Chapter 34 – Gabriella
The McDonagh estate was something out of a fairytale.
Calling it a farmhouse was like calling a castle a single-family home.
It was huge. The Georgian Colonial architecture was stunning.
But it was the pastures, with sleek wooden fences that stretched as far as the eye could see that made me pause.
The moon bathed everything in a silver light, and I shivered with excitement, caught up in the vivid dreamscape.
“Are those horses?” I breathed, following Liam around the house where two equally large structures were lit by floodlights.
“And cows,” Liam agreed.
I wanted to run into the fields, spin around, and just…breathe.
Instead, I followed him behind the first barn to where paddock blocked the path to a ring of trees. Their thick bows draped the ground in shadows, but the orange glow of a fire showed through.
“Liam! What’s the craic? I was beginning to think you wouldn’t make it,” the cousin with round glasses and a curated mustache beamed. He jogged out of the barn, Connor hot on his heels. “And Gabriella’s here too. Grand!”
I braced myself, ready for impact as the hipster came in for a hug. But Liam was faster. He hauled me back. I stumbled, catching the skirt as I tried to find my feet.
“Kevin.” Liam’s fist crashed into his shoulder as the cousin tried to skirt around him.
“What’s that for?” he slurred. “We’re family.”
“We are, and you’re drunk.” Liam glared at Connor, who raised his hands.
“I’m just saying heellow to my cousin,” Kevin protested, wobbling in my direction.
Liam shoved him to the ground. “She’s mine. You don’t touch what’s mine.”
Those words packed a heavy weight.
If the bumbling idiot sensed that, it was hard to say. “Jeeze, man, lighten up.”
But Connor was there, hauling the hipster to his feet. “Let’s go. Ceremony’s about to start.”
Liam’s death glare followed the pair, waiting for them to put a healthy distance between us.
“Jealous much,” I muttered, fluffing the skirt of the ridiculous, gorgeous dress. I couldn’t say I wasn’t relieved. Something about that cousin never sat right with me. He was shrewd. Like a fox. Always watching and scampering underfoot for scraps.
Turning into me, Liam caught my chin.
I stilled. Excitement raced down my spine. If I was sleepy before, being here had me wide awake. The look in the monster’s eye? A pure, undiluted shot of adrenaline.
“I’m not jealous, little bird.”
I snorted. “Could have fooled me.”
“Jealousy—” Liam’s thumb stroked my bottom lip, tugging in a way that made the place between my legs tingle “—is over something I don’t have. I’m territorial, Gabriella. You’re already mine.”
The air caught in my throat. That was quite possibly the most romantic thing he’d ever said. It was harder by the minute to remember that I wasn’t staying. That I wasn’t truly his, and I needed distance. He said it with such conviction. As if his declaration could erase the core root of my being.
“Here.” Liam pulled something from behind his back and handed it to me. “I…uh…got you something.”
I drew in a short breath. The gun was sleek in his rough hand. Compact, it didn’t look menacing.
“Is it loaded?” I breathed.
“Well, yeah?” Liam’s words were laced with confusion. “Wouldn’t do much good if it wasn’t.”
I shook my head. “Gun etiquette means you hand it to someone disarmed. Or at least,” I rushed to add, “that was how I learned it.”
A slow, devastatingly beautiful smile spread across his lips. “Someone taught you well, little wife.”
And that someone was six feet under because he taught me so well. Right where I put him.
My darkest sin.
The reason my hands were stained with blood that would never wash away.
Hiding the shudder, I resisted the urge to clutch the horned pendant I wore tonight.
I might be with the masked devil, but the extra protection against the malocchio seemed fitting.
I gestured to the gun with my hand. Liam dropped the clip, jacked the shell free, and left the slide open.
Only then did I take it from him. Pointing it at the ground, finger off the trigger, I moved the weapon back and forth.
“You got this? For me?” It was such a badass gift. The freedom it afforded me…wow.
“Yeah,” he breathed. “I need to know you’re safe.”
I picked the bullet and clip from his hand, placed the shell back with the rest, and popped the clip into the weapon.
“Thank you, Liam. I mean it.” Turning my gaze up to his, I kept my face serious, hoping he would see the truth there. “No one has ever trusted me like this.”
“We can go to the range and practice if you’d like,” he offered.
Biting my lip to keep from smiling like an idiot, I nodded. “I would love that.”
“Good.” The word was gruff. His tone sounded…frustrated.
