Chapter 13

 

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Rosa

 

The next day when I wake up, I find Colin sitting on a stool next to the kitchen island and Shay sprawled out on the sofa, his legs crossed at his ankles on top of the coffee table, hands behind his head.

“Morning, petal. You’re stuck with us today.”

“Where’s Tiernan?” I ask since he wasn’t in his room.

To my bitter resentment, I checked to see if he was still avoiding me, locked away inside it. But when I woke up, his bedroom door was left wide open, his not-so-subtle way of notifying me of his absence. I stayed up most of the night waiting for him to step out of his room just so we could talk.

I mean, he had to leave sooner or later.

Either to eat or work. But he never left.

Apparently, I must have missed him when I finally dozed off in the early hours of the morning, exhausted after a long night of thinking of what I could have possibly done to make him so upset.

“So, are either one of you going to answer me? Where is Tiernan?”

“Where you’d expect a workaholic like him to be. He’s probably back at the office. Someone has to rule the world. Might as well leave that pesky task to the grown-ups.” Shay smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

Something is off.

“Why are you here, Shay? Colin is perfectly capable of watching over me all on his own,” I state somberly, walking over to the kitchen to grab some coffee. “Not that you’re my favorite person right now.” I throw a frown at Colin. “I still haven’t forgiven you for what you did.”

Colin at least has the good sense to bow his head in shame.

I guess not all of the Kelly men are arrogant know-it-alls.

I wish my husband was one of them.

“Big guy does okay with being a watchdog and all, but he’s not so hot at house hunting,” Shay jokes, jumping off the sofa and strolling over to the kitchen. He picks up a red apple from the fruit bowl, rubs it against his shirt, and takes a big chunk out of it.

“House hunting? I thought you lived with your parents? Are you moving?”

“Not exactly,” he says, throwing a quick glance over at Colin thinking I’m too coffee-deprived to catch it.

“What aren’t you telling me?” As he chews on his apple a little longer than necessary, I know nothing he’ll say next will be any good. “Shay?” When he still refuses to speak, I look at Colin for answers.

“The house is for you,” Colin explains evenly, without having me ask him outright.

“For me? Why? Does Tiernan no longer like this apartment?”

“My brother likes it just fine. He just thinks you’d be more comfortable in a larger home in Beacon Hill. Maybe closer to my folks.”

“Oh.”

That makes sense. If we’re going to give this marriage a shot and have children someday, it would be nice to have their grandparents living nearby.

“Okay. Let me just grab a quick breakfast, jump in the shower, and we can be on our way.”

Shay looks at Colin in astonishment and then back to me.

“So, you’re cool with this?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I shrug, grabbing some tortilla chips and eggs to make huevos rancheros. “A larger home makes perfect sense to me. Especially if we’re going to start a family. This whole apartment doesn’t exactly scream baby-friendly.”

“Oh fuck, beautiful. You are fucking breaking my heart over here,” Shay states looking pained.

“I don’t understand.”

Shay walks around the island and places his hands over my shoulders, giving them a little squeeze.

“We’re going shopping for a house for you. Not for you and my brother. And it’s sure as shit not for you, my brother, and all the nonexistent babies you think you’ll have with him.”

“What?” I croak. “I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

“I’m saying my brother has done his duty. And now he’s going to put you back in his toy chest because he’s done playing with you.”

Done playing with me?

Playing with me?!

“Where is he? Where is Tiernan right now?!” I seethe at Shay, but when his eyes widen, shocked that I’ve yelled, I turn to the one man in this kitchen who always seems to have his wits about him.

“Colin? Where is my husband at this very minute?”

“He’s at the gym.” He doesn’t even hesitate.

“Thank you. I’ll be ready in five minutes.”

“Hey, hold up. Hold up,” Shay tries to calm me down, firmly grabbing my shoulders this time. “Just exactly what do you think you are going to do when you see him? What do you think you’ll possibly gain by confronting my brother like a banshee off the rails?”

I think on that question for a moment, take it in, and really dissect it.

The answer comes to me just as easily as the sun rises every morning.

“Freedom.”

Shay steps back, puzzled by my response, and I use his bewilderment to my advantage, bypassing him and running to my room in a dash.

