“O-okay, okay, I’ll tell you!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Callum roared. “Tell them anything, and you know what will happen to your family!”
Contestant B whimpered, shaking his head. I grabbed his hair and leaned over his face. “I can protect your family if you tell me who to protect them from.”
“He’s lying! He can’t,” Callum shouted, and Gio sent a brutal punch to his stomach to shut him up.
“Who is after my wife? Who do you work for?”
“Her–her uncle.”
“And who’s her uncle?” I pressed the knife to the side of his face.
“Your children are dead the moment his name leaves your lips!” Callum yelled, and Gio snapped. He knocked him out in one vicious punch, his body hanging limp.
“Please… pl-please, if I tell you, I’ve won the game, right? You’ll show me mercy?” Contestant B blubbered.
“Who is her uncle?” I hissed, my patience hanging by a very thin thread. The knife sliced along the side of his face, ready for me to peel away.
“M—McKenna…” he cried out in panic, and I paused, the name sparking recognition in my bones. “Sean McKenna.”
Holy fucking shit. The notoriously ruthless Mafia King of Ireland. Sean McKenna was Aria’s uncle? It all slotted into place. Aria’s mother must have been Sean’s sister. She had been fleeing from the McKennas all her life. But how the hell did Callum fit into this?
I stepped back from the Irish soldier with wide eyes and let the knife fall from my hands. I heard Gio muttering under his breath as he paced behind me. This was really fucking bad. Worse than I could have imagined.
“What does he want with Aria?” I had some ideas about what a man like Sean McKenna needed his niece for, but I wanted to hear facts.
“I don’t know…” he cried. “I’m just a soldier. He hand-picked soldiers who had people they would die for on this mission because he could threaten our families if we failed. Please… I know nothin’ else. Just that we had to follow Callum’s orders and bring her home to Ireland when Callum said so. If Boss finds out it was me who told you… he’ll kill my children… please…”
“Who is Callum to the McKennas?”
“I–I don’t know. I’d never met him before I was sent here two months ago to work for him. I swear. I don’t know anythin’ else.”
Then he was of no use to me. I pulled out my gun and shot the soldier in the head. A swift, painless death was the only mercy I could offer.
I locked eyes with Gio, the heavy silence between us so unsettling that my body trembled with it. His dark, horrified gaze mirrored mine.
Aria was an Irish Mafia princess, not just from any Irish family but from the most powerful and merciless mob that had wiped out nearly every rival family in Ireland to claim their title. We had always refused to ally with them because Sean McKenna had no loyalty to anyone and was a vile, twisted individual who killed his own parents for greed and power.
And I married his niece without his consent. I’d broken the oldest and most traditional mafia code and gave him the perfect excuse for war.
Fuck.
Sapphire Princess
Iwoke up to find Santino sitting in the chair in the corner of the bedroom, dressed immaculately in fresh clothes, and his hair still looked slightly damp from the shower. I rolled onto my side to face him with a soft smile.
“Why are you all the way over there watching me sleep? Come here.”
His dark eyes flicked over my face, his mouth hidden behind his hand as his fingers pressed against his lips. He looked as if he hadn’t slept at all. I glanced at his side of the bed and realised it was still perfectly made. I frowned, propping myself on my elbow as soon as I noticed I didn’t have my usual playful husband greeting me but a very troubled one.
“What’s wrong?” I asked quickly, remembering that I had fallen asleep before he returned from torturing Callum last night. “Did Callum talk?”
“No,” Sani replied, inhaling and bobbing his head against his hand in a slight motion. He could never stay still when he was agitated. “We tortured him all night. He won’t talk.”
“Oh,” I said, sitting up slowly and letting the duvet slide down to my waist. Sani’s eyes tracked over my tits in the silk camisole I was wearing, but they didn’t even blaze with desire like they usually did whenever he looked at me. Something was seriously wrong. “But something did happen?”
He dropped his hand against the arm of the chair, and his eyes locked onto mine. Suddenly, he stood up, strode towards the bed, and dropped to his knees beside me. He took my face in his hands, his dark gaze searching my soul and leaving me breathless at the intensity swirling within them.
