Page 141 of Mob Bride

“Shane, you arenothinglike Jacek. You do what you do because that’s your responsibility. You do what you do to protect the people you love. Jacek claimed he did the things he got up to for the sake of his people and for the sake of his family. And maybe that was some of it. But heenjoyedwhat he did. He was a sick, twisted fuck. You are not. You don’t revel in it. You don’t think it’s a great pastime to torture people. He did. He got off on those things.”

“I know. Angela basically admitted as much about her physical relationship and that she enjoyed some elements of torture.”

“You discussed their sex life?”

“No, not in detail, but just enough to get a sense of their dynamic. And you’re right, it isn’t—or it wasn’t—like ours. But I see much of myself in Jacek, or much of Jacek in me, I suppose.”

“Maybe two sides of the same coin, but not the same. There’s only one person who’s a mirror image of you. And it sure as fuck wasnotJacek Nowakowski. If Angela was involved with Jacek, was she the one to feed his doubt? Make him question me?”

“Yes. She was already telling him things about you that caused him to attack you the first time. I’m certain she figured out more about us, or at least sensed something changed in you and told Jacek about it. He would have dug deeper, especially once he saw us together at the lumberyard.”

“But that was entirely coincidental.”

“It was, but I’m certain now he followed us after we left there. He knew about us going to the warehouse together.”

I reflect upon that and remain quiet for a moment as I absorb everything he’s just told me. It’s a lot to comprehend when I realize the betrayal I committed, the betrayal Angela committed,and wonder whether I can find any way to justify hers the same as I justified mine. But I really can’t.

“You discovered she was working for the Italians and betrayed me to the Poles because of her feelings for Jacek or to pass information along to the Italians. I don’t understand that part.”

I know whatever Shane’s about to explain will be complicated. I pray I can follow along.

“The Italians certainly knew what went on and what the repercussions were by sending Angela in once I entered the picture. They could have called it off, or they could have told her to leave you out of it. But they didn’t. Even if they didn’t explicitly tell her to target you, their silence was consent. I’ve made them aware I don’t appreciate that.”

“What does that mean, Shane? You made them aware? How?”

He looks at me again. His expression shutters once more, and I know these are questions he won’t answer. I’m putting him in a shit position, asking and wanting him to. It’s stuff he won’t tell me because I’m not a man. I’m not a mobster. And because he loves me and wants to keep me safe. That’s always been his goal. His motivation all along has been protecting me.

“Is it done?”

“Cailín, it’s never done. It will never be done. This skirmish might be over, but the war hardly is. I’ve made sure theCosa Nostraunderstands I’m not okay with what they did. That you are off limits. We also found out Maria Mancinelli’s pregnant, and it’s high risk. She’s friends with Ally since they’re both doctors and knew each other from residency. Moving forward, we’re going to have to consider what that means for our business deals that involve theCosa Nostra. We’ve all known Maria since we were toddlers. None of us wants to endanger her by causing her more concern than we have to, but men’s business is stillmen’s business. I ensured her husband knows he can’t hide behind her.”

“Her husband?”

“Yes, it was Matteo. He was the one who orchestrated this because Angela’s brother hit on Maria.”

We fall silent again as I try to come to terms with all of this. I believe I understand it. Now I have to accept it.

“If you’ve retaliated, does that mean they’re going to retaliate against your retaliation? Does it mean I’ve put you in more danger because you had to prove you won’t back down?”

“No, you did none of this, Carrie. None of this was your fault. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been something else. You’re just the excuse they needed to feck with us. That was part of what made me so angry. There were many things they could have chosen instead of you. They still could’ve had Angela in there messing with Jacek without her feeding information about you to him.”

“What does this mean going forward? I get what you said about Maria and her pregnancy, but what about me? Am I still one of their targets?”

“No. I believe Matteo understands how he feels about Maria is how I feel about you, and how he reacted is how I did. We’re back to our homeostasis of a stalemate.”

I can only nod to that, but there’s more I want to know.

“We didn’t say we love each other until after we got married today.” We married today for convenience because I’d become inconvenient.

“I wish that were different,cailín.”

I hold up my hand to calm him. “I know, and so do I. But that’s not what I’m getting at. We both love each other, and I know how I feel about you is why I ultimately asked you to marry me. And I think how you feel about me is why you ultimately said yes. If we didn’t feel this way, then the need to protect each otherwouldn’t be so strong. Now that we’re married, they shouldn’t be able to make us testify against each other, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t still put either of us on trial. It doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other people who could testify against us.”

“That’s true, but that protection goes beyond they can’t compel us to testify against each other. There’s a reason all of us walk free every day. Who wants to testify against my family? No one who hopes to live to be an octogenarian. While you weren’t entirely off-limits to the Four Families—I hate saying that—but so much worse could have happened if you hadn’t met me. I know a lot of what you went through was because of me. But our marriage gives you protection you wouldn’t otherwise have from other syndicates. The lesser syndicates know better than to test us. They live at the largesse of the Four Families, so they can’t afford to ruin any relationships they have or create trouble where there was none.”

I open my mouth to disagree, but it’s his turn to hold his hand up for me to wait.

“As for the other families, like it or not, for better or for worse, if a woman’s accused of crimes and put on trial, they will step back and not help the government. While we might feed some information to the DAs in order to screw each other, overall, the code among all the families is to never help law enforcement and to never help the government. Even if it means missing an opportunity to knock rivals down a peg or two. As for other people providing evidence to hold against you, I’m concerned. But I’m not scared now that you’re an O’Rourke.”

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