“I’ve known you were up there since the first night. Stealth isn’t quite your forte, Perrie Chandler.”
And here I thought I was going to be a super spy mob wife.
So, to recap, Karate Kid mob wife was out and now I had no hope of being a James Bond-esque mob wife… so, what did that leave for me? Maybe… tight animal print dresses? No, I never looked good in patterns…
As if he could read my ever-spiraling inner-thoughts, Edison’s lips pulled up into a smirk as his golden eyes sparkled.
“Why didn’t you say something before?” I asked, fiddling with one of the leaves of a nearby plant.
Edison shrugged, tucking his shears into the little brown leather apron he was wearing around his waist that I’d never noticed before because of the limited angle from the upper landing. “I figured you would scurry back into your room if I acknowledged you.”
“But…?” There had to be a reason he finally said something tonight.
“But,” Edison put emphasis on the word, “you’ve shown me that you are braver than I initially thought you were.”
“I’m the furthest thing from brave.” Truth be told, I was worried that all of the things that I’d grown to really like over the past several days were just going to be a front for the darker underbelly of life as a mobster’s wife. That as soon as Edison put a ring on my finger he’d show his true self and I would be stuck with him.
My father, for all of his faults, had never been prone to violence. Hell, the man shook like a small dog after every televised debate he participated in despite his ever-fake politician’s smile that he always painted on his face.
But I knew Edison was definitely capable of it, though every one of my instincts told me that he would never hurt me. At least not in a physical sense.
“Says the girl who isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with Rhodes at the dinner table when he was being an ass. Even most of my men wouldn’t even try that.”
It wasn’t that big of a deal, was it? Rhodes and I had developed a sort-of… rapport over the past few days of our self-defense lessons.
I was enjoying finding new ways to get under the too-serious alpha’s skin and it had seemingly leaked out at dinner tonight.
My face flushed as I looked away from his intent gaze at a nearby plant before hurrying to change the subject. “Why do you come in here every night? You don’t really give off plant person vibes.”
Edison’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled. “Really? And here I was thinking about leaving my life as a businessman and opening a nursery. But no, you are right that I don’t seem like much of a plant person. I wasn’t until my mother passed away. This was her place and I kept it up after she died, but I have to admit that it’s actually quite therapeutic after a long day at work.”
I understood that. I’m sure there was nothing like coming into a nice quiet space after a long day of putting cement shoes on all of your enemies and dropping them in the bay. Did they even do that anymore?
But asking him that would definitely get me in trouble, so instead I glanced around the greenhouse, looking at it more closely than I ever had before. “Was this whole tower hers?”
Over the past week I’d found remnants of the tower’s former resident. A single pearl earring in the closet, an ancient bottle of nail polish pushed all the way to the back of the cabinet under the bathroom sink, and more that told me that whoever had lived in the tower had spent a lot of time here.
Edison nodded, his lips pressing together. “She lived most of her life in these walls. I bet it’s kind of morbid that I put you in here as well, right?”
I thought about it for a moment. I’d seen the rest of the Keane estate, but no place seemed to shine the same way this little tower and the surrounding garden did. Even at night the fountain in the middle shone with enough of a soft glow to illuminate the green house, making everything feel a bit ethereal. Not only that it made me feel more comfortable than I’d ever felt anywhere else.
“I like it,” I told him honestly. “It feels like this is a place that was given a lot of care.”
Whether by his mother’s hands or now Edison’s hands, this place was the only one that felt soft amongst the opulent halls of the rest of the mansion.
My answer seemed to be the correct one for the alpha in front of me because his expression softened and he nodded to himself before stepping in closer.
Both Rhodes and Edison had taken to using descenting spray when they were around me now, hiding their mouthwatering chocolate and vanilla scents.
But after a long day, the ghost of vanilla still clung to Edison’s skin as he reached for my hand and placed a pair of garden shears into it, silently asking if I wanted to help.
I was too busy gawking at him because not only did I smell vanilla, but also the barest hint of chocolate on the tip of my tongue. I wasn’t sure if their scents were so intricately entwined because of how much time they spent together or because of something else entirely, but the combination never failed to make my mouth water.
Which was also something I didn’t have the time nor energy to unpack right now. It was hard enough to get Rhodes to smile at me, so I doubted he’d be interested in me past my place as Edison’s wife. Not to mention the fact that the head of the Keane family was always a sole alpha. No packs. The ancient omega teacher that they’d brought in had made that very clear.
Closing my hand around the shears, I turned away and eyeballed the plants critically, my face warming in a way that I knew Edison would be able to see even in the dim light of the greenhouse. “So, how do I know what leaves to cut off?”
Edison’s presence warmed against my back as he pointed at a nearby pot of a fluffy-looking plant.
“See this? This is a Boston fern,” his mouth was right next to my ear as he spoke and it sent a shiver down my spine as I listened to him. “Every plant has different needs, but trimming is pretty universal, see that dry, brown bit there?”
I nodded as he lifted some of the fluffy fronds to show me.
“Trim that.”
I did as asked and once the dead piece was in my hand he swiped it and chucked it into a nearby bin.
The next hour was full of him explaining things like how certain plants needed certain kinds of watering, how propagation worked, and more. All of the information made my head spin as he tossed names of plants at me like they were obvious, and I did my best to keep up.
“So you do all of this every night?” I asked incredulously once he’d finished his tour, ending with the large plant in the corner that he called a Monstera Deliciosa. “Do you ever get any sleep?”
Edison’s chuckle was soft as he reached into the massive pot and pressed his fingers into the soil in order to check the moisture before using the stainless steel watering can he’d been carrying to douse the top layer. “I don’t do this every night, no, some nights I just come in to sit and decompress after a long day.”
“All that cutting your enemies’ fingers off can be stressful, huh.” The words popped into my brain and out of my mouth before I could catch them. I slapped a hand over my lips, my eyes wide as I glanced over at him, fully expecting his soft expression to harden with anger.
But instead those gorgeous damn eyes of his were still dancing as he grinned at me. “We’re actually the sort of mobsters who pull toe and fingernails off. Cutting off fingers gets pretty messy.”
I blanched at that, not sure if he was kidding or being completely honest with me. Either way, I wasn’t sure if I could stomach the actual answer.
