Chapter Three
Graham followed Alastair into the greenhouse they had built for their dad a few months back. He’d had a stroke a few years before and was in a wheelchair. He’d spent most of his time in his room until Alastair’s woman, Beth, came along, and she spent time with the older man and got to know him pretty well. They’d found out his dad liked orchids. Hell, that came as a shock. He also loved to grow things, so the place looked like a jungle and was humid when they walked in.
“Dad?” Alastair called out.
“Back here.”
Both men snorted. That didn’t help a lot.
“It’s good to see my boys. How is your day going?” Angus asked.
“We need your wisdom,” Graham said.
His father’s eyebrows spiked up. “Oh, really? This doesn’t happen very often.”
Alastair snorted. “Dad, this could be serious.”
Angus wiped his hands off and then moved his chair farther back to a table and chairs. A pitcher of lemonade and glasses waited for them.
“All right. Get on with it.”
Graham went over what had transpired the last few hours, and his dad listened intently and nodded until he was done. Then he gave his father a minute to think about what he’d told him.
“Well, this is a predicament. Both those men are very sick in the head.”
“Do you know what she asked me?” Graham asked. “If everyone knows about Rizzo and the things he does to women, why hasn’t anyone done anything about it? I agree with her. Why hasn’t that happened?”
“From what I understand, some treaty was signed between several families. They’d leave Rizzo alone, but he had to pay every family and give them contacts that would help their families. I was asked to sign it, and I said no. The bastard told us that he only played with masochists, and they enjoyed it.”
“And everyone believed him?”
Angus shook his head. “I don’t think anyone did. You’ve got to remember that women are seen as a commodity with some Mafia families. They don’t care about their wives or daughters like normal people.”
“What do we do?” Graham asked.
They watched their father for a moment.
“What if it was Beth, Dad?” Alastair asked.
“I’d blow them all to kingdom come,” Graham barked.
“What if one of the brothers marries her? Then they can’t touch her?”
Graham heard Alastair’s question, but he only thought about having one of his brothers have her in their beds. Over his dead body. “If we do that, it will be me who marries her.”
He watched his brother and father glance at each other. “Yeah, I know I said I wouldn’t get married for a while, but these are unusual circumstances.”
He could tell neither believed him, but too bad. No one else was going to have her.
“What do you think the repercussions would be if they did get married?” Alastair asked.
“There will be some backlash, but we’re about as big of a family as Moretti and twice what Rizzo is. They also know that if there’s a problem, we’ll do whatever needs to be done to deal with it, so they have a healthy fear of us.”
“Good.” Graham sighed. “Why do you think the Moretti family didn’t come to us to marry off the daughter?”
“We may be as big as them, but we’re on different ends of the spectrum. They’re into human trafficking, and they know we hate it, so they wouldn’t get anything from us except an alliance.” Angus narrowed his eyes. “Let me think on this for the day, and you keep her out of sight.”
“She’ll be in my room,” Graham said.
“I’ll bring you some of Beth’s clothes for her to wear,” Alastair said.
Graham nodded. “Good. She’s filthy, and her clothes need washing, although I might just throw them away. It’s boy’s clothing and big on her.”
“I’ll call a meeting when I come up with something.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Graham said and kissed his cheek. Alastair did the same before they walked out.
“I’ll get those clothes and other things she might need to your room for later.”
Graham waved and made his way back to his office.
Did he really want to take on a wife? Yesterday, if you had asked him if he wanted to get married, he would have laughed and said no. But the thought of Faith in anyone else’s bed had a streak of fury race through him.
He couldn’t let anyone besides himself touch her, and the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.
After watching Alastair and Beth together, Graham could admit he had been envious at times of how close they seemed, envious of the obvious love and affection they had for each other.
He’d play it by ear and see how it went.