Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
So much responsibility to toss onto a kid. “How old were you?”
“Ya ne znayu. Eight. Perhaps ten.”
Keira froze. “You… That’s very young.” At eight and ten she was still firmly a kid and enjoying something resembling an idyllic childhood as Devlin’s sidekick. Her older siblings had felt the weight of their duty earlier than she had as the youngest, but even Seamus held off screwing with them until they were old enough to be useful—high school, at least.
“Don’t pity me, Keira. It wasn’t a bad life as such things go.”
“Sure, but saying that it could be worse is silly. It could just as easily have been better.” She did some quick math in her head. “Was Olivia around at that point?”
“Da. Though her mother was kept away for the most part, so I didn’t see much of her until years later.”
How incredibly lonely. At least her house had been filled with her siblings. Dmitri had only had himself. Keira gave herself a mental shake. He didn’t want her pity, and whatever his childhood had been like, it was the past now. She couldn’t go back and change it. She shouldn’t even want to.
Dmitri swirled his sparkling water. “In a way, it’s a good thing that Olivia fled to Cillian. They’re bound to give Hadley more siblings to grow up with. There will be cousins as well.” He met her gaze. “Your brother isn’t your father.”
“You don’t have to tell me that.” Not too long ago, she’d wondered if Aiden would follow in Seamus’s footsteps—his actions had sure as fuck indicated that he’d do exactly that—but he’d shifted gears and was taking steps that she’d never expected. “It’s only a matter of time before he and Charlie start popping out kids, too.” Though they wouldn’t start until the biggest threats to the O’Malleys were taken care of. She knew Aiden well enough to know that.
“Da.” He slid his plate aside. “Do you want children, Keira?”
“Do I have a choice?” she fired back—and instantly regretted it. They were actually having a nice time, and she had to fuck with it. Every single time. I am not a possession.
Dmitri watched her closely. “I won’t force you there any more than I’d force you to have sex. It’s your choice. It’s always been your choice.”
He might say that, but it couldn’t be clearer what his priorities were. The dynasty. The family. Though, for the first time, Keira had to wonder if Dmitri’s insistence on children was motivated—at least in part—by growing up alone in this massive house. A family would fill up the echoing space much more effectively than all his men combined.
She had to look away and then felt like the worst kind of coward for doing it. “Not yet. Not while the Eldridges are still out there and gunning for us.”
“I won’t let her have you.”
She glanced back at him. “Which her?” Mae was scary, but she seemed to look at every problem as if it was a nail for her to hammer. One size fits all. Alethea had cunning if she was able to outsmart Dmitri for this long, and that was a special kind of terrifying because it meant they didn’t know where she’d strike next.
The fact he thought they’d be coming for her spoke volumes. She frowned. “Why do you think they’ve focused on me?” There had been the drive-by shooting back when she was still living in Boston, but that could have just as easily been aimed at Charlie—or Carrigan for that matter.
This time, Dmitri looked away, which sent alarm bells pealing through her head. She straightened. “Something happened that you haven’t told me about.”
He sighed. “Mae had a gift delivered last week.”
A gift. Whatever it was, he’d gone almost pale when he mentioned it, so it had to be bad. She took half a second to consider whether she really wanted to know. Yes, I have to know what I’m facing. If I want to be an actual partner, I have to be able to handle it. “Tell me.”
He hesitated, but almost immediately relented. “She killed a girl who looks remarkably similar to you… and sent me her head.”
“Her head?” Her voice squeaked and she had to take a shallow breath. “That bitch cut off some poor girl’s head and sent it to you.” She tried to process that, tried to wrap her mind around the level of evil Mae Eldridge had to possess to think that was a legitimate step. Keira stared at the half-eaten food on her plate, feeling sick. “Have you ever done something like that?”
“Killed an innocent to threaten another? Nyet. Murder is a last resort—never a threat.”
Which wasn’t to say he hadn’t murdered someone before. She considered that, and then compared it to what she knew of how her family operated. Keira couldn’t say for sure that Aiden’s hands were perfectly clean of blood, and she knew for a fact Cillian’s weren’t. “Would you have killed Olivia’s ex if you’d gotten to him before Cillian did?”