Page 31 of While You Sleep

I spun to him. “What?”

“I’ve made a deal with Alto, but his nephew has gone rogue. Paolo’s pissed off. I worked him over pretty good the night he came to your apartment. His ego’s bruised. He wanted to be one of the big boys, but his uncle cut him out of our talks. I should have killed him when I had the chance, but if I’d done that, we’d already be at war.”

My stomach turned over.

“Your father’s weak, Sophia, greedy,” he said as if he were reading my mind. “If we’d left you with him, your family would be dead, Paolo would have you, and the decades-long alliance between us and the Brennans would be broken.”

This was too much. My mind was in a spin. “God, you all treat me like I’m some kind of chess piece.”

“Because in this instance, you were. And I won.”

“Is that why you killed Adam? So you could win?”

“I killed Adam because I was Seamus’s heir, not him. The men didn’t trust him. They were never going to follow him.”

I looked at his hard profile. “And they trust you?”

“I’ll do anything for the good of the family, they know that. Adam was only concerned with himself.”

“So you killed your own brother in cold blood?”

His expression didn’t change, not even the slightest flinch. “Yes.” He shifted gears, passing another car. “And I never considered Adam my brother.”

I gripped the door handle as he pulled into the driveway and down into the parking garage under the house. The garage door closed behind us, and a cold knot coiled in my stomach. “And if one day I’m no longer fit for your purpose, will you kill me as well?”

He turned off the engine, and the car plummeted into silence. He turned to me, and I wanted to shrink in on myself. “What did I say to you last night, Sophia?”

I blinked over at him. I couldn’t remember anything he said last night, it was all one insane, out-of-control blur. I shook my head.

He took a piece of my hair between his scarred fingers and rubbed it. “I take care of what’s mine.”

I was finding it hard to breathe.

His gaze moved over my face, and something disturbing flickered in the depths of his eyes. “My possessions are important to me. Once something belongs to me, I don’t give it up. If you fuck with me, Sophia, I will punish you, but I’ll never discard you, because I’ll never give you up.”

I stared back, my strength was a fragile shell around me and, in the wake of that dark promise, close to shattering.

“You are mine,” he said, voice incredibly low.

I sat frozen as he shifted in his seat, the leather creaking, and angled toward me.

He cupped the side of my face. “And that will never change.” His other hand wrapped around mine, his thumb running over the ring he’d put on my finger the day before, then sliding lower and gripping my thigh. Fear twisted with something dark and alluring had shameful heat flooding my veins as his hand slid higher. My pussy wanted me to spread wider for him and give this monster access, to let him make me feel good like he had last night, but when he tightened his hold on my hair and leaned forward, self-preservation and what was left of my pride kicked in and I turned away, denying him.

His mouth brushed my jaw instead, his whiskers tickling my skin, making me shiver. He stilled, breathing heavily for several seconds, then lifted his head, gave my hair a light tug, released me, and got out of the car.

I didn’t move as he walked around and opened my door.

Then I scrambled out of the car and raced into the house and upstairs.

Chapter Eleven

Cillian

“It’s done,” Declan said, sitting in the chair across from me.

I glanced at Conor leaning against the doorframe. “And you’ve put more men on the house?” Walter hadn’t come here alone yesterday, he’d brought another of Paola’s men. I’d shot the other guy in the chest, but Walter got away. Dec and Con had taken care of the body, taking it out to the ocean and dumping it for the sharks to finish off.

“One of Brennan’s men was sniffing around this afternoon as well,” Conor said. “Said he was sent to check on Sophia, to make sure she was settling in okay, but I think it was something else.”

---