“Five minutes, Colin. Then I want you to take me to my husband. He has a lot of explaining to do.”

And by God, I’ll make him pay if it’s the last thing I do.

Not a half-hour later, we arrive at an old gym that looks to be on its last leg. I would have assumed Tiernan would prefer to use the personal gym provided to him back at The Avalon, but apparently he likes to get his sweat on in a gym that looks days away from being called a demolition site. With Colin and Shay at my heel, I strut with purpose through the gym’s doors, ignoring all the catcalls and whistles I get just for being the only woman here.

Men are pigs.

No way around it.

My eyes scan the seedy gym until they land on the man I came looking for. In black shorts and nothing else, Tiernan is inside a boxing ring, throwing punches at a guy twice his size. If I had any doubts that my husband had more arrogance than good sense, then this little show he’s putting on is my answer. Every swing his opponent makes is a direct hit to his chest. I cringe inwardly at the loud sound of each punch, thinking for sure he’ll have more than a few busted ribs before the fight ends. It’s only when his boxing opponent sees me standing by the ropes, that the man halts his jabs and gives my husband a little reprieve from getting his ass kicked.

“Give me two seconds to finish him off, baby. Then you can finish me off in the locker room.”

Like I said.

Men are pigs.

But before I have the opportunity to tell him where to shove it, Tiernan’s gaze lands on me, and he realizes who the ill-formed pick-up line was intended for. It all happens so fast after that. Tiernan swings his arm back and sucker punches his opponent so hard under his jaw that the over two-hundred-something pound behemoth falls flat on the mat, knocked out and probably in need of medical assistance. Tiernan doesn’t even flinch at the comatose body lying at his feet, using his teeth to tug his boxing gloves off, staring daggers in my direction.

“What is she doing here, Shay?” he accuses with a repugnant tone.

“Hey, I tried to stop her. Col was the one who narced where you were,” Shay explains, lifting his hands in the air as if absolving himself of any crime committed in bringing me here.

Tiernan slants his eyes at Colin.

“Your defiance lately is starting to piss me off, Col.”

Colin doesn’t reply, but I can tell he doesn’t like being the target of Tiernan’s rage.

“Get her out of here. Now,” he orders, like his command is duty-bound to be upheld.

I look around and realize that the whole gymnasium has gone eerily quiet. If I don’t do something now, then someone will drag me out of here before I’ve said my piece.

“No!” I exclaim, getting inside the ring with him. “You are going to hear me out, even if it has to be in front of all your lackeys.” I point to all the men that are drawing closer to the ring to get a better view.

Tiernan snarls, throwing his boxing gloves to the mat.

“Rosa,” he grinds my name through his teeth, chopping it into tiny bits, as if he could swallow me up just as easily. “I won’t repeat myself. Go back to the apartment with Shay and Colin if you know what’s good for you.”

“Enough!” I yell, having reached my wit’s end.

My unladylike outburst startles him, and there is a part of me that takes pleasure in the fact that I’ve shocked him.

“You are my husband. It might not have been of my choice or doing, but the fact remains the same. We vowed in front of God and family that we are now one. I promised to obey and be faithful to you until death do us part. But in that vow, I expect the same form of loyalty. You have obligations that you must comply with.”

“Obligations? You make it sound like this is some form of business arrangement?” He scoffs.

“And isn’t it? Was I not sold to your family to keep mobsters like you in business? Is my wedding ring not proof of such a transaction?”

His nostrils flare as I point to my ring finger.

“My family isn’t in the business of selling women,” he spits out.

“Really?” I laugh maniacally. “If that were true, I’d be back home in Mexico with my brothers. No matter how you want to paint our circumstances, this is exactly what it is. I was sold to you for the price of peace. And that peace can only prevail by the combining of your blood with mine.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, Rosa? Stop with the fancy wordplay and just speak your mind already.”

I fist my hands at my sides, hating that this man would make me spell it out for him and humiliate myself even more than I already have.

“How am I supposed to bear an heir if my husband refuses to live in the same house as me? To even touch me?”

His stare goes dark and he eats up the distance between us in such a way that my heart literally jumps to my throat. I don’t dare move, not wanting him to think I’m weak or that he intimidates me.

