Page 35 of Mob Bride

“What’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know. If he survives the night, the doctor said there’s a chance he’ll survive tomorrow. If he can survive the next week, then there’s a good chance he’ll recover. He’s in a coma.”

“A coma? Like a medically induced coma or one that happened on its own?

“Medically. They said, for right now, that’s the best way to allow his body to do some initial healing.”

“How long do they think he’ll have to stay that way?”

I’m trying for stunned and scared, but not scared for myself. Scared for my boyfriend’s brother. Whatever I’m doing works because he hasn’t looked questioningly at me at all.

“They don’t know. It could be a week, a couple weeks, a month. It just all depends on what happens.”

“Oh, my goodness. Thank God Tymoteusz was with him.”

“Tymoteusz wasn’t with him.” Immediately, he looks at me suspiciously.

“I don’t understand. If he wasn’t with Jacek how did he know? That makes little sense. He’d have to be with him. Otherwise, how’d he know to get to Jacek? I don’t understand.”

I repeat myself to sound too shocked to comprehend. More than once, I’ve played the slightly less intelligent female than I am. The sometimes easily confused. It always puzzles me when he buys that because there are other times when he asks my opinion on topics I should know nothing about.

“Tymoteusz said Jacek went after you again, and Tymoteusz went to stop him.

“I didn’t know any of the other O’Rourkes ran that trail.”

Now he looks at me accusingly. I shouldn’t have said other, as though Shane’s usually there. He knows I met Shane at the shootout at the lumberyard. Does he believe we had some illicit meeting?

“Do you think Shane used me as a lure? Would he do that sort of thing? Would he use a woman to get your men and Jacekas his target? What kind of man does that? I thought women and children were off limits. You said I’d be safe with you.”

I infuse panic into my voice, and he strokes my hair before cupping my cheek. He kisses my temple. And again, it’s so at odds with the man I know he can be. The suspicion he felt a moment ago is gone. He went from mob boss to boyfriend in the bat of an eye. It’s disconcerting now that he’s being so loving to me again.

“They are supposed to be off limits, but things have been fucked-up for the last five years, and it’s all because of Shane’s family. They broke that golden rule. Now women and children—well leaders’ women are—sometimes targets.”

“Sometimes?!” I jump out of my seat and step away from him, crossing my arms around my waist and shaking my head.

“Bartlomiej, you told me I was safe. You told me I wouldn’t be a target. That it would be okay to be with you. Now you’re telling me for the past five years women have been targets. You lied to me. You risked my life even more than I realized.”

“Kaja, you know I’ve been with other women before you. None of them have been targets before.”

“Oh, is that supposed to make me feel better? I guess I’m the lucky one.” Sarcasm drips from my voice, and I don’t have to try. “That does nothing to reassure me. You telling me that just scares me even more. Why me? Why do they suddenly want to go after you? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know yet. After what happened at the lumberyard, the O’Rourkes weren’t who I was expecting.”

“Expecting?!” I practically scream the word. “Okay, that makes me think you knew I was a target. That there was a good chance somebody would come after me. You should go. I don’t want you here, Bartlomiej. I don’t want to die. Not for you, not for anybody. Leave.”

“Kaja.” He stands and approaches me, but I back myself against a wall. Part of it is to truly protect my back, but part of it is because I know he’ll follow. He’ll cage me in, and he’ll try to calm me with lust and affection. To him, they are usually one and the same. Ever since Jacek attacked me and beat me, they’ve been different.

“Come back and sit with me,ksiezniczka. Nothing’s going to happen to you. I’m making sure you’re properly guarded from now on. You’re not going anywhere without at least four guards, Kaja. One for each side of you.”

“What? That’s no way to live. You’re going to make me your prisoner. I told you from the very beginning I wouldn’t agree to something like that. You told me it wouldn’t come to that.”

“Well, it has.”

I flinch. I know that’s part of what he wants. He wants me to submit to his will, so I have to put up enough fight to look reasonable, but then I have to back down.

“Kaja, this is the way it is. You knew who I was when we started dating. Nothing has changed about that. I know you know little about this life, but you are not that naive.”

“No, not naive, but I trust you because you are you.” I poke my finger into his chest.

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