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Truthfully, I was surprised she didn’t have more grandkids roaming around. I’d have thought they’d have tried to marry their sons off earlier, but apparently they hadn’t.
The older woman stood on her front stoop, wringing her hands. I twisted around to look at Shay, saw he was watching her, and murmured, “That’s Lena. Remember, be polite and respectful. They have a different way of life. Watch and take note.”
I’d told him the same when we’d traveled with some Roma back in Ireland and when we’d traversed the desert with a nomadic tribe of Bedouins.
I figured it was fitting that I told him the same with a bunch of people who were Irish Mob. A culture all on their own. A society that lived with its own rules.
Declan had killed someone this week, shot another’s foot, but he hadn’t spent a lick of time inside a police station… that was how it worked when you were an O’Donnelly.
“I will,” Shay promised, but he was a kid. His assurances didn’t always mean that much.
Like that time with the Bedouins, when he’d asked why the leader was called a Sheikh, when he’d learned that Sheikh meant ‘old man,’ and the leader of the tribe had been in his late thirties…
I’d thanked God for the fact we’d had someone translating for us and, kindly, the translator hadn’t communicated that part.
Sometimes, questions just came out, and with Seamus, more than most. He was inquisitive by nature. Protective too.
I wasn’t surprised he’d raised Doyle’s conversation, because he’d stayed quiet and hadn’t said anything, he’d be feeling guilty.
Somehow, and I had no idea how, but I’d instilled an honor code in him. Sometimes, I wondered how I’d done such a good job, but then I’d come back down to Earth when he took a twenty-five-minute shower.
I climbed out of the SUV, and as Shay closed his door, I hooked an arm over his shoulders. When he hugged his around my waist, we walked as a united front toward the grandmother who, quite clearly, longed to meet him.
Aside from the one-armed hug, he was stiff and tense, and I didn’t bother trying to ease that. He’d be that way until he was home tonight, and that was okay. I didn’t blame him, either. I’d be happy when I was climbing into my bed tonight too.
Well, happier when I climbed out of it to head into Declan’s…
“Seamus,” Lena whispered, her eyes lighting up as they drifted over him.
He looked cute in his suit, and even though I figured he could have come in pants and a shirt, I thought it best to start off properly… the suit and the Kevlar vest? More reasons why I owed him big time. Hence the full-on day trip to Coney Island.
“Hi,” he said awkwardly, lifting a hand and waving it.
She smiled at him, then stepped forward at the same time Aidan Sr. loomed in the doorway.
His eyes were on me, and not even for a scant second did they flicker over to Shay or to Lena. It was the strangest feeling, being at the center of someone’s focus who was capable of killing you, who’d feel no remorse over it because he had a different honor code.
It was like when you went to a zoo or an aquarium and a lion or a shark stared at you through the cage/glass. You were well aware that, without the pen, you’d be chomped up and spat out within seconds.
I was face to face with a predator, and even though my heart sped up, I wasn’t scared.
It boggled my mind, but I wasn’t.
I tipped my chin up and stared him down just as hard as he stared at me, until Declan barked, “Da, stop it.”
His gaze cut to his son, and they glowered at one another for a minute before Lena turned to her husband and grumbled, “Stop looming, Aidan. Get over here and meet Seamus.”
Aidan licked his lips and took a few cautious steps forward. In fact, everything about him spoke of his nerves.
The distinct difference between before, when he’d been looking at me with the cold, glass-eyed stare of a predator, to now was difficult to acclimate to.
Every frickin’ mommy instinct inside me was screaming to get my kid away, demanding I head for the hills with my boy, but hadn’t I just been saying what was the complete truth?
These guys wouldn’t kill family. They’d killforfamily.
Maybe he knew what was going through my head, maybe he got it, because Declan was behind me all of a sudden. He was there, and I felt his heat, and he didn’t move as Aidan held out a hand for Seamus to shake.
The next few minutes were surreal. Lena fussed, Aidan stayed silent, and Seamus didn’t really soften that much. He smiled and awkwardly answered the questions Lena asked, and in the end, I knew that with Lena trying to force fourteen years of grandmotherly instinct onto him, she wasn’t going to get anywhere.
