Epilogue
LIAM
This is my life now. This dangerous, brilliant, damaged woman who’s claimed me as thoroughly as I’ve claimed her.
As dawn rises on a new day, I stare at her as she sleeps. She’s everything I never knew I wanted. A partner, not just a possession. Someone who matches my violence with her own, who understands the darkness because she lives in it too.
The coordinated attack we set in motion will be in full swing in the coming days.
Landy will wake up to find his financial empire crumbling beneath him, his allies abandoning ship, his reputation in tatters.
Within a week, he’ll come crawling, begging for terms, and Siobhan will dictate them from a position of absolute power.
The other families will take note. Some will test her, probe for weakness, and try to exploit the fact that she’s young, female, and new to leadership. They’ll learn what I already know: underestimating Siobhan Kelly is a fatal mistake.
I’ll be beside her for all of it. Her weapon, her partner, her equal in the darkness.
She shifts against me, murmuring something incoherent before settling back into sleep. I press a kiss to her forehead, breathing in her scent.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper into the dark. “Always.”
Outside, the regular city sleeps, unaware that its power structure shifted today.
Unaware that a new player has emerged, one who fights with strategy instead of brute force, who builds alliances instead of burning bridges, who’s smart enough to turn her enemies’ weapons against them.
But the underworld knows a new queen has risen.
Michael Kelly built an empire on fear and violence. Siobhan’s building something different. Something more sustainable, more insidious, more dangerous in the long run, and I get to watch it unfold from the inside.
The future’s uncertain. There will be more attacks, more betrayals, more tests of her leadership.
But we’ll face them together, two broken pieces that somehow fit.
Leaning over to the nightstand, I slide the drawer open silently and pull out the small black velvet box.
I flip it open to reveal the emerald and diamond ring that matches her eyes.
Lifting her left hand, I slide it onto her finger with a smile before brushing my lips over her knuckles.
“Yes,” she murmurs in her sleep. “Thanks for asking.”
I snort. “Didn’t want to wake you.”
“Asshole. That’s a cop-out.”
“Rude,” I state, caught out. She knows me too well. “Will you marry me, Siobhan?”
“I already said yes, you dick.” Her eyes open, full of amusement. “But okay. I’ll repeat myself. Yes, I will marry you.”
“Good. Get up then and get dressed. Judge Brennan pulled in every favor he could. We are getting married in two hours.”
Her eyes widen. “Just like that?”
“Just. Like. Fucking. That.”
Laughing, she moves at speed to shower and change, and I just lie back and watch her, knowing she is mine and I, for all my fucking sins, am hers.
In our world, love isn’t mercy. It’s carnage.