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Hm.I couldn’t rifle through the stack to see exactly what was on the line here, but I suspected it was more than a simple alliance. A gentle touch warmed the center of my back, and then slid downward until it hit the hard grip of my gun. The scent of sandalwood and leather washed over me.
“Beautifulandarmed,” a low voice murmured in my ear, as its owner rested his hand on my hip, lightly gripping me with his fingers. My heart rate sped up at the possessive touch.
Rian O’Conner stood beside me, staring down at the papers on my father’s desk. “What are you up to, princess?”
I met his clear blue eyes and bit my bottom lip. “I don’t know what you mean, Rian. I just came home to visit my family.”
“After a decade, on the night your father’s set to sign your sister’s engagement contracts? You’ve got to be fuckin’ kiddin’ me.”
I saluted him with my glass and pulled away. Hopefully he hadn’t heard my sharp intake of breath when he trailed his fingers over the top of my ass, leaving a sensual heat in his wake.
Sofia sat on the couch with my mother. I took my place beside her, a bastion of femininity in the otherwise very masculine study. Her delicate hand trembled in mine as I wrapped my fingers around hers. “It’s going to be okay.”
My mother must have heard because she gave me a sharp look.
The two lawyers reviewed the contracts in detail. In exchange for my sister’s hand in marriage, O’Conner would pay the Russians ten million dollars in my father’s name, as well as investing in a number of his legitimate businesses.What the hell?
My mouth must have dropped open because Liam winked at me and tapped his chin. I snapped it closed, but couldn’t hide the surprise in my eyes. My father’s businesses were in bad shape.What had happened while I was gone?
When my father gestured for Sofia to stand to sign the prenup, she shook her head violently. “I can’t,” she whispered.
“What do you mean, you can’t, little bird?” Rian asked softly.
“I mean, I can’t marry you, Rian.”
He narrowed his eyes and focused them on her. I squeezed her hand in reassurance. “You can’t, or you won’t?”
Sofia took a deep breath and then burst into tears. “I’m pregnant!’ she wailed.
My father paled and leaned over his desk, his hand on his heart. My mother rushed to his side while he sat, shaking, sweat beading on his clammy forehead. “No,” he whispered in disbelief.
Rian smiled viciously. “Then there’s no need for any of this. I’ll simply take over your territory and be done with it.” I felt the rage radiating off of him from across the room. This was not a man used to being thwarted. Cormac’s face was blank, but I could see from his clenched fists that he, too, was furious at the news. Liam was harder to read. He tried to maintain his cheerful visage, but anger peeked through in the tightness around his blazing green eyes.
My mother stroked my father’s hair. The tiny woman who’d raised me, who’d turned a blind eye to my father’s cheating and abuses, who’d stayed with him as he’d apparently run his empire into the ground, turned to this Irishman and said, “Good luck with that, you upstart. None of the families are willing to do business with you now, and that won’t change just because you muscled your way into my husband’s territory.”
That was the crux of it, wasn’t it? These men could own the entire city, but without real legitimacy, they couldn’t go straight, and they couldn’t do business with the big boys, the politicians that ran the city right alongside the mafia.
“It won’t matter to you,” Liam drawled, “whether we can do business in this city or not, if you’re all dead because you owe the Russians for a bad investment.”
That was why my father was so desperate for this deal.The Russians didn’t fuck around. Unlike the Italians, they didn’t spare women and children when they took out a family.
Well, fuck.
I continued to stroke Sofia’s hand while I thought my way through this. Ten million dollars was a lot of cash, more than I could get my hands on quickly, even if I were to use my company as collateral, or sell it.
“We’ll take her even though she’s knocked up,” Rian continued, his voice flat and angry. “She can pop out this baby, then pop out a few of ours, and nobody will fucking care if the first was a few months early.”
Sofia drew back into herself, horrified. “No,” she whispered, her shoulders hunching as she clutched her arms around her belly.
Ours. Not his. Holy shit, they intended to share her.
Cormac shook his head. “I’m not interested in damaged goods. But one Russo woman is as good as another.” He ran his cruel eyes up and down my body, focusing on where I held onto Sofia’s trembling hand.
Sofia looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “The agreement was that I marry Rian, not you.”
Cormac chuckled, the sound dark and liquid as he winked at us. I shouldn’t have found him so attractive. I shouldn’t have found any of them attractive. He shrugged. “The terms of the contract were clear. You’ll be Rian’s to do with as he wills. And he’ll share.”
My sister gasped, then turned her body into mine, wrapping her arms around my waist, as if to hide in my embrace.
