t need you, just go.” I follow him to the front door, and as soon as he walks out, I shut it behind him and promptly turn the lock.

  Wren makes a cute sound, and I remember how I have done all of this for her.

  And I will be doing a lot more.

  Chapter Three

  Keir

  “She’s home, and the place is a shithole.” Joey’s voice echoes through the Bluetooth in my car. “She told me not to come back.” I stay silent as I listen to him speak. I’m still fucking furious, and me breaking his arm is the least of his worries. If he wasn’t my brother, you can bet your ass he would be dead.

  Six feet fucking under.

  So instead of killing him, which is still an option I am considering, I broke his fucking hand and beat his fucking ass.

  “She lives with a guy,” he says when I give him no response.

  “What?” I didn’t look into where she was living. I assumed it was her place, as it’s the same address as her parents.

  “She said she cares for him. He’s old.”

  Of course, she does.

  “Do I stay?” he asks, and those three words instantly infuriate me.

  “What do you think?” I bite back.

  “I stay.”

  “Of course you fucking stay, dickhead.” I hang up on him.

  The day I found out she was pregnant, I tracked her down, even though I told myself not to. After months of not seeing her, I told myself to let it be. Let her be. I knew better, though. A part of me knew I wouldn’t be settled until I saw her again and I was right.

  She plagues my mind, like a fucking disease, so much so I actually thought of killing her. Finally doing it. Finding her and slicing her fucking throat, just so that face wouldn’t enter into my mind again. But no, the one I would carry in my memory would be the one of her dead.

  I had moved on, or so I thought.

  It’s always the way though, right?

  You move on, and like a leech those memories stick to you.

  She’s in the back of my mind—all the damn time.

  I should have killed her instead of her husband.

  My life would be so much easier right now if only I had followed through.

  So much fucking easier.

  “Is it true?” Roberto asks as I walk into my penthouse. He licks his lips and raises an eyebrow. “Is it true?”

  “Is what true?”

  “Did Sailor have a baby? And is it yours?” I didn’t share that information when I found out. The first thing I did was beat the living shit out of my brother, then I located her and left. Now, I’m back.

  “She did and it is.”

  His hand scrubs his face. “Shit, what are you going to do?”

  “Nothing.” His eyes go wide at my words. “She had a girl,” I tell him, and he nods. He gets it. Girls aren’t valued. It’s the boys we want. Old school, yes. But it works. The women get to enter into contracts to secure protection for their families, and we get male heirs to keep our legacy alive.

  “What about Sailor?” Roberto asks.

  “What about her?”

  He sits at the table, his hands coming up and he rests them on the top, as I take the seat where I left the paperwork I was reviewing when I found out about the pregnancy.

  “You didn’t go looking for her because of the baby. Joey didn’t tell you that until after. So what about Sailor?”

  “Nothing,” I say.

  “If only it were nothing, but we both know it’s not. You want her, and you’ve never wanted anyone like you do her. I know it’s not my place to say—”

  “So don’t,” I interrupt.

  “But I’ve seen you with women all my life, boss. We grew up together. And this one you were meant to kill, yet you didn’t. Then you should have when you thought she was working for Romarc, yet you didn’t. You let her go.”

  “I knew she wasn’t working for him,” I reply.

  “If you thought for a second I was, you would shoot first and ask questions later,” he points out.

  He’s right, I would.

  “With her, you’re wearing rose-colored glasses, and even when you said it was over and she left, you still went searching for her.”

  “What’s your damn point?”

  “It’s that you aren’t going to let this go. And especially now she has your child. You know you aren’t. You’re not like our fathers.”

  “No, I’m worse.”

  His lip quirks up. “You are, no denying that. But you also know the value of family. It’s why your brother isn’t dead right now for lying to you.”

  “Give me time, he may very well be soon.”

  Roberto shakes his head. “Do you plan to tell your mother?”

  “About the baby?” I ask. He nods. “No.”

  Roberto knows my mother wants grandchildren. And unlike my father, who rots in the ground where he belongs, she doesn’t care about the sex. She was lucky to have boys because God only knew what would have happened otherwise with a father like him.

  I don’t seem to be lucky to have a boy straight off. Though, I can’t deny that Wren is the perfect blend of her mother and me.

  “So, what do we do?” Roberto asks.

  “I don’t know.”

  His eyes shoot up at my words.

  I always know what to do in any given situation, but with her, I never know.

  “Is Joey still with her?”

  “Yes.”

  “For how long?” he pushes.

  I slam my hands down on the table. “Enough! Fucking enough. I know what you’re doing, Roberto. You want me to see that I should end it. That this isn’t what’s right for me. I get it, I fucking do. But guess what?” I stand, leaning over the table. “I don’t give a fuck what any of you fuckers think. All I need to do right now is figure out what I am going to do. It’s not every day you get told you are going to be a father.”

  “Twice,” Roberto says, turning and leaving.

  Fuck.

  Chapter Four

  Sailor

  Joey stays for days, which turns into weeks, then into months. He leaves at night and comes back during the day. He drives me wherever I need to go, but we hardly speak. More so him than me. I ask questions, but I get nothing in response. It must be his punishment for not telling Keir about the pregnancy.

  If it is, he’s not telling me any different, so I can only assume.

  I haven’t heard from Keir. I’m not sure if that’s a blessing or not.

  Wren and I have managed to find a routine that works for us. At first, I was stressed, with little to no sleep, and constantly wondering if everything I was doing was right.

  Raising a little human is hard.

  Harder than they can ever prepare you for.

  And I tried t
o prepare myself.

  I read every book I could lay my hands on and went to every class I could get into.

  Wren sighs as she opens her eyes, and I can’t help but get lost in them. She is perfect. Literal perfection wrapped in front of me, and she’s all mine.

  It hurts to think about all the others before her that I lost. Would they have looked like her, with the same long lashes? Or would they look like him, my dead husband? Leaning down, I kiss her head and tell her how beautiful she is, and how much I love her.

  Somewhere amongst those words that float from my mouth, I lose track of those thoughts that plague me and put all my energy into Wren.

  Utter perfection.

  Mine.

  My parents left a week or so ago. They came to meet Wren and help me out a little bit. And even though they waited to come, I’m glad they did. It gave me enough time to bond with my girl.

  Six months to be exact.

  Of nothing but her and me. Oh, and Benny, and sometimes Joey.

  Keir disappeared just as quickly as he had come back. I haven’t heard from him, but I know he has eyes on me. Joey, to be precise.

  I’ve gone to work a few times to see Henry. He’s asked me out a few times, which I didn’t expect, but I turned him down because I don’t see him that way.

  Henry doesn’t realize it, but I’m saving him from a lifetime of problems.

  Because that’s what happens to me—trouble always follows.

  And who knows what Keir might do, I don’t want anything happening to Henry.

  Carrying Wren on my hip, I walk to the front door and pull it open. The first thing I see is the black car that’s always parked at the curb. But this one is different, and a shiver racks through me as I realize…

  … I’m under no delusion that he’s going to leave me alone anytime soon.

  Now he knows I have his child, I had hoped that would be the end of it since Wren is not a boy. But as I watch him get out of his car—two black shoes followed by two strong legs in a designer suit—I know he isn’t going to leave. Ever. He will just keep coming back, again and again.