Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 87695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“You don’t need to.”
“You can’t just treat me like a child. I have a right to know what’s going on.”
He turns back, and the withering stare he gives me makes my feet go numb. “You don’t have the right to anything anymore. Leave it, Alina.” He storms off, and I hear the guest room slam shut.
I collapse back onto the bed. I’m trembling with confusion. What could have happened to make him act like this? Clearly, his conversation with Molchanie didn’t go well, but I don’t have any idea why it would make him turn on me.
It’s not right. I’m so angry I could scream. This isn’t the man I thought he was. I hoped we could have a partnership together. I was trying to compromise, and he was trying to meet me in the middle too.
Now I don’t know what to feel.
Except when I pull the blankets around me, loneliness fills my chest, and the far half of the bed feels too cold.
Chapter 23
Seamus
Ilean forward, my chest practically resting against the glass of scotch in front of me. A Mets game is on TV, a replay from the night before. I can’t pay much attention to it. The bar’s thinning out this late on a weeknight, and I know I have to go home soon.
I just don’t want to.
I know what’s waiting for me there.
She wasn’t around when I dragged myself out of bed after getting a few terrible hours of sleep. Probably at Sistine. At least I’m not worried Molchanie’s going to kill her.
I’ve got new nightmares to deal with.
And more guilt than I know how to handle.
The old Seamus would’ve gone with all this. I would’ve flowed around the situation like water. But now I’m stuck in the river like a giant boulder, and I don’t know how I’m ever going to move again.
Which is a fucking problem.
“I hear you’ve been staring at the wall for the last couple of hours.” Finn sits heavily at my elbow and orders a Guinness. “You all good, or do I need to call Mom?”
“Please, for the love of God, leave her out of this.”
“Good, sounds like you haven’t gone insane. So what’s happening? Why are you hiding out here?”
I shake my head. “It’s not important.”
“Bullshit. You never mope around bars like this. Trouble back home? You avoiding the new wife?” He grins at me and sips his beer. “Don’t tell me paradise is lost already?”
“You have no idea,” I mutter, frustrated, and let out a long breath. “Can I tell you something? And can you swear you won’t repeat it to our parents?”
His smirk fades and his head tilts. “You’re being serious, aren’t you?”
“It’s no joke. I need you to swear on your life, Finn. This can’t leave our circle.” I gesture between us.
“You have my word. What’s going on?”
I fill him in, starting with the note Alina found in her apartment, touching on Oliver’s killing, and finally ending with the Molchanie meeting. He sits back and absorbs everything, and by the time I’m done, he’s ordering a second beer and a refill on my scotch.
“You think she’s being serious?” Finn asks, hunched forward on his elbows now, like the weight of my situation is forcing him down.
“I think she cut the throats of two men to make sure I knew she wasn’t fucking around. I think she’ll do whatever it takes to get what she wants.”
“But why?” Finn shakes his head, mystified. “I don’t get it.”
“She says we’re dangerous. And maybe she’s right. We don’t exactly have the safest lifestyle in the world.”
“Sounds like bullshit to me.”
“Whatever her motivations are, our family’s in danger now.”
He rubs his face and sucks down half his second Guinness. “What are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, staring at my glass. I roll it around slowly, watching the liquor press up against the edges. “I lose no matter what. If I divorce Alina, I might spark a war with the Morozovs. Ruslan won’t take that well.”
“You could always explain to him the situation.”
“Think he’ll believe it? And even if he does, think he’ll accept it? It’s not his family getting killed. All he cares about is the business.”
“That’s true, but still. Ruslan’s not a psychopath.” Finn pauses and brushes fingers through his hair. “Well, he’s not stupid anyway.”
“Even if Ruslan did agree to a divorce, what kind of message does that send? It lets everyone know that I can be pushed around. That the Whelan clan is weak. A couple of deaths, some creepy notes, a decent threat or two, and we cave.”
Finn’s eyebrows raise. “You care about our image?”
“I run our street ops. All I do is manage our fucking image and make sure nobody in this city thinks they can fuck with us without repercussions.”
“What are you going to do? Sounds like you can’t win either way.”