Page 60 of Bedazzled
“Well, that’s depressing,” I scowled. “You should probably feed me and cheer me up.”
Yuri…
“What are your thoughts, brother?”
I was watching Tania dozing on a lounge by the pond, face tilted happily up to the indecisive sunshine, trying to soak up the rays before the inevitable clouds covered the sky again.
“Every scrap of intelligence Patrick gathered points to the clan gathering to celebrate the opening of the distillery,” Maksim’s voice was calm, but I could sense his eagerness to tear into the O’Connell’s. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take them down for good.”
“Do we have the manpower?” I asked, watching my wife look around to make sure she was alone and pulling off her shirt, basking in her sports bra and some tight little shorts. Our men patrolled the entire estate, but they all knew better than to get close enough to bother Tania. Or worse, get engaged in friendly conversation with her. Last week I walked in on a poker game in the kitchen where my wife was cheerfully winning four of my guard’s wages for the week.
“Yes,” he said, “Thomas has offered the Corporation security force to assist us, and Alexi and the Toscano brothers are sending soldiers as well. But the final piece is still that bastard O’Rourke.”
“Ekaterina and Mariya’s arranged marriages with the Toscano and Turgenev families have been highly advantageous,” I said dryly.
“Don’t taunt me. They are both good matches to good men,” he said sharply.
Rubbing my forehead, I realized my scar had not been troubling me as much these last few days, it didn’t wake me up with the vicious, heated pulsing I had endured since the kidnapping.
“If what he said to Tania is accurate,” I said, “then he’s indicating that he wants the distillery, which seems ridiculous.”
“Not necessarily,” Maksim said, “this is a 200-year-old operation, and its whiskey is legendary. For the O’Connell’s to buy up the entire company with all its global reach and prestige, it’s a worthy prize. O’Rourke is doing business with them, he has insider knowledge of the clan event that would remove most of the variables we can’t predict. But,” he hissed, “he is not returning my calls.”
I whistled, in part to taunt my brother, but also because I was surprised there was anyone in power who did not leap to take his call.
“However, we do have another option,” he said.
“Which is?”
“O’Rourke’s odd fondness for your wife.”
“We are not using Tania to gain information,” I said sharply, “every encounter she has with him concerns me more.”
“Has he ever said anything inappropriate to her? Anything sexual?” Maksim was pursuing this and I was not happy.
“You are implying that if O’Rourke has not actually propositioned my wife, then she is safe with him,” I snapped. “Have you forgotten that he has manipulated all of this? Telling her about my wedding, knowing that she would be brave enough to attempt to stop me from making the worst mistake of my life… showing up at the wedding with information that absolves us and frees me to marry Tania?”
“I know this, but-”
I interrupted Maksim for the first time that I can remember. “He demanded a favor from her, brother. Not just from us. A separate favor owed by her. They shook hands on it. She is part of his game and I will not allow her to be used, by O’Rourke, or byus.”
He was silent for a moment, likely controlling his anger. “Has it occurred to you that you’re doing Tania a disservice? Don’t you see that she wants the O’Connell’s to pay for what they did to you as much as we do? I have learned,” he said wryly, “to not underestimate my wife. You shouldn’t either.”
Now my scar was throbbing. Rubbing the heel of my hand against it, I said, “I will contact O’Rourke myself.”
“Very well,” Maksim said, “good luck.”
Chapter Twenty
In which we discover a violin is the best foreplay ever.
Yuri…
That prick.
That son of a bitch.
Nolan O’Rourke does not return my calls.
