Eight
“ O h, that’s lovely,” Oona sighed wistfully as she stared at me in the full-length mirror.
I was two hours into trying on the dresses that the designer had brought to the estate, and looking at myself now, I was pretty sure I’d found the one I’d be wearing at the end of the week.
Once we’d agreed on everything a few days ago, Edison worked like a madman to pull together all of the things that a wedding required.
The Edison Keane that I’d seen on the day of my last wedding had been every inch the mobster. He’d oozed danger and had sent a chill down my spine when he’d addressed Amante—a man who had previously been my standard for all things scary.
But the one that I saw every day seemed like a completely different creature.
Pack Ricci hadn’t cared much about the details that went into our union—and neither had I—but Edison seemed to care too much.
He insisted it had to be perfect, though Rhodes had taken to calling him a groomzilla under his breath after we heard the man muttering about doves at dinner yesterday.
And despite it all, it was utterly charming.
I’d always known Edison Keane was handsome. The night I saw him in the hospital four years ago he’d been ruffled and bloody as Dr. Stedmeyer had stitched him up. He’d been the walking-talking manifestation of the dirty books that I downloaded onto my kindle to make the long nights in the cancer ward go by faster.
But the Edison I’d gotten to know over the past week was different from that—he was softer and a bit unsure of himself. Not to mention the fact that he blushed in a way that was far too adorable for a man fifteen years older than me.
I wasn’t sure if any of this would work out, but I was enjoying myself more than I had in years… right down to being able to pick out my own wedding dress this time around.
“Do you think he’ll like it?” I asked, turning one way and then the other to get a full look at the beautiful dress adorning my body.
My first wedding dress had been a mess of froth and gemstones that pinched my skin, but this? This was pure bliss.
The bodice was a simple A-line, hugging my body in a way that elongated my normally short torso. A long skirt of the softest chiffon floated around my legs, moving every time I shifted.
“Dearie, I think you could pop a paper bag on and every man within a fifty mile radius would be lost.”
It was strange to think of myself as beautiful. Even over a year after leaving the hospital for the last time, there were still times that I looked in the mirror and still saw a pale, boney girl with no hair.
My hair was just past my shoulders now, and while I could still stand to gain a little bit more weight, my cheeks were no longer deathly pale.
Maybe it was the complete disinterest Elio Ricci and the rest of his pack had for me, or maybe it was typical for a woman my age to feel this way, but I almost didn’t believe Oona’s words as I stared at myself in the mirror and nibbled on my bottom lip.
Much later, long after I should have been asleep, I crept to the door of my bedroom and slowly opened it. It creaked ever so slightly and I winced as I eased my way onto the landing of the stairs that led down into the greenhouse on the bottom floor of my little tower.
It was a silly habit that I’d formed after the first night, but as I peered over the railings at Edison, I didn’t care.
He came every night to take care of the plants that were in the little space, watering, trimming, wiping down leaves, and sometimes, just sitting and enjoying a glass of amber liquid as he sat in the dark.
I would have never known about it had I not started to go down the stairs to get fresh air my second night here and caught him with his back turned as he worked on the giant tropical-looking plant that took up most of the far corner of the room.
After that, I couldn’t help but peek at the man as he moved through an environment that was so opposite of the image he usually presented himself as.
Tonight was no different. He’d taken off his suit jacket, tossing it over the arm of the plush armchair that was almost hidden amongst the jungle of plants, and rolled his sleeves up just past his elbows.
Even in the dark I could see the outline of some kind of black tattoo that lined one of his forearms as he used shears to trim a large piece off of a vining plant that was hanging from a hook on the wall.
I really needed to look up the names of some of these because they were all so beautiful.
Miranda Chandler never had much of a green thumb, so any foliage in our home was of the silk variety.
Edison moved, cuttings in hand, and began placing them in long glass vials that were on a shelf next to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
It was fascinating watching his hands, which I was sure had seen more than their fair share of bloodshed, work so delicately with the plants that filled the space.
Then his warm voice made me jump nearly out of my skin. “If you stare at me any harder than that, pet, I’m afraid you’re going to bore actual holes into my back.”
With a sigh from having been caught, I padded barefoot down the stairs to join him. “How did you know I was up there?”
“I’ve known you were up there since the first night. Stealth isn’t quite your forte, Perrie Chandler.”
And here I thought I was going to be a super spy mob wife.
