32. Chapter 32
Callahan
Ten days after the revelation, Lorcan climbed into the car and settled across from us with a heavy groan. “I’m getting too old for all this travel, son.” He leaned over and kissed Rory’s cheek.
The door closed and as soon as Seamus was behind the wheel, the car pulled away from the curb in front of the airport. He grabbed a bottle of water from the small fridge and sighed as he uncapped it. “So, what was so important that I had to rush back? You made it sound incredibly urgent.”
I grabbed Rory’s hand and played with her fingers while I tried to organize my thoughts into some semblance of rationality. I’d had days to come to terms with the news but no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t make it make sense.
Rory squeezed my fingers and spoke up. “It’s a bit of a story, so bear with me while I prattle for a moment.” She had her guard up, using her mob wife persona as a shield, because she wasn’t used to being around Lorcan. She didn’t know what to expect with him, much like the other Bosses she’d met. Once she realized he fully supported her ability and drive to speak her mind, she’d relax.
As she told her story, how she’d discovered the paternity report and Marco helping her escape, everything revealed within that file, Lorcan sat quietly, rubbing his fingers over his white stubble and wrinkled cheeks. When she finished, he hummed thoughtfully but didn’t seem very surprised.
“I knew your mother was sleeping with another Boss. She refused to tell me who, but for a while I suspected it might’ve been Cesare. When he died, she didn’t seem too upset, so I assumed I’d been wrong.” He pulled out his pipe and packed it with a practiced move. “We need to get ahead of this. We need to have plans in motion before Elio realizes that we know his secret. Obviously, we need to retaliate for your father’s murder. Elio has never admitted it, but everyone knows he killed Cesare to take over. I wonder…” Lorcan trailed off, chewing on the end of his pipe.
Rory leaned into my side and released a forlorn sigh. “He killed my momma, too,” she said in a low voice.
“I suspect he probably killed Cesare when he realized he’d produced an heir. He probably killed your Mam, too, Callahan, when he was trying to take you out.”
“Rory has an idea about how to confront him. Based on what she overheard in his office, we know he wasn’t behind the attempt on her. Which leads me to believe it was most likely Fern. She thinks if I invite him to the house under the ruse of discussing a potential business venture, he’ll leave Fern at home and we’ll have an opportunity to question him about his involvement in our parents’ deaths.”
Lorcan nodded and puffed on his pipe. Rory leaned over and cracked one of the windows. I glanced at her curiously, but her body language, other than a slightly wrinkled nose, gave nothing away.
I ran my hand over Rory’s thigh and pressed my nose into her hairline, breathing her in and allowing her scent to calm the nerves in my stomach. “Mikhail, Nate and Elliot will be meeting us at the house. I want to tell them as well because I’m going to need Mikhail’s support. I want to claim my birthright as the Don of the NYC Cosa Nostra.”
Mikhail frowned down at his shoes as he ran his fingers over his pursed lips while Elliot ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous tick he’d had for as long as I’d known him.
Nate, however, handled the news in his own way.
While Mikhail and Elliot were serious and contemplative, Nate was howling with laughter. I knew that whatever he said when he caught his breath was going to piss me off, make Rory uncomfortable, or both. Probably both.
He took a deep breath and wiped tears from his eyes before setting off into another fit of hysterics. Rory was tense on my lap and Lorcan frowned at the man-shaped hyena bouncing on the couch in my office.
“Oh my god, this is fucking great!” he gasped between bouts of laughter. “Cal! She’s your cousin, man!”
I ground my teeth together and Rory’s hand shook in mine. I lifted her off my lap and deposited her on the cushion next to me. In the next second, I had a blade pressed to Nate’s throat, cutting the hysterics off immediately. He swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed against the edge of the blade.
But he didn’t seem scared. Respect and admiration were the only emotions reflected in his eyes. Still, I lowered my face next to his and growled.
“You dare call yourself my friend then disrespect my wife in her own home?”
Nate glanced over my shoulder and I followed his gaze. Elliot was tense in his seat, back ramrod straight as he watched us with a close eye. His hand twitched and I knew he was itching to defend his friend. Seeing the look in his eyes, I wondered if perhaps there was more to his desire to protect Nate than just friendship. Despite my anger at the idiot, I hoped for Nate’s sake that the intense emotions I saw in Elliot’s eyes mirrored Nate’s own feelings.
A soft hand landed on my wrist and pulled my blade away from Nate’s throat. “He didn’t mean any disrespect, mo phrionsa.”
