SWNOVELS Vicious Hearts: Chapter 21
“Mild concussion, that’s all. She’s going to be okay.”
The NYPD’s not always stupid. Today, they were smart enough to send officers who know me personally to O’Bannon’s when the frantic call came in from a concerned citizen who heard the blast. Castle spoke to the “friendly” officers to make sure they got the story straight about the “miscalculated celebratory fireworks that unfortunately went off inside prematurely.”
Friendly as they may be, I don’t typically like to mix personal Kildare matters with the police. And this is decidedly a very personal matter.
But never mind. The important thing is, Neve is going to be okay.
After she was checked over at the scene, I had all the immediate family, along with two of the arriving EMTs, moved from O’Bannon’s to the Upper East Side house. Which is where we all currently are.
Dr. Blythe, my go-to family physician for matters like getting stabbed or exploding fucking wedding cake injuries, nods to the room where Neve is resting, Ares by her side.
“A couple of scrapes, probably from wooden fragments of the banquet table. And she’ll need to take it easy for a few days. She got hit in the head pretty hard. But she’s going to be fine, Mr. Kildare.”
That’s far more than I can say for whoever the fuck is responsible for what happened today, when I fucking find them.
I’m going to skin them alive.
When Dr. Blythe is gone, I step into the library where everyone else is gathered and am immediately accosted by a concerned-looking Eilish and Callie.
“She’ll be fine,” I murmur quietly. “Just a concussion.”
Eilish visibly exhales in relief, shuddering as Callie hugs her around the shoulders tightly.
I turn to address the group. “Now, we all need to talk about what—”
“Cillian…”
“She’s going to be okay, Eilish.”
“Which is wonderful, but I don’t know if she is.”
She swings her face around, and I follow her gaze to where my eyes land on Una, sitting alone on one of the couches.
Looking like a ghost.
Shit.
“She’s…really not responding to…anything,” Eilish says quietly.
She’s right. Una looks like she’s somewhere else. Like her light is dimmed inside. Her hands clench on her lap, fingers picking at her cuticles as she stares blankly at the wall, her cheeks white. Her face and the black dress are streaked with soot and the disturbing blood-colored flecks of frosting from the cake. Her hair is spattered with cake crumbs, and hangs limply down the sides of her pale face.
“Stay here.”
I leave Eilish with Callie. Una jumps when I touch her shoulder, her vacant eyes ripping from the wall to focus on me.
“It was him.”
My jaw clenches as I squat down in front of her. I take her hands in one of mine, stopping her from ripping her cuticles apart any further. The other raises to cup her cold face.
“There’s no such thing as ghosts, Una. Least of all ones capable of rigging bombs and hiding recording devices in wedding cakes.”
“That voice…” she shudders, a haunted look rearing up in her eyes. “That fucking voice…”
“That was a recording,” I growl. “From months ago, before his death, when someone was idiotic enough to think it would be a good idea to do a live interview from ADX Florence with your father. You must have heard about it. He killed a guard, put the reporter in a wheelchair, and grabbed the camera to start barking threats at our family.”
She swallows, her face somehow even colder.
“But then he died,” I hiss quietly. “He’s gone, Una.”
And when I find out who the fuck thought it was amusing or even remotely cute to fuck with my family like that, I’m going to bathe in their fucking screams.
I clear my throat, standing and turning to address the room. “Neve’s got a small concussion, but she’s going to be okay.”
Visible relief floods the faces of Castle, Kratos, and Dimitra, joining Eilish and Callie.
Hades’ face, however, only briefly registers that emotion before it turns stormy and dark.
“Yeah, so,” he growls. “Are we going to discuss the fucking elephant in the room?”
My eyes drill into him, ice cold.
“I’d choose my next few words very carefully,” I growl quietly.
“Oh, would you?” Hades snaps. “As carefully as you made the enlightened fucking decision to bring her into this family!?” He jabs a finger at Una, sneering.
“Hades,” Kratos murmurs. “Take a walk.”
“Fuck taking a walk. That thing could have blown Neve’s fucking head off!”
“And Una’s as well!” Callie snaps at him. “Hades, she was standing right next to it too!”
My eyes are unblinking as they stab through him.
“Yeah, you can fucking psycho-eye me all you goddamn want, Cillian,” he hisses. “It doesn’t change what we all just heard. That was Seamus.”
“Who is dead.”
“And still setting off bombs, somehow!”
“Hades!”
Dimitra strides forward and slaps his hand with a cold look on her face.
“She’s family now! To aíma eínai aíma!”
Blood is blood.
Fury explodes over Hades’ face. “Yeah, Ya-ya?” he snaps. “Except her blood”—he jabs a furious finger past me at Una—“is poison! Her blood almost killed my fucking brother!”
