Chapter 30
PUNISHMENT
Matteo
I wake to rain and the familiar weight of her across my body.
Her scent pervades, seeping into every part of me.
Gray dawn presses against the blinds, the room a soft-washed watercolor of damp and quiet.
We’re a knot on Noel’s old couch. Our legs are tangled, my back wedged into a tattered cushion, and her cheek on my chest like this is a world where we actually get to sleep like this on a regular basis.
We’re both naked except for her shirt.
I hazard a peek at the gold necklace peeking out from under her collar.
Was that what she didn’t want me to see?
I thought it was strange last night the way she kept tugging the hem up and the neckline high, but I didn’t press.
Not after the storm we made of each other.
Not when every sane part of me said don’t spook her, don’t take more than what she’s willing to offer. I owe her that much.
Her breath warms the skin over my heart. I watch the pulse at her throat and try not to want the impossible.
What would our baby have looked like?
The thought has teeth. It’s been chewing at me for years.
In the Sicilian mornings, I saw copper hair and eyes like fresh moss, a mouth that would slay me and a temper that matched mine.
After I walked out like an asshole and I couldn’t find her, I searched everywhere.
I scoured Taormina, Belfast, every corner of the internet a man like me can pry open, then I called Noel.
I didn’t know what to ask without asking everything.
I wasn’t sure if Cat had ever confided in her about the pregnancy, but Noel never mentioned it.
I told myself that meant the worst had already happened.
I told myself I’d missed the chance to ruin three lives instead of two.
I tilt my chin and breathe in the splay of her hair. It’s still rain and a sweetness that never leaves me alone. I should wake her and ask. No, I should let it rot me from the inside a little longer. Both feel like losing.
She stirs finally. A faint flicker of lashes, a small frown smoothing when she realizes where she is, then returning when she realizes who she’s on. We look at each other in the weak light, and the room fills with words we don’t trust.
“Morning,” I manage.
“Don’t,” she whispers with a humorless almost-laugh. She lifts off my chest like it burns, palms skimming my ribs, and reaches for her clothes. Her shirt stays put while she grabs her underwear, jeans, and the sweatshirt she peeled off. The couch complains as she shifts. The spell breaks.
I sit up and reach for my pants, eyes on her, but I keep my hands busy so I don’t touch what I’m not allowed to hold in the daylight.
“I’ll make coffee,” I mumble. Because it’s stupid and safe, and I don’t know how to ask about the knife lodged behind my ribs.
She doesn’t answer. She’s patting the floor for her phone when it starts to buzz.
The name on her screen flashes large enough for me to catch it before she turns away: Donal.
Shit.
Her spine locks. She swipes to answer and walks two steps toward the kitchen like distance can muffle what comes next.
“Yeah?” Her voice is sanded down to the bone.
I inch closer but can only hear his side in jagged fragments. He’s loud enough for the receiver to echo a few phrases.
“…don’t hang up, Cáit. Listen to me—”
“—Tiernan—”
“—took her—”
Cat goes white, then red, then some desperate color I’ve never seen on her. She grips the counter with one hand like she needs the house to hold her up.
“What?” The word is airless as it leaves her lips.
“Siobhan,” he bites out, the two words clear even to me from across the tense space. “Tiernan has our sister.”
Silence hangs like a blade.
I edge closer, ready to catch her if her grip on the counter falters.
“When?” she forces out.
At this close range, I can hear every word now.
“Hours ago. He’s been sending messages.”
Her throat works, and she swallows down something sharp. “Where?”
“In Belfast,” he snaps. “He sent his men for her when you didn’t respond about Rossi. He’ll move her soon, I’m sure. We don’t have time. You need to come to me. Now.”
Her eyes flick to me. I don’t move. Hell, I don’t breathe. Every cell in my body is already in motion.
“Send me the last pin,” she growls, voice flat and dangerous.
Then she jabs her finger at the call end button on the screen. She stands there, phone slack in her hand, rain ticking time on the glass.
“What happened?” I keep my voice steady because one of us has to.
Her gaze lifts, and there’s a war in it. The part of her that believes it’s her fault, the part that wants to do this alone. But alone gets you killed.
“Tiernan took my little sister.” Her lip wobbles for an instant before it presses into a firm line. “He’s using her to drag me home. It’s punishment… for my failure.” Her eyes raze over me. “Without your body, he’s not buying it.”
Cold slips into my bones. “Then we don’t go home. We go to her.”
“I’m not asking you—”
“You’re not,” I cut in. “I’m volunteering.”
Her jaw tightens. “This is my family, Matteo. My responsibility. You’re—”
“I know.” I reach for the holster on the arm of the couch, snap it on, and tuck a second clip into my pocket. “I know I don’t deserve to demand anything. But I can’t let you do this alone, Cat. I won’t.” My words hit low.
“Matteo…”
“I’m going either way. With you or trailing after you. Besides, I’m the one who knows how men like Tiernan think when they want to make an example.”
I can feel her indecision, her weighing out the options.
“Fine,” she replies a long moment later. She swallows, thumb already flying over the screen as Donal’s pin lands. He’s at Long Branch, which means the closest airport is Monmouth. It’s small and private, perfect. Her hand shakes but she shoves the tremor back down.
“Coffee later…” I inch closer, scared she might run. And I don’t know how to say I’m not letting you walk into this alone without making it sound like a promise I have no right to give.
I’m surprised when she doesn’t fight me on it anymore. It’s the fear for her sister. Instead, she just pulls on her hoodie, zips it to her throat, and nods. The shirt stays under it, still hiding whatever she won’t let me see. The ache behind my ribs flares.
Something to deal with later. Find the sister first. Ask about ghosts second.
“Keys,” she says.
