Page 34 of Fragile Union

I nod. "Yeah, I knew that if Rome knew I was awake he'd have stayed and right now, he needs to be doing what he does best. Stopping these bastards."

She nods. "I've never seen him like that before. I've always known that Romero was dangerous, that his darkness is worse than Dante's. But I never saw it lurking that close to the edge before."

I let out a breath, I'm so worried about him. I know that this is his job. It's who he is, but I can't stop thinking about what could happen.

"He cares about you, Hol, I never thought I'd see him in love."

I blink, "He's not in love. He doesn't do love, he's told me that more than enough, I don't know what happened to him, I'm not sure I'll ever know, but whatever it was, it made him the man he is."

"Holly, that man loves you."

I shake my head. "No, he doesn't. He cares about me, a hell of a lot. But he doesn't love me."

No matter how much I want to hear those three words, I know that I never will. Not from Romero and that's okay. It hurts telling him that I love him and not have the words repeated back. But this is the life I agreed too. There's nothing that I can do about it. I have to grin and bear it.

"How are you feeling?" she asks, changing the subject.

"I've got a headache, I'm sore, and I'm tired. But I'm okay. I know that it could have been a hell of a lot worse." My head is pounding, the pain has slowly started to move into my right eye.

"I'll get you some pain killers. Why don't you call your da? He'll want to know, and he'll be pissed if he finds out from someone else."

I sigh, she's right. But knowing Da, he'll be on the plane within an hour, making a quick pit stop to London to get Danny before flying out here.

"You call him, I'll be back in a while, I'll order some food for us. Neither of us is going to sleep until Dante and Romero are home." She climbs off the bed and leaves the room.

There's no way I can sleep, my stomach is in knots, I'm waiting for the phone to ring or for him to walk through the door. I've never felt this worry before. I wanted him to stay with me, I’m scared, but I know that Rome needed to do whatever he had to end this. I know what this life is, how cruel and unforgiving it can be. My entire family is wrapped so tightly in this world that we bleed mafia. My Da's the head of the Mafia in Ireland, his Da the head of New York. Makenna the head of the East Coast. Her brothers are all Underbosses, and then there's my brothers. Danny, the eldest, is the head of the UK and Malcolm is the head of Spain.

Malcom's the reason that both Danny and Da are able to be the biggest drug suppliers in Europe. Mal's able to get the drugs out of Spain and smuggle them in trucks. I've seen them concealed in all sorts of shipments, from medical equipment, to clothes, to fucking toys. The trucker will drive from Spain and into France before driving into the UK and into the countryside where they'll deposit the drugs for Danny and for Da, the trucker won't stop once they hit the UK until they hit Wales, from there they'll take the ferry to Dublin.

It's a lucrative business, one that Malcolm has made a profit from. He's richer than all of my family members. He's in the heart of Spain, where all the tourists are, he's not only the Kingpin, he's also a very successful hotelier and nightclub owner.

I reach for my phone and smile when I see that it's charging. I wonder when Rome did that? I hit my da's number and listen to it ring. It's late here, almost eleven in the evening which means it's almost four in the morning in Ireland.

"Baby girl what's happened?"His voice is tight and alert. There's no hint of sleep at all.

"I'm okay,"I tell him, needing to reassure him of that right off the bat. "There was a little trouble at the party we went to this evening. Someone tried to shoot Romero and I pushed him out of the way."

I'm hopingthat ripping off the Band-Aid and telling him quickly will help ease the worry he’ll have.

"I was grazed by the bullet."

I hearhis sharp intake of breath. "You were what?"

"Da,I'm fine. I promise. It was just a graze. I'm at Makenna's house."

"Where's Romero?"he demands, I can hear movement and I know that he's getting ready to leave. He'll be here tomorrow.

"Daddy,"I whisper, I haven't called him that in a long time. "I'm okay," I assure him once again. "Rome's gone. They have who did this."

"Right,baby girl. I'll call you back in a while. I've got a few things to organize first. Now, are you sure you're okay? This isn't when you told me that you had a tummy ache and you were fine when in fact your appendix was about ready to burst?"

I wantto laugh but know that he'll not take too kindly to that. Instead, I smile. "I promise I have a slight headache from where I smashed my head off the ground. But I'm okay."

"Okay,I'll call you in a couple of hours," he tells me and I hear the tightness in his voice.

"Da, you don't have to come here."

"Holly Jane Gallagher, You've been shot, where the fuck do you think I'm going to go? You are my daughter. I'll be there later today."

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