But he does.

I see the boss of the family when he places his hands around my neck and slams me against one of the boxing ring’s ropes.

“Is this temper tantrum just your way of saying you want to get fucked again, Rosa?”

His crude words whispered in my ear should offend me, but instead, they make the lower part of my belly twist in anticipation. “Is that all this is? Are you so cock-hungry that you’ve decided to come to my gym and make a show of yourself in front of my men? Is that what you want? For me to fuck the insolence out of you, once and for all?”

“I want you to fulfill your oath to me and my family.”

“I don’t remember fucking your brains out being in the terms and conditions of the agreement,” he taunts, just adding to my humiliation.

“No. But if there is any other scenario you can come up with where I can bear a child of your blood, then I’m all for it.”

His features change from mocking to downright lethal. This must be the face his enemies see up close when he’s about to cut them down and steal their life away.

Tiernan leans in even closer to me until his sweaty chest rubs against mine, coaxing a trace of a shiver to run rampant within my body, making it impossible for me to stand still. His breath kisses my skin, my heart running a mile a minute at how close he is. But while his body is running hot, his gaze is as cold as the Antarctic.

His eyes look like a thunderstorm, ready to electrocute me where I stand.

He doesn’t say a word, but in this very moment, he doesn’t have to.

He hates me.

Hates everything about me.

And my heart withers up inside and dies, mourning the life I could have had with a husband who actually cared for me. I don’t cower and lower my gaze, although I’m sure he sees the sadness written in it. But to look away would mean defeat. Let him read how miserable I am. Let him choke on my misery just as I have since I set foot in Boston. I have felt like a stranger and an enemy from day one. His dark glower only serves to confirm what I’ve known all along.

I’ll never make a home here.

I’ll never find a sliver of happiness or joy.

This is my plight, and I’ll never be able to outrun it. If I was ever to slip away and return to the brothers I love so dearly, it would only mean that they would have to go to war with these savages. I can’t have their blood on my hands. But I sure as hell can threaten to have Tiernan Kelly’s.

By suggesting that he is somehow in breach of the treaty, he knows that his life would be forfeited if the other families were to find out about it. It might be the most despicable lie I’ve ever inferred, but it’s the only card I have to play in this twisted game of ours.

“Is that your only complaint, wife?” he whispers the last word with acidic bitterness.

I let out an exhale and square my shoulders, making myself look more confident than I really am.

“I had no hand in my fate, but I am woman enough to face it head-on. Hate me if you must, but don’t despise me for following to the letter of the sacrifice that was forced upon me. This marriage might not be the one I dreamed about when I was a little girl, but it’s the one that will ensure that thousands of lives will be spared. Are you so proud in your arrogance that you would risk the lives of so many just to get rid of me? Because I’m not. I will not be responsible for death knocking on my family’s door and restarting the Mafia Wars just because your hatred of me prevented you from fulfilling your duty.”

After my long rant, his eyes take on a different hue to them. He twirls a loose strand of my hair around his finger, making my breath catch in my throat when he gives it a gentle tug.

“Always so selfless. So pure. So self-righteous. If that’s what you want me to be, then I guess I can be that, too.”

I lower my eyes because I know he can’t.

Men like him are born and bred to not show mercy. Selflessness to them is a sign of weakness. Only brute force and ruthlessness have any part in our world. I know that much.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” he asks, taking a small step back and allowing air to fill my lungs.

“I don’t know you well enough to say either way.”

“Oh, you know me. I think you’ve known men like me for most of your life. And you have managed to learn how to bend them to do your will, haven’t you, acushla ?”

“Can a man bend to a woman?” I arch a brow. “I’ve never seen it done before.”

He runs the pad of his thumb over my full lower lip, and again I feel an ache in my lower belly.

“Depends on the woman.”

“What a fierce creature she must be then to hold such power over a man.”

“Yes. Beautiful, too.”

My throat dries as his eyes soften, but all too soon does this one moment of vulnerability vanish into thin air, bringing forth the Irish king yet again.

“Meet me at my office at three. No later. And alone.”

The sudden change in topic alarms me.

“Why?” I stammer nervously for the first time since we started this fight.