“Already got them.” I’m at the door before I realize I moved, then I glance back. “You ready, Kitty Cat?”
Her eyes flare at the name. Then she nods once, a grim soldier’s nod.
“Let’s go.”
The rain eases to a smear on the windshield as we cut north, wipers on the car I snagged from the safehouse ticking a tired beat.
Cat rides shotgun beside me, hood up, and hands fisted in her lap like she’s holding herself together with bone and will.
She’s barely said a word since we left Noel’s house.
I hit the button on the steering wheel. “Call Alessandro.”
The car fills with a ring, then Ale’s voice. It’s tired and sharp, all my cousin. “Matteo. Finally. Where the hell—”
“First, how’s Rory?”
A beat. “She’s stable. She has a concussion and bruised ribs but no internal bleeding. The baby’s okay.” His voice cracks on okay. “They’re still holding her at the hospital for observation so I’m here with her. Where are you?”
Relief hits so hard it’s almost painful. I stare at the wet road until it steadies. “Good,” I breathe. “Listen, call off the city-wide on the Quinlans and pull our people back. They’re on the move, and I’ve got a lead I’m taking to Belfast.”
Silence turns dense. “You’re doing what?”
“Tiernan made a move, and I can counter it there.”
“What move? What the hell are you talking about?”
I growl out a frustrated sound. “It doesn’t matter, just—”
“I’m coming.” No hesitation. “I’ll have the jet meet us—”
“No.” It comes out too hard, so I drop my voice. “Ale, no. You’re going to be a father. You need to be with Rory. Plus, I need you stateside keeping Gemini from coming apart at the seams while I’m gone. Your life is too important to risk on a street I know better than you do.”
“Matty—”
“Trust me.” I angle a glance at Cat. She watches the dark glass, expression tight. “Please.”
On the other end, I hear him grind a curse into his teeth. When he speaks, it’s low and dangerous. “You handle this, and you come back home safe. Do you hear me?”
“That’s the plan.”
“And your shooter?” he asks, quiet now.
My throat tightens. I take the only step that doesn’t burn us both. “I’ll take care of it.”
Another long beat. “Leo says you’re off-grid. I don’t like it, cuz.”
“Since when have you liked anything I do?” I try for light, but it doesn’t quite land. “Call off the dogs and lock down the Vault. Keep Serena, Bella, and Alessia away from the streets. I’ll ping you when I land.”
A sigh escapes that I’m sure he doesn’t want me to hear. “Text me a tail number.”
“Done.” I end the call before he can change his mind. The car exhales into quiet, or maybe that’s me. The tires hum down the road, and Cat keeps her gaze forward.
“You know you don’t have to do this,” she finally murmurs.
“You know I do.” It costs me nothing to say because it’s the truest thing I have.
She nods once as if we just signed some formal agreement. “Donal will be at the airport. He thinks he’s the one flying me home.”
“Good,” I reply. “Let him come to us. We’ll take him out of play before we leave. I want him out of my city.”
Her gaze flicks to me. “How?”
“Simple, I put him to sleep.” I offer a smirk. “We strap him into a seat on the jet and dump him in Belfast.”
“He’ll wake up furious.”
“When he wakes… which could be a while. And when he does, he’ll wake on Irish soil,” I counter. “He’ll be far away from my family. And besides, furious is better than armed.”
Her jaw tightens, thinking it through. “Tiernan won’t like losing his favorite hound.”
“Then he’ll come for me himself, and I’ll be waiting.”
She stares at the road until rain returns in a soft sheet. The quiet lengthens. I can feel the question I’ve dragged like an anchor since Sicily try to climb up my throat. Our baby. I taste the shape of it and bite down until it bleeds.
Not now. Find her sister first.
“Monmouth. Almost there.” I point at the sign over the highway then slide us across two lanes and onto the exit. “It’s a smaller field, fewer eyes. We’ll clear the tarmac faster.”
She nods. “And Donal?”
“We text him from your phone that you’re coming in under an alias. Tell him to meet us at Hangar C. He’ll believe you over anyone.”
A humorless sound that almost used to be a laugh. “Or at least he used to.”
We solidify the plan for the next few minutes, and the calm settles in.
We’ve hashed out the text she’ll send, the route around the perimeter road, and where I’ll park to keep the cameras pointed wrong.
I call Leo on the burner to confirm he’s already onsite, and he grunts his assent.
The man has saved my life since I was eleven. He’ll save it again tonight.
I can’t stop glancing at her hands. The way she flexes them when she’s readying herself for pain. The way her thumb grazes, just once, the hidden place beneath her collarbone. I look away before I let myself ask.
The road narrows and curls past a black field, then the chain-link perimeter rises out of the dark like a quiet warning. Blue runway lights bead into the distance. The smell of jet fuel floats on damp air.
Cat’s phone buzzes, but she doesn’t look at the screen. We pass a sign: Monmouth Executive Airport and then another: Authorized Vehicles Only. I flash a Gemini badge at a guard, and he waves us through with a yawn.
I cock my head to meet her eyes. “Last chance to change your mind.”
“Don’t insult me,” she bites back. And it all rushes back. There she is, the steel I fell in love with before I knew its cost.
We roll along the hangars, rain still dotting the windshield. At the far end, we pause beside a large one, and a service door clicks open to a yellow sliver of light. Leo’s silhouette. Past him, a sleek wing gleams under neon lamps like a promise I might be able to keep.
I kill the engine, and the world goes very quiet. “Text him.”
She types fast and presses send. Then she looks at me like the next breath is a battlefield. I reach for the door handle before I can ask about whatever it is that lies hidden beneath her breastbone. Her hand presses to it once again.
“Ready?” I ask.
Her eyes are flint. “Let’s get Siobhan back.”