Page 124 of In the Dark

I stood tall and cracked my neck once. “No. I slept with my husband for myself. For my family, not yours.”

He scoffed, not really knowing that I was talking about the baby inside me. “You and him aren’t a family. You’re a cobbled-together arrangement that is going to come to an end. Know why? Because he dies tonight. And Fitzpatrick will take down the other Knights one by one with me. I’ll have a hold on the country like your father never did.”

“My father?” I shook my head at him. My father wasn’t power hungry. I might have been only six when he passed, but I remembered him stopping work when I tapped on the bottom of his desk, I remember him dancing with me in the kitchen, I remember him coming home every single night to be with my mother and me. “He didn’t need the country under his thumb.”

“Because he was blinded by you! Your father was family, but he was also a lovesick, dumbass snake. He’d had an empire of sex trafficking handed to him, a good deal with the Irish and your grandfather, and then he’d been weak and fallen in love with his stupid wife. She’d been trafficked, you know that? She was one of ours, and he fell for her sob story. Your mother was trying to change things, to make him give it all up.” He walked up to me now and was about to point the gun at me. I felt Callahan move, but I was faster. “You and that whore of—”

It was all I needed. Him this close. Because men were stupid when they were emotional and felt threatened.

Women, though, we were powerful and ruthless when someone cornered what we held dear. We could lift cars when our babies were in danger.

I was madder, stronger, and more vicious than my uncle would ever be.

I whipped my hand up to hit his wrist while I ducked out of the way of his shot. The explosion rang in my ears, but I kept moving. My uncle was slow, out of practice, and he didn’t have much to lose.

I had everything. I had a new husband. A new baby. A new life that I wanted.

I was going to disarm him with a knee to his groin and a twist of his wrist, but Callahan had him in a chokehold while I cranked the weapon from his fingers.

God, he was hot.

“Adamantem infractum manet. Do you know what that means, Monte?”

I turned the gun on him.

He grumbled that it was bullshit.

“Actually, it means that a diamond remains unbroken. It means those who are Diamonds protect their families.” I waited a beat. “Call my mother that again, Monte.”

His eyes flicked toward the door. “Mija,” he said softly, and then he smiled almost gently. “My men have this boat surrounded, and your captain’s dead.”

Callahan squeezed Monte’s neck. “Monte, do you really think you have the manpower to surround my yacht and that I wouldn’t have it wildly secured with such precious cargo?”

“Cargo?”

“My wife. I told you I wouldn’t let you risk her life again.”

“You’re a fool. I planned this. I planned it all.”

“Your plan was three boats, a small crew of men I could take, let alone my wife. She’s a much better fighter than me.” He winked at me. “I let you on this boat.”

“You didn’t.” He shook his head, but he was getting nervous. I saw the vein in his temple bulging and the sweat starting to form on his brow.

“If it’s so well planned, where are your men?” Callahan shook his head and shoved him away so that my uncle was on the floor gasping for breath. “They’re dead, but I wanted to give you a chance. You see, I was concerned about your involvement, Monte. But I was also convinced you loved your niece.”

“I … I do.” Monte tried to change tactics.

“No, Tío. I think you love your pride more.”

My uncle tried a last-ditch effort to pull his other weapon, and I swear Callahan let him because the gun was to his head and my husband still rolled his eyes.

Maybe because Callahan knew I had his back and he had mine now.

He knew that just as fast as my uncle got the gun to my husband’s head, I had one to his head. “Touch my husband, and I’ll blow your head off, Monte.”

“Put the gun down, Monte,” Callahan said. “Your men are surrounded, and there’s a laser at your temple. Not only that, it seems my viper has the best shot here on this boat.”

“Mija,” Monte whined at me.