10. Eoghan
Chapter ten
Eoghan
“ Y ou look tired, son,” my mother says as we walk down the stone steps of our church. My mother insists on Sunday mass followed by brunch at her house every weekend. The only time there was an exception to her rule was when Finn was first married, and he and Alessia were still “figuring things out.” At least that’s what my mother said when I complained about it. Now that they have, they’re expected every Sunday as well, which is why they’re currently only a couple of paces behind us.
“I had to close the bar last night. We didn’t get out of there until after four in the morning.”
“And you still made it to church on time. You’re a good son, Eoghan Monaghan.”
I preen at her compliment—and not only because my brother is walking behind me. “Of course, Mom. I’m your favorite son for a reason.”
“For fuck’s sake,” my brother mumbles behind me, but not quiet enough for my mom not to overhear.
“Language, Finn,” she snaps at him. “We just left church, for God’s sake.”
“He’s full of sh—”
My mother’s cutting glare stops Finn midsentence.
“That’s enough, boys. Your mother loves you both equally,” my father chimes in, shaking his head at the same old argument we’ve been having for decades.
Alessia shakes her head as well with an amused grin on her face. It’s quite the improvement from the if you hurt my best friend I’ll castrate you looks she’s been shooting me all morning. What she doesn’t realize is, it’s Gemma who’s steering this ship. If anyone is in danger of getting hurt here, it’s most likely me. That’s definitely not a position I’ve ever found myself in. Before Gemma, the most important woman in my life has always been my mother. I’ve never had a serious girlfriend, never wanted one, but everything has changed with the blonde vixen I left in bed yesterday morning.
“Why don’t you go home and get some sleep? You look ready to fall over from exhaustion,” my mom says.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Finn grouses. “I’m threatened with imminent death if I miss brunch.”
Mom turns her shrewd gaze to my brother. “Is it so painful for you to spend one day a week with your mother?”
“Of course not, Mom. It’s just—” She quirks her brow, and I can tell whatever he was about to say dies on his tongue. “You’re right. Eoghan deserves some rest.”
She smiles. Then, when Finn steps around me to open the car door for his wife, I see our mom shoot Alessia a conspiratorial wink. Alessia laughs as she gets in the car, and I turn to give my mom a kiss on the cheek.
“I love you. I’ll see you next week.”
She nods. “You absolutely will, son. Get some rest.”
Rest is the last thing I have in mind.
I punch in the code for Gemma’s apartment building. We really need to have a conversation about her moving into a building with a doorman. These electronic keypads are great for keeping out any Joe Schmoe, but they’re incredibly easy for someone like me to hack. At least with a doorman, random assholes wouldn’t have access to the apartment.
Instead of taking the elevator, I decide to jog up the three flights of stairs. Considering it my workout for the day since I don’t plan on leaving Gemma’s apartment until tomorrow. I knock on her door, and she opens it, but barely a crack.
“Hey, you’re here early,” she greets without a smile on her face.
“Yeah, I was released from brunch,” I reply with a hand on the door to push it the rest of the way open, but her grip on the wood stops me. My head tilts to the side. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not feeling very well. I don’t think today’s the best day for you to come over.”
I don’t know what bullshit she’s trying to sell, but I’m not buying it. “That’s okay. I’ll make you some tea, and we can watch a movie or something.” She’s freaking out about the discussion we had. That’s what this has to be. Maybe telling her she’s my girlfriend now was a step too far too soon. But like hell I’m going to let her run from me. I told her she was stuck with me, and I damn well meant it.
“Eoghan…”
“Let him in. He needs to know about everything, too,” I hear a man say from inside of her apartment.
Rage—red-hot, boiling rage—washes over me. Whoever that voice belongs to on the other side of the door is about to wish he never spoke up.
“Yes, Gemma. Let me in.” My voice has that deadly calm tone that is usually my brother’s go-to.
I can’t tell if it’s fear or regret I see in her blue eyes, but she closes them before I have time to figure it out and opens the door the rest of the way for me. My eyes don’t leave her face as I take a step inside, but as soon as I get an eyeful of the man standing in front of her couch, my muscles tense as I ready myself for a fucking fight.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Petrov?” I seethe out.
