Page 21 of Conall's Reign

“I want you to tell me what’s going on,” I said, setting my glass down more forcefully than necessary. “You’re making me nervous.” The idea of calling a car was tempting, but I wasn’t sure I could manage to leave the building.

His lips pressed into a thin line. He nodded, as if gathering himself. “Alright. But first, sit.”

“Conall…”

“Please, Francesca, sit.”

“Okay, but you need to tell me what’s going on. You’re acting strange. Stranger than usual.” His jaw tightened, and he looked a bit hurt. I felt a pang of regret. Honestly, I didn’t believe he was strange. Conall was particular about certain things, but he wasn’t strange.

I sat on the edge of the plush sofa, my hands clasped in my lap. I thought about calling Theo, who always knew how to calm me down. She would have the right words and help me see things in a way that didn’t make me feel like I was standing on quicksand.

Conall sat across from me, his posture rigid. He rested his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together. He looked at me for a moment, as if trying to memorize my face. This made me want to scream.

He exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. “There’s something you need to know, and I’m not sure how to tell you without…” He trailed off, shaking his head.

My stomach twisted. “Without what? You should take a few breaths and just say it.” As I picked up my wine, I took another sip, bracing myself. I couldn’t imagine what he might say. “Is Angelo alright?”

“Yes, everyone is fine.”

I waited, holding my breath while Conall sat back, gripping the armrests of his chair as if to steady himself. “There’s an agreement, Francesca. A blood oath made by our fathers. It’s?—

I cut him off, my voice sharp with irritation. For heaven’s sake. I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or not. “Stop. I know about the blood oath, Conall.”

His head jerked up, his expression stunned. “You know?”

“Of course I know!” I snapped, rising abruptly. The wine in my glass sloshed perilously close to the rim, so I set it down before I did something dramatic, like throwing it across the room. “I’ve known since I was eighteen.”

Conall blinked, clearly grappling with this revelation. He opened his mouth and then shut it. “I had no idea. You’ve never?—”

“Never mentioned it? What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, I’m looking forward to being forced to marry someone I didn’t choose someday!’” I let out a bitter laugh. “Give me a break.”

He now stood, hands raised in a placating gesture. “Francesca,”

“I never wanted to be a wife, so I wasn’t exactly happy when I found out about it,” I snapped, pacing the length of the room. The earlier tension I had felt had boiled over into pure frustration before I stopped and spun to look at him. “Why are you bringing this up?” Maybe I should have pretended not to know, but even I wasn’t that good a liar, and I was at the end of my rope today.

His eyes narrowed imperceptibly at me, accentuating the crinkles in the corners. I could guess why he was discussing this with me. However, if I were next on the chopping block, it should be my brother having this conversation with me, and it seemed like the worst possible day for it. Yet, a kernel of relief in my belly unfurled at the idea of Conall being the man I’d be paired with. I’d been terrified it would be Ilias. I liked Ilias well enough, but the thought of him as my husband was something I couldn’t envision. My feelings for him were strictly platonic. He felt like a brother to me, and there was no way I could share a bed with him.

“When we were pressured to sign, we were all very young and not in a position to choose. Angelo confronted your father right at the table. I didn’t know him then, but it doesn’t surprise me now. He got his ass kicked.”

I let out a laugh. It sounded just like my brother getting a beating for something he couldn’t change. Sitting back on the couch felt like a defeat, but I took a spot on the sofa’s edge and perched there. I had never questioned my brother about how the oath went down, but his mark was on the paper, so I knew he had been made to sign.

“We had all been dragged to the meeting,” Conall continued, his eyes locked onto mine. “Some of us had been threatened, but we all knew we had no choice. Our fathers were involved in bad things. Trafficking.” His lips tightened as if recalling the event. “The contract was a way for them to force each other into an alliance and guarantee their product.”

“I know about that. Angelo mentioned before that my father was involved in it. He’s worked hard to restore the Santelli name,” I offered.

My father had been heavily involved in trafficking women before he died. I’d found out about that, too. I was only about seventeen when the first whispers of it reached me. I had been in vehement denial. Yeah, my father was a total a-hole, but he hadn’t reached that level of evil. When I confided in Theo about what I’d heard, she gave me that sad look of hers that she reserved only for when I said something idiotic. Not only did she confirm the rumor, but she added layers to it that I could have done without knowing.

“For years, we believed that the oath was a private affair and not widely known,” he continued, regarding me with solemnity.

They had thought they wouldn’t have to go through with it. Was that what he was hinting at? I could tell him I didn’t need the saga, but I was curious. I had never gotten the whole story before, and this was a perspective that I might never get to hear. There was no way I’d pass up the opportunity to hear about it.

“We were wrong about that,” he continued. “Apparently, our fathers were braggarts in addition to everything else.” The words were bitter as he shifted in the chair. “As you can imagine, the deal excluded some other organizations. Many of the top families on the East Coast were involved in trafficking. They still are when they can evade the law.”

“You aren’t, right?” I interrupted. I didn’t think he was, but it would forever change how I viewed Conall if he were involved in the flesh trade business.

“No.” The words were flat, yet his eyes searched mine. “Never. It was one of the foundations of my friendship with your brother and the others. We agreed, when we formed our own alliance, that we would build ours to dismantle the trade lines they had established in those areas.” He leaned a little closer to me as he spoke, the fabric of his suit jacket straining against the bulk of his muscles. Conall was brute force encased in a fancy suit. I knew he tried to present himself as tame, but there was no disguising what he truly was — dangerous. “My father took me with him when I was just a boy. He called it training.” His nose wrinkled as he spoke, as if he were smelling something unpleasant.

“Sounds like he wasn’t an easy man,” I said cautiously. My interactions with Conall were limited, and his dad seemed like a jerk, but I couldn’t just say that. To me, any man involved in such businesses immediately fell into that category, but I’d try to remain polite.

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