Page 21 of Taken By the Mobster

“I’ve got everything under control, Ezra. I promise.” He winked at her before he continued up the stairs.

Declan knocked on the bedroom door, but he was met with silence. He unlocked the door and pushed it open. Olivia sat in the chair by the side of the bed. The sweatpants were gone, and the blue button-down shirt she wore barely covered her thighs.

“I brought you some clothes,” he said gruffly. He took a deep breath, tossed the clothes on the bed, and then took a drink from the glass of scotch in his hand. He forced himself to look away from her naked legs. That was when he noticed drops of blood on the hardwood floor.

He narrowed his eyes and took a step toward her, eyeing her up and down. There were several drops of blood on the floor. Looking closely, he noticed she wasn’t putting any weight on one of her feet, and there was blood on the heel.

“Why is there blood on your foot?” he asked. He didn’t wait for Olivia to answer; instead, he crossed the room and kneeled in front of her. He set his drink on the floor beside the chair, gently took her ankle, and examined her foot.

She tried to pull away from him. “It’s fine,” she muttered.

“It doesn’t look fine,” he snapped. He released her and pushed himself to his feet. “I’ll be right back.”

Declan disappeared out the door. He went into the bathroom down the hall, wet a washcloth from the cupboard, and grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink. Back in the bedroom, he pushed the door closed before he sat on the floor in front of Olivia and reached for her foot.

“I said it’s fine,” Olivia groused.

Declan sighed and grabbed her ankle anyway. He propped her foot on his leg. He held it tight, not tight enough to hurt but enough so she couldn’t pull free. “It needs to be cleaned and bandaged before it gets infected. I will not hurt you, Olivia.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. She stared at her hands and twisted them nervously in her lap.

Declan used the warm washcloth to clean the cut. She winced several times, but she didn’t yank her foot out of his grip.

“You know what?” she asked.

“Hm?” Declan hummed.

“The irony of all this is that I went to nursing school.”

Declan chuckled. “That is ironic.” He cleared his throat. “Did you work as a nurse?” he asked.

Olivia shook her head. “For about a year. But when my father decided I was going to marry Clyde, he ordered me to give it up.”

“Did that bother you?” Declan asked.

“Yes,” Olivia said. “I had to give up something I loved to marry a monster. Of course, it bothered me.”

Declan shook his head. “I’m sorry. It was stupid of me to ask.”

“It’s okay,” she mumbled.

Declan set the washcloth on the floor and pulled a bandage from the first aid kit. “So, your father wanted to use his daughter to achieve peace between the families?”

Olivia closed her eyes. “I still remember my father summoning me and Caitlin to his office: the smell of his cigar, the sun shining on his desk, the jazz music playing from the stereo in the room’s corner. I remember our mother in the chair beside me, smiling and nodding as my father talked to us. Caitlin kept bitching to him about being summoned to Daddy’s office like one of his underlings. After listening to it for a few minutes, my father slammed his hand on his desk and told her to be quiet. I knew then something wasn’t right.”

“Is that when he said Caitlin was going to marry Clyde?” Declan asked.

Olivia laughed. “Oh no. He launched into some long, drawn-out speech about family obligations and our responsibilities as his children. Blah, blah, blah.” She exhaled. “When Daddy said the war between the Muldoons and the O’Reillys had gone on long enough, I knew what was coming. I don’t know how, but I did.”

Declan sat back on his haunches. “You knew your father was going to make Caitlin marry Clyde?”

“No, honestly, I thought it was going to be me. But Daddy threw a curveball. When he announced we were going to help unite the families by marrying the heir to the Muldoon fortune, I assumed it would be me. When he said it was Caitlin, I almost fell out of my chair.”

Declan shook his head. “Why Caitlin and not you? You’re the oldest.”

“Caitlin is stubborn and strong-willed. I think Daddy thought she was a better match for Clyde than I was, that she could hold her own against him. But I couldn’t let that happen. So, I offered to go in her place.”

“How did Caitlin feel about that?” Declan asked.

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