AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Aidan grunted under his breath, but backed away, moving toward a closet in the hallway where he placed my coat.
Brennan passed the bag he’d been carrying over to me, and I smiled a little awkwardly at the gimlet stare Lena cast my way.
“Let me introduce Camille to you, Ma,” Brennan said gruffly, his hand entwining with mine as he tugged me into his side.
The instant I collided with his heat, a strange welter of relief filled me.
Like I was safe.
Like, even though I was with two of New York’s most dangerous clan leaders, he’d protect me.
I wasn’t sure he’d ever know how much gratitude filled me at that moment. How, in those seconds, where he could have tossed me to the lions, he earned something that couldn’t be bought.
He’d wanted my trust.
He’d said he wanted my loyalty.
But in that simple move, he earned them.
Or the seedlings of them, at any rate.
He broke the union of our hands and instead, covered my shoulder with his arm, tucking me even deeper into his hold.
I didn’t know where he ended and I began as I faced his mother, who merely pursed her lips and said, “Brennan, son, if you didn’t think I figured that out the second she crossed the threshold, you must think I’m going senile.” She tipped her head to the side. “What I’d like to know is why you brought Inessa’s sister for dinner with your parents?”
“If you’re so smart,” he jeered, but there was a grin on his face, “then I’m sure you can figure it out.”
“What I’m figuring out is that you’ve done something damn foolish,” was her waspish retort, as her gaze drifted over to her husband who was somewhere behind us.
“I hate it when you do this,” Aidan grumbled. “It’s like the two of you speak your own language.”
Lena snorted. “Not our fault you can’t keep up.”
Aidan heaved a sigh as he passed us in the wide hall, then moved to Lena’s side. In a way that mimicked Brennan’s hold on me, he slipped his arm around her waist and tucked her into his side.
His mouth brushed over her crown as he kissed her, his eyelids fluttering closed as he did so. It was strange to meet the man the city both revered and feared, and to see him so evidently in love with his wife after all these years. He breathed her in as he held her close, like he never wanted to let her go.
Touched, I bit my lip, both charmed and a little awestruck by the sight of such devotion.
They knew I was Russian. Knew I was Bratva. Yet Aidan still showed me that side of himself, of their relationship.
In my world, that was a weakness. Something to be exploited.
And while I was sure Aidan Sr.’s world worked the exact same way, he didn’t care.
That strength—or insanity—made me relax some.
During the ride upstate, Brennan had told me he was going to paint us as a love match to his parents, and I realized that was the smartest way to go. If Aidan could look and hold and touch his wife the way he did, then surely he had the closet heart of a romantic?
“What’s going on, son?” Aidan asked after he focused on us again.
“I’d like you to meet my wife.”
A wave of emotion flashed over Lena’s face, but Aidan’s scowl would have had me backing up if Brennan hadn’t tightened his hold on me.
I peeped up at him, saw he wasn’t frightened of that scowl, and I was overawed by how in control he was, how unafraid. It wasn’t an act, he wasn’t faking it until he made it. He wasn’t scared. Genuinely.
If anyone knew what the man was capable of, I had to reason it was his sons, but Brennan stood there, uncowering as he murmured, “We met at the Jupiter Wells party. The one you forced me to go to because Aidan was sick.”