“Would you hold onto it for me?” I didn’t release the slide, offering it back to him. “I don’t have anywhere to conceal it.” I gestured at the ridiculous cosplay dress. “Maybe you could help me find a thigh holster,” I added, trying to sound seductive.
But the masked devil only responded with a rough grunt.
Liam took the weapon, released the slide, and tucked it back in the waistband of his pants.
There was something off between us. Cavolo! Didn’t he realize he was perfect for me?
I offered him my hand. Liam looked at it for a moment.
With a sigh, he clutched my fingers in his bare hand, and I fell into step beside him.
As we stepped under the cover of the mighty trees, my private turmoil faded to the background.
This place was unreal. Five stones, placed at even intervals, marked the meeting place.
A bonfire raged in the center. This place didn’t seem like something that fit an organized crime unit.
It was older. Ancient memories whispered through the bows.
As we passed one slab, garish, fiery light danced across it.
There were markings etched into the stone.
If I felt like an outsider before, this was worse.
Granted, there were other women here, but their gazes combined with those of the males were piercing.
They haunted my every step. Their judgement bore into me.
I wasn’t one of them. What was the little Italian girl, the black sheep of the Morelli Famiglia, doing walking beside this handsome, otherworldly prince?
“Murderess!”
The word shrieked through the branches. The leaves rustled with fiendish delight.
They knew.
They can’t possibly know!
No one had said anything about the tracker. They didn’t know I was responsible. Worse…they didn’t know I was capable of murder. That it wasn’t a foreign concept. They would read my sins and say I’d done it again. Their outright dislike made me want to run.
Liam went to the largest stone, the one that stood six inches above the others. It had a seat carved from the same material butted up against the slab. He let go of my hand.
I had to clasp mine together to keep from clawing for him. Making myself as small as possible, I shrank away from the pool of firelight and risked a peek.
The Irish weren’t looking at me.
They watched Liam.
Breathing hard, I forced myself to calm down. I was perfectly safe here. There was no reason for them to turn on me. Something black fluttered to the ground. I stifled a squeak but then wanted to smack myself. It was a shirt. A man’s dress shirt. Not a ghoul come out of the dark—
Wait.
A shirt.
My gaze snapped to Liam.
To the man who’d married me days and days ago but had never been naked with me. His shoes and socks landed on the shirt. Those sure, strong, bloodstained hands were on his belt.
I fucking froze.
In one smooth move, he stripped. Boxers, pants, and even the mask dropped inches from my feet.
It felt wrong to watch, but I couldn’t make myself stop.
Slowly, I drug my gaze up his bare feet.
Those thick calves and even thicker thighs were pale in the fierce, blazing light.
His cock swung between his legs, balls heavy enough to make my mouth water.
Ink stained his torso, creating intricate designs over his chest cavity, and there was even a piece decorating the base of his abs.
A freaking adonis belt melded into them.
How had it been weeks and I hadn’t licked every inch of that glorious body?
When he turned, facing me, I saw the full picture.
Scarred. Damaged. Disfigured.
That stormy blue gaze watched mine.
After drinking in the carnage, I lifted my eyes to meet his. Liam had been badly, horrifically burned. But the beauty lingered in the carnage. The rest of him? He was strong, unbreakable. The runes that were inked into his skin told a story I very much wanted to know.
But his face…. The bitter agony was etched into every muscle.
I hoped he saw how much I wanted him. If he wasn’t here, naked in front of this pagan horde, I would have jumped him. I was so fucking hungry for that body. I ached for it to be pressed to mine.
Even if I didn’t deserve it.
Liam turned away, a hard, unyielding look in his eyes.
I let out a long breath. I was basically lying by not telling him my most recent sin.
He would have every right to kill me if he found out I was the reason his father was dead.
And maybe it was selfish of me to keep the truth from him.
He did deserve to know my father was his enemy.
But I didn’t want to leave this life—I didn’t want to be separated from Luca.
Damn me if you must, monster.
I would keep my secrets if it meant I got to live.
The bonfire snapped and hissed as some timbers of wood collapsed in on themselves. Sparks climbed into the dark, trying to escape whatever was to come. The Irish stood in a loose circle, faces stripped of expression. No one joked. No one moved. The silence made me wonder if they dared to breathe.
Liam stepped to the edge of the flames. Unarmed, it would be a mistake to think his formidable body wasn’t ready to strike at a moment’s notice.