Page 3 of Redemption

She smiles up at me from her spot on the ground and pulls my pants down without a word.

2

KILIAN

Ilie in bed and stare at the ceiling. Not at all satisfied with the woman lying next to me. Just another day and another meaningless fuck. I don’t even know why I bother anymore. Nothing will ever feel real, feel worth it.

The buzzing of my phone on the nightstand gets my attention. I grab it and see a text from my father. It’s three in the morning here but eight a.m. in London. I’m surprised it took him so long to text me. I usually have messages from him by six.

I send a message off to my pilot then turn the screen off on my phone and silently groan as I get off the bed. I grab my clothes and pull them back on. I slide the suitcase I never unpacked out of the closet and walk out of the room.

* * *

I manage a couple hours of sleep on the plane before we land in London. I greet the driver my father sent as I slide into the back seat of an SUV.

I turn my phone on and answer emails as we drive out to my parents’ estate just north of London. When we drive through the gate I sigh deeply as I take in the massive property. It’s been in my family for generations. The house I grew up in, the house that I used to one day want as my own. A massive twenty-five-thousand-square-foot mansion on two hundred acres. It screams opulence and status. As a kid, I loved the freedom of the house. But now it feels confining, suffocating. I never thought such a large house could feel so small. But now it does. The walls closing in on me every time I set foot through the grand front doors.

“Kilian!” my mother exclaims as their butler opens the door for me and takes my coat. “I’ve missed you.”

I wrap my arms around my mother. She is one of the strongest women I know. She knows all the secrets my father keeps, the secrets I keep, but she maintains her status like she knows nothing. A good societal wife who dotes on her husband, the CEO of the world’s largest investment firm, not the man who runs the largest crime syndicate in the world.

“I missed you too, Mum. It’s been too long.”

She grabs my hand and drags me to the parlor room. “It has been. You need to spend more time at your penthouse and less traveling for work. That way you can visit me more often.”

I squeeze her hand. “It’s hard to be a mama’s boy when I am away all the time but you know duty calls.”

A servant hands us each a drink as we take a seat in the formal sitting room. She frowns at me. “You should have the freedom to choose the life you want, Kilian.”

“Better not let father hear you.”

She scoffs as she sips on her martini. “Alistair knows my opinion on everything.”

“Yet he doesn’t listen to you.”

She smiles. “I get my way with most things. I just wish I got my way with you but…” She trails off as she looks out the window into the distance.

“Mum?” I ask as I reach over and grab her hand. I study her, the way her face falls as she looks out into nothing in the distance. Her dark strawberry-blonde hair glowing orange in the afternoon light. Small frown lines form around her mouth and tiny lines crest her eyes. For someone in her late sixties who has been through more than any woman should have she still looks surprisingly young and beautiful.

She sighs and turns her brilliant-blue eyes toward me. The same eyes as mine. “I just wish you had what your brothers have.”

“Father has always had a plan for me,” I say quietly.

“That’s not what I mean, Kil. I know that one of you will have to take over the business someday. I know you risk your life and that worries me more than I will ever let you know. But… I wish you had what I had. A family. A wife and kids. Grandkids one day.” She pauses as she fiddles with a bracelet. “It’s not too late. I know your father set you on the path to take over The Partners because you weren’t married. But he has a family and he runs it. That doesn’t mean you can’t have one.”

I swallow down the glass of whiskey in my hand and gesture to a servant for more. “I know, Mum. But I gave up on that part of my life a long time ago. I am fine with the choices that have led me here.”

She gives me a sad look. “If that’s what you want to believe.”

“I—”

“Kilian.” My father’s pronounced voice booms as he enters the room.

“Father.” I nod at him.

“I take it everything went well in New York.”

I nod.

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