So, to recap, Karate Kid mob wife was out and now I had no hope of being a James Bond-esque mob wife… so, what did that leave for me? Maybe… tight animal print dresses? No, I never looked good in patterns…
As if he could read my ever-spiraling inner-thoughts, Edison’s lips pulled up into a smirk as his golden eyes sparkled.
“Why didn’t you say something before?” I asked, fiddling with one of the leaves of a nearby plant.
Edison shrugged, tucking his shears into the little brown leather apron he was wearing around his waist that I’d never noticed before because of the limited angle from the upper landing. “I figured you would scurry back into your room if I acknowledged you.”
“But…?” There had to be a reason he finally said something tonight.
“ But ,” Edison put emphasis on the word, “you’ve shown me that you are braver than I initially thought you were.”
“I’m the furthest thing from brave.” Truth be told, I was worried that all of the things that I’d grown to really like over the past several days were just going to be a front for the darker underbelly of life as a mobster’s wife. That as soon as Edison put a ring on my finger he’d show his true self and I would be stuck with him.
My father, for all of his faults, had never been prone to violence. Hell, the man shook like a small dog after every televised debate he participated in despite his ever-fake politician’s smile that he always painted on his face.
But I knew Edison was definitely capable of it, though every one of my instincts told me that he would never hurt me. At least not in a physical sense.
“Says the girl who isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with Rhodes at the dinner table when he was being an ass. Even most of my men wouldn’t even try that.”
It wasn’t that big of a deal, was it? Rhodes and I had developed a sort-of… rapport over the past few days of our self-defense lessons.
I was enjoying finding new ways to get under the too-serious alpha’s skin and it had seemingly leaked out at dinner tonight.
My face flushed as I looked away from his intent gaze at a nearby plant before hurrying to change the subject. “Why do you come in here every night? You don’t really give off plant person vibes.”
Edison’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled. “Really? And here I was thinking about leaving my life as a businessman and opening a nursery. But no, you are right that I don’t seem like much of a plant person. I wasn’t until my mother passed away. This was her place and I kept it up after she died, but I have to admit that it’s actually quite therapeutic after a long day at work.”
I understood that. I’m sure there was nothing like coming into a nice quiet space after a long day of putting cement shoes on all of your enemies and dropping them in the bay. Did they even do that anymore?
But asking him that would definitely get me in trouble, so instead I glanced around the greenhouse, looking at it more closely than I ever had before. “Was this whole tower hers?”
Over the past week I’d found remnants of the tower’s former resident. A single pearl earring in the closet, an ancient bottle of nail polish pushed all the way to the back of the cabinet under the bathroom sink, and more that told me that whoever had lived in the tower had spent a lot of time here.
Edison nodded, his lips pressing together. “She lived most of her life in these walls. I bet it’s kind of morbid that I put you in here as well, right?”
I thought about it for a moment. I’d seen the rest of the Keane estate, but no place seemed to shine the same way this little tower and the surrounding garden did. Even at night the fountain in the middle shone with enough of a soft glow to illuminate the green house, making everything feel a bit ethereal. Not only that it made me feel more comfortable than I’d ever felt anywhere else.
“I like it,” I told him honestly. “It feels like this is a place that was given a lot of care.”
Whether by his mother’s hands or now Edison’s hands, this place was the only one that felt soft amongst the opulent halls of the rest of the mansion.
My answer seemed to be the correct one for the alpha in front of me because his expression softened and he nodded to himself before stepping in closer.
Both Rhodes and Edison had taken to using descenting spray when they were around me now, hiding their mouthwatering chocolate and vanilla scents.
But after a long day, the ghost of vanilla still clung to Edison’s skin as he reached for my hand and placed a pair of garden shears into it, silently asking if I wanted to help.
I was too busy gawking at him because not only did I smell vanilla, but also the barest hint of chocolate on the tip of my tongue. I wasn’t sure if their scents were so intricately entwined because of how much time they spent together or because of something else entirely, but the combination never failed to make my mouth water.
Which was also something I didn’t have the time nor energy to unpack right now. It was hard enough to get Rhodes to smile at me, so I doubted he’d be interested in me past my place as Edison’s wife. Not to mention the fact that the head of the Keane family was always a sole alpha. No packs. The ancient omega teacher that they’d brought in had made that very clear.
