Chapter Two
The next day, the first order of business was getting Charlie clothed appropriately.
Aiden had dispatched Liam to take her shopping, which was a chore on multiple levels.
He’d seen the hesitance in her face at the thought of spending his money, but he’d argued that she had to present a particular look if she was going to play in his world.
Liam would ensure that she spent enough and didn’t try to take the easy way out.
Aiden would have asked for his sister Carrigan’s assistance, but they were barely on speaking terms at this point.
He couldn’t quite forgive her for being the reason the family was in this precarious position with Romanov in the first place, even if he was happy she’d found love.
A family of traitors. That’s all we are.
Cillian caught him as he walked through the front door. His youngest brother was dressed in his usual three-piece suit, tattoos peeking out at his neck and wrists. “Where have you been? You were supposed to be back last night—”
“I got caught up.” Aiden nodded to the man at Cillian’s back—Mark Neale, one of their hired men. “Bring Keira to the office immediately.”
Cillian stopped short, horror suffusing his face. “No. Aiden, you didn’t. Tell me you didn’t.”
It stung that his brother had immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario, even if that was exactly what Aiden wanted him to believe.
Always so willing to cast me as a knockoff version of our father.
He couldn’t let the opinion of his siblings affect his plans, though.
They’d see the truth when the time came—and not a second before.
“Office. Now.” He injected a bit of the forbidding tone their father had always used to get immediate obedience.
He’d be damned before he let Cillian contradict him in the middle of the foyer.
His brother didn’t mean it as a way of undermining Aiden’s tenuous hold on power, but there were men who worked for them who might interpret it that way.
A unified front was the only thing that would see them through this until the threats of Romanov and the Eldridges were removed.
Cillian barely waited for the office door to close before he was in Aiden’s face. “I have done everything you asked of me and more, and never once did we agree on giving Keira to that monster. Christ, Aiden, she’s a kid. He’ll eat her alive.”
He won’t have her.
He couldn’t say it, couldn’t tip his hand in the least. Cillian was as trustworthy as they came, but he was well on his way to being married to Dmitri Romanov’s half sister.
Olivia claimed she wanted nothing to do with Dmitri, but she still allowed him access to her two-year-old daughter, Hadley, on a regular basis.
Aiden didn’t think his brother or future sister-in-law would betray him… but he couldn’t risk it.
Not with the number of lives at stake.
So he let his face fall into the familiar cold lines, the mask of the new leader of the O’Malley family. “You aren’t the one who makes that decision.”
Cillian fell back a step. “You’re fucking kidding me. What the hell did Dmitri say in that meeting that was tantalizing enough to get you to agree to this? Why now, when you’ve held him off for a goddamn year?”
I got an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.
He couldn’t say it aloud. Every part of this plan depended on a precarious balance that anything could upset.
Dmitri needed to believe the lie, so that meant Aiden’s family needed to believe the lie as well.
“Keira is an adult. She’s more than capable of meeting the demands of the family.
” As if I’d actually ask that of her. Aiden had seen all too clearly the pain and suffering that came from arranged marriages, and he had no intention of subjecting his baby sister to it.
“Sure. Whatever the hell you say—because that’s worked out so well for the rest of our sisters.” Cillian shook his head. “You’re going to lose her, too, Aiden. We’re going to lose her.”
Not if I can help it. He slid his hands into his pockets, the very picture of polite disinterest. “She’ll be here shortly. Can you contain yourself, or do I need to ask you to wait outside?”
The look his brother gave him was filled to the brim with disgust and disappointment, the twin judgments lodging in Aiden’s throat like a blade.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut like a good boy.” Cillian dropped into one of the chairs in front of the desk.
“Good.” It didn’t matter what Cillian thought of him. All that mattered was the end goal. If his remaining family despised him by the time that came around…so be it. At least they’d be alive to hate him.
The door opened, and Keira stumbled in. She looked like shit, dark circles beneath her eyes, her face drawn from losing weight that she couldn’t afford to lose, her hair wild and uncombed. She blinked dilated eyes at him, none of her usual arrogance present. “I take it my time is up.”
