Page 128 of Mob Bride

Then he’s running after the rest of the guys.

Tiernan’s dry eyed when she looks at me. She studies me for a moment.

“I know the man my husband is. I saw him. I needed that, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else. Those memories will never leave me. He didn’t want me to see what he did, and Shane doesn’t want you to see that sort of thing either. Figure out a way to be okay with this because it doesn’t matter who you were before today. You’re a mob wife now.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Shane

I’ll kill the motherfucker who ordered this. The fucker who ruined my wife’s wedding day. This was already less than ideal, and now she’ll forever remember this day as the first time she realized what it means to be in a mob family.

“Ar dheis.” To the right.

Seamus spots them first and pivots, shooting as he drops to his left knee beside a car. The rest of us fan out and do the same. We regroup.

“Chonaic mé beirt ag rith go dtí an taobh thuaidh.” I saw two running to the northside.

Cormac and Seamus break off and head where Cormac saw guys I didn’t. I turn to my older brother. He’s been quieter than usual.

“Finn? Finn! Feck!”

“What?”

Sean and Dillan call out together.

“It’s just a nick. I’m fine.”

“The feck it is. Let me see.”

I dash to Finn’s side. I spotted the blood on his shirt when his suit coat shifted as he moved to peek around a car hood.

“Stop looking at how pretty I am, little brother. Your wife’ll kill me if you die because you’re chasing after your big brother.Again.”

“Arse. Let me see.” I push his hand away as I pull his shirt up.

“Is it bad?”

Sean shoots as he asks. He can’t look over at us, but he’s backing toward us.

“No. He told the truth for once. It’s just a nick.”

He played his last senior football game with a cracked clavicle he got the day before during a fight with Luca Mancinelli over Luca calling Sean and me pussies. He gave Luca a concussion that kept him out of the game, but he didn’t tell anyone about his collarbone because he didn’t want to be benched. No one knew until Mom spotted him taking off his padding and noticed the bruising and swelling.

Lord, I’m glad I wasn’t him. I’ve seen Mom pissed as a kicked cobra, but that was whole other level that day. She grounded him from his car for a month, took away his phone for the three days Meredith insisted he stay in bed, and she made him clean up dog shite in the yard for the rest of the school year. But when she wasn’t chewing him a new one, she was telling him stories and jokes no mom should know and singing the same lullabies she did when we were little. Anytime the pain meds wore off, she sang to him until they kicked back in.

“Stop fussing and pay attention. I’m more scared of your wife than you. You’d shootatme to make a point. She’d just shoot me. She wouldn’t miss.”

I grin.

“Próistí!” Cops!

Dillan calls out as Cormac and Seamus race toward us. We book it back to the SUV left for us. I dive into the driver’s seat,and Sean gets in beside me. It’s a tight fit, but Cormac, Seamus, and Dillan wedge themselves into the second row until I’m peeling out of the parking lot. Finn got in through the rear door and is checking the rifles we always keep in the SUVs. Dillan goes over the back of the seat into the third row once I’m on the road. Finn joins him and hands rifles to everyone but me. Seamus props mine between the side of my seat and the center console. I have my handgun resting on my thigh as I hold it with my right hand and steer with my left.

“What the feck just happened?” I ask what we’re all thinking.

“I don’t know. There were too many to have followed us with no one noticing. Someone tipped them off.” Sean twists in his seat to look back at the others.

“But who? None of our drivers knew where to go until they were on the road. I texted Mom once Carys showed me your reply. I knew this was the closest place in Connecticut.” The vein in Seamus’s left temple throbs as he speaks.

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