Colin
“To answer your question, no. I did not sleep with her,” Tiernan confesses, tired of Shay’s constant badgering since the moment we came through the door.
“Are you fucking serious? It’s been almost a week?!”
“Your point being?” Tiernan arches a brow.
“My point is that you’re a fucking killjoy, brother. Goddamn it!” Shay curses, reaching into his jacket, pulling out a wad of cash and handing it over to me.
I don’t say a thing as I pocket my cousin’s money.
“You bet on me sleeping with my wife on our honeymoon?” Tiernan asks, his amused brow lifting even higher on his forehead.
“Sue me. I thought it was a sure thing,” Shay accuses, slumping into a chair across from Tiernan’s desk.
“And I’m sure Colin told you there is no such thing.” Tiernan smirks, his attention falling back to his computer screen.
“He did. I just didn’t believe him. I mean, come on. I’d do your wife in a heartbeat—Hernandez or not.”
Tiernan’s humor disappears at his brother’s lewd remark right at the same time I slap Shay across the head. It’s better that I put my cousin in his place before his brother decides to.
“Fucker! What did I do now?” Shay asks, aggravated, rubbing the back of his head while simultaneously staring daggers at me over his shoulder.
“It’s not what you did but what you said,” Tiernan intervenes on my behalf. “My wife isn’t like the women you take to your bed. You can’t say whatever pops into that head of yours whenever you feel like it.”
“Hello?! It’s just us here. No one is around. I know how to behave in mixed company.”
“Since when?” I add with a scoff.
“Fuck you, Col. I can behave. I just choose not to,” Shay sulks, crossing his arms over his chest in his tantrum.
“Hmph,” I mumble, unconvinced.
“So, if you haven’t been banging your wife twenty-four-seven like a normal red-blooded man would on his honeymoon, just exactly what have you been up to this past week?”
“What do you think? I’ve been working.” Tiernan points to his computer screen to drive the point home.
“Sometimes I wonder if Máthair didn’t drop you on your head when you were a baby,” Shay reprimands, shaking his head in disappointment.
“Funny. I sometimes wonder the same thing about you.” Tiernan grins.
“Hardy har har.” Shay rolls his eyes, gaining a low chuckle from his older brother. “So where is your Spanish flower anyway? Since she’s not sore in bed, sleeping off the good fuck you were too much of a pussy to give her, what has your new wife been up to?”
“Why do you care?” Tiernan asks indifferently as he examines whatever spreadsheet is in front of him. “What Rosa does or doesn’t do with her time shouldn’t be any concern of yours.”
I know from experience that when my cousin uses that dry apathetic tone of his, he’s anything but.
And so does Shay.
“Do I hear a smidge of defensiveness in your tone, dheartháir ?” Shay counters, not hiding his teasing grin from Tiernan.
Tiernan redirects his cold gaze from his laptop towards his brother.
“I suggest you see a specialist since you’re obviously hearing things. If you must know, I left Rosa back at the hotel. Does that satisfy your curiosity, dheartháir ?” he adds the last part mockingly.
“Why is she still at the hotel? I would have thought you’d have moved her into your apartment at The Avalon by now,” Shay retorts in confusion. “Did you leave her there to pack or something? I don’t remember her bringing a lot of shit with her when we picked her up at the airport.”
“Why would she be packing?” Tiernan asks, muting out most of his brother’s ramblings.
“Huh, I don’t know, asshole. Maybe because she knows she can’t stay at the hotel forever. It has been a week, after all. I would have understood you keeping her there if you were having hot dirty hotel sex, but since it’s obvious you’ve become a fucking eunuch all of a sudden, I don’t see the point of keeping Rosa locked away in a hotel room.”
Tiernan doesn’t so much as flinch at his brother’s provocation. Not that it’s the first time Tiernan hasn’t reacted when his brother provoked him. Shay is the only man breathing that can talk trash to the boss like that. If anyone else dared to do so, Tiernan would have cut out their tongue before they even uttered a word.
“The Liberty Hotel has all the amenities a woman like Rosa needs. She’s fine exactly where she is.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! You cannot leave her caged in that hotel forever, Tiernan. Sooner or later, you’ll have to take your wife home.”
“Then I choose later. Now… is there any more sound advice you wish to give me, brother, or can I get back to work?”
