“Those are for dinner.” Turning, I start filling the sink. I need to wash up the meatball and the baking things. Liam huffs a sigh, falling silent. It doesn’t last.
“So. You love him.”
I glance over at him, contemplating teasing him back, but he grins. Shit. A sappy smile has crossed my face.
“Fuck, you do!” he gasps. “Seamus and Tiggy, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
What is he, a fucking five-year-old? Seriously, sometimes it’s hard to remember that Liam is actually a year older than me.
“Oh, shut it.” I roll my eyes at him, turning back to the sink, shutting off the water, and adding the detergent.
A bang in the backyard startles us both. The bottle of dishwashing liquid slips from my fingers into the hot water with a splash. Liam whips a gun out of the back of his jeans, gesturing for me not to move.
“Stay here,” he hisses at me.
I nod, wide-eyed, snatching up the meatball knife from beside the sink with a shaking hand. A knife won’t help me against whatever caused that bang, but it’s all I have.
Liam’s footsteps fade as he moves into the laundry room to get to the backyard. I strain, listening for any sound of a confrontation. Instead, what I hear has me freezing, my heart taking off like a helicopter in my chest. There is no sound from the back of the house, but the front door creaks open.
Please let it be one of the lads. Please let Seamus have decided I need more than one bodyguard, the overprotective ass he is, and have sent someone back.
My luck isn’t that good. I blink in surprise when Ivan strolls into my kitchen. Relaxing slightly, I eye him.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?”
He smirks at me, picking up a piece of mail from the kitchen island and examining it nonchalantly.
“It’s time to come back to the fold, Ylenia.”
I blink at him. What the hell does that even mean? He must see my confusion because he clarifies.
“You’re time slumming it with the Irish is over.”
My eyebrows fly up, my mouth popping open in shock. “Uh, I’m not sure if you forgot, but Seamus and I are married.”
Ivan’s face twists into an ugly smirk as he shrugs. “These things can be taken care of.”
I slowly shake my head. He can’t be serious. He’s talking crazy. Maybe Ivan has gone rogue. Perhaps he’s making a play for the leadership of the Romanian faction, going against my father, and thinks if I defect from the Irish, it would be the nail in the coffin for my father’s leadership. Well, I’m not going to fall for that. And I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving Seamus. Not now, not ever.
“That would be declaring all-out war. I’m staying right here.”
Sighing, Ivan rolls his eyes and stalks across the room at me. Acting on instinct, I slash at him with the knife I hold tightly. It catches his arm, and he grabs my wrist. We both struggle. I grab at the wound, trying to distract him with the pain.
He shoves me backward, my bloody hand landing on the cabinets, leaving a smeared handprint. I slash at him again. This time the knife catches him in the leg.
Blood drips down onto my lovely terracotta tiles. Pooling to join the blood from his other wound. So much blood.
Grunting, he punches me in the jaw. My head snaps back as I lose consciousness, the knife dropping from my nerveless fingers, clanging to the ground as darkness swallows me.
Groaning, I blink, forcing my eyes open and squinting at the bright light bringing pinpricks to my sight. I’m lying on a concrete floor with metal walls across from me.
My jaw aches as I sit up, propping myself up with my wrist. My eyes land on black leather brogues. Very familiar black leather brogues. I blink up at my father, standing above me, flanked by two of his soldiers. Two of his soldiers, who both have guns trained on me.
“Slashing Ivan, Ylenia? I expected more from you.” His tone is filled with sadness. “Maybe you’re no fucking better than you’re whore of a mother. You better think long and hard where your loyalties lie,draga.”
Turning on his heel dismissively, he strides out of the warehouse. The two sentinels with the guns remain, staring at me with hate in their eyes. Like I’m the enemy. If they’re keeping me from Seamus, then maybe I am.
Chapter Twenty