35. Valentino

35

VALENTINO

I kissed Liam, using gentle pressure, wanting him to feel love rather than lust for now. Later, I would make sure he came so hard he forgot all about his past and the danger he was in, but for now I wanted to give him comfort.

When the kiss ended, Liam took my hands in his. “Before you go see your father, will you please tell me more? Why do they have a vendetta against my father?”

I nodded. “He killed the eldest sons of the McConnell family boss.”

“Oh my God.”

“The man betrayed the O’Keefes after pretending to be an informant. Disloyalty is the one thing that will get you eliminated faster than anything else in my world. He was helping his family make their power play, which ultimately worked.”

“But now they’re out of power again?”

“Right, and they’re angry, so they are still looking to finalize their revenge on your family.”

“Should Ava leave school? Does she need to hide?”

“I’ve got someone watching her. I don’t want to take her away from her classes unless we have to. So far, no one has approached her. They will most likely dismiss her since she’s a woman. They’ll assume your father would never have set her up as his heir. Therefore, they’ll see killing you as ending his legacy. To them, women are pawns to use to make alliances.”

Liam’s eyes widened. “Are you saying that if my father was alive now and his allies were back in power, he would use my sister like that?”

I knew I needed to tread carefully. “I don’t know. I didn’t know your father.”

“I can’t imagine him doing that. I mean…This whole thing is crazy. Did my mother know all of this?”

“I think we have to assume so. They got together long before the O’Keefes lost power.”

“Would you…Can you find out?”

“I’ll see what I can learn, but are you sure you want to know?”

He drew in a deep breath, then nodded. “Yes. I also want to know more about what happened to John, my dad’s boss—or his pretend boss or whatever?”

“He’s in prison. He made a stupid mistake and got caught running a money laundering scam. But I can find out more about him. I want to know why he never tried to help you and your sister.” The doorbell rang, and Liam jumped. “It’s okay. That’s my associate, Tony. He’s going to hang out here with you while Vito and I go meet with my father.”

Liam grabbed my arm before I could get the door. “Be careful I…I don’t want to lose you.”

I gave his forehead a gentle kiss. “I will, baby. I promise.”

I took a deep breath, then stepped into my father’s office. Vito followed close behind me.

As usual, the lights were off, and my father was as hidden as he could be behind his desk. I knew bright light bothered his eyes and often triggered migraines, but he also liked the dark because he was self-conscious about his scars. I didn’t understand why. They only made him more intimidating, but that topic wasn’t open for discussion, nothing about his near-death experience was. From what I knew of his earlier self, he’d already been closed off before the injuries he suffered. Now, he rarely spoke except when ordering someone around.

“What warrants a visit from both my sons?”

“We’ve got a serious situation,” I said.

“I should hope so since you’re disturbing me with it.”

A shiver ran over me. His voice was so cold, so emotionless. What the fuck was I going to do if I couldn’t convince him to help me?

“You remember Liam O’Shaughnessy, the man who is working at Pound to repay his debt to us?”

“When have I ever forgotten one of our debtors?” His words were like ice.

I inclined my head. “Never.”

“Then assume I have not forgotten Mr. O’Shaughnessy.”

He was really going to make this hard, wasn’t he? I wanted to look over at Vito to see how he was reacting, but I knew it was best to keep my eyes on my father. I also knew I had to state my case in a straightforward manner. If I tried to lie or hide something, things would go worse for me.

“I’ve been seeing Liam, personally, and I placed him under my protection. We’ve just discovered he has connections to the Irish. His father was Sharps O’Malley.”

My father’s expression didn’t change. He also didn’t say anything, so I kept going.

“People from the McConnell family are trying to finish their vendetta against Sharps by coming after Liam. I will not allow it.”

I waited. There was still no response. This time I did glance at my brother. His eyes were down, and he’d clasped his hands in front of him. I could see the tension in his shoulders. I was sure mine looked the same.

“Are you finished?” My father finally asked.

“Yes, sir.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. I clasped my hands like Vito had, fearing they would start shaking.

“Do you actually think you’ve been hiding all of this from me?”

Oh fuck. My head flew up, and my eyes met my father’s.

“Do you honestly think I’m so unaware of what is going on with my sons or with the businesses we oversee? Do you believe I wouldn’t notice the attention you’ve been paying this young man, the way you protected him from anyone else at the club, asserting he is your property?”

“It’s my job to keep our people safe.”

