Ronin hands me his phone. “Press the button, Trinity.”
I do. I’m pretty sure I’d do anything he asked.
“It wasn’t just you and me, Tally girl, that were impacted by that day. The Trinity Alliance was formed by me, Santiago Cabral, involved in the Cartel, and Valentine De Luca, recent new head of the Italian Mob in US, because of what we uncovered in Croatia. I’m hoping my children take over my legacy. I’d be thinking Val and Santiago have similar hopes.”
It’s his turn to take a series of deep breaths, to slow the ravage beat of his heart against my back.
“I can’t let another child be hurt, if there’s something I could have done. I’ve taken the Irish as mine. I’ve cleaned the streets with the blood of my enemies, along with any person who did you wrong. As well as ruling back home, if I can shut down anything to do with the skin trade, the kiddie porn industry, and the like, I will.”
A pained noise breaks out of his chest, and his whole being wraps around me as he struggles to hold back his emotion. I take over rocking us until he’s wrestled his demons down.
“I vow to always protect you and give you whatever freedom you need, but I need you next to me, Tally.” His voice breaks, but he goes on, regardless of the emotions making it hard for him to speak. “All your training with police, every undercover mission you did was done in preparation for when you took your place next to us. I know that, with every fiber of my being. You’re mywife, my Omega, my equal partner. But above all that, you’re my Tally girl, and I need you to hold me together.”
He wrings my insides together, then smooths away my worries, promising me a beautiful life. I’m not sure how I don’t dissolve on the spot in an emotional wreck. But then again, it is Ronin, and he’s always got to make me smile too.
“You know, my girl, I’ll be kidnapping, stalking, and drugging you till you agree. Right?”
Chapter Sixty-Three
TALLY
Time and space have different meanings to different people.
I was talking about returning to them when I’d had the chance to catch my breath. After I’d mentally worked through the declarations and confessions each of them had given, or demand I listen to.
Joe found me sitting on the back stairs, Ronin’s puffy snow jacket wrapped around me. The morning sun hadn’t yet peaked over the snow-capped tops of the Dolomites. Dawn’s deep blue indigo light was as calming as it was beautiful.
The inside of my cottage mirrored the peace and stillness I was enjoying out here, since almost everyone was still asleep. I’d slept in my bed, alone. Not at my insistence. It actually wasn’t a topic we discussed at all, it just happened. I mean, they were so close to me, I could feel their presence even in my sleep, but no one had snuck in to snuggle up during the dead of night.
It was both a relief and a letdown, which is the fragile workings of a bruised soul. What I want and need change as quickly as I decide what it is I want or need.
Joe walks past me. I guess he thought I might not be wearing my hearing aid, but he waits until I can see his face properly before he speaks. “Come on, Tally, let’s walk.”
“I can hear you.” I draw my hair back behind my ear as proof I have my hearing aid in.
He gives me a look which confirms how I’d felt immediately after telling him I could hear him, a bit daft really. And with a look of challenge, he hands over my walking stick, as if to ask if I’m going to say the same thing again.
“Shut up. I am allowed to bitch about my life, you know.”
“God, I know.” He winks, holding a hand out to help pull me to my feet. “I’ll lay some more truths your way, give you something else to lament over.”
He laughs at my look ofyou did not fucking say that, completely unapologetic, but at the same time, his paternal love is obvious in his scent, his smile, in everything he does.
The snow stopped falling mid-afternoon yesterday, and as soon as it did, Tynan was out, clearing a path outside. Color me surprised—his clearing followed my favorite walking track. Exactly. Harris, the snitch, had obviously been telling secrets.
Joe buries his hands in his own puffy jacket. The morning is frigid, our breaths coming out in frosty white puffs. We make a handful of steps. “Out with it, then. You're usually not this amenable.”
“Jesus, Tally, you make me sound like a right arse.”
I don’t deny it. Perhaps I am in more of a bitchy mood than I thought. Until my guilt eats at me. “You’re not. You’re the person I’ll forever look to for advice and the love only a father can provide.”
The words rush out of me. Joe’s only response is his arm moving over my shoulder and staying there. He envelopes me in his love and support, like always. We make it all the way down to the furthest corner in quiet, companionable space.
I stop us, because through this opening in the garden, you can see the heavily wooded creeks, and this one vista is my favorite. I point it out to Joe, and then he turns to face me.
“I took the liberty of speaking with UKPPS. I wanted to get a feel of where we’re at from them before you make any decisions. Especially in light of the recent…” He takes a long exhale, thinking of the right way to word Ronin murdering O’Leary and Oscar without implicating Ronin for the crime.
Of course, Ronin showed me all the photos he’d taken. And there had been a few. He’d told me that he and his pack had been thorough and vicious in the way they’d cleaned house. I didn’t flinch while looking at the savage proof that they had. Not even the various images of Oscar’s body upset me. Honestly, all I felt was free after seeing them.
