Page 90 of Stolen Mafia Vows
He cricks his neck from side to side as if his muscles are aching from the hundred lengths he just thrashed out in the pool. I’m tempted to tell him to stretch them out, but I keep it to myself. “Is there a point to this conversation? I’m busy.”
Yeah, sure you are. Busy making the bed you share with Olivia jump across the floor while she makes all the right noises.
“Yes,” I say sweetly. “It isn’t going to work.”
I turn around and walk back towards the house, until Ilya grabs my arm and pulls me back around to face him.
“Why not?”
I glare at his hand until he releases me, and I instantly get how addictive this feeling of power could be. “Because you don’t know Eoghan like I do.” I ignore the stabbing sensation in my chest.
Our brief relationship might’ve been fabricated on lies, but the person is the same, right? The Eoghan I fell in love with wouldn’t want to be part of a bloody mafia war. Especially if he knew that I was pregnant. I feel with absolute certainty deep in my core that he would do everything he could to prevent it.
So, I’m not worried about Eoghan and my brothers killing each other over an alleged crime. They’re mafia. They’ll use their mafia connections to find the real killer and keep the peace.
Then, they’ll comefor me.
But they’ll be too late… If I can get Ilya on my side.
“He was already amassing an army to take down my family. You have no idea how many men are working for him. Not just in Ireland, but in the whole of the UK.”
“Which is exactly what we wanted.” He’s ready to dismiss me for wasting his time.
“Does Olivia know that though?”
He flinches as though he’d almost forgotten that Olivia was his partner in crime, and I wonder how this scenario would’ve panned out if Ilya had been working alone.
“What has she told you?”
“Caleb’s wife won’t be at the event.” I look back at the house, praying that Olivia doesn’t come back out. Not yet. “Look, forget I said anything. I’ll still get out of here whether your plan works or not.”
Unless they kill me and bury my body somewhere it will never be found. But I refuse to dwell on this as an option.
“Why are you telling me this?” His tone has softened a little.
“Because I’m pregnant, and because we can help each other.”
I feel a strange jolt of awareness when I say the words out loud, but I ignore it as his eyes instinctively slide down my body sending heat back up to my face.
“What do you think you can do to help me, Emily?” There’s a glint of amusement in his eyes. This is still a game to him.
“You want war? I can give you war. Take me to the event. If we can convince Eoghan that I’m on my family’s side…” I leave the sentence hanging.
I’m so out of my depth here that I’m trembling. Despite the lies and secrets, I don’t want to hurt Eoghan. I saw my father’s rage back in Ireland. I heard his threats, and I’m also fully aware that he can follow them through. But I’m praying that my presence will stop them all from reaching for their guns. I’m praying that both sides will realize that they have a common goal.
Me.
Then all I need to do is twist the knife a little deeper into Olivia and Ilya’s relationship and watch them implode while I disappear.
His lips quirk into a lopsided smile. “You must hate them all, huh?”
Tears prickle behind my eyes, and I stare at the golden ripples on the pool’s surface, hoping that he doesn’t notice. Hate is a strong word, one that I would never use in the context of my family or Eoghan. Even knowing what I know about them now.
The ache in my heart is too bittersweet to ever entertain hatred.
I love Eoghan. I haven’t had a chance to process our family rivalry, but it won’t change a thing. Love doesn’t morph into hate. Sure, bad things can chip away at it until there’s nothing left, but the opposite of love must be emptiness, a gaping black hole of pure nothingness where once there was a beating heart filled with affection.
So, no, I don’t hate them, but I force myself to say, “Yes,” while silently begging them for forgiveness.