My father waved that off. “He is our property until he retires his debt, but that doesn’t require you to meet him in a private room and fuck him until he can barely walk.”

I swallowed hard. There was no way I could deny what I’d done. I’ve been a fool. I should have known better than to think I could hide anything from Dom.

“Do you think that when my team begins an investigation into the background of one of our debtors, they don’t report their findings to me?”

I was going to have to have a talk with Crandall, not to mention one with Vito, who swore this was all private.

“Do you think I wasn’t curious when I saw that our people made a connection between Mr. O’Shaughnessy, his father, and the O’Keefes?”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“You should be. This should’ve been brought to me immediately, and you know the rules about clients.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We should hand the young man over to his family and let them deal with the problem.”

I squeezed my hands, letting my nails bite into my palms to keep myself from yelling at my father that this wasn’t how things would go down. “As I said, Liam is under my protection.”

“And you are under mine. I brought you into this family. You work for me, and you follow my rules.”

“Liam is mine.”

Vito glanced over at me, but I didn’t dare turn away from my father.

“Do you know why I made it a rule that you weren’t to get involved with a client?”

“Because you want us focused on business, not pleasure. You don’t want us off guard.”

“Yes and no.”

“But that’s what you—” Vito spoke for the first time, but a look from my father silenced him.

“Sometimes the easiest explanation is the most useful. Once you’re involved with a client, they have far more ability to manipulate you. The worst possible way they can do that is to make you fall for them.” He held my gaze as he spoke. “Because once you think you love someone, you’ll do anything for them. Even if it involves betraying the family.”

“No, sir. I wouldn’t betray our family.”

“Then let him go.”

I’d never wanted to punch my father as much as I did then. “There’s no reason that keeping him goes against our family. Plenty of family members have made alliances with other families or with people not involved in our line of business at all.”

“Alliances? Are you proposing to marry this man?”

“Yes.” I didn’t even have to think about my answer.

“I thought that once too.” My father’s voice was so soft I barely heard him. “Look where I ended up.”

I knew better than to respond. My father had suffered greatly, I knew that. He was no longer able to use the skills he’d become known for, but his position wasn’t all that bad if he would just let himself realize it.

He cleared his throat and spoke with his usual firm disdain. “We have no way of knowing if Mr. O’Shaughnessy is trustworthy. He could be working for his family, spying on us, and learning our secrets by getting you to spill your guts to him as you lay in bed.”

“No!” My self-control broke. “That’s not what’s happening here. Not everyone is a manipulator.”

Instead of the rebuke I expected, my father simply said, “You would do best to assume they are.”

How can I make a man who’d been betrayed, who was so bitter, understand how I felt about Liam? “If I marry him, we will have a firmer alliance with his family. Relations are friendly now and marrying him is the best way to keep that up as the O’Keefes secure their power. If I leave him unprotected, it opens the possibility for trouble with his family.”

My father narrowed his eyes as he studied me. “When you realize things aren’t as they seem or when the excitement of being with him fades, you’ll be stuck. Divorcing him will cause more problems than simply leaving him alone as you should have done.”

“I want Liam forever.”

My father shook his head. “That remains to be seen, but I have to admit the last thing we need is those McConnell assholes thinking they can run around eliminating O’Keefe relations. That will only destabilize the situation.”

“So we should work with the O’Keefes to get rid of the men who are after Liam.”

My father nodded. “If Lucien agrees. This isn’t a move I intend to make on my own. I want the backing of the entire family behind me.”

I was so close to getting what I wanted. “And once the threat to him is eliminated?”

“Then, if Lucien agrees, we will arrange an alliance between the two of you. Once we take that step, there’s no going back. No matter how much you might regret it.”

That would never happen. “I’m not going to regret it.”

My father huffed.

Was this really happening? Was I going to have my family backing me as I took down these motherfuckers? If only I could make my father happy, make him see that love was real. Maybe as he watched me and Liam he would learn that, but he’d seen Lucien with his boyfriend Peter, and they hadn’t changed his mind. Thinking of them gave me courage, though. Sometimes things really did work out. “Thank you for listening.”

“I’ll contact Lucien immediately. You may wait in the conservatory.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you, sir,” Vito said as we turned toward the door.

“Valentino,” my father called.

“Yes?”

“I hope I’m wrong. I hope Liam is everything you want him to be.”

I started to speak, but my father waved me toward the door.