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“I’m sorry,” I murmured, sincere. I laid a hand on his bicep. Now that my brother was gone, Luca was the only other person in the world that I considered a friend. “Truly. I am so sorry, Luca.”
The blond-haired man let out a heavy sigh. Knowing him as long as I had, I could tell he was holding back what he truly wanted to say. But instead of laying into me, he just gave me a small smile and laid a guiding hand on my back and led me through the maze of the house, to my room.
“Get some rest, Ottie. I’ll keep him occupied for as long as I can,” he said quietly as he backed out of my room, shutting the door softly behind him.
It was more than I deserved, honestly. Luca’s family was close to mine, so he held more sway with my father than most, but putting himself directly in the path of my father’s rage was not something a person did lightly. The fact that he was willingto do it, when I’d already forced him into the path once tonight, meant the world to me.
I drowned out my shame in the steam of the shower. The hot water burned against the fresh bite mark and a thought that was percolating around my head came to the forefront. Why did he let me go?
I didn’t have the answer. I didn’t even have any guesses.
Eoin Ó Ceallaigh was a mystery.
After exiting my shower, I didn’t even bother dressing. Just stayed wrapped in the heavyweight towel and dropped into my bed, burying my face in my pillow.
For the first time since I received the news of my brother’s death, I let myself feel the grief, and I cried myself to sleep.
Eoin
Chapter Eleven
The sun had just barely set, the daylight hidden only enough that I could walk freely. There was a warm breeze in the air, the sweet smell of flowers mixed with the woody stench of fresh dirt. My foot crunched over a faded blue plastic flower as I walked through the cemetery, hands casually tucked into my pockets. Despite the breeze, I could smellher.And just the little soft waft of amber was enough to track.
It had been a few days since I’d let Ottavia slip through my fingers.
Tonight I was correcting that mistake.
Her dark hair had come into view first, long and thick, falling in waves down her back. Her body was wrapped in a formfitting black dress that fell to her ankles, hiding her feet. Her shoulders lightly shook as she cried, her palms rising to swipe away the tears from her cheeks. Just as I could smell her, I could smell that my men were also here, just as planned. I hadn’t known for sure that she’d still be here, but I’d had a strong hunch. From what information I had been able to gather within the last fewdays, she preferred to grieve alone. So it was an educated guess that she would stay late after her brother’s funeral to mourn in peace.
Well, she wasn’t exactly alone, but my men had already disposed of most of her guards before I had even arrived. In my experience, most mutts and mortals were absolutely useless. Tonight was a testament to that. If this was how Mattia thought he was keeping Ottavia safe all these years from me, he was far more delusional than I had ever thought before.
He’s just lucky she wasn’t on my radar until now.
My hand rose, stopping my men as they crept up to her weeping form and the guard looking upon her with pity.
“Yer ’ather really needs ta work on ’is security detail.” Ottavia’s face snapped to mine, red-rimmed eyes wide with disbelief.
She stood, the guard next to her raising a gun in warning, but even I could see the slight tremble of his hand. “This is La Rosa property! One step more and I’ll shoot!”
With a flick of my fingers he was silenced, his head snapped sideways in a fraction of a second, and his gun dropped from his useless fingers moments before his body fell to the grass near Ottavia’s feet.
She gasped, before her shock dissipated enough to reach for the gun. Before my men could stop her, she snatched it from the grass, firing off two shots that landed square in my chest. My stride faltered for only a moment, and a hiss slipped through my lips as I shook my head at her, watching her fight the hold my men now had on her.
“Let go of me!Help!Someone help me!” she bellowed, wrenching back and forth uselessly against them. I had made sure to bring some of my stronger men this time, knowing what she was capable of.
“I was goin’ to offer me condolences, but na, I don’ think I will.” I moved to stand before her, my hand brushing over the bullet holes in my chest.
“Fuck you!” she screamed in my face as more tears dripped from her cheeks, a mixture of fear and grief.
My hand rose, fingers brushing aside her heavy curtain of hair to thumb the sealed pink bite mark. “Worry na, love. We’ll git there.”
A bellow of fury erupted from her, a feral, angry scream that sent the birds flying from the trees surrounding us as my men dragged her kicking form away toward the vehicles. “I’ll kill you! I swear it, Eoin Ó Ceallaigh, I’ll drive a stake through your cold, lifeless heart!”
I smiled, my teeth catching on my lip. “Ye sure can try, love.”
I was met with another scream, the sound trailing off along with more threats that made me chuckle as I turned to look at her brother’s grave. Pulling a coin from my pocket, I rubbed it between my fingers, glancing down at the bleeding snake etched into the silver. I tossed it onto the pile of fresh dirt, a parting gift for the La Rosas to find later, so they knew exactly who Ottavia was with.
Declan stepped up beside me, his gaze on the coin.“Lig cogadh a bheith ann.”