“Sit.” He motioned to the empty chair.
Some of the customary fire sparked in her eyes. “I’ll stand.”
There was no delicate way to put this, and she wouldn’t thank him for trying to sugarcoat it.
“We’re in talks regarding you marrying Dmitri Romanov.
Negotiations will begin shortly for the wedding itself and the living arrangements.
I suspect, having waited this long, Romanov will want to expedite things. ”
He watched her, fully expecting a meltdown.
Keira wasn’t exactly the most even-keeled and obedient of his siblings.
It would have been so easy to pull her aside, to tell her that he had no intention of letting Romanov lay his filthy hands on her, but he needed her and everyone else in his family to respond authentically every step of the way. That meant no one could know the truth.
But his baby sister just shrugged, like this was exactly what she’d expected. “Okay.”
He exchanged a look with Cillian, and the fury his brother was directing at him was stifling. Aiden took a deep breath. “Good. You’re under house arrest until this is ironed out.”
That got a response. Her chin jerked up, her shoulders going back. “Fuck that.”
“It’s nonnegotiable. You’re putting yourself in danger every time you go to one of those goddamn parties, and it ends now.
” Frankly, he was a little surprised that Romanov hadn’t just taken Keira.
He could have last year when he’d delivered her to their front door, a warning no one dared ignore.
That he hadn’t taken her indicated he was playing a deeper game than any of them could begin to guess.
After that little incident, Aiden had put Mark on Keira’s detail. They’d never lost her again, and since he always knew where she was, he hadn’t been required to curtail her nighttime wanderings.
Things had changed. “I’ll nail your window shut myself if I have to, but you’re not leaving this house without an escort.”
Something like panic bled into her voice. “Don’t put me on house arrest, Aiden. Please.”
He remembered all too well what she’d threatened to do the last time he’d issued the same command.
Aiden crossed to her and put his hands on her shoulders.
She felt so terrifyingly frail, like she might shatter into a million pieces if he hugged her too hard.
“It’s only for a little while—and only at night.
Take an escort and you can go wherever you damn well please during the day.
But, Keira”—he waited for her to meet his eyes before he continued—“the second you ditch your protection duty, that privilege is gone. This is not a game, and I’m not making idle threats. ”
Her hazel eyes filled with tears, making him feel like the biggest asshole in existence. He didn’t let that sway him, though. Her safety was more important than her freedom. Finally, she jerked out of his hold. “I hate you.”
“I know.” He’d do more to deserve that hate before this thing was through.
* * *
Charlie tried very, very hard not to think about the sheer amount of money she’d spent that day. Every time she’d balked, that bastard Liam had all but dragged her into another store and thrown her to the mercy of the salespeople there.
And they’d had none.
She ran her hand down her thigh, a small, ridiculous part of her thrilled at how soft the fabric of her dress felt.
It was a deep purple, a simple sheath that she’d been assured was the height of fashion right now.
She didn’t know much about that, but the price tag would have paid her rent for a month.
Who the hell had that kind of money to spend on clothes?
Criminals.
Like the one who had her panting after him like some kind of fool. He hadn’t taken advantage of it last night, but that was more about his restraint than her morals. If he’d kissed me…
Her body flushed hot at the thought, and she had to fight not to squirm. This wasn’t her. Sex had a place, and she indulged whenever her hormones got too out of control, but it was always with appropriate men. Safe men.
Aiden O’Malley was many things, but appropriate didn’t begin to enter into the equation, and safe wasn’t even in the same universe.
He was dangerous in ways that had nothing to do with the family he was born into, and everything to do what how he frayed her control without even trying.
He was a man who inspired the kind of lust that left nothing but ash in its wake.
She had no intention of letting this devil’s bargain put her in the ground.
No, the only reason she was doing this was to see justice done when it came to Dmitri Romanov.
Justice sounds a whole lot like revenge.
She shoved the thought away. She’d deal with it when she was finally face-to-face with that monster. In the meantime, she had other things to worry about—like the fact that she was about to meet her fake fiancé’s family.
“We’re here.”