Nikolai Petrov, the fucking Russian scum who nearly got his hands on my cousin’s wife, the man who was helping that asshole, Carlo, is standing in my girl’s living room.
Is she your girl, though? that nasty little voice in the back of my head asks.
“After you left yesterday, I got a visit from a man who says he’s my father,” Gemma says, closing the door behind her. “Remember when I told you I never knew my dad?”
I nod but don’t take my eyes off Nikolai, who is standing stone-faced as he holds my stare, probably so he doesn’t miss a beat when I decide to attack him.
“For some reason, I always assumed she didn’t either,” Gemma continues. “She never mentioned him, and the one time I asked, she just shrugged and didn’t say anything further. Turns out my mom is from New York. And guess who daddy dearest is?”
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
“When my mom realized she was pregnant, she ran to save her ass. Seems Nik’s dad is a sadistic asshole who murdered any of his mistresses who got pregnant.”
“Nik?” I ask snidely, turning my gaze to Gemma when she comes to stand between the two of us.
Gemma shrugs off the remark. “When Viktor showed up yesterday, he threatened everyone I care about if I didn’t help him with his plan. Apparently, my mother called him and literally sold me out to that piece of shit. She was afraid of him killing her when she was pregnant but had no qualms about him getting his hands on me now to try to force me into marriage. Sounded like she figured she would get a cut of my dowry or some shit. I don’t know what the hell she was thinking, to be honest. I haven’t talked to her yet.”
My eyes keep jumping between Gemma and Nikolai, not willing to give her too much of my attention just in case this is all a ruse to get me here alone and unarmed.
“When he saw you leaving yesterday, his plans changed. He wants to use me to get information on you and your family. He wants Boston. He said it was my decision if it’s a bloody war or not.”
“You can’t possibly believe that bullshit, Gemma,” I say through a clenched jaw. “He’d gladly see every person in my family bleed out. Including your best friend.”
“I fucking know that, Eoghan!” Gemma yells. “He was very clear that Alessia and Giada would pay the price if I failed or if I ran to you with this.”
“You should have called me last night and told me what was going on.”
“I probably should have, but you know what? I’ve never been in this position before. You know, where some Russian mobster threatens my best friend’s life if I don’t comply. Or threatens to sell me to the highest bidder so they can break me for funsies. Excuse the hell out of me if I’m not handling it how I’m supposed—”
“My father is a ruthless man,” Nikolai cuts in. “There’s no doubt he'll follow through on any of his threats. But he made one fatal mistake.”
My eyes narrow on the man talking. “And what’s that?”
“He put me in charge of this little operation. And he hasn’t figured out I’d rather see him six feet under than help him with any of his designs on Boston. Or any other power moves he wants to make.”
So, little Nik and daddy don’t see eye to eye.
“But you were more than willing to take Giada from us. You let Carlo trade her for protection.”
“That was my father. I never had any intention of hurting her or her husband when they ran. I told my father that I would catch them and make them pay. I simply whispered in a few ears to make it seem like I was angry. I couldn’t care less that she got away. And contrary to popular belief, I’m not the monster of my family.”
“Well, you certainly play a pretty convincing supervillain, Petrov. Why the hell would I believe anything you say now?” This almost seems too good to be true. Is it really possible that the demise of Viktor Petrov begins and ends with his own son?
The man shrugs, not seeming to care one way or another if I believe anything coming out of his mouth.
“He was about to explain everything right before you knocked,” Gemma says.
“Then by all means”—I wave my arm in front of me as if to say he has the floor—“please proceed.”
“You don’t have to be a dick, Eoghan,” Gemma chastises.
My stony gaze turns to the woman currently standing between her brother and me. Her fucking brother. “I don’t have to do a lot of things, Gemma. Just like I don’t have to be willing to hear him out instead of leaving right now and telling my brother that Petrov is a problem and he needs to be handled immediately. I’m willing to listen to the man, though, and then I’ll decide what I’m going to do with the information.”
