Page 145 of Merciless Desires

“Admit to her father that he knocked her up and kept her against her will? That will get a bullet in his head. Cormac won’t say a word.”

“I want to keep her,” I say softly. “I… It makes no sense, Eoghan. But I’m attracted to her. She’s attracted to me. We…we have chemistry. I know I can convince her to stay here with me. Raise the baby—” God, nothing good can come of how I feel about her, but I can’t stop. It’s all consuming.

“Stop thinking with your dick. That’s the future pakhan, Darragh.”

“I know that,” I snap. Fully aware that if Lachlan can kill a doctor and drag Cormac back to New York, he can do the same to me. And Ana.

“Shite,” he mumbles. “You want that danger on your doorstep with Sophie living under your roof?”

“Stasia confessed to me that she left her father on her own. She wasn’t kidnapped. She was going to be married off to the Boston pakhan.”

“That fucking Siberian snake never once mentioned that.”

“There’s more, Eoghan.”

“Chriiiist.”

“Dante Caruso got her the fake ID she used to get out of New York.”

“That fucking piece of oily shit. What he put us through. What he put Isabella through.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. You don’t need more horrible details in your head. You’ve got your own nightmare to wake up from.” He clears his throat, calming down. People think because he’s a Harvard lawyer, he’s not dangerous. Years ago, I overheard mumbling in my father’s office about how he tied two bullies bothering Balor to his bumper with a chain and dragged them to their death. “Look. We’re on the same side. We have the same goal. Keep this shit from Alexei Koslov.”

“Speaking of which, Ana is worried about her sister. Can you find out how Katya is doing?”

Eoghan laughs out loud. “Katya is married to Lachlan.”

I stagger to the bed. “What? When?”

“A couple of months ago. And she’s pregnant, too.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.” I can’t tell Ana that. She’ll definitely try to call her sister. “How did Koslov allow that one?”

Eoghan gives me a stiff explanation of how Lachlan ended up married to Katya and it drips with all kinds of mafia craziness that would sound insane to an outsider. I really don’t envy their life.

Something about my psycho brother—I know he’s a psycho—killing her fiancé at the fucking altar and forcing her to marry him instead.

When Ana finds out, she might lose it, and suffer a major guilt attack because she wasn’t there to protect her sister. She might blow this all wide open to try to help Katya.

“Is Katya still in college?” I wonder if I should mention the postcards.

Only, it sounds like it doesn’t matter. We’ve got both Bratva princesses on our side now.

Good one, Lach…

“No. She and Lachlan are house hunting.”

I push down the impulse to snarl a laugh at my six-six, murdering brother commenting on backsplash tiles. “Stasia might try to get in touch with you or Balor to hack into her trust fund.”

“Do you think Balor has a death wish?” Eoghan reminds me we’re loyal to each other, first and foremost.

I hate the idea that all her money is sitting there. She’s right. It’s rightfully hers. “Can you ask Balor to sneak in and empty that account so—”

“That’s taking a huge risk. Do you need money?”

“No. It’s what she wants. I don’t want her to feel trapped.” I want her to want to stay with me. “Cormac already did so much damage.”

---