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I got up, went into the bathroom, and took a shower. When I came out, I felt fresh and awake, and dug into the drawers for some clean clothes. Bea left some things out for me, apparently pillaged from the Don’s wife’s closet. I pulled on a pair of sweats that fit and a simple Metallica t-shirt then finally picked up my phone.
The first ten messages were all from Nessa, begging me to forgive her.
And then there was a message from her, a few hours later, that made my jaw fall open. Your new boyfriend killed Mikey and JonJon last night, what the hell R U doing??
I didn’t know what to say. As far as I knew, Matteo was staying in the manor, but he could’ve left. I hadn’t seen him all night, although mostly I’d been in my room watching TV and figuring out how to use the gas fireplace. I texted her back then checked the other messages, and slowly a picture of what had happened began to form.
Anger rose through me and I stormed into the hallway. Matteo’s room was at the far end and I marched down there, trying to keep myself calm, and totally failing. I banged on his door until he answered it, wearing only a pair of gym shorts and nothing else, his hair a mess from sleep, his eyes ringed in red. His muscular, handsome frame filled the doorway, and I stared at the familiar chest and skin, and had a short flashback to the night I got pregnant.
Then I remembered why I was there and shoved my phone in his face. “Explain why you were killing members of my family last night.”
He blinked at it and slowly pushed it away. “That was a misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding?” I gaped at him. “You murdered two Healy members. The one was my second cousin.”
“Which one? Hat or Jersey?”
I threw my hands up. I didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about. “His name was JonJon.”
“I spared Todd,” he said, shrugging. “What can I do? They shot first.”
“I don’t care who shot when, you can’t kill people in my family.” I stepped forward and shoved his chest. It was like trying to push granite, so I tried to hit him with my fists instead. I wanted to hurt him for all the hurt he caused me. JonJon was a decent guy, although Mikey was kind of an asshole. Still, neither of them deserved to die, and Matteo killed them, murdered them last night after talking about making peace with my family. How the hell could we make peace if they kept on killing? He stood there and took it, until finally grabbing my wrists and wrestling me inside.
“Get off me,” I growled as he kicked the door shut.
“You gotta calm down.”
“Fuck you.” I tried to knee him in the balls and barely missed.
He grunted and threw me onto the bed. I stared at him, breathing hard, thinking about my dead family, all those dead young men gone before their time.
“I went to send them a message,” Matteo said, standing over me. I glared up at him and tried to make his skull explode with my head. “I didn’t plan on hurting anyone, but one of your cousins shot at me. I had no choice.”
“You shouldn’t have gone then,” I said, sitting up.
He stepped back and took a deep breath. “Maybe not,” he said slowly. “But it happened. I didn’t plan on hurting anyone, but they chose it. They shot at me.”
“What were you thinking?” I asked softly. “Why would you even go talk to them?”
“Had to send a message to Colm. They need to know we have you.”
“I can tell them that myself,” I said, almost snarling. “What is wrong with you?”
“You don’t get it, do you?” He cocked his head. “You’re in our house now. You’re going to be my wife.”
“And they’re my family.” I stood up and stared right back at him, trying to keep myself under control, and failing again. I wanted to punch him in that square, pretty jaw. I wanted to see his nose bleed.
“I know you’re pissed, but it worked. Colm reached out this morning.”
I hesitated, surprised. I hadn’t seen anything about that in my messages—but of course they wouldn’t tell me anything about it. I was unimportant toy my family, especially now that I was on the other side.
I felt a sudden twist of uncertainty. All those people, my friends and family, they’d all think I was a traitor. Even if I never asked for this, and I was only doing it to try to end this stupid war, they’d still see me living in the Valentino mansion, and they’d assume the worst. I hated that Matteo made this decision for me and told them about what happened. I hated that I wasn’t the one to break that news.
