3. Gareth

Dawn had just broken across the sky as I looked out the window from my home office. Id already gotten in a workout and a shower and answered a few emails. But as I took a sip of my morning coffee, I got an alert that someone was at my front gates.

I headed over to my computer, checking the security system, adrenaline already slicing through my veins at the thought of it being Doyle or one of his employees.

It was only a slight relief to see that it was my older brother, Dante, eyeing the camera with a disappointed look only he could muster. I briefly considered not allowing him in, not wanting visitors to rattle the still-adjusting Serenity.

Shed always been quiet, only speaking to me in hushed tones a few times during the poker games, but there was something about her now, a listless sort of demeanor that had anxiety clawing up my throat every time I spotted her around the house. I’d been trying to give her as much space as possible. Space to grieve her past life, if there was anything to grieve, and space to sort out the move wed made when she’d called in her favor.

I couldnt help but think about her original request. I’d thought about little else since, especially when I saw her around my home, wearing nothing but my big T-shirts and shorts.

It didnt matter what she wore, really. I was always thinking about her. She had this intrinsic sort of allure, something Id never felt before, and had tried very hard to deny every day since she came into my life.

And it wasnt just her gorgeous blue eyes or delicate curves, but it was the flashes of her real personality that I saw whenever her father left the room. She was brave, courageous, and funny. It was a lethal combination. I had this innate need to protect her, and it was a recipe that ensured Serenity haunted my every thought.

And now she was my wife.

On paper.

She was only my wife on paper.

It was the only way I could protect her while also not stealing her virginity, like some villain lurking in the shadows.

I would only take the time I needed to ensure her independence and safety from her family before releasing her from the binding contract to me. Because the last thing she needed was to be tied to another mobster’s life, even an ex one.

I clicked the button that opened the gates, and I saw my brother on the camera make a finally gesture before he got back in his car and drove through.

I made sure to watch the gates close behind him, my eyes lingering on the screen for a few more seconds to ensure nobody had followed him.

Fucking hell, it had been at least two years since Id had to seriously worry about a physical attack on my property, let alone on me. I thought Id left that life behind the minute I went legitimate and excluded myself from that part of my family’s lives.

We were all still on good terms, not because I had a plethora of legitimate businesses that were successful, but because my family didnt hold my personal choices against me. I was lucky in that regard, where Serenity wasn’t.

A flare of anger worked its way up my spine, and I had to rotate my neck in an attempt to get rid of the sensation. Every time I thought about what that asshole Doyle planned to do with her, I could almost feel the weight of the gun in my hand and the sweet satisfaction of squeezing the trigger.

I backed away from my desk, pacing the length of my office, doing my best to count the amount of book spines I could see on one shelf in order to ground myself.

Id had to undergo a shit-ton of therapy after I removed myself from the more criminal activities of my family, but it wasnt like I ever forgot how to be a killer. Especially not when I’d been raised to believe it was normal. And while I had promised myself I’d never pick up a gun again, I knew when it came to Serenity, there were no lines I wouldnt cross—no promises I wouldn’t break—in order to keep her safe.

I could only hope that Doyle would be intimidated enough, not only by me, but by the family I had behind me, to stay the fuck away.

I didnt hear Dante’s approach, not when he and Brooks had been trained to be as silent as cats, but there was something in the air that I felt when he made it just outside my office. I opened the door moments before he barged through it and ushered him inside before closing it again.

“A loving brotherly visit before breakfast?” I asked in my most sardonic tone. “I feel so lucky.”

Dante took the liberty of sitting in the leather chair behind my desk, kicking up his feet as he smirked at me. He was already dressed to the nines in a dark maroon suit, the soles of his dress shoes matching the fabric color.

“A before-breakfast visit was a must, little brother,” he said.

I held his gaze. He was only a few years older than me, and we looked closer to twins, except he kept his hair high and tight whereas I let mine grow a little wild.

And I had more ink than he did.

“Say what you came here to say, Dante,” I finally said, sitting in the chair across from my own desk.

“I must have missed the memo where we were planning to piss off the Irish,” he said, tilting his head. “Why dont you bring me up to speed?”

“I’m sure Brooks already gave you a full report or you wouldn’t be here.”

“True,” he said. “But I’d like to hear it from you.”

“The Irish Princess called in a favor,” I said. “She won a favor chip from me several games back when she was sitting in for her father.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, what if shed given it to OBrien?” Dante asked, shifting his feet off the desk and sitting up straight in the chair.

“I knew she wouldnt,” I said, even though I hadnt been one-hundred-percent certain when I lost the chip to her. But clearly, my hunch had been correct.

Dante shook his head. “Your businesses are the only clean ones we have a hand in. Jeopardizing it over a turf war is stupid. Annul it.”

“Im not annulling it until I know that Serenity is safe from the repercussions of the favor she called in.”

