Chapter Thirteen
Peter
I waited outside Niamh’s hospital room and I heard her and Ivan talking, but their voices were muffled. I didn’t know for sure what was going on. She lost the baby. Normally, I didn’t care. There was no reason for me to care, or even to concern myself like this.
There had been a baby and now there wasn’t.
She wasn’t even pregnant long enough for us to know what the sex of the baby was, or if she was even pregnant. The doctors had confirmed it, along with her miscarriage. I kept seeing Finn Byrne’s face. It played over and over in my mind, and I didn’t know what kind of game Ivan was playing, all I knew for sure was that it pissed me off.
I needed to kill that useless, pathetic son of a bitch. I wanted to hurt Finn, run my blade into the delicate parts of his body.
“Here.”
I looked up to see The Butcher once again blending in and holding out a coffee for me to take. I was tempted to ignore it, but instead I reached out and grabbed it.
“It’s shit. Hospital coffee and food is the worst, and it doesn’t matter if you go private or public.” She took a seat beside me, and was already drinking her coffee.
I took a sip and that shit was nasty.
“But it does the job in keeping you wide awake.”
“Why the fuck are you even here?” I asked, taking another sip of the nasty coffee.
“Keeping Niamh safe. Finn Byrne is a sneaky little bastard.”
“Do you think he plans to come and kill his daughter?” If he came to this hospital and tried, there was no way I was going to allow Ivan to hold me back. I would kill that son of a bitch, and I would take my own sweet time about it as well.
“Yeah, it’s Finn Byrne. In case you didn’t know, the man has a reputation for being unreasonable and seeing as he was quite happy to beat the living shit out of his daughter, I’d say he’s capable of anything.”
This made me angry. Niamh had endured enough. I glanced down the corridor and kind of willed the bastard to show up, just so I could finally have the pleasure of ending him, and that would be a lot of fun. It was what I wanted to do, so damn much.
“You know, don’t you find it odd?” The Butcher asked.
To me, it was strange to be sitting side by side with The Butcher, let alone having a normal conversation with her. This woman was known for being surrounded in mystery. All the information about her was based on rumor or gossip. She was a freaking ghost, and I was starting to understand why.
“Find what odd?”
“Niamh ran away from her father. He clearly saw who you were, and I’m guessing he knew what was going on, and yet he didn’t kill his daughter.”
This made me stop and I turned to glance over at The Butcher.
She held her hands up as if in surrender. “Don’t look at me all judgey. I’m just saying, a guy who has no qualms in beating and whipping his daughter, why didn’t he kill her? He clearly doesn’t love her, because if he did, Niamh wouldn’t have run away.”
“Maybe he does love her, and she ran away because she couldn’t stand the beatings.”
“True, but even the bounty hunters were ordered to keep her alive. In my experience, that is odd. There is always a bounty dead or alive, or even located. Finn Byrne was explicit in his instructions. He wanted his daughter back or located, and he wanted her in one piece. She had to be breathing.”
Now that she talked about it in that way, I did find it odd. Especially considering he’d held a gun to her head.
“You don’t think he was going to kill her?”
“A man like Finn Byrne doesn’t negotiate. Even if you do have his son. I’ve met a lot of Finn Byrnes in my time and as far as they’re concerned, they can have more children. We know he’s got a lot of kids, and it wouldn’t be hard for him to father another one, or two. At the same time in doing my research, Finn doesn’t like his daughters. None of his daughters or their mothers are seen by him, yet, Niamh is different, why?”
I had no idea. I didn’t get a chance to ask any more questions as Ivan stepped out.
“We need to talk,” Ivan said. “Keep an eye.”
The Butcher put two fingers against her temple and saluted Ivan, who didn’t even bat an eyelid at the action. I expected Ivan to take us back into Niamh’s room, but we walked further down the corridor, going to a quiet room. I’m not sure how Ivan knew it was vacant, but we stepped inside, and he closed the door behind us.
