Chapter Fifty-Six Tiernan #2
He also looked entirely too Irish to carry such a distinctively Italian name.
“Yes,” I said, nevertheless. “Gennaro. Nero. Perfect.”
I loved her just a little more than anyone ought to be loved. For taking her tragic circumstances, accepting them, and shaping them into a triumph.
“Nero, stop hanging from the chandelier,” I tested the name humorlessly. “Nero, put that gun down. No firearms before you’re six. Yeah. Got a nice ring to it.”
She grinned at me, aglow. “He’ll be Nero to the world, but Enni to me. I’ll protect him in all the ways my parents never protected me.”
I believed her. She was going to be the mother she’d deserved.
“Go now.” She reached to caress my jaw. I leaned into her touch instinctively.
“You sure?”
“Certain,” she verbalized.
Nodding, I kissed her again and closed the door behind me.
“Sir.” One of my errand boys appeared as soon as I stepped out into the hallway, catching my step.
“Do you need your drivers? Soldiers? Should I fetch anyone?”
I shook my head. “Get the car running. I’m leaving alone.”
I wasn’t going to take a shower, a nap, or a piss.
On my way out, I bumped into Imma, Chiara, and Tierney making their way to Lila. They were carrying food platters, plush teddy bears, and handknitted blankets.
“How’s the bundle of joy?” Tierney cried out with joy.
“See for yourself,” I answered cryptically, not stopping to greet them as I advanced toward the door.
Five minutes later, I was in my car, driving toward my father’s place. Fintan’s phone was still there. I knew, because I had a tracker on it, as with everyone in my family.
How did the saying go? If you love someone, let them go. Just make sure you know exactly where their ass is twenty-four seven, because you have deep-rooted trust issues.
You put him in charge of her.
Forced her to spend time with him on a weekly basis.
He was her keeper. After our wedding. At the hospital. The only man who was allowed to stay with her alone.
I veered off the convoluted country path to the shoulder of the road, pushed the driver’s door open, and vomited the entire contents of my stomach onto my shoe.
Wiping my mouth with the back of my sleeve, I took a few deep breaths, forcing myself to calm down. I’d never been this disoriented in my entire life.
Repositioning myself in the car seat, I flicked the engine back to life and resumed my driving.
Fifteen minutes into my drive, my Bluetooth rang with an incoming call.
Fintan, the screen said.
So. Tierney met her new nephew.
Figures. My sister’s favorite cardio was running her mouth.
I hit the green button. Why the fuck not?
“This is not what it looks like,” my older brother said in a high-pitched voice.
I allowed a beat of silence, just to screw with his nerves, before replying dully, “If you want to prolong your death by making me do a paternity test before killing you, I’m not opposed to that.
As long as you’re aware I’d be twice as pissed if I find out you lied on top of raping my wife.
And let’s just say I’m already not in a generous mood. ”
I was never angry. It was a pointless emotion, and I was notoriously stingy with those. But right now, I was sick with rage. Poisoned with the cloying, unfamiliar feeling of helplessness.
He hurt her.
My own kin.
She was going to look at our son’s eyes, and face, and hair each day for the rest of her life, knowing it was a Callaghan who ripped her innocence from her.
“I didn’t s-say…I mean, what I was gonna…” He stumbled over his own words. “I did it. I’m not d-denying it.” Fintan broke into a sob, and I heard glass shattering on the other side of the line. “B-but listen to me. J-just listen.”
He was slurring. He was drunk. Again. Usually, that’d make me concerned. Now, my only worry was that his liver wouldn’t fail on his miserable arse before I had the chance to finish him off myself.
I deserved the fucking honor.
I heard a duffel bag being unzipped. Clothes stuffed into it in a hurry. He didn’t even have the foresight to make an escape plan. How did we share DNA?
“I’m not okay in the head, Tiernan. I’m not. I need help. Think about it. I watched Mam being carved open like a bleeding animal when Igor pulled you and Tierney out. I was just three. A small boy. I was sitting in a pool of her blood when Da found me.”
“Your sob story didn’t give you the right to rape my wife.” I choked back a roar, keeping my voice flat and even. “We’re all fucked up in the head. You’re nothing special.”
A text message popped on the screen.
Tierney: I gave him a thirty minute head start. Where’s the joy of the hunt if the prey just sits there, waiting for slaughter?
Tierney: Cute baby, btw. <3 <3 <3
“I—I didn’t know she’d turn out to be your wife!