His upper lip curls.

“Do you think I’m asking you to come into the city because I want to kill you?”

“You’ve been adamant that I stay locked away since I got here. Only leaving me to go out once with Colin as my personal shadow. So, excuse me if you asking me to come into the city unattended doesn’t raise my alarm bells.”

“I will not kill you, Rosa. Not today anyway.”

My shoulders stiffen, and my heart stops.

Which means he’s thought about it.

Killing me, I mean.

Not that the thought hasn’t passed my own mind. It would be easy enough to get rid of me. I’m not a fighter. All I have are my brains and foolish bravery. There are so many ways someone could get rid of an unwanted spouse without getting a divorce. He could hire an outside assassin and say that I was a casualty of an unnamed rival trying to take him out. He could throw me into an institution for the mentally ill, saying I lost my mind somehow, or he could lock me away in a grand house and forget my very existence. All three are preferable to divorce in our world.

Ironic how I’m fighting tooth and nail for the last when he was about to offer me just that.

“I expect you there at three, sharp. Don’t be late.”

And with that order still hanging in the air, he leaves me standing all alone in a boxing ring with about thirty male pitying gazes on me.

 

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At a quarter to three, I arrive at the public square right in front of one of the largest skyscrapers in this city.

Kelly Enterprises.

That’s what the world thinks my husband does. Build gigantic skyscrapers.

The Kelly name in Boston is synonymous with being real estate moguls. They build monstrosities like these and sell them for a pretty penny. Sure, they also have their hands in other pockets, such as tech, media, publishing, and other avenues, but real estate was where they made a name for themselves.

A clean name bought with dirty money.

Not that I can throw rocks on their glass roof when my own family’s source of income is less than exemplary.

Wearing a vintage white Gucci dress and Jimmy Choo high heel boots, I walk into the building like I own the place, even if, in part, there is a bit of truth to that statement now that I’m married to Tiernan. Knowing I have any ownership of such a cold thing is demoralizing, to say the least.

For me, this soulless building is just a reflection of the soulless man who actually has a personal interest invested in it. However, I’m sure that one of the reasons behind him spending so much time in his high castle is because it just gives him another way to look down on everyone else.

A few minutes later I arrive on his floor, and tell his pretty receptionist at the front desk that I’m here to see my husband. She quickly jumps out of her seat and leads me to a private boardroom, nervously offering me a variety of fancy lattes or coffees on the way there. It seems working for Tiernan isn’t a walk in the park either by the way she’s trying her very best to accommodate my every need in hopes that my husband will get wind of how affable she was.

I graciously decline and thank her for her help.

She gives me a grateful smile, and I wait for her to leave before I enter the room. Inside, my husband is seated at the head of a large cherrywood table, his brother Shay seated at his right, and Colin to his left.

If I naturally presumed that Tiernan’s invitation for me to meet him at his office was so that we could privately discuss the state of our so-called marriage, I can now see how wrong my assumptions were.

“Come on in and grab a seat. We don’t bite,” Shay jokes, always with his trademark cocky grin plastered on his face and a mischievous gleam to his light blue eyes.

I offer him a stern grin and take the seat opposite the three men at the other side of the table, making sure I’m seated right across from my husband.

“Thank you for coming,” Tiernan greets, looking sharp and devilishly handsome in his black five-thousand-dollar Tom Ford suit.

“Thank you for inviting me,” I return the fake pleasantries. “However, if I knew I was going to be in here for an actual business meeting, I would have dressed the part.”

“What you have on is good enough. Isn’t that right, Tiernan?” Shay taunts, smacking his lips and not making any excuses for his leering gaze on me.

“Why am I here?” I ask pointblank, instead of rising to Shay’s attempts to unsettle his older brother.

Tiernan taps his fingers on the edge of the table, just taking me in, as if he hasn’t quite decided yet why he summoned me here this afternoon.

“Well?” I repeat, unable to hide my annoyance, only to gain a tug of amusement on his upper lip.

