Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 89985 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89985 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
He hadn’t said her name, and I wasn’t going to push. I couldn’t help but wonder what it must be like. He married a woman in secret—the love of his life—and yet, he lost her and he never told anyone.
“Kaitlyn,” he said.
“Kaitlyn?” I asked.
“That was her name.” This time, he got up, but I felt like he had a lot to say.
“Why haven’t you told anyone else?” I asked.
Ivan stopped. “There is no one else to tell.”
“You have friends. You have Brigadiers. I know they work for you but their loyalty—”
“No one can ever know about this.”
“Why not?”
He didn’t answer. He got to his feet and I knew that meant this conversation was terminated, but I just couldn’t let it go that easily.
“It won’t make her go away,” I said. “The pain is not going to stop.”
He suddenly stopped and turned to look at me. “Be careful.”
It was the first real threat he made toward me.
“What would Kaitlyn want you to do?” I asked, knowing I was already pressing against that precious line.
Ivan took a step toward me, then another. The threat was very much there with every step he took. I didn’t know how I stayed still. I just stood there and looked at him, waiting for whatever he was going to do. I was frozen to the spot.
If this had been my father, I knew pain would be coming. My dad never held back. Ivan stepped right up until I could feel his breath across my face.
“I’m doing what Kaitlyn asked me to do and if you value your life, you will never say her name again. Do not make me regret sharing this with you, Niamh, because although I have given you everything, I can take it away.”
He took a step back, and this time I watched him go.
****
Peter
I did not mind the other Brigadiers being in my territory. At least, I didn’t think I minded, until they arrived at my office with a request. All three of them. Victor was nowhere to be found. Neither were The Beast or The Butcher. However, Slavik, Andrei, and Ive were in my office with a request.
Their wives wanted to get to know Niamh. She was going to be a fellow wife, and they wanted to get to know her. Draw her into their flock.
“No,” I said.
I was not against Niamh having friends, but if what she told me was true, I didn’t see her wanting to stay my wife when she could finally make that decision.
All three men looked at me and then smiled. “Oh, you think we’re asking your permission?” Slavik asked.
“I don’t care what you think you’re asking. Don’t you men have work to do? Territories to return to that are not mine?” It was getting a little crowded and I still had shit I needed to do.
Like, figure out what Ivan needed from Finn Byrne, so I could get it for him, and then rid myself of that bastard for good. Niamh needed to make her choice. I needed Niamh to make her choice, and picking off little bastards around Byrne, while keeping his oldest son captive, was starting to wear a little thin.
Ivan had a list of men who surrounded Byrne, offered him protection, and over the past couple of weeks, we’d been paying them little visits, after which they were dead, and Finn had one less person to protect him.
It would seem over the past twenty years, Finn Byrne had been adding up a load of favors, and then when Ivan came and took over his territory, pushing back, he had called them all in.
Ivan’s territory now didn’t all belong to Finn, just a small part of it. I believed a section was mine, and also a tiny part of Ive’s. Finn had been building his little empire, while Ivan just got bigger faster.
“We’ll be returning very shortly,” Andrei said. “For now, our women would like to get to know your wife.”
I sat back and looked at all three men. Each one was deadly, and together, to many, they probably looked terrifying, but the truth was, I didn’t want to share my wife. Not when my marriage hung in the balance.
Ivan had given each of these men a wife, one they got to keep. Mine had a choice—me or her freedom. I had a feeling she was going to choose her freedom, and I knew on some level I shouldn’t care about that, but I did. I didn’t like that it even meant anything. I didn’t do the whole emotion game.
Niamh was a woman I protected. Then … thought about the baby, my failure.
When The Butcher stormed into my office less than a second later, I’d never been so relieved to see another woman.
“Wow, do you know you guys gossip more than women do?” The Butcher asked.