“We are going to rule Ireland, sweetheart,” Cormac said.
“I’ll be right behind you…”Angelo’s voice was soft in her head, like a half-remembered dream, tugging her away from reality.“You aren’t leaving me… You’re just going ahead.”
Her cold, dead heart gave a painful lurch in her chest.
“I love you, Kara. I love you with all that I am. You understand?”
She briefly closed her eyes, fighting back fresh tears.
You went on ahead with me, Angelo… To a place I can’t follow.
“What’s the matter with ye?” Cormac’s voice broke through her thoughts and she opened her tear-filled eyes to meet his gaze.
“You don’t need me, Cormac. You have all of my father’s businesses. I don’t want any of it.”
He shook his head, almost ruefully. “But… that’s just it, I do need ye, love. The Westies in New York want to see ye, want to know your mine so they’ll agree to work under me.”
“But I’m not yours.”
Anger sparked in Cormac’s face. “But ye will be. I have a priest ready in New York to marry us.”
“Over my dead body,” Kara replied, her tone still calm.
“If it comes to that,” Cormac said with a shrug. “But hopefully it won’t. Yer too pretty to kill.”
She didn’t flinch when he caressed her cheek, even though she wanted to.
“I won’t make this easy for you,” she warned.
“Now there’s your father’s fire in you.” Cormac chuckled, then he turned to the man who was standing behind him. “Jim, tell the pilot we’re ready to leave.”
The other man brushed past them and headed to the cockpit.
Kara turned to face the windows of small plane, staring out into the dark… into the bleak night that matched her own soul.
Chapter Nineteen
Angelo’s lungs burned as he glanced up once, seeing the vague outline of Kara’s body in the murky depths as she shot out of the window and vanished into the lake beyond.
She was going to make it. She had to.
He knew he had no more than two minutes before the carbon dioxide accumulation triggered the involuntary urge to breathe. He had once held his breath for three and half minutes in high school during a breath holding competition. If he made it out of this, he’d pay a visit to his old coach and thank him for running breathing drills.
He yanked out the seat lever, and suddenly the seat gave way, letting his legs slide free. The fire in his chest was so strong, so distracting it cost him precious seconds to get to the passenger window and swim out.
Have to make it… can’t… stop…
The dark water started to tunnel around his vision as he swam for what he prayed was the surface. But his limbs were leaden and his chest was in agony.
Don’t… breathe…
His fingers brushed against more water. The surface was too far… too far.
He was sinking… and then his body failed him. His lungs seized and he sucked in water. Lights flashed across his eyes his eyes, and visions danced before him in the gloom of his watery grave.
He peered over the edge of a gently swinging bassinet to watch his little brother Dante sleep… He scampered around the playground with his other brothers, laughing and playing tag… He stood tall as his mother kissed him goodbye before he left for the preparatory high school… He shook hands with the young man with golden hair who stepped into his dorm room…
“I’m Thad… I guess we’re roommates…” Thad grinned and pointed to another boy carrying a duffel bag who followed behind him. “That’s Jared. He’s our third…”
