AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Because that wasn’t in question. Hewouldcome to get me. And if not Dev, then my father. Cormac or Callan. Alex, Bex. The people willing to come for me had doubled in a matter of weeks. I just needed to survive long enough for one of them to get here.
Seamus waved a hand, as if my question were a fly to be swatted away. “You weren’t supposed to die,” he finally said with an eye roll, as if the trauma of being attacked was inconsequential.
“It didn’t feel that way when he had his hands around my throat.” My voice turned shrill at the edges, my mind flashing back to the determination in the man’s eyes when he came after me in the alleyway.
“You were supposed to be with your bodyguards!” Seamus yelled, his outburst so sudden that I stepped back. “He was supposed to attack you, then your bodyguards would save you, and your father would suddenly be terribly concerned for your safety. Concerned enough to marry you off to the highest bidder that would guarantee your protection.”
“This is all about marriage?” I laughed, holding up my left hand, showing the engagement ring and wedding band that sat there. “Hate to break it to you, Uncle,” I sneered, “but I’m already married.”
“Not to the right family,” he growled back, stepping close enough that I flinched. “You stupid girl, you have no idea how many of my plans you ruined. How many years I spent using you as the ultimate bargaining chip, how many offers I turneddown until the right family came along. By selling you off, your father and I would’ve becomegods. I went to him with the deal, thinking you’d be on the next plane.”
Considering my feet were still firmly planted on American soil, I doubted everything had gone according to plan.
“And you know what he told me?”
Seamus whipped toward me, glaring until I spit out a choked, “What?”
“He told me that you were your own person. That he wouldn’t use you to further his agenda, wanted you to marry for love instead of for business. That he wanted you to have as normal a life as you could, given the circumstances.”
He repeated the promises my father had made to me for most of my life as if they were ridiculous, as if my father’s care for me was nothing more than an inconvenience for him. I wondered when my uncle - the one who had comforted me when my mother abandoned me, who let me sneak sips of his wine when I was still a teenager - had turned into a bloated, selfish version of himself. And I thanked every star in the sky that Dev still held the burden of my mother’s ring, because how many fucking family members could abandon and/or betray me?
I swear if my father or Callan attempted to fuck me over, I’d bury them both in a shallow grave. But Seamus came first, even if he hadn’t realized it yet.
“So you hired someone to attack me. To convince him I needed more protection.”
“Except you were all alone, which gave Xander and his fucking cronies the time to save you and bring you into their fold. Imagine my surprise when, months after turning down my offer, your father announced your impending marriage.”
“And the attack outside ofPorto?”
“He was meant to bring you to me, but clearly the idiot got himself captured or killed by your husband and his friends.” Herolled his eyes, and I half expected him to complain about how difficult it was to hire good kidnappers these days.
I managed to stifle my surprise at his lack of knowledge about what happened to the man he hired to bring me to him, the way I’d fought him off before Dev had arrived. But his ignorance would work in my favor, make him believe I would easily fall into the plans he was forcing onto me.
“And this family you plan to marry me to. Won’t they care that I’m already married?” I thought of the men who paraded into my father’s home when I still lived there, the ones who proposed an allyship through marriage. Who wanted to trade their daughters to my much-older father.
Most of them had tried to win him over with details that were typical of a mafia bride: a well-behaved, well-bred innocent who would bow to his every whim. The same expectations I was sure my buyer had of me. A married woman who’d been thoroughly fucked by her husband spoiled the image of a virginal bride.
“Rory, you misunderstand. Your father had raised you too American, too spoiled. You won’t be an equal, like how Xander and Dev treat their women. You will be a pawn, a bargaining chip to use against your father whenever they see fit. A broodmare to churn out your husband’s heirs. And I will be paid handsomely for it.”
Chapter 27
Dev
Car crashes hurt morethan most people gave them credit. A punch or a knife wound - hell, even a bullet - were isolated to wherever they hit. Sure, they caused damage to muscles and tendons and nerves and blood vessels, but unless they hit somewhere vital, you could temper the damage quickly with a bandage or a tourniquet.
But car crashes, the kind that ended with your car flipped upside-down in a ditch with the engine curled somewhere below the passenger seat? The aches and pains radiated through your whole body, muscles and bones bruised underneath your skin. My neck had been wrenched to the side, and I likely had a concussion if my double vision was any indication. But nothing seemed broken, save for my wrist and a couple ribs, thanks to the airbags and my seatbelt.
Either way, I didn’t have time to do much but catalog my injuries before I heard footsteps, the stomp of their feet much too heavy to belong to Alex or Bex. I’d trained them better, after all.
The two men rounded the car a minute later, their voices carrying easily on the wind. Another mistake: speakingdownwind. Frankly, I was offended by the skill level of those sent after me.
“Easiest 20k I’ve ever made,” the short, stocky one boasted as he rounded the car. He wasn’t even holding his gun correctly, the weapon hanging down by his side as he took a picture of my ruined car with his phone. Proof for payment, likely.
“Let’s just make sure he’s dead and get out of here,” the taller, lankier one said. “I don’t like leaving loose ends.”
At least this one was more prepared, his gun supported by both hands, eyes zeroing in on the empty driver’s seat as they came closer. “Fuck, he’s not in the car.”
“Wha-” The question was cut off by two gunshots. One, my shot from where I sat crouched by the back tire of my ruined car. I traced the other, breath sagging out of me in relief when I saw Alex rounding the corner with silent footsteps, gun still held in his hand, Bex right behind him.