The heavy stilted silence between them as they stare each other down is so thick, you’d need a chainsaw to cut through it.
“It wasn’t her fault, Tiernan. You have got to get over it. You can’t punish her for something that wasn’t in her control. She had nothing to do with Patrick—”
“Enough!” Tiernan shouts, slamming his fist on the desk, silencing his brother once and for all. “I’ve got shit to do, Shay. Actual fucking work that needs my full attention. My wife does not. Since I’m sure you have more pressing things to do than waste your time trying to piss me off, I suggest you get right to it and do them before I lose my patience.”
“Whatever you say, boss ,” Shay replies sarcastically as he gets up from his seat. “I have to go to the harbor to check on the shipment that arrived last night and do inventory anyway. When you’re in a better mood, give me a fucking call. If I’m up to it, who knows? I might even answer it.”
When Shay starts to retreat from the office, I’m right at his heel.
“Not you, Colin. My brother can take care of the shipment himself. Alone.”
“Fucker,” Shay mumbles under his breath, since taking inventory of a gun shipment that size is usually a two-man job.
I half expect him to give Tiernan more shit, but Shay surprises me when he doesn’t object and leaves the office without saying another word. I close the door behind him and stand in the center of the room, waiting for Tiernan to give me my orders.
“Have a seat, Col.”
I do as I’m told and take the seat in front of his desk that Shay just vacated.
“I have a job for you,” Tiernan says, not beating around the bush.
“What is it, boss?”
He clasps his hands under his chin and stares at me.
“What I have in mind might not be to your liking. You can refuse to do it if you so wish. I don’t want you to feel obligated to say yes just because I asked.”
“What do you need, boss?” I repeat, unfazed.
“It’s about Rosa.”
His somber tone, more than his wife’s name, takes me a bit off guard.
“I need someone that can watch over her. Just until I can find someone else to do the job. Someone I can trust.”
“You want me to babysit your wife?”
He chuckles sardonically.
“You’re spending way too much time with Shay, ceathrair . You can scarcely call it babysitting since my wife is hardly a child. But I do need someone I can trust unequivocally to protect her when I’m not around. And I don’t anticipate being around her much, hence, why I need you.”
I don’t ask him why he doesn’t want to spend time with his wife. I’m more concerned as to why he feels she needs to have her own personal bodyguard.
As if reading my thoughts, Tiernan leans back in his chair, his palms laid flat on his desk.
“This treaty Athair forged with the other families is still too fragile a thing. Like a newborn, it needs a village to ensure its survival. Someone might have a hard time letting the war go, and killing my wife, while she’s under our care, would make it extremely hard to keep the peace.”
“You think someone wants to hurt Rosa?”
“Not her, but us. Or even her brother, Alejandro. I might be wrong, but it’s a risk I can’t take.”
“What about the men that are protecting her now?”
“They’re good and fine standing outside a door. Not so much when it comes to accompanying her out in the real world.”
“Fair enough. McCarthy and Walsh have experience in doing that type of service. They used to be Iris’ bodyguards when she was a young lass. I’m sure they will be up for the job.”
“McCarthy is a bastard that can’t keep his dick in his pants, known for stepping out on his wife whenever a pretty face is involved. Walsh, on the other hand, is pushing fifty, has a bad knee, and rumor has it he’s become a raging alcoholic in his old age. Neither one is a good candidate to keep my wife safe.”
“What about Murphy?”
Tiernan shakes his head.
“Too young.”
“O’Brien?”
Another shake.
“Too old.”
“Hmm. What about Ryan? He’s a good lad. Competent. Trustworthy.” And gay.
But I decide to leave that part out, even if my gut tells me that Ryan’s sexual preferences might make him the perfect fit in Tiernan’s eyes.
“Too soft,” he rebukes evenly.
“How so?” I question, confused, since the lad is over six-foot-four in height and weighs well above two hundred and forty pounds of pure hard steel. There is nothing soft about him.
“Rosa’s strong and bullheaded. She needs someone who won’t be a pushover. Someone who isn’t afraid to tell her no. Ryan is used to dealing with foul-mouthed brutes, not delicate flowers. He wouldn’t know how to handle Rosa, and she would use that to her advantage. I wouldn’t even give him a week before she had him wrapped around her finger.”
“You think she could redirect his loyalty hat easily?”