Nikolai takes a seat on Gemma’s couch. Bold move when you’re facing down an enemy. But maybe this is his way of showing he doesn't want this conversation to be contentious. Or that’s what he wants me to think. I’m a hell of a long way off from trusting the Russian pakhan’s son.
Two leather chairs sit opposite the couch, with a low coffee table separating the space. When Gemma sits in one, I take it as my cue to sit in the one beside her. I’m still not convinced anything that comes from Nikolai’s mouth is going to be true, but at least I’m here to call bullshit if I think he’s sucking my woman into a web of lies so we can help him take over his father’s empire.
“Our father rules his organization—and his family—with an iron fist. He was never a man who cared about anything other than gaining and keeping the power he had, even to the detriment of his children. I wasn’t given a choice in who I was to become. He decided that for me before I was born. My mother isn’t much better. She was all too happy to turn a blind eye to the brutality he raised me with. I killed my first man when I was twelve years old. Held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. When I cried in my bed that night, my mother told my father, and he beat me bloody for being some sort of ‘pussy’ as he called it.”
The look of disgust on Gemma’s face mirrors the one I wish I could show on mine.
“I turned off a part of myself that day, and my father thought he’d succeeded in turning me into the heartless killer he reveled in being himself. It wasn’t until I met Sylvie that an ounce of emotion bled through my carefully constructed walls. She was a waitress in a little diner a block from one of the casinos we own. I’d often go there after work and have breakfast before going home. She had this infectious laugh that instantly made everyone around her want to laugh with her.”
I see the moment he’s no longer sitting here with us. Instead, he’s back in that diner, hearing her laughter. It’s just a few moments of silence, then I watch his entire demeanor shift and stiffen.
“We fell in love, she got pregnant. I went to my mother and begged for her help. I should have known better. Sylvie did something to me. Made me forget that the people who were supposed to love you didn’t always hurt you. At least, that had been my experience. I thought my mother would be happy to have a grandchild. That she would make my father see reason. I should have ran with Sylvie.” Nik looks down at his clasped hands on his lap. “I should have known better,” he repeats in an almost whisper.
There is no faking the pain in Nikolai’s blue eyes, or the fact that he blames himself for what I know is going to come next.
“My mother said she would go to my father, that she would smooth things over.” No emotion is on his face as he tells the next part of his story. “The next day, there was a drive-by shooting at the diner she worked at. I was told she was dead before the ambulance arrived.”
Gemma covers her mouth with her hand, the shock written in her eyes.
“Seems we both have mothers who would have no problem selling us out to our father,” Nikolai says, looking at Gemma’s devastated face. “I’m no fool. I knew my father ordered that hit with the information my mother gave him. I had a choice to make. Kill my father right then and there and most likely die myself, or be patient. Wait for the opportunity to take everything from him the way he did to me and make him suffer. Then, when the time was right, end his existence. I chose the latter, and the time is now.”
“Say I believe you,” I start, and Gemma whirls her head to face me.
“Eoghan—”
“Blondie, it’s not as though I knew any of this. As far as I’ve ever known, Nikolai has been as ruthless as his father, so excuse me if I’m not willing to just buy his story hook, line, and sinker.”
“He’s correct, Gemma. He would be a fool to believe me outright, and unfortunately, I don't have much proof to the contrary of the image I’ve always maintained. You can look up the police report. The shooting did happen, and Sylvie Ramos did die. There’s nothing connecting me to her except this.” He pulls two pictures from his pocket and sets them on the coffee table. One is of him kissing the cheek of a smiling woman with golden, tan skin and dark curls framing her excited face. The other photo is of Nikolai on his knees; he’s kissing her still-flat stomach while her hands are in his dark hair, cradling his head.
“These were taken the day she told me she was pregnant. I was scared to death about what my father was going to say, but I was so damn excited. I never thought it would have the outcome it did. That was my first mistake.”
“She was beautiful, Nikolai,” Gemma says, looking from the pictures to her brother. “I’m so sorry.”
