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Nicoli walked over to where Brenna sat. “Because I messed up your birthday, you should let me make it up to you by getting you a gift. It can be as extravagant as you want.”
“And why would you assume I’d want anything extravagant?” she asked, giving him a hard time.
Knowing Nicoli, he found that endearing. “I didn’t assume. I just offered.”
Brenna stared up at him and I could see that she was really debating how she wanted to respond. Before she could answer, her phone went off in her pocket. As she read over the message that was sent to her, she had difficulty keeping what she was feeling from showing on her face. For a split second, it was obvious she was upset, but by the next, she’d masked it. She got to her feet. “I don’t think you’d be able to get what I really want.”
“I’m a pretty resourceful man.” Nicoli tried to smile at the challenge, but having seen that brief moment of upset on Brenna’s face, his smile didn’t hold.
“Okay, then.” Brenna smirked up at him. “I’d like the bullets from the first men I killed made into jewelry.” She turned to me. “I’ll be right back.” She glanced at Nicoli one last time before walking out.
Nicoli looked to me. “Who were the first men she killed?”
I began opening Stefan’s desk drawers looking for the newspaper I’d asked him to keep for me. I found it in the middle drawer and held it up so he could see the front page. Everyone, including Conor and Rourke, stared at the big picture of the bridge and read the headline.
“Brenna killed the men you hung from the bridge?” Conor asked, having just realized.
I placed the newspaper back in the drawer. “Three of the four. It was her initiation. She helped me kill them and then helped me hang them.”
“Damn. Hers was better than mine,” Ivano said, sounding jealous.
“It terms of notoriety, yes, hers was probably better than most of ours,” I said.
After that, the De Lucas left and Jamie finally showed up. Conor and Rourke saw the dried blood on Jameson and then stared at the dried blood that was visible on my chest and neck.
“Why are you two covered in blood?” Rourke asked. “And more importantly, why does it look like the two of you fu—”
Conor smacked the back of his son’s head before he could finish speaking.
“I killed Sean,” I announced and went on to tell them what had happened, which led to me telling them the truth about Dylan. I had no choice.
As they listened, Rourke looked more and more angry. Conor was upset as well, but not as torn-up as Rourke appeared.
“I’m sorry, Rourke. I’m sorry to both of you,” I finished.
“It’s not easy to kill family, darlin’. Given how it’s blown back on you, I think you deserve a pass on this one,” Conor said.
Rourke ran his hands down his face. “I don’t blame you, Maura. He’s my cousin, too, and I wanted him to have the second chance just as much as you did.”
“He’s got too much of his father in him,” Conor said.
The conversation got back on the topic of Sean and how to handle the fallout.
“We need to go to Boston to get ahead of this. We’ll need to clean house and appoint a new person to oversee that area of our territory, preferably one that is alright with a woman being the head of the family,” I said.
“You need to be here. I’ll go with my men tonight,” Conor offered as he stood.
I shook my head. “I think it would look best if more than one leader of this family went.” My eyes drifted to Jamie. “You were Stefan’s enforcer. Wherever Stefan couldn’t be, you took over. It will be more of a show of power if the both of you go.”
Jamie looked to Louie, and something passed between them. “I’ll keep her safe,” Louie told him.
“Both of them,” Jamie corrected.
Louie smiled. “Yes, and our little dark one, too.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
“Doing okay, beautiful?” Louie asked.
