AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My hand sits inside my suit jacket, fingers wrapped around a fresh 9mm while Nico Scava takes inventory of all the O’Rourkes in the room. He shows his knowledge of our family, addressing us correctly by each of our names, not needing introductions, leaving me and Jillian for last.
Nico slowly glances my way with cool detachment.
Fuck, I’m wrecked. Not for me. For Jillian, from protecting her.
“Jillian Diamond.” Nico approaches her. “You’re the little gem who killed my brother.”
“That little gem—” Lachlan warns, stepping into Scava’s path.
“Lach, I got this.” I cut forward. “If you speak to the mother of my child out of turn again, I’ll bury you next to your brother. I’ve done it before.”
“Then we’ve got a lot to consider here.” Nico points to a chair in front of Kieran’s desk, smartly asking for permission to sit.
Kieran nods.
“I walked in on your brother trying to rape the mother of my child,” I say through clenched teeth, wishing with all my might I could call her my wife. “For that alone, he deserved to die. And I killed him.”
Nico’s face tightens. “Don’t play me ignorant, Eoghan. Your woman rendered the kill shot. You shot him so we’d come after you, too.” He steeples his fingers. “I suppose, if I were in love, I might do the same.”
It’s a relief he knows the whole story.
“Then you know, my little gem is no wallflower or helpless victim. She pulled that trigger the second she had opportunity. She was defending herself.”
Nico looks unphased. “In my late and stupid brother’s defense, God rest his soul…”
“He tried to rape the mother of my child,” I spit out. “I hope he’s burning in hell.”
Nico looks around the room. “And who here among us is not destined to burn?”
I’m not, Balor snipes to us through our earpieces because he’s not taken a life. Yet.
“We take care of people who deserve to be punished,” Kieran speaks up. “We do not hurt women. That brings you to a different level of hell.”
Nico nods. “A place I assure you, I will not see. At least as of right now.” He gives a lazy shrug.
“I don’t care what you think we owe you,” I say because I want this to be between him and me. “But you will not take her from me, do you understand?” I open my jacket and show him my gun.
My brothers go wide-eyed, looking at me like I’m dead man walking.
In our business, you don’t threaten bosses and get away with it. And he’s the second one I’ve threatened in the past six hours. I’m not just dead man walking, I’m a ghost.
“Your little gem is part of an institution trying to prosecute my family.”
“She was doing her job,” I argue with her hand pressed to my heart. “But not anymore. She’s handing in her resignation. You take your pending cases up with her boss.”
“Ah yes, your boss. Your brother, little gem.” He focuses on Jillian and uncrosses his legs. “According to my brother’s second-in-command, he made no inroads with Daniel Vance despite planting a mole. Something I plan to take up when I return. I will make a deal with Vance myself. No one is prosecuting my family.”
“A deal?” Jillian asks.
It’s my bet Daniel will cave. With Borgia blood on his sister’s hands, Daniel won’t pass up being on the take from them, especially if he wants to be D.A. and will need money for his campaign.
“Sì, little gem. When I return, I will give up one of Lazaro’s men to stand trial for the money laundering case to give Vance the win he needs.”
I feel the tension in Jillian’s hand. She wants to ask about the dead witnesses. It’s part of the life with me she will have to accept. We do what is necessary to protect ourselves, and that means bloodshed.
“Go on,” I say to Nico to give her more satisfaction and find closure with her drive to take this man down.
“My brother handled his own finances.” Nico gazes around the room. “We share the same mother and father, but we are fifteen years apart. Unlike the lot of you, who are obviously close. I envy that. Nico and I were not close. We did not have trust between us.”