My eyes flew to hers and my blood heated at the Irish nickname. My prince.
She smiled shyly and her cheeks colored. “Did you, Nate?” she asked sweetly, giving him an out.
“My apologies, Rory,” Nate said with sincerity. “I meant no disrespect. It was just the shock of the news.”
I settled back in my seat and pulled Rory back to my lap, glaring at Nate for a moment longer. Although his cheeks were still rosy with humor, he did look properly chastised.
Rory cleared her throat, wrapping her hand around the back of my neck and playing with the hairs that had come loose from the band I’d pulled them into this morning.
“We’ve chosen to share this information with you because Cal and I have decided that he has a right to claim the NYC Cosa Nostra for his own. He’s the rightful heir.” It didn’t escape my notice that she included herself in the decision making, presenting a united front. Her bravery never failed to make pride burn in my chest and my cock thickened with desire. I shifted her a little until her left arse cheek pressed against my erection. She squirmed against it.
“I can’t fight this fight alone. I need you,” I met Nate’s eyes, “All of you, to stand behind me. I need to know I can count on you when we go before the Concordia.”
Mikhail rubbed his chin and I could see his brain churning. “I will speak with my father. Perhaps he can give some advice on how to proceed with the rest of the Concordia.”
Rory immediately shook her head. “Mikhail, we’re not asking you to use your connections. We’re simply asking, as our friend, to support Cal’s claim to the NYC Cosa. We would never ask you to put your father in that position.”
Mikhail made a disagreeable noise. “I will ask him what you will need to have prepared before you go to them. I will not tell him details because then he would need to excuse himself from the trial, and you will need all the friends you can get.”
“I’ve considered going to them many times in the past,” Rory said, her voice sad. “He killed my mother. I could never prove it though, and even if I could, who would believe the shunned, orphaned stepdaughter over the NYC Don.”
The dejection in her voice made my chest ache and I squeezed her hip. She leaned into my body and pressed her head to mine just as a knock sounded on my office door. Ebony stuck her head in and announced that Orla had served lunch.
We made our way to the dining room and once everyone was seated, all eyes turned to Rory. Nobody made a move to touch the food but she eyed it all with trepidation, swallowing heavily. Because of the dinner, everyone at the table except Lorcan knew what her hesitation was but, being the intuitive man he was, he didn’t ask any questions. He just eyed me curiously.
When Rory swallowed again and began to rub at her throat with the tips of her fingers, I knew she was fighting the urge to gag.
Over the last ten days, we had developed a sort of ritual and I went through the motions without thought. I grabbed Rory’s plate and began putting small portions of things I knew she liked. Instead of setting the plate in front of her, I sat it on top of mine and began cutting her food into Rory-sized bites. Then I lifted my fork and began taking small bites of everything on it, holding her eyes the whole time.
By the time I had tasted everything, she was less tense. Once I put her plate in front of her, the other men began serving themselves. Utensils clinked against glassware and quiet conversation filled the room, but Rory’s emotion-filled gaze stayed glued to mine. Her eyes were full of relief, thanks, and residual fear.
Finally, she took a deep breath and reached for her fork. Only once she had speared a potato and lifted her fork did I begin to plate my own food. Lorcan met my eyes across the table and lifted an eyebrow, clearly curious about our strange ritual but hesitant to ask about it in front of her.
Rory ate slowly, nibbling on her potatoes and then a bread roll. When she made her way to the chicken, the fork halfway to her mouth, she suddenly stopped and gagged violently and pushed her plate away. Before I knew what I was doing, I was kneeling at her side.
“Are you alright, solas? What’s wrong?”
She looked at me with teary eyes. “I’m sorry, Cal. I can’t do it. I can’t eat any more. I ate as much as I could.”
Her voice wavered with tears and the pain in her eyes lanced through my chest like it was my own. I could see the war waging in her eyes. The desire to be good and eat like she knew I wanted her to mixed with the disappointment in herself over not being able to do it and the lingering fear of being poisoned again.
I placed my palm on her cheek. “It’s okay, solas. You did good. You ate all your potatoes and almost all your green beans and a whole roll. You’ve been eating more and more each day. You did good, baby. I’m proud of you.”
She perked up slightly under my praise, but her disappointment was palpable. I was disappointed, too, but only because I wanted her to be healthy. I could see she was trying and that would have to be good enough for now.
