Page 77 of Mob Princess

“Let me hold you, Lina. I need to feel for myself that you’re okay. I need to make this okay.”

She nods as a tear slides down her cheek. She’s the perfect size to fit beside me. She rests her head on my shoulder as I kiss her forehead. She inhales and relaxes against me.

“How long was I unconscious?”

“Since yesterday.”

I glance up at the clock then out the window. “Twenty-four hours?”

“About twenty-nine.”

“Have you been here the entire time?”

“Of course.”

She tries to sit up, sounding insulted. I hold her against me.

“Thank you for being here even if I didn’t know it.”

“Both of your cousins tried to convince me to let them take me back to Jesse’s to sleep. They’re very polite. I was not. I’m pretty certain they google translated a few of the phrases. Neither offered a second time.”

I laugh, but it makes my entire body hurt again.

“Stay still, nounours.”

“You’d never believe they’re the shy ones in the family.”

We lie together in companionable silence for a couple minutes.

“Sean, we don’t know who did this. Your brothers are here too. Shane, Finn, Seamus, and Cormac have taken turns being our guards in here and in the hallway. Apparently, your brothers had a massive argument with your mom about her coming here. Your dad’s pretty pissed too. But their brothers and sisters convinced them to let the guys here guard you. That if they came here, and this is about you, then they’re just adding to the targets.”

“In other words, my mom was ready to go on a holy tear, shooting first and asking questions second. And it took everything my dad could think of to keep her from coming up here to check on me, then decide how to handle this on her own. She’s a little overprotective at times.”

She grins. “You don’t say. I don’t speak Irish, so I didn’t understand most of the call Seamus and Cormac made. But there was a woman with very strong opinions on the other end. She sounds fantastic.”

“Only one woman?” I think I’m a little insulted.

“I heard others in the background. Why?”

“Because if my mom were coming here, her sisters would come too. Which would mean my dad and uncles.”

“That’s what they meant about adding to the targets. I didn’t quite get how your parents coming here would make it that much worse. But it wouldn’t be just them. It would be six more people.”

“Exactly. My dad and uncles have lighter red hair than me. Closer to strawberry blond—at least, that’s what they call it when we all know it’s pale carrots. My mom and aunts have deep, russet hair. Pure fire in the sunshine. Like mythical Celtic goddesses with the tempers to match. Wicked senses of humor. Best hugs in the world. And vengeful as the day is long if you come near their sons or nephews. If this was your brother, I almost feel badly for him if my mom finds out. But he knows her reputation. That should have been deterrent enough.”

“Reputation?”

“I’m an O’Rourke on both sides. My maternal and paternal families haven’t been closely related in like ten generations. But every generation has had enough sons to carry on the name. The boss before my cousin Dillan was my mom’s cousin. The one before that was her older brother. The one before that was her dad. She’s married to a mobster. Both her sisters are married to mobsters. Three sisters married three brothers. All three of her sons are mobsters. All three of her nephews are mobsters. I know your family is the mob on both sides, but I can tell you weren’t raised the same as my mom and aunts. I don’t think they can remember a day in their lives that wasn’t somehow touched by violence. It takes a lot of resolve to survive that. If that wasn’t enough, neither her father nor brother were easy men to live with. Uncle Donovan was an arsehole by nature and by choice. He obeyed my grandfather, but he feared his sisters. My mom has always been the ringleader. If she wanted to put a hit on someone, there’s not a man in our branch who wouldn’t obey. People outside New York know that.”

My mom did put a hit on someone. My brothers, cousins, and I aren’t supposed to know this, but we do. Uncle Donovan tried to get Shane, Seamus, Cormac, and me into something younger than our moms and dads agreed to. With three sons, my mom wasn’t having it. Finn was already well into the thick of his training, and so was Dillan.

When Uncle Donovan tried to force us one day after school, my mom made sure he understood how far her reach extended. The man she picked is still alive, but he was in the ICU for three months. She called off the hit, but she made sure the guy stayed away from us because he answered to her, not Uncle Donovan. She made sure her brother understood he wasn’t above his sisters’ law. They were the only ones who had the power to make him back down. He hated taking on one of them. He’d come out of his office like a whipped dog when all three sisters were done with him.

“I don’t know much because I know not to ask. The guys say they don’t know who did this. I believe them. I think at least one of them would tell me if they knew for certain it was Ewan.”

I remain quiet. I don’t know what to say or ask since I assumed it was him the moment I saw the reflection off a scope. It was a moment’s flash of light, but I recognized it immediately.

“Justin called several times while we were getting you here and while you were in surgery. He left one message. I spoke to him once. He wants me to go to Montreal. Whatever happened in Baltimore, Ewan knows about it. Justin feared I’d get caught in the middle when Ewan comes after you. I don’t know if your family’s done anything to Ewan. If they have, and this is Ewan, he’s not nearly done.”

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