Closing my hand around the shears, I turned away and eyeballed the plants critically, my face warming in a way that I knew Edison would be able to see even in the dim light of the greenhouse. “So, how do I know what leaves to cut off?”
Edison’s presence warmed against my back as he pointed at a nearby pot of a fluffy-looking plant.
“See this? This is a Boston fern,” his mouth was right next to my ear as he spoke and it sent a shiver down my spine as I listened to him. “Every plant has different needs, but trimming is pretty universal, see that dry, brown bit there?”
I nodded as he lifted some of the fluffy fronds to show me.
“Trim that.”
I did as asked and once the dead piece was in my hand he swiped it and chucked it into a nearby bin.
The next hour was full of him explaining things like how certain plants needed certain kinds of watering, how propagation worked, and more. All of the information made my head spin as he tossed names of plants at me like they were obvious, and I did my best to keep up.
“So you do all of this every night?” I asked incredulously once he’d finished his tour, ending with the large plant in the corner that he called a Monstera Deliciosa . “Do you ever get any sleep?”
Edison’s chuckle was soft as he reached into the massive pot and pressed his fingers into the soil in order to check the moisture before using the stainless steel watering can he’d been carrying to douse the top layer. “I don’t do this every night, no, some nights I just come in to sit and decompress after a long day.”
“All that cutting your enemies’ fingers off can be stressful, huh.” The words popped into my brain and out of my mouth before I could catch them. I slapped a hand over my lips, my eyes wide as I glanced over at him, fully expecting his soft expression to harden with anger.
But instead those gorgeous damn eyes of his were still dancing as he grinned at me. “We’re actually the sort of mobsters who pull toe and fingernails off. Cutting off fingers gets pretty messy.”
I blanched at that, not sure if he was kidding or being completely honest with me. Either way, I wasn’t sure if I could stomach the actual answer.
When my father told me I would be marrying into the Amante family, I’d known that the less savory parts of their lives would probably affect me at some point. I’d long since come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t be getting the romantic meet-cute at university with a guy that was too-sweet for words and wouldn’t hurt a fly.
I think, even without getting sick, that my place amongst one of the five crime families in the city was set in stone long before I really knew what or who they were.
Ethan Chandler was always going to need more power for his political ambitions. Me and Romey were just his currency to purchase that power.
“Was that too much?” Edison asked, noticing how my face had paled.
I shrugged, figuring honesty was the best policy as I was pretty sure that Edison Keane could sniff out a lie faster than a bloodhound. “No, just… different. I know you probably do things that are going to make me feel queasy or uncomfortable. But it’s not anything I wasn’t expecting when I agreed to marry you.”
Edison nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful for a moment before he spoke again. “I can’t promise you won’t ever see or hear violence during our lifetime, Perrie. You are going to be my partner in all things, and that will require some level of understanding what goes on in my business—both legitimate and illegal.”
Glancing around at the greenhouse and garden beyond the glass windows, I couldn’t help but wonder about the woman who’d lived here for years, sequestered out of the way of everything that was happening in the mansion. “How much of it did your mother see?”
“Far too much.” A sigh left the man, effectively ending our moment as I realized my curiosity had truly gotten the better of me and he was stepping away. “It’s getting late, you should head up to bed.”
I wanted to argue and push—to ask more about the mysterious woman who had lived in the tower that I was currently the sole resident of—but Edison’s expression had shuttered completely and he looked every inch the head of a family of mobsters again.
Nibbling on my lower lip, I turned to head back down the stone path that led back to the stairs. Putting my foot on the first step, I paused and turned to face him again. “Can I come down and help you take care of the plants again sometime?”
Edison’s eyes softened ever so slightly. “Sure, pet, anytime you want.”
I left him then, climbing the stairs and shutting my door firmly behind me before diving into my nest. It had become more and more sophisticated as the days passed and that was largely thanks to whoever was leaving baskets of nesting materials in front of my door every night. I wondered if it was Edison, though the man seemed to be a much flashier gift-giver, so if it was him he’d have made it known.
But either way, the nest now had an actual canopy that was tied low on the four posters and created a space that was packed full to the brim with soft blankets and lots, and I do mean lots, of pillows.
And now, as I lay under that canopy, I could still smell Edison’s, and by extension Rhodes’, combined scents. Faint chocolate and vanilla hung over me, comforting me and lulling me off into the best sleep I’d gotten since coming to this place.