My eyes turn to dangerous slits as my hand slides into my jacket, fingering the blade I find there.
My violence roaring inside.
My mask of normalcy and humanity…slipping.
Quickly.
Dangerously.
“I would suggest,” I hiss quietly, “that you leave. Now.”
Hades looks like he’s ready to explode as he shakes his head.
“Her fucking father almost killed Ares and Neve. And that does not go away because you threw together some bullshit wedding to stop all the crazy Irish pricks in your own organization from tearing themselves apart like rabid dogs.”
My fingers curl around the handle of the knife.
“Cillian, she’s a fucking O’Conor!”
“Yes. And I’m telling you one last time to—”
“I mean for fuck’s sake, man!” he roars. “She tried to fucking kill y—”
I rush him, snarling, as the blade slips from my jacket, and comes to press against his throat while the rest of the room explodes in chaos.
“STOP IT!!!”
Everything freezes at the sound of Neve’s voice. My head whips around to see her standing in the doorway, leaning against Ares as he holds her tightly around the waist.
Her eyes dart to me first, and she shakes her head sadly.
“Cillian… Just put it away.”
My jaw clenches. My fingers tighten around the knife. Then, slowly, I pull away from Hades, slipping the blade back into my jacket.
Neve nods her thanks quietly before turning her eyes to Hades.
“Whatever anger you’re hanging on to, Hades, you have to let that fucking go.”
His jaw clenches. “Neve—”
“I was the enemy once, in case you’ve forgotten?”
“That was…different,” he mutters.
Neve rolls her eyes. “Exactly how was that different? Please explain it to me. Ares and I got married because your uncle and my father shot each other, and everyone thought we were heading into world war three in the streets. Yes. You’re right, Hades. Her father almost killed Ares and me. Her father,” she snaps. “Not her.”
Neve turns to look at Una, who’s still sitting looking numb and cold on the couch.
“If I of all people can let that go, you damn well can, too,” Neve mutters at Hades.
“Eínai sto parelthón aderfé,” Ares growls quietly.
My Greek’s pretty limited, but I know that’s at least partially “it’s in the past, brother.”
“Let it the fuck go, man,” Ares adds with a glare at his younger brother. He glances at Una, shaking his head and taking a deep breath. “She isn’t the enemy here. Whoever sent that bomb is.” He glares at both Hades and me. “So how about we stop trying to kill each other and figure out how to find this motherfucker?”
I pin Hades with a stare. He does the same to me. Finally, he exhales and sticks out a hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted.”
We shake, and he smirks. “You were really about to cut me, weren’t you?”
The look on my face and tilt of my head answers his question without words.
Hades chuckles quietly as he pulls close and awkwardly gives me a hug.
“If you were about to slice my goddamn throat over her,” he mutters in my ear, “then I’m fucking sold.” He pulls back. “Same team?”
I nod. “Same team.”
“Besides,” Callie says. “We don’t even know if that thing was meant for Neve or—”
Her mouth snaps shut as she realizes she was about to voice out loud what we’re all thinking.
Too late.
My face darkens as I watch Una’s pale even more.
“Nice one, Callie,” Kratos mutters as his sister winces.
I look over at Castle, who nods at me. “I’ve already got some of our guys looking into it. There’s not a lot of people in this city who could wire up something that precise. We’ll find them.”
“Precise?” Ares growls. “It was a bomb rigged to blow up in Una and my wife’s faces.”
Castle shakes his head. “Which it did, but as bombs go, that wasn’t built for damage or death.”
Ares looks like he’s about to go thermonuclear, until Neve puts a hand on his chest and kisses his cheek.
“I know tempers are hot right now,” Castle growls. “But believe me, I know explosives. I trained on them in the Rangers. And that wasn’t a kill or maiming IED. Small blast, nothing evil stuffed in it like metal shavings or ball bearings to cause significant damage.”
Callie shudders next to him.
Castle shakes his head. “I know it was scary, but that was the whole point.” He turns to level his gaze at me. “That wasn’t meant to kill, Cillian. That was meant to send a message.”
Which I think we all got loud and fucking clear. The only problem is, dead men don’t send messages like that.
“I’m doubling security on the house. Eilish, sorry, I know you hate them, but you’ve got a detail now when you need to go out.”
She nods, hugging herself.
“We’ll do the same on our end,” Ares mutters.
“Good. And despite what we all heard coming from that speaker,” I growl, glancing at Neve, “I don’t fucking believe in ghosts. So let’s find the asshole who’s trying to play one.”
I move back to the couch and squat down again in front of Una. I take her hands in mine as her wide eyes drag up to me.
“Come.”
She swallows, wetting her lips. “Where are we going?”
“Home.”