The room was quiet.
“How did she die, motherfucker?” My voice boomed, ricocheting over the curved, grand ceilings of my parents’ mansion. “Do you know? Because I do. She was trying on a dress in a boutique when some asshole slipped into her changing room and shot her in the neck. Retaliation for a stolen drug shipment. That’s how. She bled out for six hours before she finally died. You want that for your sister?”
“Coppola dealt with the clan responsible for the attack,” Luca supplied solemnly. “Tierney will be safe.”
“Spin it any way you like, but you’re selling your sister to a criminal.” I stubbed my cigarette out, smoke fanning from my nostrils.
“You did the same to Lila,” Tiernan said matter-of-factly.
“Freedom.” My jaw clenched. “I gave Lilafreedomthrough you. You were her only way out, and I knew she’d have you wrapped around her finger before the week was out.”
I’d been the sole supporter of my baby sister marrying Callaghan, and their marriage turned out to be the mostsuccessful human venture since sliced bread. But it was different. I knew Tiernan was incapable of hurting Lila the night he’d found her on the fountain and spared her life. It was the first time he’d shown mercy to any creature. A fatal human error I knew he wouldn’t have made under normal circumstances.
Coppola wanted Tierney because she was beautiful and because she wasmine.
“Stefano will give Tierney a wide berth,” Tiernan drawled apathetically. “She wants freedom, and even if she can’t see it right now, this is the closest she’ll ever get to it. I’m not asking, Achilles. This match is happening.”
My father flashed my brothers and Tiernan a loaded look, and they filed out of the room, giving us some privacy. I watched them leave, curling my hands into tight fists to stop them from shaking.
Dad waited until the door clicked shut before he turned to me and spoke.
“A don should wed a wife who is loyal, obedient, and self-sufficient. Someone to run his home and bear his sons while he runs his empire.” He laced his fingers together. “The Irish girl is none of those things.”
“I know.” I clenched my fists tighter. Unclenched them again.
“Do you?” He studied me intently. “Because that means you cannot run around chasing a forbidden skirt. Settle down. Take a wife. Assume your role as the don of the Ferrante clan. This stale-mate between you and Luca… You can end it right here, right now.”
I looked up, curling my fingers around the armrests to stop the shaking. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He’d been dragging his feet about choosing a new don for years. “Are you jerking my chain, or are you going to put this in writing?”
We all worked hard, but most men always found time to play. Not me. I didn’t take a wife, girlfriends, lavish vacationsaround the world or semiprofessional golf tournaments. I didn’t indulge in shopping sprees and weekends with 50K-a-night prostitutes to numb my nonexistent conscience. I worked, and then I worked some more. I forfeited my life to the Camorra and deserved nothing less than ruling it.
I deserved it more than Luca, who thought he was entitled to it because he was the firstborn.
More than Enzo, who had the personality of a friendly, enthusiastic puppy.
And more than that nameless bastard who was our half-brother my father kept in touch with over the years.
“That solely depends on you,” he said. “I’ll give you the role if you give up this woman. Nothing good will ever come out of her. She’s an exposed weakness. An Achilles’ heel. Coppola knows it—that’s why he’s asked for her.”
Right on all fucking accounts. I could never have her. Deep down, I knew it, too. Even if I could, she’d be my ruination. She’d undone me when we were teenagers. Completely obliterated my soul into shit. Fuck knew what she was capable of now that she was a full-fledged femme fatale. I’d be a fool to find out.
“Let her go,” my father said. “And I’ll give you my kingdom.”
Swallowing hard, I digested this new reality into my system.
This needed to stop.
The stalking.
The killing.
The obsessing.
Enough was enough.
No more tossing, turning, praying to a God who’d forsaken me before I’d taken my first breath. No more fixating, hating, shaking.
No. More.
