“Ogon' v kamine- I mean, the fire in the fireplace. The- the wind outside.”
Her breathing’s better now, almost normal, and some color’s back in her cheeks. After we sit quietly for a moment, I lift my glass. “Here, lass. Take a drink. You need it more than I do.” I offer her my whiskey.
She makes a face after swallowing it. “That’s horrible.”
Laughing, I raise my glass again. “This is from an O’Rourke cask aged for twenty-five years. Would you like another sip?”
“No, thank you.” Rubbing her eyes, she says, “How did you know what to do? When…”
“Your panic attack? My little sister used to get ‘em a lot. We all learned how to talk her down.”
My little sister Sorcha, who was kidnapped by the Triad fucks who work with Morana’s former fiance. Just another reason to burn his Bratva to ash.
Morana must have felt me stiffen because her spine straightened again. “I’m sorry. About your sister, I mean. I hope she’s doing better.”
Most days…I think.
“Aye, she’s fine. You need a bath, proper clothes, and sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.”
She looked at me with a little furrow between her brows. “You’re not going to try to do… that?”
“Don’t take this personally, lass, but you’re not at your most enticing right now, so no. I don’t want to dothat.Miss Kevin will take you upstairs and get you settled.”
As if she’d been hovering outside the door, Miss Kevin walks in with her usual gracious smile in place. “Mrs. MacTavish, if you’ll come with me?”
It clearly takes my blushing bride a moment to realize that Miss Kevin is addressing her, but she quickly gets off my lap, holding the dress in place as it slips down. She looks back at me again, still puzzled.
“We’ll talk in the morning,” I nod toward the door where my butler is waiting. Without another word, Morana hurries out of the room.
“How did it go?”
“Smooth as silk,” I lie, “as always.”
“Hmm…” My elder brother Cormac has been the head of the MacTavish clan for five years now and has adopted a certain gravitas that I find deeply annoying. “What do you think of the girl?”
“Morana? She’s got a sassy mouth on her, but she handled the kidnapping like a professional.”
He snorts, “It’s probably not her first one, though I can’t picture that tight-fisted bastard putting out any money to ransom her back.”
“She was the only asset Ivanov had left,” I say, “he must be shitting himself right now.”
“Aye,” Cormac agrees. He hesitates for a moment. “I just received another piece of information from Nikandr in Moscow. Be careful with this girl.”
“What do ya’ mean?” I frown. Be careful of Morana? She’s a little thing. Picturing her wheezing through the panic attack on my lap made me feel warmer toward her than I should. But she was soft, and light against me. My bride smells like crushed lilies and roses, with a slight, wintery scent, like frost and peppermint.
“Our people weren’t sure how much she knew about Bratva business. But Nikandr spotted her at one of the auctions last week, all dressed up. Drinkin’ and laughin’ while girls were crying, getting sold off.”
Disgust curdles in my stomach. I certainly didn’t marry the woman for love, but I assumed she was another victim in her family’s fucked-up plans. She wasthere.She’d seen what the alliance between her family and Stepanov was creating.
Chapter Five
In which Morana fights back with all the tools at her disposal: her profound Karmic misfortune.
Morana…
Waking up the next morning to a gentle tap on the door, I take a moment to appreciate the quiet. No screaming, no slamming doors, no aggressive trail of cigar smoke as my father storms up and down the halls…
“Good morning, Mrs. MacTavish, I have breakfast for you.” It’s Miss Kevin, with her gentle smile and a full tray of food.
