Page 69 of The Celtic Resolution
Why is she so frustrating?
I didn’t fully think showing Saoirse that Cian is alive would magically fix everything but I hoped it would earn me a little more good faith. I’m still shaken that they even tried to kill him and he only lives because my father wants the leverage of both twins should he need it. I hold myself back from snapping and try to put myself in Saoirse’s shoes.
Of course she doesn’t trust me and maybe she shouldn’t. After all, I’m the reason she’s here in the first place.
“Okay.” Taking a deep breath, I move closer to the bed. “But you have to trust me.”
Her eyes narrow immediately but she doesn’t shrink back when I approach, nor does she make any comment when I rip off my shirt and slide into bed with her. Being this close to her after so long twists my insides into knots, like a snake is writhing through my gut and churning up everything as it goes. Underneath the mildewy scent of this room, I can still smell her.
Soft. Warm.
If I close my eyes, it’s like nothing has changed for a few seconds.
“I want them to think we’re… y’know,” I murmur.
Her eyes flicker faintly as my breath ghosts over her face and she nods. “I understand.”
“Please know that I never,evermeant for this to happen. I fucked up. I know it. I was blinded by the decades-old urge to be accepted by my father, and I was greedy. I thought I could have you and my family back all at the same time if I just showed Domenico that I was trustworthy, but he’s…” My head dips slightly and I close my eyes. “He’s not who I thought he was.”
Saoirse doesn’t speak but her hand rests on my bicep and the heat radiating from her touch is like a furnace.
“After you left me for dead in the street, my father at least saw that as a show of loyalty.”
“What?” Her strained voice cuts through me and my eyes snap open.
“Huh?”
“What— I didn’t leave you for dead in the street.” My confusion must have been visible because she continues after a second’s pause. “I took you to the hospital after the gun went off. I was so worried I’d killed you because… don’t get me wrong, I wanted to but I didn’twantto.”
“Shooting me twice hardly seems like an accident,” I joke, not that I blame her.
“What? Bruno, I shot you once.”
Leaning up, I take her other hand and guide it up my chest to the two fresh bullet scars just under my pecs. “Twice.”
Her eyes widen to saucers. “Bruno, I swear I only shot you once and it was an accident! I tripped and the gun went off. You went down so fast I did think you were dead, but after stemming the bleeding, I took you to the hospital. Bruno, Iswear. I wasn’t actually trying to kill you.”
This doesn’t make sense. Who the hell shot me again? And why did my father act like Saoirse had left me dead in the gutterlike an unwanted dog? All the anger I felt toward her for treating me like that, as quiet as it was, suddenly melts away.
“I don’t understand,” she whispers, repeatedly running her fingertips over the new scars.
“I… don’t either.” With limited time, we don’t have the space to unpack what happened right now so I continue. “After I recovered, he had me running deliveries from the city to the docks. Containers mainly. I believed them to be weapons and a lot of drugs, considering how our family relations were falling apart. But one night I heard something. It sounded like a wounded animal but…”
My heart rate increases and Saoirse’s hand moves over my chest as her brows twist in concern.
“It wasn’t. It was a woman. Do you remember the blonde woman from the hospital? With the tattoos?”
Saoirse nods.
“I-It was her. She was drugged out of her mind but it was her and she… she didn’t recognize me. Looking back, I was so thick for not working it out but I thought the person trying to frame my father was taking this a step further, so I reported it and he…”
Why is it so difficult to admit how wrong I was? Taking a deeper breath, I hold it for a few long seconds before I surge on.
“It was him. It wasalwayshim. He took me aside and admitted everything. In his words, he said it was because Matteo is old, what happened with Noah showed such weakness in the family leadership and now Rocky is married to a cop which is all kinds of fucked up. So he’s breaking out on his own and making sure he gets rich for his trouble. Him and the Triad are two-thirds of the organization that formed when the Russian Godmother completely reworked her entire family. And I… I swear, as he was talking it was like my father was melting away and he was suddenly replaced by this… this monster.”
Anger flares in Saoirse’s eyes and I can tell she wants to tell me she told me so, but thankfully she says nothing.
“My first thought was to warn you but he was praising me for how many people I’d helped drive across the city and then in the same breath, he told me he’d sent Mary away on a holiday. And that she would remain there, safe, so long as I stayed in my lane. I… I didn’t know what to do, I’m so sorry. All I could think about was finding a way to locate Mary and then I was going to fix things but I couldn’t. And I couldn’t have her death on my conscience because she’s my sister and the only family I have. The only person who cared about me, before I met you.”