“My wife can be very convincing. She’s used to getting her own way. Ryan wouldn’t stand a chance. Let’s leave it at that.” He smirks, almost sounding proud of his new bride.
“Is that why you think I’m the only one suitable for the job?”
“Yes. I can’t think of anyone else up for the task. Can you?”
When I don’t answer him, he pulls his chair forward, extends his arms on his desk, and clasps his hands together.
“The men you chose to guard the penthouse can stay. But Shay is right. Rosa will soon tire of spending every waking moment in that hotel room, no matter how luxurious it is. I need you to accompany her at all times whenever she goes out. When she retreats back to the hotel, you can let your men take it from there.”
I don’t have to think too hard on my answer since Tiernan’s request falls in line with the one Alejandro had forced on me. When I told Tiernan about the conversation I had with his brother-in-law before his wedding day, he didn’t seem one bit surprised, nor did he share Alejandro’s worries about his bride’s safety.
But something must have happened between then and now for the boss to change his tune. Tiernan might not have slept with her, but it took less than a week living with Rosa to change his mind and make him care about her welfare. It will be a cold day in hell before my loyalty could shift towards the cartel prince, but I gave him my word where his sister’s safety is concerned, and now I will do the same for Tiernan. Although it took the boss this long to see the writing on the wall, I’ve known since the beginning that Rosa would need to be protected.
It’s because of Rosa and the other sacrificial families’ daughters that there was a ceasefire in the Mafia Wars, after all.
But peace is a tenuous brittle thing.
It only takes one person’s malicious actions to light the fuse on this dynamite keg of a treaty and blow up ten years of arduous, peaceful negotiations. And what better way to do it than to eradicate the very thing that was sacrificed in the name of peace.
With that thought in mind, I get up from my seat and start to head out the door.
“Should I take that as a yes?” Tiernan utters behind me, a tinge of mirth to his voice.
“I’ll keep her safe. You have my word,” I concede and leave him to his business.
I pass the busy open office space and head towards the elevator as fast as my feet can take me. Tiernan might feel at home here in this large skyscraper—making sure that the Kelly’s clean, reputable construction business casts a large enough shadow to hide his criminal empire—but I, for one, hate it here. I have never liked being cooped up between four walls, especially this high up, where the exits only lead to stairwells that would take a good fifteen minutes to get down to the ground floor. But that’s not the only reason why I don’t like coming here. I prefer the grime and dirt of the streets over the sweet smell of fancy lattes and pastries in a boardroom. Give me busted-up knuckles, some cracked ribs, and sweat pouring down my brow after a heist any day of the week. Hustling on the streets compared to claustrophobic cubicles, boring computer screens with open Word documents filled with endless jargon, or the backstabbing that happens between colleagues just to get a leg up in the business world, just feels like it’s a more honest way to make a buck.
I leave that ugly monotonous part of the business to the boss.
Tiernan is a chameleon in that regard.
He can hold meetings in a boardroom just as easily as he can conjure fear in a dark back alley.
I’m not as versatile.
When I finally step out of the Kelly’s main headquarters, I rush to get into my car and drive over to The Liberty Hotel, intent on getting down to business. When I arrive at the floor of Tiernan and Rosa’s hotel suite, I turn to Darren, one of the higher-ranked soldiers standing guard, and ask him to fill me in on all of Rosa’s coming and goings.
“Not much to tell. Since she’s arrived, she hasn’t left the suite. Not once. Unless you count the time she left to get married. Other than that, she’s stayed put,” Darren explains with a shrug.
She’s been in Boston for five days now, and all she’s seen is the inside of a fancy prison cell. Maybe Shay is right. Maybe Tiernan is taking this a bit too far.
“Fair enough. I’ll ask Mrs. Kelly what her plans are for today and the rest of the week. That way we can arrange a schedule between myself and your guards.”
Darren offers his agreement to my plan then stands to the side so I open the double doors to the penthouse suite and formally introduce myself as part of Rosa’s security entourage.
The instant my eyes land on her though, I freeze to my spot and lose my train of thought.
Rosa is sitting on the floor, hugging her knees so that they are pressed against her chest, while she watches over the Boston skyline. She doesn’t have to turn my way for me to tell that she’s been crying. Uncomfortable with witnessing such a private moment, I clear my throat to make her aware that she’s no longer alone in the room. She wipes whatever tears remain and puts on a smile before she turns to face me. Instead of saying hello, or some other bullshit people say in greeting, she tilts her head to the side and just stares at me. When a few minutes pass, and neither of us say anything, I take a few more steps into the room, pretending to take in the surroundings instead of looking straight at her.
