Chapter twenty-six Need-to-Know Status #2
"It wasn't a temporary demotion," I correct.
"Not the point," she snaps. "The point is you didn't tell me about it. Why didn't you?"
"It's mob business."
"Related to me. You should have told me." She tries to scoot off my lap.
I grab her hips and hold her in place. "Why does it matter to you what his position in the mob is?"
"Because if he's been demoted and it was permanent, we didn't need to get married!"
Everything in me rejects those words.
"I told you. Our marriage is forever."
"But it didn't have to happen."
"Is that what you want?" Anger harshens my tone.
"No!" Her eyes widen, like her own denial shocked her. "I mean, I don't know. Why did we go through with the wedding if the threat was gone?"
"Did it feel like the threat was gone when Kenneth grabbed you at the school?" His claim his demotion is temporary is a strong indicator he hasn't given up his plans either.
"That didn't feel any different than the way I've felt around him for the past five plus years."
"You were scared." Or she wouldn't have bitten him.
She looks away and shrugs. "Same old. Same old."
I cup her cheek and turn her face toward me again. Looking into her heterochromatic eyes fills me with a kind of peace that's only a vague memory from early childhood.
"You were afraid because you know he's a danger. To you and to our girls."
"But…"
"His punishment was necessary but it made him more dangerous, not less."
"You think he still wants to use me as his patsy for snitching on Mick to the feds?"
Humor fills me. "You sound like a proper mobbed up wife."
"According to you, that's what I am."
"You're my wife." And that's all that matters.
"Why didn't you tell me the boys had been sent to live with relatives?" Her gaze searches mine.
What does she see there?
"That's the story we gave to the school." I explain the details of the punishment.
"That's a harsh punishment for the parents.
I can't imagine anything worse than having my daughters taken away.
" She absentmindedly kneads my chest. "But if the boys went to juvie they wouldn't be living with their parents either.
At least this way, they have a better chance at rehabilitation than if they ended up in a youth correctional facility. "
That's áine, thinking about the boys' futures.
"You still haven't explained why you didn't tell me about any of that."
"I told Sadie the boys wouldn't be returning to school." I'd done it before her first therapy session.
I figured she needed that assurance. Maybe áine did too.
"I should have told you."
"Yes, you should have."
"I'm not always going to get it right." Not even the stuff I'm expert at and that pisses me off.
But being a husband? That's all new and unchartered territory.
"Me either," áine says ruefully. "But I need to know about the things that impact me and the girls."
"Kenneth not being a lieutenant any longer doesn't impact you."
"It does if it makes him accost me at Sadie's school and tell me a bunch of stuff meant to scare me."
"What stuff?"
She relays her conversation with Kenneth word for word, her eyes trying to gauge mine for reaction.
"He lied."
"About his demotion being temporary? Yeah, I figured that out."
"About Mick keeping an eye on you through me."
"Well, I know that. We weren't actually dating, but we are married."
It's not a question, but the doubt she feels is right there on her expressive face for me to see.
"Mick did not order me to keep you under surveillance."
"He wouldn't have to though, would he?" she asks. "No way are you going to allow me to do anything that could put his plans at risk."
"You wouldn't want to." That's not áine.
She's a good person. She'd never collude with scum like Kenneth.
"But even if I did, you'd make sure it didn't happen," she presses, like something about this is important to her.
"I'm not spying on you for Mick. The only orders he's given me in regard to you and the girls is to keep you all safe." I didn't need those orders either.
"Oh." She sighs. "I still don't trust him."
"You don't need to."
"That's easy for you to say."
"Yes."
Her frown isn't friendly. "I need more words right now."
"If you trust me to keep my promises to you, Mick's plans don't matter."
"I do trust you. I don't know why. Married, or not, we barely know each other."
But she trusts me.
Fuck, I like knowing that.
"I will never betray that trust."
"I believe you'll try." She pats my chest. "That's all any of us can do, Kieran. Even Captain America is fallible."
"I'm not Captain America." And I'm not going to let áine down.
Not like I let my mom down.
"Whatever you say." She looks around my room. "I'm glad you moved into our apartment. There's no room for me in here, much less mom and the girls."
Her apartment isn't as safe as the Bunker, but it's an easier domicile to keep secure than if we moved into a standalone home. House hunting is going to have to wait.
"We'd have a hard time sleeping together on this bed. It's so narrow, but I can think of something we could do on it," she says in a sultry voice that goes straight to my cock.
We spend the two hours before my meeting with my not-so-new recruits finding out what forms that something can take.