Though if he does, he’s going with me. He’s not the only one who’s armed.
I’d hate to have to kill my future brother-in-law, but make no mistake, I will—if it comes to it.
Sean strides across the room to hand the whiskey to me. I accept it, gratefully. I have a feeling I’m going to need more before we get out of here.
Vivienne turns to me then. ‘I’m Vivienne, it’s lovely to meet you.’ She smiles, and her sons glare at her.
‘You’ve been sleeping with the enemy.’ James prowls slowly towards us, but his focus is on his sister. ‘And working for him, by all accounts.’
‘He’s notmyenemy.’ Zara juts her chin out defiantly. ‘Besides, wasn’t Scarlett yours once?’
‘That was wildly different,’ James snaps, fire dancing in his irises. ‘Scarlett might have been raised by Jack O’Connor, but she was the one who sacrificed her own life to put him behind bars.’
The air crackles with animosity.
‘Apart from the fact he’s bulldozing in on all of our businesses, he’s too old for you,’ Caelon shakes his head in disgust.
‘Remind me again…’ Zara points her finger at Caelon’s wife.’ What’s the age difference between you and Ivy?’
Caelon glowers. ‘Twelve years.’
‘Exactly. The same as Scarlett and James. And the same as Cole and me.’
‘Oh, let them sit down, will you?’ Vivienne ushers Zara and me to one of the couches and proceeds to pour tea for Zara.
I drop into the couch beside her. ‘Look, I’m sorry, this isn’t how we planned on telling you.’ I lift a hand in a gesture of surrender, but that’s all it is—a gesture. I won’t back down if they try to pressure her to end things with me. I’ll kill and die before I let anything or anyone come between me and my new family.
‘Start talking,’ Alexander demands.
Chapter Forty-Three
ZARA
‘So where did you two lovebirds meet?’ Killian drawls sarcastically, striding closer to tower over us.
Rian drops into one of the other couches and motions for Rebekka to join him. Scarlett sits beside me, and James lowers himself into the space beside her. Slowly, one by one, curiosity gets the better of them, and every single member of my family migrates closer.
‘We met in Punta Cana. We were staying at the same resort,’ Cole answers, eyeing each of my brothers evenly. Fair play to the man. He’s surrounded by an army of enemies, who are probably dreaming up ways to decapitate him, or at the very least detach his dick from his body, yet he’s cooler than a box of cucumbers.
‘California!’ Layla claps her hands together and Ivy squeals in excitement.
‘You knew about this?’ Caelon splutters, turning to his wife.
‘I didn’t know it was Cole Hartmann, the man you’ve all been giving off holy hell about since last year, but yes, I knew about Zara’s holiday fling.’ Ivy shrugs. ‘We all did.’ She looksat the rest of my sisters-in-law, then waggles her eyebrows at me and mouths, ‘He’s hot as fuck,’ fanning herself, less than discreetly.
The urge to laugh bubbles up in my chest. It must be nerves.
‘Look, I don’t give a fuck about your love story.’ James butts in. ‘I do give a fuck about your intentions for my sister. Seems like a bit of a fucking coincidence that out of all the women in Dublin, in the world even, that you knocked up our kid sister.’
‘I had no idea who she was.’ Cole lifts his glass to his lips and takes a deep drink. ‘It was Zara’s idea not to exchange real names, and that worked for me. Anonymity is a luxury I don’t often get.’ He takes my hand in his, stoking his thumb over the back of it.
He’s so brave.
I thought I loved him before, but this?
Seeing him face my family head on?
It makes my heart bloom in my chest.
