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25
Bain
Ciana findingthe vitamins wasn’t something I’d anticipated. I was going to confess everything to her later that night before introducing her to her new medical team who would be watching over her throughout the rest of her pregnancy and after the babies’ birth.
I should have known she would want to inspect her new surroundings, but I’d been so focused on dealing with Sheena that the possible discovery of Darcy’s part in everything had slipped my mind. Now I had to find someone to take the NP’s position of caring for Ciana for the next five months, because I didn’t doubt that if Ciana did come face-to-face with the other woman, she would take that bat to her without hesitation.
That she didn’t take that damned bat to me gave me a little hope that she cared about my well-being. I hadn’t allowed myself to think too hard about the possible complications the babies might be faced with because of my own selfishness, but after Ciana vowed never to speak to me again if something happened to them, I was beginning to sweat. She wasn’t one to make idle threats. But it wasn’t just the fear of never being blessed with her sweet voice again.
A knot of dread and anxiety was starting to twist in my gut at the thought of anything happening to any of my precious baby girls.
Ciana was right. I was selfish. If anything happened to any of our children, it would be my fault and I would never forgive myself.
Raking my hands through my hair, I walked into my office. My father’s old Red Sox memorabilia normally soothed me on sight, made me feel closer to him. But not even that could ease the tension mounting inside me.
Ciana was finally under the same roof with me. I knew she was safe, that nothing would happen to her. Yet, I had this unsettled feeling deep in my bones, telling me something wasn’t right. That she wasn’t as safe as I knew she was.
With a groan, I dropped into the leather chair behind the desk.
The Vituccis.
They would come for her. That was why I couldn’t feel at ease, I told myself. Ryan and her father would try to take her away from me. I couldn’t allow that, but if I wanted Ciana to be happy, I knew I had to figure out some way to put the animosity behind us. Whatever Sheena’s vendetta had been against Ryan, it wasn’t my war to fight.
Maybe if I showed my cousin that our great-grandmother was no longer a threat to anyone, he would accept my relationship with Ciana.
Or maybe he’d want war, given that I’d killed every man who’d tried to keep me from reaching Ciana back at the Vitucci compound the day before.
Either way, I still had to try.
For her.
But I would make it clear that, no matter what Ryan’s feelings about the O’Brion side of the family, Ciana now belonged to me. I wasn’t letting her go. Not now. Not ever. If he wanted war, I’d give it to him.
The office door opened without warning. Declan walked in, his usual cocky stride annoying the hell out of me for some reason. Conor was right behind him, carrying what appeared to be a hatbox with a ribbon on top.
“Look,” Declan said with a chuckle. “He even fancied it up for her. How he knows how to tie a ribbon that pretty, though, is worrying me.”
I kept my gaze on my best friend for a second, trying to see whatever it was that Ciana saw in him to make her dislike him on sight. She was a people person and tended to get along with just about everyone until they gave her a reason to dislike them. Yet she’d turned cold the moment she’d set eyes on Declan. I knew for a fact the two had never met before, so what was it that had put her off?
Not that it really mattered. If she was uncomfortable, then Declan would stay away. Best friend or not, Ciana came first, before anyone else.
Conor placed the hatbox on a trash bag on the floor in front of my desk. “We let the head drain completely before boxing it up, but it’s already turning gooey. I don’t know what Sheena was doing to look younger than she was, but she’s decomposing rapidly.”
“She drank the blood of the innocent,” Declan snarked as he dropped down into one of the chairs in front of the desk. “Wouldn’t have been surprised if she was Lilith herself.”
Conor remained stoic as he stood in front of my desk. It wasn’t the first time he’d tuned Declan out in the past several months, but it was the first time I actually took stock of it. The three of us, we’d always been thick as thieves, best friends since we were in primary school. Declan and I might have been closer, but Conor never had to question his value to me. “What else do you need?” he asked, his gaze intent on my face.
“Add extra men to the wall. Vitucci won’t be far behind. They’ll come for her, and they won’t be alone.” I grimaced at the box. “But I don’t want war unless it comes to it. The head will be a peace offering. An olive branch.”
“What?” Declan jumped to his feet. “Have you lost yer mind?”
Conor took a step closer to my desk, but I lifted a hand to stop whatever he was about to do and just sat there, waiting to hear what the other man had to say.
Declan glared down at me. “I didn’t say anything when you got confused about which head you should be thinking with where this hoor is concerned, but now you want to, what? Hug and be best mates with people who’ve been our enemies for decades?” He scoffed. “Take the balls outta yer eyes, Bain. This bealin’ bitch is going to get you killed, mate.”
I had more willpower than I realized as I counted all the insults he’d tossed at Ciana. Slowly inhaling, I glanced at Conor. “Do you feel the same?”
Conor was quiet for a moment, measuring his words before answering. “Sheena’s vendetta against Vitucci was something Cormac was against. If he thought there wasn’t a reason to pursue it, then we should have minded our own business and left them alone. But regardless of that, it’s your call. They are your blood, and she is your woman. My opinion doesn’t matter.”
“How you two feel about this does actually matter,” I told him, somehow continuing to contain the rage vibrating through me. “And now that I know what you both think, I’m beginning to see a few things clearer.”
“About time,” Conor said, meeting my gaze, that intensity back once again, and I wondered how long he’d been trying to tell me something but I just hadn’t wanted to listen.
I tilted my head at him before shifting my eyes to Declan. Whatever he saw in my expression had the blood draining from his face. “Is he against me, Con?”
“Ever wonder why Sheena liked him so much?” my third asked instead. “And did you notice that she didn’t throw too much of a fit after her wedding plans for you and Cori got terminated?”
I hadn’t, because I didn’t care. Cori was nothing to me. I didn’t care who she was sleeping with or what she did as long as she stayed the hell away from me.
