Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
“A menace who rules South Bronx and sits on a mountain of his enemies’ skulls. The man has no fear or morals. He’s a liability. A wild seed. We need to strike an alliance with the Irish.” Papa’s words were swift and final. “He’s my biggest headache right now. I need to nip it in the bud. This will tie our businesses with his. We’ll throw him some incentives, give him territory, and kill two birds with one stone.”
“Sei un coglione,” Mama snarled, rising to her feet. “He gave your daughter his eye.”
My life drained from my body.
This was who they wanted me to marry?
The awful man without the eye who threatened to drown, chop, rape, and kill me?
“The shit are you talking about, Mama?” Achilles swung his entire body in her direction, scowling.
“It’s true.” She tilted her chin up, straightening her spine. “She was doing her little doodles on the fountain outside the night you brought that godawful creature into my house. He found her and gave her his eyeball. She was covered in his blood, her hair all wet from the water when I found her. This is how depraved the man is. Taunting this poor, innocent girl.”
“Uhm, and you didn’t think of—let’s see—telling us?” Enzo stared at her incredulously.
She hitched a shoulder up. “I didn’t think we’d have to see him again, and I didn’t want to trigger Lila. You know how delicate she is.”
Luca squinted. “And he didn’t rape her?”
“Well, no, but—”
“And he didn’t kill her?” Achilles frowned.
They made it sound like him sparing my life was a heroic act. I wanted to scream until my lungs caught fire.
Luca curved an eyebrow, contemplating. “Maybe he spared her because of her disabilities?”
Achilles and Enzo shot him disbelieving glares.
“Riiiight.” Enzo chuckled sarcastically. “Because he’s just that kind of stand-up guy.”
“He’s not the catch-and-release type.” Achilles scratched his jaw. “And he is not prone to mistakes. Something’s fishy.”
“Probably your breath,” Enzo suggested sunnily. “Have you been with any more of my exes recently?”
Sometimes my brothers said crude things I did not understand. This was one of those times.
“Maybe he decided to finish his business at Luca’s wedding,” Dad marveled.
“And this is fine with you?” Mama went red. “Marry her off to her rapist?”
“Tiernan Callaghan has grand aspirations. I’d rather work with him than against him. Lila will give birth as a married woman, and we’ll be able to put that pazzo on a leash.”
“And if he abuses her?” Luca leaned a shoulder against the wall, a godly sculpture, arms crossed around his middle.
My father huffed. “How much does she understand, really?”
A lot, Papa. More than you’d ever know. The only thing I can’t do is hear, and that is entirely not my fault.
“Set up a meeting,” my father concluded. “Tomorrow, at the latest. I want the entire Irish clan here.”
“No, no, no!” My mother fell to her knees again, pounding the carpeted floor with her fists. “I won’t let you take her. I won’t. You can’t do this to me. She’s all I have left.”
But there was no point.
I knew as well as she did, once my father made up his mind, there was no changing it.
My mother’s plan to keep me safe and unwed failed in spectacular fashion. Everything we’d worked for was in vain.
I was pregnant and getting married to Tiernan Callaghan.
And I had no say about it.
CHAPTER FIVE
TIERNAN
291 DAYS TO SELF-DESTRUCTION
There was only one thing I hated more than a Ferrante brother.
And that was two Ferrante brothers interrupting me while I was splitting the G. The heavenly act of taking the first, large sip of a freshly poured Guinness.
I was sitting in Fermanagh’s, going over the books, when Enzo and Achilles showed up at my door.
I drew my weapon and aimed it at Achilles’s head. Let’s be honest, a bullet would only do his face good.
“That’s a weird way of saying hello.” Enzo flashed me a friendly smile.
“I don’t acknowledge lesser life-forms.”
“Ouch. That is so uncalled for.” Enzo almost pouted. “If it wasn’t for me stitching your ass, I’d be visiting a cemetery right now, not a lively pub.”
I forgot how chatty the Ferrantes were. Already, I wanted my fucking time back.
“What brings you down to my humble kingdom?” I asked.
“Maybe we just missed you.” Enzo tossed his knife in the air with a shrug, catching it by the hilt.
I cataloged the Italian jokester. A preppy black peacoat and black hoodie combo, slim fit chinos, and a three-hundred-buck haircut. He looked about as scary as a moldy piece of marshmallow.
“Have your fill, lover boy. You just entered my territory unannounced, and I have every reason to make lasagna out of your brain. Frisk them.” I jerked my chin toward the Camorristi men.
Three of my soldiers stood up, stomping over to the brothers and patting them down. They raised their arms sideways with a disgruntled look. I grabbed my phone and took a picture of the humiliating moment.