“Greetings are for after dinner, Liam,” Edison said with a sigh as if he was reminding a small child rather than someone much older than him.
The man’s face flushed a bit, but after a beat he seemed to take it in stride and his smile was back. “Apologies, Edison, I just saw your lovely bride and got a little bit ahead of myself. I wanted to introduce her to my wife as they are of the same age.”
My brows rose as the man snapped his fingers behind him like he was summoning a dog and a tall blonde scurried forward and tucked her hand into her husband’s waiting elbow.
The muscles of Edison’s forearm stiffened as he got a good look at the woman, but his face remained impassive.
“This is Yulia, my lovely wife, say hello, Yulia.” Liam gave the woman a shove and she nearly collided with the both of us.
“H-Hello, Edison,” she greeted the alpha softly, her blue eyes locked onto his face.
Little alarm bells rang in my head as I looked between the two and a thread of something nasty wound its way through me as I watched the woman stare up at my alpha with soft longing.
I reeled back a little bit at the sheer possessiveness running through me and it was enough to make Edison glance over at me, his neutral expression shifting into a concerned one.
Then he turned and looked over Yulia’s head at Liam. “I didn’t realize you’d gotten married, and to one of our clan’s widows at that.”
“Volkov made the introduction after my wife died a few months ago and seeing as we’ve both lost spouses, I couldn’t help but fall head over heels for such a beautiful woman.”
There seemed to be an entire conversation going on between their cordial words and Edison’s golden-eyed gaze seemed to frost over as he digested the man’s words. “I see. Well, don’t forget that I, as the leader of your clan, should be approving all marriages. I will overlook it this time, seeing as you’re so… happy… but please remember to inform me when your next wedding rolls around.”
Liam’s face dropped, his mustache seeming to wilt before my very eyes as Edison’s words finally registered.
A barely concealed snort came from behind us and I shot a surreptitious glance over my shoulder to find Rhodes hovering over Edison’s shoulder, his face just as unreadable as Edison’s aside from just the slightest upturn of the corners of his mouth.
Liam began to sputter, but Edison ignored him, gently guiding me around the pair and towards the large double doors that two employees were waiting to open for us.
Yulia looked as if she wanted to say something more to Edison as we passed, her pale-fingered hand even lifting like she was going to stop him, but I hurried to put my body between them.
It probably wasn’t very ladylike nor did it reflect the lessons that Oona and my dusty omega teacher had given me, but I didn’t care a bit about that at this moment as I exchanged an icy look with the woman.
I may not have been fully versed in the criminal life, but Edison Keane was mine now, for better or for worse, and I’d be damned if I let another woman touch him—especially in public.
Turning my face away from her completely, I stuck my nose in the air like a snob and tugged Edison towards the door. The alpha was looking at me as if he’d never seen me before, his mouth slightly agape as we waited for the employees to pull the doors open so we could walk together into the banquet hall.
“Damn,” I heard Rhodes mutter under his breath behind me but I ignored him.
I’d never been a good actor, but I was going to channel every ounce of talent and the one elective class I’d taken in high school in order to survive the night and protect the hard-won freedom that Edison was offering to me.
Pasting a smile onto my face, I glanced around the sea of faces and muttered under my breath: “I guess it’s time for lights, camera, action.”
Dinner was one of the most boring two hours of my life.
I’d always assumed that a dinner with the Irish mob would consist of smoke-filled rooms and people coming to kiss Edison’s signet ring as they professed their sins against the family like some sort of quasi-confessional with their priest.
But instead it all seemed pretty normal?
The filet mignon on my plate was divine and I had to keep myself from moaning after every red-wine glazed bite. It took up most of my attention as people gave long-winded speeches about the history of the Keane family, their exploits over the past two hundred years, and how they’d razed the town in their youth.
It was quickly becoming very obvious that, in all of their bragging, very few of them actually mentioned Edison.
They talked about the past heads of the family—Edison’s father, grandfather, and so on—with an almost reverent zeal. But when it came time to talk about the past few years that the Keane family had been under the leadership of Edison they shifted gears and just verbally patted each other on the back, continuing on with their old man circle jerk.
It irritated me to watch, but every time I glanced over at Edison the man just looked like a bemused ruler overseeing a court full of jesters.
While all of the older men were heartily laughing at each other’s jokes, it became very clear to me that anyone Edison’s age or younger was paying very little attention to them.
Edison’s security team lined the walls, their faces impassive as they watched the man from earlier—Liam—make a grandiose speech about how the Irish always survive and how their forefathers came to the United States on steam-powered ships and took over the world.
I’d barely finished high school, but even I knew the Irish struggled to find their place in the landscape of American life for a long time. With the way they were describing it in their overexaggerated storytelling, they made it seem as if Irish immigrants had struck gold by coming to the states.
“Relax your expression, pet,” Edison’s mouth was next to my ear as he spoke. “We’re supposed to be madly in love, remember?”
That was the ruse we’d agreed on before I signed the marriage contract that day.
The story we were telling the world was that Edison caught a whiff of my scent the day he met with my father and fell instantly in love with me—which was why he risked angering the Italians and crashed my first wedding.
That was all well and good, but tonight was the first night that we actually had to prove it.
Turning to meet his golden-eyed gaze, I offered him a soft smile that I hoped looked like I was a girl in love and reached up to cup his face. “Doesn’t it bother you?”
“What?” he asked as his pupils seemed to expand and his nostrils flared as he tucked his nose into my palm. For a moment, Edison was just an alpha and I was just an omega. I could feel my pheromones start to swell between us and I started to pull my hand away but he caught it and pressed it more firmly to his cheek.
Swallowing hard, I jerked my head slightly in the direction of where Liam was still giving the equivalent of a standup comedy set much to the raucous laughter of the other older men in the audience. “That they don’t respect you? They’ve taken over the entire dinner.”
His chuckle vibrated against my hand. “They haven’t taken over anything, Perrie. But it’s better to keep stupid people busy or else they start to ask questions. Now, have you finished your dinner? I’m going to send you to the restroom for a couple of minutes while I handle some business.”
