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Roisin’s voice carries her vulnerability and lays it bare beneath the city’s glittering backdrop. For a moment, I see her for who she is. A young, proud, tenacious woman trying to make sense of a world she never understood.
There’s just something so…Roisinabout the way she’s handling everything. Never losing herself in the process, and there’s something undeniably alluring about the way she holds herself, even now. The way her shoulders stay level and her head stays up, whether that wounded look is in her eyes or not.
“About what?” I find myself asking.
Roisin’s eyes suddenly flicker with uncertainty. “About everything.”
“You know, sometimes I think you don’t have to do anything,” I pose gently. “People do selfish things all the time, and that’s not on you. Sometimes that means you get to sit back and let them sort out their own shit.”
Roisin’s brow furrows as she considers this. “So what, I should just go back to Juilliard? Pretend nothing ever happened?”
“Maybe? If that’s what you want.”
“Superhero musicals suddenly feel less important now.”
I can’t help but chuckle at her confession. “It was a musical?”
Roisin’s nose scrunches up adorably, only making me smile wider.
She lets out a long sigh. “I don’t know what I want.”
“Well,” I begin softly, moving to stand next to her by the railing. “You don’t have to figure that out today. You’re welcome at the estate for as long as you need.”
Roisin looks up at me with such gratitude it almost takes my breath away. “Are you sure?”
“You’ve seen how big that place is, right?” I remark back. “Besides, Angus needs to brush up on his dance moves.”
I watch as the tips of Roisin’s ear begin to turn pink. “How much of that did you see?”
“Enough to know that you’re good,” I answer with a reassuring smile. “And even though you’ve been dragged into all this, it might not be something you want to give up on so quickly.”
“What about you?”
I furrow my brows, momentarily taken aback. “What about me?”
“Did you always want to be a hitman?” she asks, her voice gentle but insistent.
I consider her question carefully. “Never really had a choice. It was that or be a beef-brained mobster like your brother.”
“But if you had a choice?”
“I guess I’d go to the theater more,” I reply with a pointed look.
That adorable blush only colors her cheeks a little deeper. “Yeah?”
I nod, my gaze turning back to the view before us. “You’re lucky, you know. I know it feels complicated right now, but you got out of this life. Even if it was for a short while. That was never an option for me.”
Roisin softens. “I’m sorry.”
I offer a nonchalant shrug, masking the pain of my past. “Not your fault my Uncle was an asshole.”
“How did he...”
I debate telling her the whole truth. The atrocities, the kidnappings. Things that might scare her into believing that the mafia means business. But as I watch the city lights dancing in her eyes, I stop myself.
“He was a power-hungry narcissist and gambled everything on taking down a rival family. But the Lucas put him in his place, and the rest were killed or hunted down in the fallout. Including my parents.”
“Don’t you want revenge?”