I stood there, looked at him, waited, and he ran fingers through his hair as he glanced around the room. My patience was fading, and I want him to tell me what the fuck was going on, but as always, he was silent. I didn’t know what to say.
“You and Niamh are going to get married,” Ivan said. “I’m going to make all the arrangements and within the next month, you’ll be married. You don’t need to go back to Pickle Quest. You can return to your section and continue as normal.”
“Is that it?” I asked. “You expect me and Niamh to work this shit out? I lied to her.”
“And I’ve already started to mend the pain, but there is only so much I can do. It is now up to you.”
“For fuck’s sake, Ivan, what is going on? Tell me what you know about her. Tell me why this is important to you!”
I didn’t like feeling out of the loop and all I got for my rant was Ivan smiling. “I guess The Butcher has been whispering in your ear.”
“She has a point,” I said, gritting my teeth. I didn’t like it being insinuated that I was being manipulated. Anything else, I wouldn’t even question, but there was no getting away from the truth. “Why didn’t Finn kill Niamh?”
I didn’t even want to think about anything bad happening to Niamh. She didn’t deserve to die. She was a kind woman, caring, considerate, sweet, and I didn’t want to think of her as dying or dead.
“She’s his daughter?” Ivan asked.
“You and I both know a man that treats his daughter like that is no man at all. Damn it, Ivan, tell me, or is this going to hurt her? The truth is, you’re giving me a wife, and you’re going to let her die on me.”
Ivan stared at me, and slowly I saw the monster appear before my eyes. It was strange, because there were no changes. It wasn’t like he suddenly became a big scary monster. It was in the eyes.
“Niamh was never supposed to lose her child. I’m a lot of things, but I will not allow children to be used as pawns. I didn’t think Finn Byrne would come for his daughter.”
“Then tell me why he did,” I said.
None of this was making any sense.
Ivan glanced around the room. “The Byrne name has a long line of strong men and strong women. Finn, himself, and Niamh’s grandmother were direct descendants of the Byrne name.”
I hadn’t followed the name or family tradition. As far as I knew, Finn was the only living descendant of the family line. It was why they were so hell-bent on having a son, which was why we had his son.
“It would seem Finn’s mother was called Niamh Byrne, and she didn’t like the bastard her son had become. As it happens, before she died, she decided to go and see all of Finn’s children, boys and girls. She happened to stumble onto a young girl, little Niamh, who was probably about five at this point. From what my sources tell me, Niamh’s grandmother didn’t even approach as such. She approached as an older lady, intent on seeing the truth of her grandchildren.”
I didn’t know why Ivan was telling me this as if it was some kind of bedtime story.
“As you can imagine, kids can be kids, and that means they can be cruel. Niamh Sr., was seeing that this evilness within her family line was in her son, as it was in his sons and daughters, and then one day, she happened by a small apartment complex, where little Niamh Byrne was outside, playing with her dolls. Or what she could call dolls, whatever the fuck Niamh was playing with. Probably daisies in the grass. I don’t know. Either way, on that day, Grandmother saw something in Granddaughter that made her change her will.”
This made me pause. Finn Byrne had been a hard man to ride out of the city, but his strength and power had weakened in what seemed like overnight.
I frowned, and looked toward Ivan, who nodded.
“Everything that is in the Byrne name belongs to Niamh,” Ivan said. “All the money and wealth didn’t disappear overnight. On his mother’s deathbed, when he was gleeful, she had the last laugh, because not only did she transfer all ownership to little Niamh Byrne, but she also locked it up solid and tight so that Finn couldn’t take it. If the funds started to leave the account in too big of a sum, someone was alerted and would stop transactions. That’s the first thing Finn tried to do. If Niamh signed over anything to anyone, that was another alert. Everything Finn tried to do would result in him getting less and less, which is why I was able to take his turf and push him back.”
“Niamh doesn’t have a clue,” I said.
“She does now,” Ivan said.
