CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Achilles
“Was it worth it?”
Luca strolled into my en-suite bathroom, parking a shoulder against the doorframe. His gaze found mine in the vanity mirror’s reflection as I put down the surgical staple I’d been using to put myself together.
Groaning, I spat blood into the sink. “Absolutely.”
“Glad you think so.” He tucked a cigarette into his mouth casually, lighting it. “Because she sold you to the feds.”
Whatever forty minutes of straight-up beatings from my father didn’t do, these six words managed to achieve. I gripped the edges of the sink, willing myself not to fall to my fucking knees and weep.
The pain was more than skin deep. It cut past all the human organs and etched itself into my very soul. The same way it did when they removed the bandages from my face when I was eighteen and I heard my mother mutter, “Now he has a face to match the monstrosity of his actions.”
This deep, carnal brokenness that felt like the earth was pulled from beneath my feet.
Then came the rage. The anger. The insatiable need for revenge.
I knew exactly who she was.
And I could only imagine what she’d told them.
The worst part was, I couldn’t even blame her. I’d spent the last eleven years destroying her life to come to terms with mine. Now that she was no longer on American soil, she felt safe enough to return a favor.
You’re going to prison for the rest of your life, dipshit, her voice teased inside my head.
“Source?” I grabbed the surgical staple, using it to clamp my open wounds. It hurt like a motherfucker, seeing as I had no body fat to cushion the flesh.
“Tyrone.” Luca blew smoke skyward. “Dad’s been paying him under the table to keep an eye on the Irish since they got in bed with the Bratva. He doesn’t trust Tiernan.”
Nor should he. Tiernan’s loyalty lay with my sister and my sister only, followed—not closely—by Tierney and Alex, the Bratva’s pakhan and his childhood friend.
But goddamn, that was low of Tyrone.
Wait, why the fuck was I mad at Tyrone when his daughter was about to throw me into prison?
“How’d Tyrone find out?”
“Bugged Tiernan’s place.” Luca sidestepped a pool of my blood. “Don’t tell Tiernan about it. He’s still an outsider,” he warned.
Unlike our soldiers, Luca and Enzo knew exactly what went down in Naples with Tierney during the weekend. Now they thought I couldn’t be trusted with a fucking paper straw.
“How much has she given them?” I grabbed the antibiotic ointment from the counter and lathered my injured areas with it before reaching for a bandage.
A glint of pure malice lit in Luca’s eyes as he watched my broken figure, something I’d never seen there before. We were the two competitive siblings, the ones fighting for the don position. Enzo had never showed real interest in taking over in any serious way.
Luca had shown good sportsmanship thus far.
Not anymore.
“A USB containing evidence. Fuck knows what. She didn’t specify.”
Fuck. This was bad. But maybe not that bad?
SSA Rothwell was going to need much more than random screenshots to pin us down. He needed witnesses on the stand, and his only source was now on another continent. Plus, we had every high-ranking federal judge in our pocket.
“And Tiernan?” I tried to swallow the lump in my throat.
“Trying to fix the latest mess his sister created.” Luca pushed off the doorframe when he saw my hands were shaking too badly to apply the bandages.
He quietly took the roll from me, wrapping it across my midsection.
He kept his eyes on the bandages as he spoke around the cigarette in his mouth.
“His friend at the bureau told him Agent Rothwell won’t leave Tierney alone until she flips on us. ”
“A little hard to do, considering she hightailed it to a country with no extradition treaty with us,” I muttered.
I was happy she was on the other side of the world because whatever was happening next wasn’t going to be pleasant. For her. For us.
“She’s still in New York,” Luca said.
“What?” I roared, my abs contracting, making one of my stitches rip. Blood oozed from it on cue. “Why the fuck?”
“She wants to give a statement to the feds.” Luca glanced at his watch. “Tiernan’s restraining her in his house, negotiating a pardon with Dad on the phone. If you get out of here now, you can probably catch her.”
“If I catch her, I’ll kill her.”
She’s betrayed me before, when we were eighteen, and it took me this long to forgive her.
I’d never forgive her for what she did today, though.
