KILLIAN: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 2) by Glenna Sinclair Page A

home.”
    Stacy laughed at that moment at something someone near her said.
    Fuck!
    ***
    I was lost in my own thoughts on the ride home. Stacy held my hand and never asked. She knew me well enough to know not to push me. I appreciated that, but I sort of wished she would ask. I needed to get this out; I needed to explain things to her before other things got in the way.
    We lived together now. Neither of us saw the point in me keeping my room across the street when we spent every night together. There was already some college kid living in my room, playing loud music and leaving beer bottles on the front stoop of the elegant building. It annoyed me, but I tried not to let it get under my skin.
    “I asked for the time off, and they gave it to me, so we can plan our trip.”
    “What?”
    Stacy glanced at me as she kicked her shoes of and tossed them into the bedroom.
    “Valentine’s Day,” she said. “It’s a Sunday this year, so I asked for the Friday before and the Monday after off. That way we have a four day weekend.”
    Valentine’s Day. That was this coming weekend.
    I wouldn’t be here.
    “I have to go back to Boston, Stacy.”
    She was in the middle of unbuttoning her skirt, shedding her work clothes in favor of the comfortable yoga pants she wore around the apartment. She straightened, staring at me across the living room from where she was still standing inside the bedroom door.
    “You’re leaving?”
    “Ian called this afternoon. Pops wants me back.”
    “Why?”
    “Things have cooled off there. He hasn’t gotten any more threats from the people who took Brianna, and he thinks that they probably were never going to hurt you. He needs me back at MCorp.”
    “No, he needs you back to help him protect Jack’s illegal activities.”
    “Stace—”
    “Why else? All he’s ever cared about is his work with Jack. Bringing guns and God knows what else into the country to make the streets of Boston that much more dangerous. Selling drugs and—”
    “Stop it, Stacy,” I said, crossing to her in just a couple of quick strides. “You can’t just talk about it like that.”
    “Why? Are you afraid the cops are smart enough to bug my apartment? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if they were that smart, Pops would have been in jail long before I came to live with the family.”
    “I have to leave tomorrow morning. Do you really want to argue about this?”
    “You don’t have to go.”
    My eyes narrowed as I regarded her face. “You know that’s not true.”
    “What hold does he have over you? Don’t you have a mind of your own?”
    “Of course I do!”
    “Then why? Why don’t you stay here with me?”
    “Because I have a life there. My home is there, my job.”
    “Oh.” She turned away, storming into the bedroom. “So you were only here with me because Pops told you to be. And now that he doesn’t want you here, it’s done? You don’t want me anymore?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “You didn’t have to.”
    “Stacy, this has nothing to do with us.”
    “It has everything to do with us!” She spun around, tears rolling in heavy drops down her face. “You’re leaving me.”
    “Come with me.”
    She laughed. “I’m sure Pops would love that. He’d have me back under his thumb again, and we’d have to sneak around, pretend that things haven’t changed between us because I know you would never tell Pops about us. You wouldn’t want him to look down on you.”
    “That’s not true.”
    “Isn’t it?”
    I crossed to her, grabbed her by her upper arms. “I love you, Stacy. I’m only going to Boston. We can still see each other. I can come up here on the weekends; we can still go to Connecticut. We can still find time to be together.”
    “For how long? What happens when Pops needs you on the weekends? What happens when it’s been months since we last saw each other? What happens when some other girl crosses your radar?”
    “That won’t happen.”
    “But it will. That