Page 51 of A Monster Is Coming

I held the necklace within my grasp. At first, I didn’t look at it, but then, I couldn’t help but chance a glance at it. I hadn’t seen this necklace in five years. I’d given it to this strange, lonely, and heartbroken man, without even realizing I needed it. I hadn’t thought about myself. All I wanted to do was make it better for him. He’d been so lost and alone.

All that time, I’d been helping Ivan Volkov. That was insane.

“You’ve not changed anything,” I said.

“No, I never needed to.” He stepped back and took a seat. “I’m sorry about you losing the baby, but I am not sorry for sending my man to you.”

I wanted to scoff, to do or say something, but I just shook my head. “You sent me a lie. Do you have any idea what that is like? Peter … everything about him is a lie.”

“You’re going to marry him,” Ivan said.

I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I’m not going to marry a man who has lied to me. Who has completely betrayed my trust. I cannot do that.”

“You’re going to, because he is going to be able to protect you. I’m aware of your father and what he is capable of. I know he’s got some favors to call in, and he will not have a problem hurting you. Not that he knows how important you are to me.”

This felt so surreal.

“I’m not important.”

“But you are, Niamh Byrne.”

Chapter Thirteen

Peter

I waited outside Niamh’s hospital room and I heard her and Ivan talking, but their voices were muffled. I didn’t know for sure what was going on. She lost the baby. Normally, I didn’t care. There was no reason for me to care, or even to concern myself like this.

There had been a baby and now there wasn’t.

She wasn’t even pregnant long enough for us to know what the sex of the baby was, or if she was even pregnant. The doctors had confirmed it, along with her miscarriage. I kept seeing Finn Byrne’s face. It played over and over in my mind, and I didn’t know what kind of game Ivan was playing, all I knew for sure was that it pissed me off.

I needed to kill that useless, pathetic son of a bitch. I wanted to hurt Finn, run my blade into the delicate parts of his body.

“Here.”

I looked up to see The Butcher once again blending in and holding out a coffee for me to take. I was tempted to ignore it, but instead I reached out and grabbed it.

“It’s shit. Hospital coffee and food is the worst, and it doesn’t matter if you go private or public.” She took a seat beside me, and was already drinking her coffee.

I took a sip and that shit was nasty.

“But it does the job in keeping you wide awake.”

“Why the fuck are you even here?” I asked, taking another sip of the nasty coffee.

“Keeping Niamh safe. Finn Byrne is a sneaky little bastard.”

“Do you think he plans to come and kill his daughter?” If he came to this hospital and tried, there was no way I was going to allow Ivan to hold me back. I would kill that son of a bitch, and I would take my own sweet time about it as well.

“Yeah, it’s Finn Byrne. In case you didn’t know, the man has a reputation for being unreasonable and seeing as he was quite happy to beat the living shit out of his daughter, I’d say he’s capable of anything.”

This made me angry. Niamh had endured enough. I glanced down the corridor and kind of willed the bastard to show up, just so I could finally have the pleasure of ending him, and that would be a lot of fun. It was what I wanted to do, so damn much.

“You know, don’t you find it odd?” The Butcher asked.

To me, it was strange to be sitting side by side with The Butcher, let alone having a normal conversation with her. This woman was known for being surrounded in mystery. All the information about her was based on rumor or gossip. She was a freaking ghost, and I was starting to understand why.

“Find what odd?”

---