Page 59 of Demanding Mob Boss

Ronan pulls up his phone and shows her the video of him carrying her in here. The Butcher and his team arrive within minutes. They do an ultrasound of her abdomen and it shows a small cannister inside her uterus.

Showing the fucking courage I expect from our men, he quickly changes into scrubs and operating gown, etc. He doesn't hesitate to start cutting into her as soon as the anesthesiologist has Carmen hooked up to drugs that will keep her knocked out.

"How do I know it is what you say it is?" Her eyes carry the devastation of betrayal but she doesn't want to believe her people set her up like this.

"You knew your cousin wanted you dead."

"I thought she might. I didn’tknow."

"Who told you were having an appendectomy?" Ronan asks.

"I was told after I woke up, hurting like I am now and not knowing how I got there." Carmen glares up at Ronan. "I guess you aren't the only one who is handy with a hypodermic."

"They could have drugged your food or beverage. Roofied you and then put you under," Ronan says with no inflection to his tone.

The details don't matter to him, but he never likes to assume anything.

"Who told you you'd had your appendix removed?" I ask this time.

"My father."

Ronan and I share a glance. That is seriously fucked. This woman's entire family sees her as disposable.

"Your appendix is still inside you by the way," Ronan says. "The Butcher said your uterus is still intact too."

"Other than being used to carry a biological weapon."

"It didn't leak."

"I guess I'm lucky you chose to waterboard me instead of beating me for information," Carmen says to Ronan bitterly.

We're all lucky, but I don't say that. I want her focused on what her family was willing to do to her and how we saved her from it.

"Once you heal, there will be no lasting effects," I say. "Our surgeon is good at what he does."

"Oh, there will be a lasting effect all right. I will never trust anyone in my family ever again and if I get a chance, I will kill that son of a bitch."

"Which one?" Ronan asks.

"All of them."

"We can help with that," I say.

She looks at me. "You want me to rat out my family."

"Family doesn't send you on a suicide mission without warning you what you signed up for," Ronan says. "It's time you picked a different family."

"You don't get to choose your blood." Carmen looks down, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

"But you can choose family," I say.

We've inducted plenty of people into our organization with no blood ties. We aren't like the Italian mafia; we don’t even require our people to be of Irish descent. They have to make the vow and that is what makes them family.

"You offering me a place in yours?" she asks sarcastically.

"It depends," I say.

Ronan gives me a look, but it's not disapproval I see in his expression. It's relief. He cares if this woman lives or dies. I wonder why?

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