I’m not sure if I should be afraid or relieved I’m still capable of human emotion after I shut off my heart for so long. Either way, this new feeling for Ciara is not going to go away anytime soon.
Ciara
When Cormac returns home in a huff, I’m scared to ask him what I’m feeling. But I have to know the truth.
“Did you send those men after Marco?” I ask after following him into our home gym. Without looking at me, he picks up dumbbells and starts doing bicep curls.
“Why would you ask me that?”
“Because you promised you’d kill Marco for me. So… did you send those men? I know you wouldn’t put me in danger, Cormac. It must have been an accident then. So did you send those men?”
“No,” he huffs out, not looking at me. “I did not. Marco has a lot of enemies. It wasn’t me.”
“Ok. I believe you.” My brother has never given me reason to distrust him. “Maybe…” I bite my lip, shocked by what’s on my mind.
He sets the dumbbells down. “Maybe what?”
“Maybe we don’t need to kill Marco.”
“Why would you say that?” Never in my life has my brother looked at me like I was this crazy.
“Because he saved my life tonight. One of those men tried attacking me – well he did attack me.” I hold up my bandaged arm. “But Marco stopped that man from hurting me even more. Maybe he’s not so bad.”
“You want to marry him?”
“No,” I say on instinct. “I’m just saying… maybe we don’t need to kill him.” Seeing Marco fight for me tonight made me realize he’s not all bad.
“But if we don’t kill him, you’ll have to marry him, Ciara. That’s how this works. He needs to die.”
“No, you’re right,” I say quickly. “But…”
“But?”
“Would marrying a man who fought to save my life be such a bad thing?”
“You’re not thinking straight. You went through something traumatic tonight. Go rest. Sleep. And then in the morning, you’ll be thinking more clearly. I will kill Marco for you, sister. I promise you that.”
More promises. I can’t keep mine. I’m not sure if I can trust Marco’s word. And as for my brother… well, I always know he keeps his promises.
And right now, I’m not sure if I should be scared of that fact or not.
Chapter Five
Ciara
“This is pointless,” Cormac grumbles to me as I look at wedding dresses. Normally, it’s customary to bring women with you when you try on wedding dresses but it’s just me, my brother, and my dad. No women in my life. But right now, with Cormac breathing down my neck, I wish I still had my mom around.
“What is?” I murmur, pulling out a frilly dress before putting it back on the rack.
“You. Picking out a wedding dress. I’ll kill Marco before you can marry him.” He glances at our dad who’s across the room, speaking with the sale’s woman. “You don’t need to go through this.”
“What if you can’t?” I snap, making Cormac take a step back from me. “What if you can’t kill Marco before I have to marry him? I’ll need a wedding dress then.”
He looks at me for a long moment before speaking. “Do you want to marry him?”
“No,” I scoff but my fingers run along the scar on my arm. I had the stitches removed a week ago but the scar will remain for a long time. And in that time, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of how Marco saved me from that man. We haven’t spoken since but I want to and I’m not sure if that’s a problem or not. “I just… I’m being practical. You haven’t succeeded in killing him yet and the wedding is coming up really soon. So…”
“I will kill him. I just have to find the right time. After you got hurt…”
