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His jaw clenched. “I plan on making you leave.”
I stood my ground. “And how were you going to do that? By telling me you didn’t want me here, or did you plan on dragging me out of the room and dumping me outside?”
“By convincing you that you don’t have a place here. Boss has enough to handle without you bringing your shit into the equation. Irish bitches can’t be trusted, and you might have Viktor blinded, but you can’t do the same with me.”
He seemed to be harboring an obscene amount of hatred toward me and I wondered if I’d done something to him without ever realizing it. “If you’re talking about the Irish mob, I’m not even involved in it.”
“They want you because your father was responsible for the damn thing. I’m not stupid. They corrupt you. A family’s influence is substantial, and you can’t escape it.”
I didn’t give into his prodding as I leaned back on the side table and rested against it. “How much do you know about me, Damien? Because if you looked into me, you’d find that I left my father and haven’t spoken to him in years. I have no more connections to the mob—not before coming and staying here. If you’re worried about it, you don’t need to be.
“I don’t trust it. Do you even realize how easy it would be for you to deceive us?”
I couldn’t help the spark of anger that spurred through me as he said that. “Yeah, and do you know how easy it would be foranyoneto deceive you? Does it not matter that I disowned my father? That he’s dead?”
“He still did plenty to ensure you were taken care of.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I said, rolling my eyes and stepping toward him. “Is it really me you’re scared of, or is it my dead father? Because I can assure you, he’s no longer a threat to anyone.”
“I’m not scared of shit,” he retorted, pushing away from the door and striding toward me. He got in my face and snarled down at me, but I didn’t care. I’d experienced this plenty of times at the bar. “I just find it suspicious. You’re nothing more than a traitorous Irish bitch, and you’re going to get Viktor killed if you stick around. I’m not going to let that happen.”
I ground my teeth, trying to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t want to antagonize him when he stood so close. It took everything inside of me not to glance down at the real threat in the room—the gun. “You’re being ignorant,” I finally spat. “And you should step back if you know what’s good for you.”
“What’s good for me?” he scoffed.
I felt the tension going taut, seconds from snapping. I didn’t know what would happen when it did snap but I didn’t particularly care when he was in my face and demanding I put myself and my son in harm’s way for Viktor’s sake. Did he even know that Sean was Viktor’s kid? I wondered if he’d told anybody yet.
“You heard me. Back off, or we’re going to have a problem.”
“I don’t think I will.”
I saw his fists balling at his sides, but I held my ground. Maybe working at a bar for five years flawed me, but I couldn’t stand down when he was wrong. He was being so ignorant and despicable, and I wouldn’t back down from that challenge.
“Mom, I’m done,” Sean said, striding into the room. He paused in the threshold, but I didn’t glance at him.
“What are you going to do, Damien? Because I promise if you make the wrong move here, there will be consequences.”
I could only imagine Viktor’s reaction to Damien trying to hurt me. A part of me wanted him to push that limit so I could prove a point, but I didn’t want Viktor to be forced to kill a friend. It wasn’t fair of me to expect that from him, but I didn’t know how to back down from this.
“Whoa, whoa,” Nadia said, striding into the room and passing Sean. She put a hand on both of our chests and pushed us away from one another, breaking a sliver of the tension. “What the hell is going on?”
“I’d like to know the same thing,” I spat at Damien.
She kept herself wrapped around Damien’s arm as she scoffed. “Men have egos the size of the sun,” she said. “You brush your little pinky against it and they get heated.”
“She doesn’t belong here,” Damien remarked, pointing at me as if attacking was still viable. “She’s not worth the breath she’d breathing.”
Nadia shot her gaze at Damien. “You need to take a step outside and cool off if you’re this heated about the situation.” She shoved at her brother’s chest, and he only conceded a small step. “I remember what happened, too, Damien. This isn’t going to fix anything.”
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he looked at his sister. His eyes didn’t soften, but breaking eye contact allowed him to step back and take a deep breath.
“You’re right. She’s not worth it.”
Why the hell was he so brazen and disrespectful, especially when I’d never done anything to him? He turned and stormed out of the room, our gazes trailing after him. Deeper in the house, a door slammed shut, and Nadia whistled dramatically, shaking her head and chucking. “Don’t take it to heart. Our family had beef with the Irish mob a while ago, and he isn’t good at controlling those emotions.”
“Then why don’t hate me?” I finally asked, taking a deep breath. Sean moved toward the printer and grabbed another sheet I had printed and walked out of the room with it, understanding that this wasn’t a situation for him to watch.
“We’ve lost a lot to your family, but I understand who the real enemy is, and it’s not you. Damien… well, he isn’t good at placing blame where it belongs. He likes to blame anyone he can put his hands on and anyone with Irish blood in them. He’ll get over it eventually. It will just take some time.”
