Page 23 of While You Sleep

“Promise?” he said, lips quivering.

“Promise.” She planted a kiss to the top of his head, and he ran back inside.

She scowled up at me before she got in the car. I climbed in after her, and Con drove us away from the house.

To anyone looking, the Brennans and the O’Rourkes were once again a united front, but I was in charge of both families now, even if Brennan didn’t know it yet. It was only a matter of time before his men were answering to me.

I’d done what I’d assured Alto I would do. I’d become the new head of the O’Rourke family. We’d returned Paolo to him somewhat unharmed, and once we finalized the terms of our deal, our mutually beneficial relationship could begin and our business interests could finally expand in ways I’d wanted them to for years. The Italians no longer had a reason to wage war, Brennan would keep breathing for now, and Sophia was mine.

“Where are we going?” Sophia said beside me.

I glanced her way. “Home.”

Chapter Eight

Sophia

Cillian’s house was right on the beach. It was dark, but I could hear the crashing waves, see the way light glinted off the water.

I hadn’t thought too hard about what his home would be like, but if I had, this wouldn’t be it.

He led me inside, and I took in the open-concept lower level. It was a big home, the furniture in this room understated—the artwork, though, was the complete opposite. There was no way Cillian had decorated this place; someone as cold as him definitely couldn’t have chosen such beautiful, bright and vibrant paintings for the walls. These had been selected by someone else, someone with a soul.

There was a smell of newness to it, new paint definitely.

Conor, I’d learned his name on the way over here, strode past with my bags and carried them up the stairs.

“Are you hungry?” Cillian asked me.

I shook my head. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be hungry again, not with this knot in the pit of my stomach. Conor walked back out.

“Bring in the rest of her bags, and leave them in here, make sure you lock up when you’re done,” Cillian said to him.

Conor jerked his chin up and headed back out to get the rest of my things.

I turned to my new husband, the murdering psycho standing across from me, and crossed my arms so he didn’t see my hands shaking. “Now what?” If I was going to survive this, making him angry, fighting against this, running, would only make things worse, but I needed to know what he had planned for me.

Yes, I was so terrified that I was surprised I was still standing, but for now, at least, this was where I had to be. I would survive this, and when the time was right, when I got an opening, I’d run. I’d take Tommy, and I’d get the fuck away from this city and never come back. Which meant I had to be smart and not let my emotions get the better of me. I would survive this—survive him.

Cillian took me in, unmoved, his gaze piercing me like shards of ice. “Now I make you mine the way a husband does his new wife.”

A tremor moved through me, and I hated that it wasn’t all from fear. My body remembered the way he’d touched me back in my apartment, and despite how much I hated and feared the man standing in front of me, my traitorous body wasn’t totally against being touched that way again.

I would not, could not, let the fear get the better of me. This wasn’t a man to be trifled with. I could pretend to be someone I wasn’t like he had. My father had taught me well after all. I knew how to be meek and obedient, but I was sure Cillian would see right through my deception. He was a liar, and he’d know exactly what deception looked like in other people.

So I straightened my spine and forced myself to hold his gaze. “Just so you know, I won’t be your wife for long.”

His green, fathomless gaze didn’t leave mine. “No?”

I shook my head. “I don’t care how long it takes, but I will find a way to get away from you.”

He closed the space between us. “And I promise you, wife, wherever you go, I’ll find you, and I will bring you back.” He curled his tattooed, rough-skinned hand around my neck, the pad of his thumb at the base of my throat. “You are mine. I own every part of you, Sophia, and I don’t give up what’s mine, ever.”

My heart thundered in my chest, fear spiking through me, and at the same time, a twisted darkness burned low in my belly. There had to be something seriously wrong with me—how could I stomach this monster’s hands on me, how could my body react to his touch, while everything else inside me was screaming to run as fast and as far as I could?

The hand around my neck slid to the base of my spine, and he applied the slightest pressure to get me moving, directing me up the stairs.

When I got to the top, there were five doors, two on the right, two on the left, and one at the end. Cillian carried on past them to the last one at the very end, and directed me through the door.

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