“It’s Colin, isn’t it?” she asks, her voice soft and delicate.
I nod, taking another step closer to her.
“We’ve met before. You came to pick me up at the airport.”
Another nod. Another step.
“You were at my wedding, too.”
Nod. Step.
“You’re my husband’s cousin.”
“I am.”
“Ah. And you talk, too. I was starting to believe you didn’t have the capacity.” There is a teasing quality to her voice, but unlike Shay teasing it’s not meant to offend, only just to be friendly.
She relaxes her head onto her shoulder, angled just so, her brown eyes looking straight into my green ones. My brows pull together in confusion when she makes no attempt to lower her gaze and gawk at my scars. They are usually the first thing people see when they look at me. But Rosa is perfectly content just staring into my eyes. It’s unnerving, to say the least.
“Why are you here, Colin? Not looking for my husband since I’m sure you know his whereabouts better than I do.” She laughs sullenly, the sad melodic tune only serving to unnerve me further.
“The boss has requested that I be your bodyguard for the time being,” I explain.
“Bodyguard? Aren’t the prison guards with AK47s standing outside my room enough to keep me safe in my cell? Or is my husband fearful that one night he might come home and find that I’ve flung myself out the window? If that’s the case, remind him that these windows are all made from bulletproof glass. It will take more than a chair to break any of them.” She knocks on the glass to drive her point home.
“Are you suicidal?” I question hurriedly, worried that her mind went there.
“No, Colin. Sadness and homesickness have not yet made me that desperate. Ask me again in a month’s time. Maybe my answer will be different.”
My Adam’s apple bobs away as apprehension sinks its ugly claws into my chest, sure to leave its mark.
“I’ve made you uncomfortable.” She sighs. “I’m sorry. I guess you just caught me at a bad time.”
When I don’t say anything in return, her chestnut gaze sparkles with curiosity.
“You’re not much for words, are you, Colin?”
I shake my head.
“Then maybe my husband got something right after all. If I’m to have a bodyguard, I’d much rather it be someone who didn’t need to fill the silence with useless chatter. It would be awfully tiresome if I had to spend my days making small talk, when I’m perfectly content having deep, meaningful conversations with my conscience.”
She throws me a meek smile, and I hate how my chest suddenly tightens.
“So, bodyguard , what exactly are you here to do? Watch me do nothing? If that’s the case, then I can tell you right now that you’ll be begging Tiernan for another job in no time.”
“What would you like to do?” I ask, my soft voice sounding odd to my ears.
She cracks a smile. The first genuine one I’ve seen so far on her lips since I’ve known her.
“What can I do confined to this cell?”
“We could leave.”
“Leave?” she repeats suspiciously.
I nod.
“And go where?”
“Wherever you want.”
“Mexico.”
I squint my eyes at her with a frown.
“Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.” She lets out a halfhearted laugh. “Even if I knew where I wanted to go, I couldn’t tell you. I’ve never been to Boston.”
I take that in and think about where a woman of her caliber would feel at home. It takes me less than ten seconds to realize I haven’t the faintest clue.
“What kind of shit… I mean… things, did you like to do back home?”
“I liked spending time with my brother.”
“Alejandro?” I question, surprised, since Alejandro doesn’t exactly give off the “family man” vibe. He might care for his sister’s safety, but I don’t see him willingly wanting to spend time with her.
“No. Not Alejandro. I meant Francesco, my youngest brother,” she explains with true deep longing in her voice. “He had a knack for keeping me busy since he was always up to no good.” She laughs again.
Between her sad sighs and her genuine giggles, I don’t know which one I’m having a harder time dealing with.
“What did you do when you weren’t babysitting the brat?” I mumble.
“I like art. I loved going into Mexico City and visiting the historic museum they have there and seeing whatever new exhibit was in town. Does that help?”
I eat the remaining distance between us until my body eclipses hers in my shadow and I stretch out my hand. She blinks twice before she understands and places her hand in mine. I lift her up from the floor in one fell swoop.
“Let’s ditch this place.”