“Stop being a dick and just tell her already,” Shay huffs out, sounding bored. “On second thought, why don’t you start by explaining why you forced Colin and me to be here, too? I mean, it’s obvious you two need some serious marriage counseling, but I hate to break it to you, deartháir , me and the big guy over there aren’t exactly the touchy-feely kind you can count on to kumbaya your issues away. Either just fuck it out amongst yourselves until you can bear the sight of one another without going all nuclear like you did at the gym this morning, or get a real professional to help you with your issues. Leave Col and me out of it.”

“Sit your ass down,” Tiernan orders when Shay begins to rise from his seat.

Shay curses under his breath but does as he’s told.

No wonder my husband is so bossy.

Even his kin follow his every command.

“It has come to my attention that I am not fulfilling my required duties of the treaty,” Tiernan begins to explain.

“That’s a load of shit,” Shay counters, pissed. “You married Rosa just like they ordered you to. What more do those old farts want?”

“No. It’s not the families that have reminded me of the small print of the contract, but my dear wife here.”

Shay snaps his neck my way, accusation and disappointment in his eyes.

“I don’t understand,” Colin interjects with less venom to his tone.

“For the agreement to be truly fulfilled, Rosa must continue the Kelly lineage. That way, our families will, in fact, be forever bound.”

I shift in my seat but keep my schooled features intact.

“Having been so eloquently reminded of my shortcomings this morning, I have asked you all in here today to make a request.”

“And what request is that?” Shay asks apprehensively.

“I need you both to carry that burden for me. Father the next Kelly heir.”

I gasp, getting out of my seat so fast the chair falls over.

“What?! You cannot be serious!”

“Sit down, wife. The walls are thin, and I don’t particularly want anyone to listen to this conversation. What is said here, dies here. Is that understood?”

Both Shay and Colin nod, but I’m not so easily subdued.

“What you’re proposing is absurd.”

“Is it?” He smirks. “If I recall, I was there the day the treaty was forged. Not you. Nowhere was it specifically said that to guarantee our mixed bloodline that I had to be the one to do it. Only that you must.”

I frown.

“You will get a Kelly heir, Rosa. Just not mine.”

I let that piece of information fester in my mind.

What is he saying?

That he would rather whore me out than touch me again?

“Before you start with your rebuttals, I want you to listen very closely. This is the only way to ensure you get what you want.”

I let that sink in.

Is he telling me that he can’t have children?

Cristo.

Shame hits me like a tidal wave at how I treated him earlier. Maybe that’s why he was reluctant to sleep with me at first. I mean what would be the point? Sex with a person you have been chained to unwillingly probably didn’t seem very appealing to him from the start. The only other reason to have sex is to have kids. And here he is, telling me he can’t.

Or am I being naïve right now?

The night that we had sex, Tiernan made sure never to cum inside of me. He even asked me if I was on the pill. A man who is physically incapable of having children wouldn’t be concerned if their partner was using that form of contraception or not.

No.

He can have children.

He just chooses not to.

At least, not with me.

“Fine,” Shay mutters, running his fingers through his Jesus-like long hair. “I don’t necessarily like being blackmailed and backed into a corner,” he starts off, throwing another disappointed glare my way for insinuating I would go to the other families and tell on his brother. “But like hell if I’ll let our family be the cause of breaking the treaty on a technicality. Just tell us which clinic you’re working with, and I’ll make sure Colin and I fill as many cups as we can to put a baby in your wife.”

He makes it sound like some kind of joke, and I guess to him, it is.

But not to me.

“We are not using a clinic.” Tiernan shakes his head, getting confused looks all around the boardroom table.

“So, how do you expect us to knock up your wife?”

“Can you please not be so crude?” I interrupt, feeling embarrassed enough with this situation as it is.

“Sorry, petal. But Tiernan needs to be clear in his demands. You sure the fuck were with yours.”

I’m sorry, I want to tell him.

Explain to him that I didn’t see another way.

That I would never purposely put the lives of thousands of people in danger just on a whim.

But instead, I pick the chair I knocked down up off the floor and sit right back on it, waiting to hear what Tiernan’s concocted as a solution to our problem.

“Boss?” Colin calls out when Tiernan takes too long to reply.

I swallow the lump lodged in my throat as my husband, my enemy, my one-time lover, stares me down with such sadistic malice in his eyes that the room begins to spin. I grasp on to the edge of the table to keep steady and face the consequences of my actions.

