SWNOVELS Sold to the Italian Mafia Boss: Chapter 14
Ireland at dawn is mystical. On another day, in another life, it would be beautiful. It finds its green hills endless, mist-draped and inviting. They seem to vow to keep my secrets, to keep me and mine hidden from harm; they seem to tempt me away from the fire and brimstone of the life I’ve inherited. The life I have built.
It’s a wet morning, rain coming in a mist so heavy it almost feels like drowning. I stand amid a fleet of vehicles lined on a rutted, muddy side road in the deep country. Gio is at my side, dressed all in black, armed to the gills. My men are in the cars, each one full. Armed. Ready for war.
“There,” says Gio, pointing. “Between the hills. Hard to spot, but it’s there if you know what to look for.”
I bring the binoculars to my eyes, and the mansion materializes. Only a corner of it is visible from where I stand and in the lousy weather. But it’s there, sure enough. Not a mirage as much as it might look like one.
We learned of Liam McNamara’s compound not long ago, which is why we’re certain he hasn’t gotten wise and thought to bail on it and find a better, more secret safe house. We’ve been keeping tabs. Building up a local cache of cars and guns. Getting men over the border practically one at a time. It would have been easier with the Russians, sure. But I always had my own plans in motion, working like gears in a machine in the background. I wasn’t sure I’d have enough men; I wasn’t sure if those who were loyal to my father and had grown distant since his death would answer the call to arms when it came. But they did.
Word of my marriage to Kate has spread, and the rumors are spreading like wildfire. There’s been a shift in favorability. A month ago, before I had ever met Kate McNamara, all bets were on her father. I was the underdog. But now the playing field is equal.
Or, it would be—if it weren’t for Ariana.
I learned of Kate’s kidnapping almost the instant it happened. But by then, it was too late, and I was too far. In Rome, stranded, hundreds of miles away from her. I should have known that Ariana had something like this planned. I should have seen it coming. She’s right—my judgment was clouded, and I underestimated her. Much like I underestimated Kate from the beginning.
But not again. Never again.
“It’s time to move,” I say, returning the binoculars to Gio. “Get everyone together.”
“Luca,” says Gio, stopping me as I turn to get back into my car. His expression is strange—soft. Vulnerable. Guilty. “I’m—I wanted to apologize. For how I spoke to you that day at the range when the delivery came. It was wrong.”
I sigh. “You were honest. You helped me. If not to move in the right direction, then to see what I thought to be the right direction.”
Gio nods, clenching his jaw. “I…”
“Gio,” I say, smiling tiredly. “Please. Speak.”
“She’s a good woman,” he says, averting his eyes. “I was trying to speak to you the way I thought your father would, and I’m sorry. It’s not weakness to care about the girl—Kate,” he corrects, eyes snapping to mine. He shakes his head, again looking guilty. “Whatever I wished for you, I didn’t want her to be hurt. I can see that you care for her.”
Care for her. Is that what this is, care? Is that the pain in my ribs, like a knife, buried there since the moment I learned she’d been taken? It was only yesterday. And yet…I hadn’t seen her for days leading up to it. I was trying in vain to put distance between us. But I think I knew even then that it wouldn’t work. There’s something between us: care, attraction, chemistry, or simple understanding.
And there’s something else, too. I look away into the dark hills. This is her home country, and it reminds me of her. Wild and rich and moody; beautiful. A little unpredictable. I could see her moving among these hills, honey hair streaming. I could see myself keeping her here like a garden, nourishing her, letting her flourish.
What else could you see, Luca? The voice, a young man’s voice, a boy’s voice, is so faint in the back of my mind. It’s a voice I’ve been silencing since my father died. I’ve become so hard, and I’ve welcomed that hardness. But what Kate saw in me, what she liked, what she respected—was my softness. Could you see yourself in love with her here? Could you see yourself building a life with her, a family? More than an empire, but a real, a true legacy?
“It doesn’t matter,” I say softly. Gio looks at me. “That I care for her. Nothing will ever live between us once I kill her father.”
Gio nods once, looking out at the compound. “Yes. I think you’re right about that. But…there’s a chance you won’t have to.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ariana is there now,” Gio says, and my skin crawls. Our contacts told us mere moments ago that, just as we suspected, Ariana and her Russian contingent were pulling up to Liam McNamara’s compound. Armored and armed to the hilt. “Maybe she will kill him for you.”
“I doubt it,” I say. “Ari wants esteem, sure. She wants to win respect by making a message of all of this and get the endorsement her parents never did. The endorsement she never did. She wants to build something, and killing Liam would give her something, but it won’t give her nearly as much as keeping him alive.” I imagine that, if anything, Ari isn’t here to exact revenge or win a reputation by putting Liam McNamara in the ground. She’s here to deliver Kate to him like a present and take his favor as far as it will get her. “It will fall to me. It was always meant to fall to me.”
Maybe that is my legacy. Gio doesn’t argue. Just as he said that day, my men will not follow or forgive me if I don’t kill Liam. I don’t blame them for that. Would I follow myself, were I in their position? I doubt it. Blood must be shed tonight. I can only hope that Ari and Pyotr lose some too.
And that through it all, Kate is safe—and can find it in herself to one day forgive me.
I take a deep breath. No more stalling. “Let’s go.”
I get into my car and drive.