Dante raked his palms over his face, exasperation written in every line.

“And I have no interest in a turf war,” I added before he could keep lecturing me. “I may hate OBrien, but the last thing I want is a war.”

“You marrying his only daughter without his blessing says otherwise.”

“She called in a favor,” I said again. “You know how our game works. It was undisputable.”

A flash of respect sank into his eyes as he nodded slightly. “Have to give the girl credit. She certainly used your little poker games rules to her advantage.”

I shifted my head from side to side, silently thinking about what she originally wanted.

“What was that?” my brother asked, reading me as easily as I would read him. One of the perks of growing up and working together for almost thirty years, we had an uncanny ability to see through each others masks.

I blew out of breath. “The only thing I could do was amend her original favor,” I admitted, since there was no use in lying to him. “And I took the best option for all of us.”

“You mind explaining how this is best for us? Ive already heard through our sources that OBrien is furious. Hes no doubt planning an attack. Hell, he might try to make it look like you forced her into this marriage, and that will give him grounds to take her back by force.”

My hand balled into a fist atop the desk, and I shook my head. “Ill kill him before he gets to her.”

My brothers eyes widened, and he studied me for a few heartbeats. “What was her original request?” he asked instead of addressing the more complicated matter, which was me getting territorial as fuck.

“She wanted me to... ensure that her value would be stripped, and she wouldnt be able to be sold off to another family.”

“She wanted you to fuck her?” He tilted his head. “And you married her instead?”

I ground my teeth together as I took a deep breath. “Fucking her would’ve given Doyle grounds to at best lock her away for the rest of her existence. At worst, make her death look like an accident. I wasnt about to put her in that position, especially when she was so frantic and thinking that was the only way out.”

Dante looked at a loss for words, something he usually never struggled with. My brother loved to talk more than anybody I knew. “And you havent fucked her yet? Even after marrying her?”

“I havent touched her,” I said.

It didnt mean that I hadnt thought about it every waking and sleeping second.

“I fully intend to leave this marriage as clean as I entered it. Once I know shes safe, once Im able to set her up where she can make her own choices and not be in danger, then Ill let her go.”

Dante scoffed, a dark laugh ripping through his lips. “Come on, little brother,” he said. “I know youve been out of the game for a while, but you never forget. Shell never be safe. It doesnt matter if you give her a hundred million out of that billion of yours and send her off to some island nobodys ever heard of. The O’Briens arent going to stop until they get their precious princess back. Either to re-break her or to punish her. This isnt just going to end because you throw money at it.”

I closed my eyes, doing my best to tell every single one of my muscles to relax. I knew Dante was right, but I also knew that I didn’t have another option.

Serenity couldn’t stay married to me forever. She was too good, too sweet, and too innocent to get entrenched in my world. If she got one genuine look at me? Got one whiff of my past? She’d be terrified.

I knew she’d grown up in the life, but women in our world were kept in the dark on purpose. At least with the way the O’Briens did things. The Maxfields had done that in the past, but thankfully wed gotten progressive somewhere around the eighties. Still slower than everybody would’ve liked, but at least Id grown up in a family where my mother had a say, and the business was only better for it.

Still, I wasnt going to ruin Serenitys life by ensuring she stayed shackled to me forever.

“From where Im sitting,” Dante continued, and I opened my eyes to focus on him, “you have two options. One, you broker a deal of peace and give her back. Or two, you consummate the marriage and commit to her for the rest of your life. One of them keeps her safe, and one of them takes her situation out of your hands.”

I shook my head, immediately rejecting both options. “Neither one of those is acceptable to me.”

Dante threw his hands up. “There is no option three, Gareth. If there was, you would’ve thought of one by now. Would it be so bad to consummate the marriage, make it irrefutable? You obviously care about the girl or we wouldnt be sitting here having this conversation.”

“She called in a favor?—”

“Bullshit,” he cut me off. “I know the way your game works. And I know you can negotiate your favor and you did. You could have negotiated that favor into anything else. I know how smart you are, how cleverly you could’ve gotten out of this if you’d wanted to. But you didnt. You put the Irish Princess on a plane, flew her to Vegas, and tied your name to hers. You wouldn’t have done that if there wasnt some kind of emotion tied to her. And if thats the case, thats fine. You know we aren’t going to fuck with that. But you cant stand here with one foot in the door and one foot out.”

A low growl rumbled in my chest, and I raked my fingers through my hair.

What he was saying wasnt wrong.

I knew that, deep down in my gut.

I took the steps I did to protect Serenity, that was true, but I did it because every fiber of my being was drawn to her. The thought of her getting hurt or sold off like some broodmare pissed me off so badly I saw red.

But she barely knew me. I couldnt betray her by consummating this thing and irrevocably chaining her to a future she’d run screaming from.

