AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I gave him a look that silently read, And?
“We had a meeting with Finn,” he added.
“Okay . . .”
He searched my face. His gaze landed on my mouth, and he pressed the softest kiss to my lips. “Willa.” My name sounded like a prayer. “We need to talk about last night ... about what happened at the warehouse.”
I replied with the only thought that came to mind. “Will Raphael be held accountable? That’s the law.”
Lucifer would know I was referring to Mob law—it was the only justice system our kind adhered to. Raphael had ordered the murder of an underboss. Then again, we were talking about the Albanians. They didn’t engender much fear or respect.
But a girl could hope. It would be one way to solve all my problems ...
His expression sobered. “It’s not the law.”
I bristled at the thought of Raphael getting off the hook—yet again. “It’s at least some kind of ethical code violation.” Men had been turned over to rival syndicates for less.
Men like my father.
Lucifer cupped my cheek. The brush of leather against my skin made me shiver.
“Careful, Willa. You’re not speaking like a woman who requested a transactional marriage to create an alliance.” His tone was gentle, but my throat narrowed anyway. I didn’t like the direction this conversation was headed.
After a stretch of silence, he asked, “So it’s true?” His accent deepened. “It was your idea to marry Raphael?”
The weight of that question hung in the air between us, suffocating me slowly. I was an emotional beat away from pouring out my soul, but it was too soon. The future was too murky.
“Aye,” I replied.
Seconds ticked by.
“Why?”
I took Lucifer’s hand from my face and nestled it to my chest. Could he feel my heart breaking? “As a means to an end ... that’s all ... nothing more.”
But it wasn’t that simple. Feelings—priorities—can change. Or so I was learning.
Still, I needed absolute clarity before I could share those thoughts with Lucifer. Which meant I needed him to continue to believe that this was about business.
Hopefully, it would buy me time. I needed every hour possible to process and come to a decision on whether my heart lay with the pain of the past or the possibility of a future.
Lucifer said he wanted to talk about last night, but I needed to move the focus away from Raphael, so I went with the thought that had been plaguing my mind. “My father did a lot of bad things, but he wasn’t a rapist.”
He brought our clasp to his lips, and something like remorse looked back at me. “Aye. I know, sweetheart.”
My lungs grew heavy with emotion. I’d always believed that my father hadn’t raped Tiernan’s first wife—a false charge that he paid for with his life—but hearing Lucifer’s confirmation paved the way for a profound type of healing that eased the ache in my chest.
“They loved each other,” I whispered, the salty taste of tears reaching the tip of my tongue. “They must have. They risked ... everything ... to be together ...”
After Tiernan killed my father, he locked Kayleigh away, using her for his cruel pleasure. When she couldn’t take it any longer, she hanged herself with her bedsheets.
Then Tiernan had set his evil sights on me.
I’d been tutored and trained to be a polished Mob princess. A girl who read Dumas, the Brontë sisters, Shakespeare, and Poe, and foxhunted on the weekends. At some point early on, Aiden had determined that at eighteen, I’d be married to his youngest son, Colin. It made sense. We were divided by a mere two-year age gap, and the Brennans had put effort into me, therefore they wanted a return on their investment.
But once Kayleigh was no longer available to satisfy Tiernan’s violent delights, he grew restless. He said I’d become a temptress and that I needed a man to ensure I stayed a woman rather than turning into a whore.
I was fourteen and infatuated with horses, not boys.
