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They took in the room. Nicoli and Dario seemed to both find Brenna at the same time and I saw different tells of relief on them. Nicoli’s shoulders sank, and Dario’s relief could only be seen in his eyes. Then they noticed Maura and didn’t seem to be able to move to stop her, either.
Maura had covered herself in blood and gotten quite a bit on Jameson’s hands and the sleeves of his suit, not that he looked like he cared. This was the closure they both needed.
When it was clear Maura’s arm was becoming weak, Jameson let go of Dylan. He watched Maura stab him again, but before she could pull the knife free, Jameson grabbed her wrist. “He’s dead, baby.” My best friend’s words were gentle.
She finally looked away from Dylan to stare at Jameson. Tears rolled down her blood-splattered cheeks. All the pain and rage she had been showing was quickly shut down. She let go of the knife and she numbly stood. She wobbled a little as she stepped over Dylan and turned for the door. I didn’t think she saw any of us, or if she could, she just didn’t care. She made it two steps before her legs gave out on her. Everyone in the room seemed to move to help. Dean was the quickest to react and caught her. With an arm around her back, he helped her get her footing.
“Let me carry you,” Dean said to her in a low voice.
“I’m fine, Dean,” she said, her voice numb.
We all watched silently as Maura walked toward and out the study’s door, with Dean right behind her.
I stared at Jameson and saw that he hadn’t moved from where he had been kneeling by Dylan’s head.
“Go with Maura, Jameson,” I said, knowing that one of us should be with her right now and it needed to be him. I would take care of things here.
Surprisingly, Jameson didn’t argue and stood to leave.
“What happened?” Nicoli asked.
“Dylan offered to marry Brenna to Dominik if he helped him overthrow Maura,” I answered.
“What?” Brenna blurted, clearly taken aback.
“Having figured that out, to turn Romano’s men against Dylan, Maura said that she had already married Brenna to you in order to form our alliance,” I added.
With an unreadable expression, Nicoli glanced at Brenna, who was frowning at the floor. “I picked up on that during our call,” he said. “I’m guessing it worked?”
“It bought us enough time for the cavalry to arrive,” I said as I looked to Rourke, Conor, Asher, and Finn. “How did you know to come?”
Brenna explained what she and Maura had gone through upstairs and how Maura had ordered her to go to the edge of the property to call for help. “I didn’t want to leave her.”
Conor put his hand on Brenna’s shoulder. “It was good that you did.”
“Maura really did a number on this guy,” Ivano said as he stared down at Dylan. “It’s hard enough to shoot family who betray us, but to do this…”
The room went quiet.
“Dylan wasn’t just a traitor,” Brenna said sullenly as she stared at the floor.
“Brenna,” Rourke snapped at her, his voice laced with warning.
Understanding why Brenna felt the need to explain and despite Rourke’s worry about sharing family business, I said, “Dylan was the one who enlisted the Aryans to kill Maura and why Maura can’t carry children anymore.” It wasn’t easy sharing that, but like Brenna, I knew it was best they understood that Maura hadn’t lost her mind. She could be crazy, but it was calculated crazy. It served a purpose. What had happened with Dylan was her releasing grief she had been carrying for far too long.
I thanked the De Lucas for coming and they left shortly after that. Dean returned and reported that Jameson was taking care of Maura. Conor and Rourke helped me with directing everyone in cleaning up the manor.
Dylan had killed all of our nighttime grounds security and he had brought with him twenty men to do it. Eight of which were Romanos, and we had every intention of dumping their bodies on Dominik’s front lawn. What the fuck was he going to do about it? With how small his family was, it’d take him years to refill his ranks. I called Aiden to help find security coverage. We’d need his guys until I was able to get word to the whole family across our territory that we were in need of muscle willing to relocate to New Haven, or vet and hire guys who had zero association with the family, like how I’d recruited Dean.
Even with the help of everyone, it took all fucking night to remove all of the bodies and clean up bullets, shell casings, and blood from the entire property. Brody was going to call a discreet company to come out and make repairs to the house when they opened.
“How did Dylan get you?” Rourke asked as the sun started to come up.
“We were on our way home when I ran over a spike strip. It flattened all of my tires, forcing us off the road. Then Dylan rolled up with his new friends.”
My feet were dragging when I was finally able to go upstairs to take a short nap before I had to get up and tackle more shit this attack had caused.
I found Jameson, Maura, and Kieran sleeping in my room. I entered quietly and headed straight for the bathroom. Maura’s and Jameson’s bloody clothes were in a pile on the floor. I’d have to get rid of them after I woke up. I dropped my clothes right next to theirs before taking a hot, quick shower. Once I had washed away the night, I returned to my bedroom. Kieran was awake in his bassinet, making little cooing noises. I scooped him up. “Hey, little man,” I whispered as I cradled him in my arms. His blue eyes locked onto me with recognition.
