“Well you better brush up on your throwing star skills then, pet, because there’s more to Oona Coughlan than meets the eye.” Edison’s laugh was almost a bark as he grinned at me. “Her husband was a part of the IRA in Northern Ireland in the seventies before they fled to come to America. The woman knows her way around a gun fight.”
I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of the grandmotherly woman holding anything other than the silly feather duster that she always carried around.
“After that night I was out of commission for two weeks while I recovered from the gunshot wound—which was another bit of luck. Three inches to the left and the bullet would have ripped through my heart.”
Just hearing him talk about it made me feel nauseous and despite my anger with the alpha I found myself getting up and crossing the space. I crawled into his lap and wrapped my arms around him as he continued.
“Once I was out of the woods I knew there was no bringing you two back unless all of the older generation was out and the younger men were installed at the new branch heads.”
“And it all worked out?” Rhodes prodded, also sliding in close so we were basically all in contact with each other in a huddled mass on the couch.
“More or less, though I will say that we have a couple less branches on our family tree now… and I found the mole who was leaking our information.”
Rhodes frowned, clearly confused. “Wasn’t it Rory?”
“Nope. Liam dragged his son with him that night and it was clear that there was no lost love between the two. We almost lost him too as he was a little worse for wear after a week of being locked up in a basement. He should recover soon and take his place as the head of his branch once we get back. No, as it turns out Liam Flannagan wasn’t the only one Yulia was messing with. Finneas, it seems, was also getting his dick wet in between playing video games on the job and while he was doing that, Yulia was getting into all of our systems.”
“The IT guy?” Rhodes scoffed disbelievingly. “Jesus and here I was thinking one of the guys I personally vetted had betrayed us.”
“Nope. Just Finneas who is now under serious lock down until I decide what to do with him.”
“Are you going to kill him?” I asked, trying to hold in my gasp. Even seven months after becoming the wife of a mob boss, to hear them talk about it so frankly still shocked me.
“I haven’t figured that out yet, pet.” Edison brushed my hair over my shoulder. “But seeing as it was his negligence that nearly got all of us killed, I’m leaning towards yes.”
I still didn’t like thinking about it, so instead I changed the subject. “How is everyone else? Is Romey still hanging around?”
My question seemed to damper Edison’s mood even further. “Unfortunately yes he is in fact still hanging around. The little weasel is still going to classes and dates with that girl like he didn’t sell you out to be experimented on by a fucking mad scientist.”
Rhodes growled in agreement, still clearly just as pissed off at my brother as Edison was.
“He didn’t really have much of a choice,” I pointed out, glad that their anger towards Romey made it easier for me to forgive him. “But I am glad he’s still going to class. What about Luscinia? Have you heard anything about her?”
My nightmares about that night still haunted me every once in a while and every time I dreamed about that operating room I could hear Luscinia’s garbled scream echoing in my mind.
Whatever Andrey had done to her, I knew it hadn’t been good.
But Edison just shrugged, pulling me in even closer. “The Italians closed ranks after that night and have been quiet ever since. I’m sure something is going on behind the scenes, but I’ve been too focused on my own house to worry about theirs.”
Edison’s hands traveled down to my belly that was just barely beginning to swell.
“How is the baby?” he asked, sounding nervous for the first time since we’d reunited. “Healthy?”
I nodded with a grin. “Healthy enough to make me throw up anything vaguely fried. The doctor says everything looks great for where I’m at, but it’s too early to tell whether it’s a boy or a girl still.”
“Either is fine by me. If it’s a girl I think a female heir might be just what the Keane clan needs to finally step into the twenty-first century,” Edison assured me proudly as Rhodes reached into his jacket pocket to pull out the ultrasound photo the tech had given us earlier this week. He handed it over to Edison who stared at the vaguely baby-shaped blob with wide eyes.
“I can’t believe I’ve missed so much of it already,” he whispered, running a finger along the edge of the blob.
“You’ve still got six more months of it, my love, though I’m hoping we can spend those six months back at home?” I asked hopefully.
“Yeah,” Edison agreed, looking between me and Rhodes with a soft smile as he wrapped his arms around us and pulled us in even closer. “Let’s go home.”
7 more months…
HOME
“You’re getting the sun right in her eyes, Edison, you need to angle the umbrella like this.”
“She’s fine. Her hat is doing more to keep the sun out than your flimsy umbrella ever could.”
The two continued to bicker as they knelt shoulder to shoulder on the sandy bank of the lake that sat on the Keane estate.
I smiled as the object of their bickering let out a squawk—or at least as much of a squawk as a month and a half old baby could make.
Imogen Keane was a surprise to everyone, coming a few weeks earlier than expected on the night of a summer storm.
Thankfully she came right as I was finishing up my finals and it didn’t force me to have to take an incomplete like I had to in the fall. I wasn’t sure how I was going to juggle a baby, two alphas, and college classes but I was determined to finish and be an example for my daughter and any other children we may have.
Imogen surprised us early and just surprised us by being who she was in general. During all of my scans the doctors had sworn up and down that we were having a little boy, so when the doctors held her bright red body up to the three of us I could still remember the shock.
But she was perfect, right down to the pair of golden eyes and dark red hair on the top of her head.
So perfect that her daddies spent most of their free time arguing about the best ways to spoil her rotten.
“My umbrella is fine, Edi, all of the information online says that a hat is good but you really need to protect all of the baby’s skin,” Rhodes insisted as he shifted the umbrella staked in the sand just a smidge more until every bit of Imogen’s pale skin was covered in the shade.