“I need time,” I said. It was the most honest response I could give my brother. “Ill figure a way out of this where we all win.”

Dante sighed, and I felt the weight of the entire family in that release of breath. He had the curse of being the oldest, and while he loved our family and everything we did, he didnt exactly have the luxury of making choices like I did.

“If you’re determined to let her go, then youre right. Not touching her will give her bargaining power if she ever gets caught. But do you think you’re capable of that?”

“I told you, I am.”

“Fine,” he said. “But if I were you, I’d fuck her. She knows the life. She’d probably make a good wife. Live happily ever after and all that shit.”

I laughed darkly. “There are no happily ever after for guys like us.”

“Guys like me, sure. Guys like you? You could have whatever you want. All you have to do is have the courage to take it.”

“Are you calling me a coward, brother?”

Dante smirked. “I guess only time will tell.” He pushed away from the desk, rebuttoning his suit jacket as he made his way toward the door. “Ill keep you posted if I hear of any valid threats. If I were you, I would double security, and I wouldnt let her go out in public alone. Theres no way that OBrien is just going to sit back and let you keep his princess. Doesnt matter if he thinks youve consummated the marriage or not. Youve offended him, and you know how that family is.”

I sighed and crossed the room, shaking his hand. “I appreciate the advice, and the heads-up. Stay in touch and stay safe.”

“Always do,” he said before releasing my hand and heading out the door.

I ensured he made it through the gates, and that they closed securely behind him before finally scooping up my coffee mug and heading toward the kitchen. Thanks to the brotherly meeting, my coffee had gone cold, and it was more than time for another cup.

I stopped just inside the kitchen at the sight of Serenity in nothing but one of my T-shirts. The fabric hung down to her mid-thigh, but her legs and feet were bare as she reached up on her tiptoes, trying to get something out of one of my cabinets.

Once I remembered how to breathe, I headed over to her, realizing she was trying to get a coffee mug, but it was too high for her to reach.

Her little sigh of frustration was just this side of adorable, and I came up behind her, reaching over her head?—

Serenity yelped, and she flinched so hard she stumbled back a few steps and into the adjacent counter, hissing at the sharp contact her body made with it.

Her blue eyes were like saucers as her chest heaved.

I held the coffee mug she’d been reaching for in my hand, my other hand raised to show her I wasnt trying to touch her.

“I was just getting this for you,” I said in the softest tone I was capable of. I gently set the coffee mug on the counter and then backed away a few paces.

Serenity clenched her eyes shut, shaking her head before nodding to herself and focusing on me again.

“Sorry,” she said, her voice cracking.

Rage overtook me, and I had the sudden urge to hunt Doyle down and bash his head in. The way Serenity had just reacted told me everything I needed to know. Confirmed every suspicion I previously had and hoped to fuck wasnt true.

The emotional and clearly physical abuse ran deep, and it made me want to destroy the next OBrien I laid eyes on.

“You never have to apologize to me,” I said. “I want to keep you safe. Thats all I want.”

She took a deep breath, steadying herself. “I’ve been thinking about that. About the best way to keep me safe.”

“And?”

“And its the one thing youre refusing to do.”

I couldnt help but smile just a little.

She was more courageous than she even knew.

“You have to consummate this marriage,” she said, like I didn’t know what she was referring to.

Slowly, I spanned the distance between us, and she didnt lose my gaze as I came closer. So close that all it would take was one touch and I could have her against me.

“You keep offering yourself up like that without realizing it won’t save you in the end. What Im trying to do is ensure that youll be safe and in control of your life and your future before we annul this.”

A little fear trickled into her eyes.

Good, she should be afraid of me—not in the physical sense because she knows I’d never hurt her, but in the sense that she wasn’t really prepared to intertwine herself in my life like she kept asking.

“Maybe youre the one whos afraid,” she said, and I cocked a brow at her. She gave me a little shrug. “Maybe youre afraid that youll cross that line and wont be able to come back from it.”

Jesus, this woman. How could she see through me so easily? She barely even knew me.

“Id ruin you,” I said. “If I gave you what you wanted, it might protect you for a little bit, but it would ruin you in all other ways that mattered.”

Because she was good. She deserved someone who was wholly and unquestionably good. Someone who would take her to farmers markets, not family meetings or places she could become a target just for being attached to me.

I may have gone legitimate for the last few years, but I had a sordid history and a tumultuous life that constantly threatened to bleed through the seams of the future Id created. Tying her to me even in this way put her at risk, but if we went all in?

There really would be no going back.

“Thats the funny thing about all this,” she said, reaching for the mug, pouring herself a big cup of coffee and walking past me.

“What is?” I finally asked.

“Im already ruined,” she said. “Theres nothing you could do that would make my life any worse.” She held my gaze as she took a sip of the hot coffee, then turned on her bare feet and walked down the hallway. Her words lingered for far longer than they should’ve.