“He’s right, Rory,” Nate said. “You did really well. You ate almost double what you did last time I was here for dinner. Last time you only took a few bites before you got sick. Look! You ate half your plate before you even gagged!”
Her cheeks reddened at the praise, her skin growing warm beneath my palm, and she smiled. Any anger I had towards him fell away and was replaced by gratitude.
Lorcan cleared his throat. “Have you not been eating well, dolly?”
Her eyes fell to her lap where she tangled her fingers together and started to pick at the skin of her thumb. Her cheeks heated again, but this time embarrassment radiated from her in waves.
“I’ve been dealing with some…anxiety around food. Ever since the poisoning, I can’t seem to get my mind to stop thinking about who was around the food, where it came from, who touched it before it made it to our table.” She took a deep breath and I laid my hand on the back of her neck, gently massaging the tense muscles. “We figured out that if Cal tries my food before I try to eat it, I can usually eat okay, but today it seems to be really bad.”
Lorcan hummed in thought. “Have you tried cooking it yourself?”
She chuckled. “Yes. At first Orla was in hysterics, but when we explained why we wanted to try it, she showed me some of her recipes and I tried to cook my own food a couple times. I still worried obsessively about who could’ve had access to it before we got it, if somehow someone would have had a chance to tamper with it before it made its way to our kitchen.” Her voice was forlorn and I hated it.
“It’s okay, baby. You did good today. How’s your stomach feeling?”
She shrugged. “A little queasy, but I don’t feel like throwing up yet.”
“And you won’t,” Mikhail piped up. He sounded so certain that she let out a full peal of bright laughter.
“Are you going to convince my stomach of that, Russian?”
He pointed his fork at her as I squeezed the back of her neck and made my way back to my chair. “I absolutely will. You are skin and bones, devushka.” Displeasure colored his voice.
“And we don’t like it,” Elliot finished.
Warmth spread through my chest at hearing the way my oldest friends cared for my wife. If anything were to happen to me, I knew she would be well taken care of. I trusted my friends to be sure she was safe.
While the rest of us ate, Rory used her fork to push food around her plate. Every now and then she would lift a morsel, as if she was determined to finish her meal, but she always dropped it back to the plate and mashed it between the tines of her utensil.
Standing on the porch after lunch, Mikhail grasped my shoulder in a firm grip. “I promise, my friend. I will help you with this situation. You and Rory both deserve to have justice. My father is a fair man. He will make sure the rest of the Concordia judges fairly.”
Nate and Elliot, who were telling Rory about a new security method they were trying with Senator Black’s family, turned toward Mikhail and I. Elliot laid a hand on my other shoulder.
“I’m not a Made man, and I don’t have a lot of influence within your world, but I do know many people.” Seeing as he did security for most of the Concordia themselves and half the Bosses on the East Coast, yeah. He knew pretty much everyone. “I will put some feelers out, casually ask how certain people feel about Marino. Maybe if I find enough people who are against him, we can build your support.” He squeezed my shoulder before turning to Rory and kissing her cheek.
Mikhail kissed the back of her hand and they made their way down the porch steps, discussing who might be good options to speak with.
Nate stood beside Rory and I, stalling as the other two men made their way down to the waiting cars. He looked between us, his face chagrined and almost sad. “I’m very sorry about offending you both earlier. I know I joke around a lot, but it’s just my way of dealing with stressful situations. I don’t always know I’m going to laugh at the situation until I’m already doing it. I apologize for embarrassing you Rory. It wasn’t intentional.”
She wrapped her arm around my waist and laid her other hand on his bicep. “It’s okay, Nate. Honestly, you didn’t even offend me. It’s just been a touchy subject, because when we first found out, I thought Cal was going to leave me over the whole kind-of cousins. I almost had a meltdown over it so he gets pretty grumpy whenever someone brings it up.” I squeezed her hip.
“Still, I’m very sorry. I hope you guys get all this figured out. If I can help in any way, I will. I’ll do what Elliot suggested, put out some feelers to some of my contacts. Maybe I can find a way to contact this Tomasso guy. If we can turn him on Elio, maybe we can get some information we can use against him. If Elio is blackmailing him, I don’t imagine he’ll want to be very loyal.”
I shook his hand and watched them leave, Rory curled into my side with my arm around her shoulders.
The last ten days had been filled with uncertainty, the only sure thing being Rory’s position in my life. With my friends’ support and Mikhail’s connection to the Concordia, I felt a little more steady, a little more sure-footed. With them at my back and Rory at my side, I knew I could do this.