Page 34 of Glass Omega

Dinner was one of the most boring two hours of my life.

I’d always assumed that a dinner with the Irish mob would consist of smoke-filled rooms and people coming to kiss Edison’s signet ring as they professed their sins against the family like some sort of quasi-confessional with their priest.

But instead it all seemed pretty normal?

Thefilet mignon on my plate was divine and I had to keep myself from moaning after every red-wine glazed bite. It took up most of my attention as people gave long-winded speeches aboutthe history of the Keane family, their exploits over the past two hundred years, and how they’d razed the town in their youth.

It was quickly becoming very obvious that, in all of their bragging, very few of them actually mentioned Edison.

They talked about the past heads of the family—Edison’s father, grandfather, and so on—with an almost reverent zeal. But when it came time to talk about the past few years that the Keane family had been under the leadership of Edison they shifted gears and just verbally patted each other on the back, continuing on with their old man circle jerk.

It irritated me to watch, but every time I glanced over at Edison the man just looked like a bemused ruler overseeing a court full of jesters.

While all of the older men were heartily laughing at each other’s jokes, it became very clear to me that anyone Edison’s age or younger was paying very little attention to them.

Edison’s security team lined the walls, their faces impassive as they watched the man from earlier—Liam—make a grandiose speech about how the Irish always survive and how their forefathers came to the United States on steam-powered ships and took over the world.

I’d barely finished high school, but even I knew the Irish struggled to find their place in the landscape of American life for a long time. With the way they were describing it in their overexaggerated storytelling, they made it seem as if Irish immigrants had struck gold by coming to the states.

“Relax your expression, pet,” Edison’s mouth was next to my ear as he spoke. “We’re supposed to be madly in love, remember?”

That was the ruse we’d agreed on before I signed the marriage contract that day.

The story we were telling the world was that Edison caught a whiff of my scent the day he met with my father and fell instantlyin love with me—which was why he risked angering the Italians and crashed my first wedding.

That was all well and good, but tonight was the first night that we actually had to prove it.

Turning to meet his golden-eyed gaze, I offered him a soft smile that I hoped looked like I was a girl in love and reached up to cup his face. “Doesn’t it bother you?”

“What?” he asked as his pupils seemed to expand and his nostrils flared as he tucked his nose into my palm. For a moment, Edison was just an alpha and I was just an omega. I could feel my pheromones start to swell between us and I started to pull my hand away but he caught it and pressed it more firmly to his cheek.

Swallowing hard, I jerked my head slightly in the direction of where Liam was still giving the equivalent of a standup comedy set much to the raucous laughter of the other older men in the audience. “That they don’t respect you? They’ve taken over the entire dinner.”

His chuckle vibrated against my hand. “They haven’t taken over anything, Perrie. But it’s better to keep stupid people busy or else they start to ask questions. Now, have you finished your dinner? I’m going to send you to the restroom for a couple of minutes while I handle some business.”

Something about the way he said it sent a shiver down my spine.

I nodded, my mouth suddenly dry, and Edison nodded to Rhodes who’d been standing behind our chairs for the entire meal.

“I’ll see you outside in a few minutes,” he said, leaning forward to press a chaste kiss to my forehead.

Standing, my gaze swept the room as the people sitting in the crowd laughed uproariously at whatever Liam was saying. None of them paid attention to my leaving, not even bothering to turnand look as I slipped through the large double doors and into the quiet lobby.

“What is he going to do?” I asked Rhodes, forgetting all about the fact that I was supposed to be ignoring him still.

Rhodes shrugged. “Probably nothing good, kid. Have you ever heard the phrase: when the cat’s away, the rats will play? Well, our cat has finally had enough.”

Understanding dawned on me as Rhodes held the door to the restroom open.

I turned to him before going in. “Is he going to kill someone?”

Rhodes snorted and shrugged. “Probably not? Edi’s in a pretty good mood tonight, so they’ll most likely get to keep their lives. But the ones who decided to take advantage of him being so distracted over the past couple of weeks are definitely going to learn their lesson the hard way.”

Then he put his hands on my shoulders and wheeled me around so that I was facing the doorway of the bathroom again and gave me a little shove. “Go inside and collect yourself. You’re going to be the wife of a mobster, Perrie, that was the agreement you signed. If you’re going to look like a scared kitten every time Edison maims someone, the rest of your life is going to be like one long scary movie.”

Rhodes let the door swing shut and I was alone in the fancy bathroom, staring at my own shocked face in the mirror.

“Get it together,” I told her as I turned on the sink and let cold water run over my fingers. “You knew exactly what you were in for when you agreed to be his wife.”

---