“Why didn’t he kill her?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it have transferred to him?”
“No. It would seem Niamh Sr. was not to be trifled with. The inheritance of the Byrne name comes with a lot of responsibility. Something Finn didn’t take seriously. He thought the wealth, the power, all of it was coming to him, and it was, until the day he slapped his mother around and opened her eyes to the man he had become.”
I did not know how Ivan knew this.
“You see, Peter, leaders need to be monsters, but they also need to know when to keep that monster locked up tight, and then there are other times when that monster is coming, no matter what.”
“Niamh’s a powerful woman.”
“I met Niamh’s grandmother,” Ivan said. “I met her a few times. She was a lovely woman. She told me I would make a fine leader. She also wished I was her son, but she had to stick to tradition. The only way to do that was to keep the power in the Byrne name, but in marriage, that power can be utilized. Finn couldn’t kill his daughter, but he was trying to find a way of gaining that power.”
“Are you telling me he planned to marry her off?” I asked.
“Yes, and then Niamh decided to take off. He had everything in place, and then she did what she did, and the guy in questio n— the weak sap who was going to be told what to d o— met an untimely end.” Ivan clicked his tongue. “You’re going to marry Niamh. You’re going to protect her, and in time, you’re going to give her a child, many children. You will give her exactly what she wants, because in return she is going to provide us with the power of the Byrne name.”
Ivan moved past me, going toward the door.
I realized in that moment how important it was to keep Niamh safe. Her father was never going to kill her. He couldn’t do it, not if he wanted to forego everything that was Byrne.
“There’s going to be a target on her head.”
“Oh, trust me, there already is, which is why we need to have you married as soon as possible. Now, I suggest you go and check on your future bride.”
Ivan opened the door and I stepped through. I didn’t linger to try and get more information out of Ivan. There was no point. He’d already given me a lot of details. I was still curious as to how he and Niamh knew each other, but there would come a time for that. For now, I had to see Niamh.
I passed The Butcher, who was sipping on that nasty coffee, and I stepped into her room and closed the door behind me.
Niamh turned her head to look at me. “Has Ivan given you the news?”
“Yes.”
She laughed and shook her head. “You’d think if I had that much power, I might have been able to stop this. To stop all of this.”
“Your dad kept you out of the loop on purpose. He couldn’t allow you to know the kind of power you wielded.”
“And now Ivan Volkov wants it.”
“No, I don’t think he wants it for himself,” I said.
I stayed by the door, not wanting to get any closer.
“You lied,” she said.
“So did you.”
“True. Yeah, so true. I was Niamh Long and you were Peter Shadows.” She started laughing. “I should have known it was all a trick.”
I didn’t say anything.
“We’re going to be married,” I said.
“I know.” She pressed her lips together. “I don’t want to be married to you. I don’t want to have anything to do with you, but I also know I don’t have a choice.”
“This is for your safety,” I said.
“You know, I was falling in love with you,” she said. “I thought you and I could have a future but that’s all a lie. There is no way you and I could have any future now.”
This time, I moved and took a seat beside the bed. “Why?” I asked.
“Because it was all a lie.”
“The names were a lie, the gym, I’m not a personal trainer. Everything else I told you wasn’t a lie. I did own that house. It is mine,” I said.
“What about running away with me, traveling?”
“That wasn’t a lie.”
“Did you have feelings for me?” Niamh asked.
“I don’t do feelings,” I said.
This made her laugh.
“I don’t know what love is.” I wouldn’t go into details as to the type of man I’d become. There was no point in that. Staring at Niamh, I knew I’d caused her a lot of pain.
“You know, I had always wished for a man to love me for me. Who wanted no one else but me. Who wanted to grow old with me.”
“I will be that man,” I said. “I just don’t do love.”
Tears fell down Niamh’s cheeks. I was breaking her heart and there was nothing I could do about it.
“We don’t have a choice, do we?” she asked.
“No”
She nodded. “Then I guess you and I are getting married.”