Page 166 of Handsome Devil
I had no idea what they were talking about, and fuck if I gave a shit. I just wanted my wife. Luckily, the sound of tires rolling over pebbles assaulted my ears. Callaghan was almost here. The Ferrante soldiers who drove behind us were also strategically scattered along the route. They alerted Luca they were coming.
“Oh, look.” Tierney raised her zip-tied wrists, checking an imaginary watch. “If it isn’t I-don’t-give-a-shite o’clo—” Then she purposefully threw herself right off the cliff, the fucking banshee that she was.
I pounced toward her, but Achilles was quicker. He leapt through the air, reaching her just in time, and yanked her back in record speed. Tierney fell on her face and knees, laughing at the two panting men above her.
Crazy obviously ran in the family. I hoped they weren’t going to reproduce.
I was about to stop Achilles from kicking her in the gut—he looked like he was about to—when an armored Mercedes-Benz AMG G 63 parked next to my Escalade. First, two Callaghan soldiers came out. Following them was Tiernan…andGia.
My wife looked disoriented and exhausted. The collar of her shirt was bloodstained. I slammed my teeth to stop myself from cursing. I was pissed at myself for giving Tierney my jacket. What she deserved was to nurse a month-long bout of pneumonia.
Gia was tied by the wrists, just like Tierney, but unlike the Irish banshee, her clothes were torn, and it was obvious she had put up a fight. Tiernan had his arm wrapped around Gia’s throatas he led her in front of him, holding the muzzle of his gun to her temple as he prowled over to us, her body shielding his.
I tugged Tierney up to her feet by her hair. She groaned but kept her composure.
“What, no gun?” Tiernan elevated a mocking eyebrow when I lassoed my arm around his sister’s neck.
I couldn’t see past the red mist of fury covering my vision.
“I’ll break her neck with my bare hands.” I shrugged. “And I’ll make it slow, so don’t try me.”
“All right, I have more pressing matters to attend to. Let’s get this show on the road.” Tiernan yawned provocatively, settling himself and Gia on the edge of the cliff.
I had so many things I wanted to tell her. So many things I wanted to do.
“You lay your asks, I’ll do the same, and we’ll see where we land.”
“I’ll let your sister go if you let Gia go first as an act of goodwill, since you shat all over your word to me. You’re not to pursue revenge on us. You are not to contact us. You will not touch us, follow us, or make any claim of compensation toward me at any point in the future,” I warned. “This ends here. And all this is contingent and subject to change if I find out Gia was harmed in any way. Your turn.”
“I’d slow clap if I wasn’t holding such a hefty prize.” Tiernan chuckled deviously.
Gia’s head bobbed in his headlock, and I wanted to kill him so much my bones actually hurt. I despised a lot of people, but not half as much as I did Tiernan Callaghan.
“Who would’ve thought? Neither money nor power could bring the great Tatum Blackthorn down in the end but merely delicious pussy.”
“Your terms,” Achilles enunciated to Tiernan. He wasn’t in the mood for laughter after losing Filippo. “Before I put a bulletbetween your bitch sister’s eyes. I’m not Blackthorn. I don’t give a shit if you feed Gia to the sharks.”
“Cheers,” Gia muttered sarcastically.
“Sharks in the Hudson?” Tierney screwed her nose. “You dumb fuck.”
“First things first—sorry, darlin’ sister, I swear you’re next in my priorities—I want the Ferrantes’ word that offing their little errand boy, Philip, is not going to be retaliated against.” Tiernan rightened his hold on Gia’s neck.
“It’s Filippo,” Achilles spat out. “And I’m not—”
“We won’t kill you,” Luca cut into his speech. I noticed he didn’t say they wouldn’t retaliate.
Achilles threw his brother a heated look.
Luca shrugged. “He’s unhinged. He’ll do something else to piss us off and get himself killed. Give it a few weeks.”
“There’s no fucking way—” Achilles burst out, but Enzo put his hand on his shoulder.
“Respectfully—and I have no fucking respect for you after what happened with Alianna—you have no say in this. Luca is second to the don. You can bitch about it when we get home.”
“Good, good. Second, I want Tierney returned to me safely.”
“It’d be my pleasure,” I said sincerely. “The woman is a pest. Next.”
