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“Thank you, Eoghan.”
“Do you want me to send Lachlan to grab Ma and Da from the cruise?” Shea asks softly. “We can delay this for a day.” She looks at her phone. “I can send your jet and have them wheels up by tonight.”
I glance at Lachlan, who doesn’t seem phased by our sister volunteering him without asking. Shaking my head, I say, “No. They’ll think one of us is dead and will fucking have a heart attack before Lach tells them the truth.” I meet my sister’s raised eyebrows in the mirror. “What? No one in the Hamptons drops the f-bomb?”
“Not like you.” She sticks me with the pin.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry.” She winks. “I’ll call Darragh and Cormac for you if you want.”
“No. They made their choice to live a separate life from us. I don’t like it, but I respect it. They’re adults. And, unless they want to be backroom butchers, their medical degrees can’t really help our business.” I don’t bother to remind my siblings it was Father’s decision not to force them into our world. I’m just abiding by his wishes. “They wanted to live in Seattle, and Da let them go.”
“They’ll want to know.” Shea sounds like she misses them. Younger than her, they were her little toys. She grew tired of us bossing her around. When I don’t say anything, Shea sits next to Balor, and those two start whispering.
I ignore that. They were always the closest. I’m dark and intense. Balor is lighter and more fun. He doesn’t have to physically face the brutality of our world. I pull a gun. Lachlan brandishes a knife. Riordan’s bare hands are close to lethal weapons with the way he boxes at the gym. Eoghan is the Harvard lawyer in a suit, who will chain someone to his bumper and drag him several blocks.
We’re monsters, and my sister is an angel.
So is Isabella. And I’m the one with chains dragging her into my world now. But she was bred for this.
My phone beeps, and everyone stares at me like they know what it means. It’s my wedding day, but the long-awaited club appointment I’ve had on my calendar rubs against my skin like steel wool. A woman I’ve wanted to fuck for years is finally in New York after traveling through London and Hong Kong.
I’m so wound up that I won’t dare touch Isabella. I’ll hurt her.
Shouting in the adjoining room catches my attention, and I hear the delicate squeak of Isabella’s voice. The hair on the back of my neck stands up.
“Rior, Lach, on my flank, right now.” My brothers follow me down the hall and into another waiting room.
Gabe screams at Isabella, who’s covering her ears. He sees me and pushes her out of the way, but Riordan immediately grabs her and tucks her against his chest.
With eyes full of fury, Gabe lunges for me, but Lachlan holds him back. “She was fucking a Bratva snake and you didn’t tell me?”
“I wasn’t sleeping with him, Papa,” Isabella hisses at him.
“And then they bomb my house!” Gabe shakes, wearing a suit that looks like it hasn’t seen a dry cleaner in months.
I have to teach Gabe a lesson about what happens when someone touches what’s mine. Throwing him against the wall, I push my forearm into his windpipe. “She’s going to be my wife. You don’t talk to her anymore. Do you hear? You talk to me.”
“How did you even find out about Ivan?” Lachlan asks, sounding surprised.
“Ivan...” Gabe nods sarcastically. “You know the prick’s name, and he’s still got a pulse?”
“That doesn’t answer our question,” Lachlan says, breathing down my neck.
A scoff from the other side of the room catches my attention. Dante. He just stares. How can an underboss be so irresponsible, letting his don lose control? “Do you think we have zero intelligence-gathering capabilities?” he mutters.
I resist being drawn into this debate. Isabella dated Ivan all summer, and they didn’t know. “We got word to him that Isabella is getting married. He’s irrelevant,” I say.
Gabe bristles out of my hold. “You keep guards on her,” he whispers to me. “God knows what she did to mine to make them look the other way.”
“My guards are better than yours,” I bark and then take Isabella from Riordan. “Are you all right?”
“I am.” She gets her breath back. “And thank you.”
“You look beautiful,” I say on a breath and lay a kiss on her temple.
“Thank you. You look…so handsome.” She’s shaking, and I assume it’s from the incident with her father. But there are faint tracks down her cheeks like she’s been crying.