” Fintan whined. “Not t-to mention that you’d catch feelings for her.
I thought it would be the f-first and last time I’d ever see her.
And you know what they said about her!” he spluttered.
“That she was severely mentally d-delayed. Too dumb to know what’s ha-happening around her. ” He hiccuped.
Keys jangled. Dropped to the floor. Being picked up again.
I said nothing.
“Please, please believe me when I say I never meant for anything to happen this way.”
“You had seven months to come clean to me. Why didn’t you?”
Silence. I was nearing Da and Fintan’s mansion.
“I thought I could take care of it in another way.”
“But you didn’t. You should be halfway across the ocean by now. Why did you stay?”
“I—I kind of figured it could…that I would…I mean, if the baby wouldn’t have come out with red hair…
” He swallowed audibly. “He could’ve come out blond.
Or, with brown hair. Or, I don’t know…” Another pause.
“It doesn’t have to change anything between us.
This all happened before you got together.
I haven’t touched her since and never, ever will.
And she doesn’t even remember.” He choked out that last word, breaking into a fresh bout of sobs.
“I swear, Tiernan, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.
It was just harmless fun. And I was plastered.
I mean, completely drunk. Had I known you were going to wed her…
fall in love with her… Christ, I’d never.
” He sounded on the brink of vomiting. “You’re my brother.
I love you. You’ve always been my number one.
Please. There’s no need for anyone to know this.
I certainly won’t tell. And…and…Lila!” he exclaimed.
“Think about her and the baby, how crushed they’d be if they found out.
We’re getting along so nicely. She trusts me. ”
That, she did.
I thought about all the times I left her with him again.
I’d punch my own face if I wasn’t driving.
“And I’ll do whatever you want me to. Go to rehab. Move away if need be.” A wet snort escaped him. I couldn’t believe I carried the same DNA as this pile of shite. “We can pretend it never happened. As far as the entire world knows—it never did. Only me, Tierney, and you know.”
“The accident in which she almost lost the baby…” I said, leaving the rest of it hanging in the air.
Fintan understood what I meant. “I…I sent people to do it. But I told them not to kill her, just the baby,” he lamented. “I swear it.”
“Who?” I demanded. They were as good as dead now.
“The loan sharks I used to owe money to.” Pause. “I told them if they managed to kill the baby, I’d pay them five million.”
I stopped in front of the Tudor-style, white-bricked mansion and killed the engine. Closed my eyes.
He is your brother.
He picked up your pieces when you found your way home.
Taught you English.
Saved you from offing yourself when you didn’t think life was worth living.
Taught you how to find joy in the life you have left.
If it wasn’t for him, you’d have killed yourself after killing Igor. You wouldn’t have Lila. Or Nero. This life.
“Please.” I heard him again. I opened my eyes and looked out the window to the second floor, immediately finding him peering from behind the curtain of his bedroom.
“Tiernan, forgive me. I would’ve never touched a girlfriend of yours.
Let alone your wife. Anyone who’s important to you.
I’d never done anything like it before. Not ever.
I was feeling wild that night. And drunk.
So fucking drunk. I was livid with the Camorra for taking out your eye and having the audacity to invite us as guests.
I knew the Ferrantes only issued the invitation to show off what they’d done to you.
Like you were a circus monkey or something. ”
This was likely true. I’d shown up anyway, not too proud to give up on the chance to squash my beef with Tate Blackthorn. He’d been meddling in my legal business for months before that.
“It was my fuck you to them for what they did to my little brother. A one-off. An only-off. You have to believe me.”
I didn’t utter one damn word.
“You forgave Alex Rasputin for what his father’s done. You spared his life. I’m sure you have it in your heart to forgive another brother. I’ll get better. I’ll get sober. I’ll repent this sin. I swear to you. I will. And I’ll be the best damn uncle in the entire world.”
“I believe you,” I said, finally. “I’m going to come inside now.
You will greet me unarmed. You will have a duffel bag ready with your bare necessities.
I’m going to drive you to a rehab center in Connecticut.
And I’m not going to discharge your arse until you’re as sober as a nun for one whole bleeding year.
After which you’re moving to Ireland, and I’m never seeing you again. Am I clear?”
“Y-yes,” he spluttered, breaking into a sob. “Thank you, brother. Thank you so much. I won’t let you dow—”
I killed the call and got out of my car before waltzing toward the front door. Fintan’s sports car was the only one parked in front. Shame he wouldn’t have time to say goodbye to Da or Maggie.