Nikolai nods in her direction and then looks at me. I pick up one of the pictures and take note of how young he is in them. Not everyone in this life was born some broken monster like Carlo Cataldi or Alessia’s ex, Orlando. Some were made. And some have played the role so well that we assumed they were the devils they’d always led us to believe. I think Nikolai falls somewhere between the last two.
“What did you have in mind?” I ask, handing the picture back to Nikolai.
“You’re going to convince my father you’re in a serious relationship. Shouldn’t be too hard since he saw you leaving the other morning. I’m going to feed him false information and tell him I’m tracking down everything Gemma tells me. He has his hands full with upcoming deals in New York, which is why I’m handling Gemma. We’re going to start small. Hit him where it hurts—his wallet. Then we’re going to sow seeds of doubt regarding his competence with the other families.”
“How?” I ask.
“Steal shipments. No one wants to do business with a man who can’t deliver what he promises. I’ll start whispering in ears. It won’t take too long for people to start second-guessing the power my father possesses. I’ve already been working toward planting those seeds.”
“And what do you want when all this is over and your father is disgraced?” There’s always an endgame.
“I’m going to kill him then take over his organization. I’m going to dismantle his human trafficking rings and the brothels where he sends the girls he buys. I’m going to continue with the guns and illegal gambling. And anyone who has a problem with the changes I make will find themselves staring down the barrel of my gun before they take their last breath.”
It’s the stone-cold determination in his words that sway me to his side.
“I want my mother protected,” Gemma tells him.
Both of us whip our gazes to her.
“She sold you to that monster, blondie. Why on earth would you care what happens to her?” I ask, completely disgusted with the woman she calls her mother.
Gemma blows out a breath and rolls her eyes as though she’s arguing with herself and not me for once. “She’s a horrible mother. Hell, at this point, I don’t even consider her that, more like an egg donor. But she got out of New York and kept Viktor away from me when I was a kid. God only knows what would have happened otherwise. I just…I owe her this one thing. If he figures out we’re scheming against him, he’ll go after her. I don’t want that on my conscience.”
I reach over and squeeze my hand on her leg. “You’re a better person than me, blondie.”
“I’ll make sure it happens. It would look suspicious if one of your men went down there. I can pass it off as keeping an eye on her if Gemma betrays us,” Nikolai says to me.
“Fine,” I concede. It may be an asshole thing to say, but if this is all an elaborate ruse on Nikolai’s part and he’s really working with his father, I won’t lose any sleep if Gemma’s mom meets her maker.
Her brother—that’s fucking weird to think—stands from the couch, obviously ready to leave. “I’ll be in charge of making sure you’re doing as you're told, Gemma, but I don’t put it past my father to send one of his own men every once in a while to check on things. It’s important to make sure you play the part in public. Both of you.”
“That won’t be a problem,” I say as Gemma and I stand, and my arm wraps around her waist.
I can’t quite decipher the look she gives me as Nikolai opens her front door.
“We’ll speak soon,” he says, then shuts the door behind him.
Gemma disentangles herself from my hold and starts pacing the apartment, shaking out her hands as she walks back and forth.
“What the actual fuck? How the hell is this my life?”
“Blondie, come here.” I open my arms, but she doesn’t step toward me. Fine . I walk over to her and take her in my arms. Gemma is stiff as a board. It’s been a hell of a twenty-four hours for her, and she’s used to having to deal with everything on her own.
And that’s part of the problem in front of us.
“Two things. One, you should have called me the second Viktor left your apartment.”
“Eoghan—”
“No, Gemma. I don’t give a shit what he told you. Your first phone call should have been to me. There’s nothing that asshole can throw at us that we can’t handle. You’re mine, and I don’t ever want you to doubt that I can protect you.”
Her face says she wants to argue, but she nods her head once, and I continue. “Second, we need to bring Finn in on this right away.”
She lets out a long breath. “I know.”
“Good. Then get ready to leave.”
“Where are we going?”
My lips quirk up in a smile. “Brunch.”