“You should eat,” I demand and she does as I say, shoveling up the no doubt cold eggs and shoving them into her mouth.
The tension is thick, and I wonder if she’s scared of me. She still won’t look in my direction, and I suppose I deserve that. Her fear. Her resistance.
Wiping my mouth with the cloth napkin, I toss it on my empty plate and stand, leaving the table without another word. I drop my towel in the entryway, not really giving a fuck as I make my way to my bedroom and grab my phone, where I see I have a text from my brother.
Winston:Call me as soon as you get this.
I throw on a fresh pair of swim trunks and do as he asks.
“What’s up?” is how I greet him when he says hello. “Find anything out yet?”
“A few details. We’re still working on it.” His voice is clipped, as if I’m already taking too much of his time and I blow out an exasperated breath.
I am sick of everyone’s shit today.
“Give me what you’ve got, then.”
“All right. McTiernan arrived in New York City last Friday morning. Flew in from Dublin and landed at JFK. Booked one of the cheapest rooms at the hotel where you were married.”
I glance at my reflection in the mirror, wishing I could plow my fist through it. “He didn’t fly in from Paris?”
“He’s been back in Ireland for a while now. Not sure how long yet. Those details are still being hammered out.”
“What else?”
“He checked out of the hotel Sunday morning and is now staying in Bishop’s Landing.”
Meaning he’s also in Constantine territory. “Think he’s a threat?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t assume he’s not. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Morellis will use him to try and talk to Charlotte and get information about us from her. The war between the Morellis and Constantines is over for some of us. With Lucian and Elaine. With Haley and Leo. But it’s far from over for others.” Winston pauses, and I know he’s thinking about our cousin Haley’s daughter. Squishy and loud but tolerable enough. And half of her blood is Morelli. Finding love has created a tenuous peace between our families. For now. “His ticket was one way.”
“Fucking great,” I practically growl. “So he’ll be lingering around trying to talk to my wife indefinitely. If he’s smart, he’ll stay the fuck away from her.”
“You don’t sound pleased.”
“I want him to back the fuck off.”
“Why the hell do you care?”
I say nothing for a moment, unable to put into words what Charlotte means to me. Not that she actually means something.
As in, not that I love her, or care for her even. I’m attracted to her. We have chemistry. I like her sometimes.
And sometimes, I don’t. I don’t like her at all. I don’t like that she dragged a Morelli into our lives and fucked everything up. Specifically I don’t like that she dragged Seamus into our lives. He’s a wild card. Dangerous to everything we’ve built. He’s dangerous if he’s working for the Morellis. And ironically he’s even more dangerous if he’s not.
Because then he’d be out of our reach.
Winston blows out a harsh breath. “Look, I get it. She’s your wife now, and you want to protect her. There’s something in the Constantine blood that turns us into raving lunatics when it comes to certain women.”
“I want to rip his head off his neck with my bare hands,” I mutter.
Winston actually chuckles, the dick. “These women of ours, they’re a vulnerability. They make us do dumb shit. Impulsive, stupid shit.”
I remember what he went through with Ash and the Morellis and those goddamn stepbrothers of hers. It was a nightmare, and he defended her honor right to the bitter end.
And he wasn’t even married to her at the time.
Now he’s got his own squishy, loud brat. My nephew Lane is named after our father.