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Reaching across, I wrapped my fingers around hers and gave them a quick squeeze. I’d lost my mother too, as well as my eldest brother, because of her father, and my dad lingered on the brink of death. All down to Harold.
Swallowing hard, I braved my next question, the one that had been plaguing me since I’d heard Harold on the phone. ‘If I could get rid of your dad, would you be willing to help me?’
Katie’s eyes widened as she bit down on the edge of her lip. I waited as she processed what I’d asked, my heart thundering in my chest. If she told Harold, he’d be furious. It was a colossal risk to ask for her help. She looked around us, before answering in such a small voice I had to lean close to her to hear her reply.
‘If you could guarantee he’d be gone and there was no way anyone could trace it back to me, then I’d help. But if there was the slightest chance it could come back to me, then no. I’ve seen what he does to traitors, and being his daughter wouldn’t help me.’
‘What does he do to traitors?’ Did I really want to know?
‘Our cleaner helped mum escape. She’d seen the abuse Mum had suffered for years and wanted to help. She arranged for a new name and new passport through an acquaintance of hers, and gave her enough money to get away. Dad had her tortured in front of Cam and I.’ Her voice shook as her eyes grew glassy and wet. ‘She’d been with us for years, and we were young. We loved her. He made us watch as he... he raped her. And then he cut her, little by little, until she revealed the name on the passport. She held out long enough to let mum get away. He forced us to cut her too with a gun to our heads as we did. Even after everything, she told us it was okay, and that it wasn’t our fault. Cam refused to torture her and delivered the killing blow before Father could draw her torture out any more. Her last words were thanking him. Dad beat him for it, striped Cam’s back to the bone until he passed out before he left us there.’
A wave of nausea threatened to bring my shots back up, followed by rage. Those scars that marred his back were hiding the real scars inside. ‘Fuck, Katie, I had no idea. I’m so sorry.’
‘Cam could have died from the blood loss. Benny saved him. He’s saved us again and again through the years. He took him to a private hospital that asks no questions and had him patched back up. It took weeks to get him home, and I was terrified for every second he was gone. He was my rock, and without him, I don’t know what Father would have done to me.’
‘Why doesn’t Cam just kill him?’ He could get close enough while armed. He’s one of the few people who could.
‘He’s had loyalty beaten into him from a young age, and it’s all he’s ever felt he’s good for. He’s good at his work, he commands loyalty from his men, and killing his own father, cutting off the head of the snake, well, that would undermine everything he believes in.’
‘But he’s a monster.’
‘He’s still our father. He’s all we’ve ever known.’
‘And what about you? Don’t you want to be free?’
A small, sad smile quirked the corner of Katie’s lip before she shrugged and downed another shot, shoving one in front of me. ‘There isn’t any free. Father is already lining up the bids for me, to see who will barter the most to marry a son into our family.’
‘But what about your rock star?’
‘I’m just having fun while I can. I know I’m on a time limited leash, soon I’ll be dragged back to heel and turned into another pampered mafia wife with a husband she tolerates. That’s why you need to try to make it work with Cam. It may have started out shit, but you guys have something real going on. I see it in the way he looks at you. He’s totally smitten.’ Katie’s words had begun to slur, and the room was tilting for me too.
‘I know. But your dad would make my life miserable. Every day I’d be worried that it would be the day he decides my usefulness has run dry. He wouldn’t hesitate to use me as bait or leverage, or even just to control Cam. That’s no way to live. I’m sick of my happiness always depending on whether things are calm between factions, on the men in my life not being controlling arseholes. I want safety. I want freedom.’
‘Speaking of arseholes,’ Katie said, nodding behind me, ‘Your brother is here.’
Before Mac had even opened his mouth, I was on him, throwing my arms around him and pulling him into a hug. ‘Oh my god, I’ve missed you!’
‘Shit, Maeve, how much have you had?’ Mac said, holding me back by the shoulders and scanning me with a sceptical gaze.
‘Oh, don’t be a mother hen. We’re just having fun.’
Katie gave me a wave as she moved away from us, miming holding herself in the universal girl’s room pose. ‘Back in ten.’
Mac rounded on me, narrowing his eyes. ‘The fuck are you doing out with her?’
‘I’m married to her brother. Why wouldn’t I be out with her?’
‘Because your marriage is a sham, and she’s one of them.’
Shit, the drink had made me slip up. I was still supposed to be waiting for them to come up with a plan. Fat lot of use, they were there.
‘Katie’s not so bad Mac, she’s sweet. I like her.’ I did like her. She made me feel welcome from the moment I met her, before Cam and I were even married.
Mac’s jaw ticked as he inhaled sharply. ‘You are getting too comfortable with them. Being nice to you for a few weeks doesn’t erase the past. They can’t give Mum back, or Malcolm. It can’t wake Dad up, not that you give a shit. I knew you were to naive for this. Too gullible.’
I squared my shoulders and levelled a glare at him. ‘I’m not gullible. I’m just not stuck in a place where I can’t see that not everything is always as we were told. Harold is a piece of shit, and I will see him brought to his fucking knees. But Cam and Katie? If you hurt either of them, you’ll have me to deal with.’
The fucker laughed. My brother, my favourite brother, still looked at me like a stupid little girl.