When her eyes begin to water with happiness, my throat starts to clog. Before I can stop her, Rosa launches her arms around me, her cheek pressed against my chest.
“Thank you, Colin. Thank you.”
I let her hold on to me longer than I should, but when she seems to have composed herself enough, my hands go behind my back and unlatch her grip on me.
“Let’s go.”
Her smile is a mile wide as she grabs her bag and walks side by side with me out of her hotel room for the first time in days. I take her to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and we spend the whole day there. For a girl who said she didn’t mind the silence, she sure talked her head off, describing how every painting and artifact made her feel. After we have lunch at a nearby restaurant, we decide to go back and see another exhibit, one where the artist preferred to paint portraits. After all we’ve seen today, these are my least favorite.
“You don’t like it,” Rosa says after we’ve stared at one particular painting.
It’s of a girl wearing only one pearl earring. She either lost the other earring sometime during her sitting, or the painter was just too lazy to add its counterpart.
“Why don’t you like it?” Rosa insists when I don’t give her an answer.
“It’s a painting.” I shrug, not understanding what more there is to it.
“Yes, I’m aware it’s a painting.” She laughs. “But I can tell you don’t like it. I’m just curious as to why that is.”
I offer her another noncommittal shrug.
“Okay. Then at least tell me how it makes you feel?”
My forehead scrunches at the question, but this time I answer her.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” She questions back. “You have no reaction to it whatsoever?” She places her hands on her hips, looking none too convinced. “I know that can’t be since you’ve been looking at it like it’s personally offended you. So, tell me, what is the first word that pops into your head when you look at it? One word.”
“It’s a lie.”
“How so?”
I fumble with my words, trying to come up with the best way to explain myself so she’ll understand.
“You see that one?” I point to an artsy painting of a lone river with a bunch of trees and bushes around it.
“The Monet?”
“Yeah. Whatever. That one right there reminds me of cold Irish mornings. Or when Da and I would go fishing at the crack of dawn to a nearby lake we had close to our home. It’s serene. Simple. Honest,” I admit, giving the painting another glance and calculating how easy it would be to steal it and gift it to my Uncle Niall, who is always homesick for Ireland.
“But this one…” I begin to explain looking at the eyesore in front of us, “doesn’t say shit to me. My guess is the girl either lost the damn earing after fucking the artist, or the he was in too much of a hurry to get her clothes off to even bother painting the other one on her ear. Every time I look at it, all I see is some asshole painter wanting to get into a young girl’s panties by making her look ten times more beautiful than she really is. It’s shallow and uninspiring.”
Rosa lets out a giggle, causing a couple standing close by to give her a side eye. She covers her mouth with her hand to muffle her laughter while I throw the pricks my best menacing glower. They take the hint and quickly leave.
“Colin Kelly,” she whispers, my name sounding like delicate porcelain coming out of her mouth. “I think there is an art aficionado in you after all.”
I scrunch my nose at that.
She snakes her arm through mine and pulls me into the next room where more nature paintings—Monet’s I think she called them—hang on the walls.
“I was starting to doubt Tiernan would give me a wedding present, but now I see he chose his timing perfectly. You, Colin Kelly, are the best gift I could have ever hoped for. This might just be the beginning of a wonderful friendship. And I could use a friend more than you know.”
I don’t say anything to the contrary or risk bursting her happy bubble.
No one has ever been excited about calling me their friend.
And if I’m honest, the only ones I have are my cousins.
For the rest of the day, we tour the museum and make plans to visit the Institute of Contemporary Art next week. When I leave her back at the hotel, Rosa doesn’t look half as desolate as when I found her.
She looks happy.
Or as happy as she can be under her current living conditions.
As I step into the elevator, my phone vibrates in my pocket, Tiernan’s name flashing on the screen.
“How was it?” he asks when I answer the phone.
“Fine.”
If he was Shay, my one-word answer would have pissed him off.
But Tiernan takes it at face value.
“Good. That’s all I need to know,” he says, ready to end his check-in on today’s outing, but when he doesn’t I know he can sense my hesitation on the line. “Unless there is something else you want to add?”
“Shay is right,” I grunt, thankful the asshole isn’t here to hear me say it.
“That must have been as difficult to say as it was for me to hear,” Tiernan jokes halfheartedly. “And just exactly what is my pain in the ass brother right about?”
“Take her home, Tiernan. Or I will.”