Page 88 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

“Five.”

“McKenna!” Da spat.

My heart pounded as I struggled against the soldier’s grip to save my sister. Riley cried for her Mammy. Mam screamed at Da to choose Riley.

“Four.”

“McKenna, don’t do this. She’s just a little girl. Please.”

“Three.”

“Cillian!” Mam screamed, tears running down her cheeks. “Save them. Please!”

“Two.”

“Cillian!”

“One.”

“Riley!” Da bellowed, then sobbed. I’d never seen my Da cry. Yet tears streamed down his face as he repeated his decision. “I choose to save Riley.”

Mam stopped screaming. Her chest rose and fell as she looked over at us and smiled through her tears. She said she loved us. My eyes widened, still unable to believe what was about to happen. She glanced at Da and told him she loved him too. Then the bullet entered her skull. The sound that came from Da was unlike anything I’d ever heard. My ears rang with it and with my siblings’ hysterical crying. Da had fallen off the edge of the well onto the grass, slumped against the stone wall, unable to breathe. I was the only one still on my feet.

Sean let out a breath. “You know I’m goin’ to kill you, Cillian. I doubt you care anymore. Am I right?”

Da didn’t move. He was broken. My hero was broken.

“But you have one last decision to make before I let you join her. You took my son from me. My only heir. And then you took my wife. It seems only right that I take one of yours to replace him.”

“Lies!” Da shouted, spit flying from his mouth. “That bomb was meant for you and only you! Your wife killed herself because she couldn’t bear to suffer you fucking her again to make another bastard!”

McKenna’s calm exterior cracked for the first time. He sent his fist flying into Da’s face. I roared, breaking free from the soldier holding me, and lunged onto Sean’s back. I tried to claw his face off, but he flung me off.

“I will take one of your children. I will break them until they are nothin’ but what I make them. They’ll suffer horrendously every day for the rest of their life, knowin’ it’s because of you and what you took from me. But I’ll show some mercy. One life to save three. I’ll let the others live, just so they know what a disappointment you were. Or…” Sean paused and glanced at us all. “I’ll kill them all. Wipe the entire Moriarty bloodline from this Earth. What will it be?”

Da shook his head, his shoulders sagging. I glanced back at my siblings, at the fear on their faces. The twins were only four years old. Connor hadn’t reached double digits yet, something he was obsessed with achieving. They deserved to live. They had to live.

“Take me,” I shouted, forcing courage into my voice.

Sean turned my way, eyes glistening in the moonlight with amusement. “Brave boy. But this isn’t your decision.”

“Da,” I said, waiting for him to lift his head and look at me. When our gazes met, I nodded, showing no fear. “I promise he won’t break me. You made me strong. I’ll fight every day to keep them alive. I swear it. I’ll sacrifice my life for theirs. Choose me. Let them live.”

Sean chuckled behind me, twisting his ring on his finger. Mam’s silk handkerchief poked out of his trouser pocket, taunting Da even more.

Da glanced behind me at my siblings, then looked back. “Death would be kinder than what he’ll do to you, son.”

I swallowed. “But survival is key.”

He pressed his lips together, and I saw pride in his eyes. “I love you, Maddox. My boy. One day, make this bastard pay.”

I nodded, a tear sliding down my cheek. “I promise.”

Sean rested his hand on my shoulder. I shrugged him off. “You’re sellin’ your son to the devil, Moriarty. Interestin’ choice.”

“May he rise to send you back to hell.”

Sean chuckled. With a flick of his wrist, his men descended on Da, looping a rope around his neck and forcing him to stand at the well’s edge. They had to hold him up because his knees were shattered and could barely support his weight.