Page 75 of Sins of Innocence

"But just being in your world increases the risk to all of us." Him included.

How do I reconcile that truth with the need to protect my children?

"It protects you too."

"Only if I marry you," I remind him with asperity, feeling more cranky about my own doubts than that outrageous fact. "I wouldn't need that protection if Kenneth Shaughnessy hadn't dragged me into his stupid plans."

"Mob justice might be brutal, but it protects us and our families," he replies, reiterating his stance and ignoring my allusion to our upcoming forced marriage, not to mention my gripe about Kenneth.

"It didn't protect Sadie." And neither did I.

How do I live with that knowledge?

"Didn't it?" Kieran challenges. "Do you think Fitz would have been so well trained he could take down four boys a year older than him if he wasn't the underboss's son?"

"No. Probably not."

"He's the future of our mob, just like our girls will be. Strong. Honorable. Intelligent."

The three core attributes Mick saw in Kieran. I bet the underboss saw more in this amazing man, but those are the three traits that are most important to my big guy.

My big guy? Yes, mine.

For good, or ill, the die has been cast and all I can do is wait and see if it comes up a winning number.

I've made a lot of mistakes in the last six years, but I have to hope that marrying Kieran won't be another one.

Chapter fourteen

Takin' Care of Business

WRAITH

Áine takes the news we're flying out a day early and staying a day longer better than I expect.

Probably because any argument she wanted to make got interrupted by that knock on the door she warned me about. With McLaren and all three girls standing expectantly in the hall outside Áine's bedroom.

I can't complain she didn't get a chance to ask me more about the change from Vegas to Anaheim because that part is staying a surprise. For everyone but me and McLaren.

We didn’t get a chance for Áine to grill me about how I know her friend either. I'm not looking forward to that discussion. There's a lot I can't tell Áine and McLaren won't. That's going to piss my woman off.

And some of it? Is just fucking inexplicable. There's some kind of weird synergy going on here.

Like the universe is pushing me and my new family together.

That stone cold assassin with heterochromatic blue eyes I knew when I was doing black ops? Áine has a picture of him in his dress blues on her dresser.

When she noticed I was looking, she told me his name was Brady. "But his Ranger friends called him Bossona. I think it was joke that had something to do with that Elvis Presley song Bosso Nova Baby because my brother could not dance and he had this weird love of Elvis Presley's music."

Or maybe his team name was Bás ó Na Scáthanna and he cut his buddy off before he could say the full name in front of his little sister. He didn't want her knowing his teammates called him Death from the Shadows in Gaeilge.

I worked on several covert ops with Bás ó Na Scáthanna. He listened to Elvis Presley on his ear buds while he prepped for and lined up a shot.

But that man had no family and he was very much alive nine years ago, when her brother was supposed to be dead.

Heterochromia is rare enough, that two men who look identical both have blue-eyed heterochromia is not a coincidence. It's damn near irrefutable proof her brother is alive.

And I'll be damned if I don't find out for sure.