Epilogue
Brody
One Month Later
It was a beautiful ceremony, with Aria shining so brightly he’d considered putting on his sunglasses, and Killian looking as though he might burst with pride.
The mother of the bride, on the other hand, had looked as though she wanted to murder everyone in the room.
Apparently, she’d taken the news of Aria’s pregnancy and surprise wedding about as well as could be expected, which had the rather unexpected benefit of convincing Braden to throw himself into the wedding plans with great abandon.
Between him and Lottie and Reagan, they’d pulled off a wedding of epic proportions in record time.
And everyone, including the reluctant mother of the bride, pretended not to notice the armed guards stationed at every entrance of the church.
But the wedding was over now, and Aria Elliott was now officially Aria O’Rourke by every available metric. His cousin was over the moon happy with his new bride, and soon a new O’Rourke would be making his or her way into the world.
In another lifetime, perhaps, that could be the end of it. Aria and Killian would whisk themselves off on a lavish honeymoon somewhere, and they’d come back sun-kissed and more in love than ever.
In this lifetime, however, Brody found himself wandering the streets of the city his family had called home for over a century looking for… well, he wasn’t entirely sure what, but he figured he’d know when he found it. Or, as was usually the case with trouble, when it found him.
He’d only been walking for a few minutes when he became aware of someone following him. Mostly because the person doing so was really, really bad at it. One of Richard’s men, maybe, a new hire with no experience.
Sloppy. Which could mean Richard was feeling cocky.
Cocky men were dangerous men.
He let the tail follow him for nearly an hour, partially to see if they’d give up and move on. But they never did, so when he’d finally grown tired of their game, he ducked into a small alleyway and waited for them to pass.
When they did, he reached out and grabbed them, hauling them into the alley with him and shoving them up against the brick wall. “All right, asshole. Who do you—What the fuck?”
Staring up at him, defiance and fear shining from her whiskey-gold eyes, Goldie Quinn struggled against his hold. “Let me go, you asshole!”
“Not until you tell me why you’ve been tailing me for over an hour.”
She went still, and of all the reactions he’d been expecting, it sure as fuck wasn’t for her bottom lip to puff out in the most kissable pout he’d ever seen. “You knew the whole time?”
“Of course I fucking knew. You’re incredibly bad at surveillance.”
“I am?” Instead of knocking the wind from her sails, he swore he could see the wheels turning in her mind. “Will you teach me, then?”
“Teach you? Why the fuck would I teach you how to tail people?”
The little brat had the nerve to roll her eyes. “Research, of course. For my books,” she added, her tone indicating she clearly thought he was a moron for not putting those pieces together sooner.
“You were tailing me for research?”
“Well, yeah. You told me my books got it all wrong, so I figured what better way to learn than to watch a real mafia guy in action.”
It made sense, in a very dangerous, very fucked-up kind of way. “I want you to listen to me, and listen very closely, because I am only going to give this warning once. Understood?”
Eyes lighting with excitement, she nodded eagerly. Pressing her more firmly against the wall, he dropped his voice to a low, warning growl.
“Go home, Goldie. Go home and forget you know me or my family.”
The defiance came back into her eyes, though it did nothing to dim the excitement. “Or what?”
“Or I’ll give you exactly what you want and show you how the O’Rourkes really deal with naughty little girls.”
Brody O’Rourke isn’t a man accustomed to being challenged. And yet, a certain spitfire of an author seems intent on challenging him at every turn, in every possible way. But the biggest challenge of all is going to be keeping his hands off her. The Ruthless O’Rourkes return in King of Secrets.