“I was only fucking her for shits,” Declan dismissed with a strained laugh. “Bain don’t care, do ya, mate?”
“That you were dicking Cori?” I shook my head. “Couldn’t have cared less, Dec. Calling my future wife a hoor and a bitch, that is another matter. Ciana is very perceptive. She disliked you on sight, which made me wonder why, when she tries to give everyone a chance.” I got to my feet, slowly, so as not to spook him. “You scared her.”
“I scare lots of people. Comes with the territory when ya spend most of yer life killin’ people.” He folded his arms over his chest defensively, but now his hand was closer to the gun he always kept tucked into the top of his pants under his suit jacket. Since we were younger, he’d hated holsters, saying they were too much trouble. They wasted too much time for him to try to get his gun free when he really needed it. “I can’t help it if she’s sensitive.”
“Did you know Sheena was going to take Ciana?” I asked, rounding the desk.
“No,” he said, and I believed him, but something was off. The way he was standing was his tell. Only Conor and I knew that, though, because we knew him so well. Declan was like a brother to us both.
“But you suspected she was up to something?”
“No,” he answered, but this time, I could almost taste the lie. It was in the way his stance became more defensive, the fingers of his right hand inching closer to where his gun was hidden.
“Did Cori give you reason to believe Sheena was planning something?”
“Of course not,” he grunted. “It was just sex with Cori. We didn’t talk.”
“Where was Cori when Sheena ambushed Ciana?” I directed the question at Declan, but it was Conor who answered.
“Someone mentioned she was with Sheena at the time,” he told me. “She’s like Sheena’s pet, always following her around, yipping at her heels for attention. But I haven’t been able to confirm her location yet.”
“And where was Dec at the time?” I murmured in a deceptively quiet voice, when I wanted to bellow the question. I’d called Declan’s cell, and he’d been out of breath. I’d been sure he was fucking someone at the time. If Cori was the one warming his bed, and it was possible Cori was with Sheena…
“Were you in Ireland when I called you, mate?” I spat the word at him from between clenched teeth. “You and Conor came here while I was off searching for Sheena, but did you arrive together?”
“I took a commercial flight with a few of my men,” Conor confirmed. “Declan was already here when I arrived.”
Declan pulled his gun, pointing it first at me, then Conor, before quickly shifting it back to me again. “Who did you think Sheena was going to pick to take over once she got rid of you, Bain?” he taunted. “Not one of those half-wit cousins of yers, that’s for fucking sure.”
The betrayal of my closest friend left a foul taste in my mouth, but that wasn’t what had me seeing red. “Were you there?” I gritted out, taking another step closer even though he had the gun pointed right at my head. “Did you watch Sheena torture Ciana?”
“I was there,” he said with a smirk. “I watched as she lost a part of herself as Sheena chopped up the blonde. It made Cori so hot and wet, the way your little hoor withdrew into herself more and more. The smell of her burning flesh as Sheena touched the torch to her skin, strands of that red hair of hers flying all over the place. Cori dragged me out of the basement and fucked me on the stairs while Sheena finished up.”
It was too much, the visual he put in my head of my beautiful Ciana being hurt while he sat back and watched. My best friend, who knew what she meant to me, should have protected her with his own life. The nightmare she’d gone through, and then I’d let him near her again today?
With a roar, I charged him. His gun went off, but he was so shocked that I’d run at him, his hand shifted and the bullet hit the wall over my shoulder. I tackled Declan to the floor, and the gun went off again, right in my ear. The loudness of the blast had my ears ringing, the heat of the bullet firing from the end of the gun scalding the side of my face. I grabbed his wrist and twisted, causing the gun to go flying across the floor as I felt the bones snap beneath my fingers.
“You filthy sonofabitch,” I snarled, feeling his front teeth snap with my first punch to his face. He kicked beneath me, trying to get free, but I only punched him harder. I couldn’t hear anything, but from the look on his face, he was screaming and cursing. My next blow connected with his temple, knocking him out.
Behind me, more men came running into the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Conor motion for them to stay back, and I shifted my gaze back to the man who’d once been my best friend. But all I could see was Ciana’s face, the fear she must have felt shining out of her pretty eyes, and it turned me into a beast. The need to kill Declan with my bare hands was too strong.
Getting to my knees, I looked down at the man who’d been by my side through literal hell, but who had betrayed me in the worst way by not protecting my woman when he could have. He was unconscious—the fucker always did have a glass jaw. Reaching down, I snapped his neck and stood, spitting on his dead body.
Breathing hard, I glanced around at all of the men standing around gaping at what they’d just witnessed. “Conor,” I panted. Some of the ringing in one of my ears was fading, but I suspected the eardrum of the one the gun had gone off beside was ruptured. “Question all of his men. If they were with him, kill them all. I don’t care what their excuses are. No one who was there will continue to breathe the same air as my wife.”
Conor glanced down dispassionately at the man who was once like a brother to us both. What had happened to him over the years? Was it greed, a power trip, or had Cori corrupted him?
Whatever caused Declan to turn on me, his death would serve to show everyone that no one could go against me without facing the consequences.
And if anyone tried to harm my Ciana, I would break their fucking necks as well.
“You want me to box up his head too?” Conor asked with a lifted brow.
“No.” I started to comb my fingers through my hair to get it out of my face, only to realize my knuckles were busted open, part of one of Declan’s front teeth sticking out of one. Grimacing, I pulled it out. “Chop him up and have his body delivered to Cori one piece at a time. Save the head for last. Put it in a freezer. I plan on delivering the head personally.”
Let the bitch sweat it out. Fear every sound in the dark. Imagine every shadow behind her was me. Then she would get what she deserved for what had happened to Ciana.