“If you don’t pick her up and deposit her at our father’s, the Camorra will,” he said matter-of-factly. “Are you ready for her to be treated the way we treat a female traitor?”
I was out the door before I even put a shirt on.
The ride from my apartment to Tiernan and Lila’s suburban mansion should’ve taken an hour.
It took thirty-three minutes.
My baby sister answered the door, shoving herself into my path and blocking the entrance. She was a hundred pounds on a good day. I didn’t even need to touch her. I could practically blow her out of my fucking way. And right now? I was tempted to.
“Achilles,” she said my name, her voice, sweet and breathless, new to my ears. She gasped at my busted face. “What happ—”
“Move.”
That wiped the concern from her face. “So remember how you said I can always count on you in case I need a favor?”
“No.”
“Well, I remember, and I beg you to—”
“Look, I appreciate your loyalty to the skank who’s trying to put your whole family behind bars. But if you don’t move your ass right now—”
“Please finish this sentence.” Tiernan materialized from the hallway, sliding between me and his wife, shielding her with his large frame. “I’ve been dying to unscrew your eyeballs from your face for a while now.”
“What happened to you?” Lila tilted her head from behind his shoulder. “You look awful.”
“As opposed to my usual dashing face?” I drawled. “Listen, either you two move out of my way, or I’m bringing reinforcements. We both know how the Camorra handle a snitch.” My mouth quirked. “I was gentle with your sister this weekend. My soldiers, however, would tear her limb from limb.”
“Shit. That reminded me.” Tiernan snapped his fingers, pointing at me with a good-natured smile. “I forgot to give you this.”
He swung his fist and sent a stunning punch straight to my nose. I heard the crack of my cartilage dislocating. Blood gushed out of my nostrils.
I did deserve it, though.
It took me a few seconds to swing back from the pain. And then I saw it behind Tiernan’s shoulder. A flash of flame-red hair. My heart skidded to a halt. I didn’t think I’d ever see her again. The need to strangle the life out of her made every nerve ending in my body twitch.
I had no idea how she and my sister became best friends. Lila was a softhearted romantic with frilly dresses, a sweet nature, and an inexplicable love for the color pink. Tierney was a filthy siren, half dryad, half goddess, who dedicated her entire existence to defying and destroying.
“Nobody’s handing anyone anything. We’re taking separate cars to your father’s place and getting this shit sorted.” Tiernan grabbed his jacket from a hanger. Imma, his maid and my childhood nanny, emerged from the depths of the giant-ass house, placing her hand on Lila’s shoulder.
“Vieni con me, bambina mia.” The housekeeper tried steering my sister away from the door.
Lila threw Imma’s touch off. She turned to her husband.
From this angle, I could see the hearing aid hiding beneath the mass of her golden curls.
She clutched her husband’s face. “If I hear they touched a hair on her head, I swear to Christ, Tiernan, I’ll shoot you again, and this time I won’t miss. ”
“I know.” He leaned down to kiss her mouth. He smoothed her hair away from her face. I’d have rolled my eyes if I didn’t know it’d hurt like a motherfucker with my new shiners. “I promise you, Gealach, she’ll walk out of this unscathed.”
“Promise her the moon next. It’ll be easier to achieve,” I scoffed.
I was going to kill this woman, and I was going to make a spectacle out of it.
“Bring her out,” Tiernan barked behind his shoulder. Two Irish soldiers escorted Tierney toward the door. They held her arms back, and my knee-jerk reaction was to pounce on both of them and break their necks. Then I remembered who she was and what she did to me.
“Missed me?” Tierney flashed me a dazzling smile.
I wiped the blood from my nose, giving her my usual don’t-give-a-fuck expression.
If she expected verbal sparring, she was mistaken—that ship had sailed when she’d stabbed me in the back.
I spat at her feet. In response, she thrashed, trying to break the confines of her captors’ arms and launch herself at me.
The soldiers tugged her back, dragging her into Tiernan’s Mercedes kicking and screaming.
Before they pushed her head inside, I managed to call behind her back, “Watch out for her hair. It’s still full of my cum.”