“Rosa will get her heir the old-fashion way.”

Gulp.

Both Colin and Shay are stunned into silence as Tiernan gets up from his seat and plants his palms flat on the table.

“You’re a woman of tradition, are you not, wife? Why run the risk of going to a clinic and having others find out about this new arrangement of ours, when to ensure your pregnancy, all you need is a bed and a man willing to plant his seed in you? I wash my hands of such a privilege and want no part of it, but as you can see, wife, you’re in luck. You have two Kelly men right here up for the challenge.”

This is a test.

He’s testing me.

He came up with this sordid plan thinking I’d balk at it and immediately refuse.

The only thing he didn’t account for when he came up with this scheme was how desperate I am to finally live a life of my own.

I get up from my seat and mimic his form down to the planted palms on the table.

“Are you sure there is no other way?”

Money isn’t an object for a man like Tiernan Kelly. He could buy a fertility clinic if he wanted and buy the silence of everyone working there. But that would defeat the purpose of putting me in my place and reminding me who holds the key to my future and happiness in the palm of his hands.

“Very sure.” He smirks in victory.

“Well then,” I start evenly, my severe gaze never wavering from his. “If this is the only way you see to uphold the treaty, then I have conditions.”

“We’re negotiating now?” He arches an amused eyebrow.

“A man like you should be accustomed to such things by now.”

“True. Negotiate away, wife. You have the floor.”

“Every night, you will come home at a decent hour and have dinner with me. I’m tired of eating my meals alone. But the minute you walk through the doors, I’ll also want you to leave the day’s work outside.”

It takes everything in me to keep my composure in place when Tiernan fights not to roll his eyes at the pitiful excuse of a negotiation attempt.

“I can accommodate that request. But only until you give birth. After that, I see no need for such pleasantries.”

“Fine,” I concede.

“May I include a clause of my own now?”

“By all means. The floor is all yours,” I reply sarcastically.

This time the smirk that rises to his lips doesn’t hold any malevolence to it, only odd amusement.

“I asked Shay to accompany you today to find a house that is to your liking. If you are to mother the next Kelly generation then it’s all the more important that both you and the child live in an accommodating setting.”

“Child? As in one?” I interrupt before he picks up from where he left off.

“Are you planning on wanting more?” His brows pull together in suspicion.

“I think to guarantee a Kelly successor, it would be prudent to have more than one, yes.”

His fingers begin to tap on the table as he seems to genuinely consider my statement.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

“Very well,” he relents. “Once your first child turns two-years-old, then we can revisit this proposition and see if you are still interested in having more. Childbearing and motherhood aren’t for everyone. You might find that having just one child is enough of a challenge and change your mind. You and I both know how fickle you can be.”

“Fair enough,” I reply stoically, proud that my cheeks didn’t burn a flaming red with the memory he just conjured up of the night I lost my virginity to him.

“How many children were you thinking?” he questions dryly, once he sees his little dig at me didn’t get the desired effect he expected.

“Three,” I state evenly, looking directly at the three men sitting in front of me.

Tiernan’s jaw ticks, giving my own smile of triumph free rein having gotten a reaction from him.

“What else?”

“I think it’s your turn to make demands, husband,” I coo, batting my eyelashes at him.

“As long as you are no longer living under my roof when all of this is done, I have all that I want.”

I smile sweetly, hiding the hurt his cold words have caused.

“Very well. Then my next demand is that I don’t want the transaction to happen at the apartment. I want it to be on neutral ground. For all parties involved.”

“I can consent to that. There are a few apartments at The Avalon I rent out. One of them is currently vacant, so you can use it for your gatherings . Anything else you need to add, or are you content with your negotiations?”

“I only have one more thing that I want. Then I’ll sign anything you put in front of me.”

“Now, wife, there is no need for contracts. That’s not the world we live in. My word is my bond. That should suffice,” he adds with a sardonic grin.

“It does.”

“Good. Then what is this last demand you want?”

I look at an ashen-faced Shay and then towards an even more stunned Colin, only to land my final stare on the man who is determined to pull all our strings.

“Whenever Shay, Colin, and I fuck, you’ll have to be in the room to watch.”

I’m not sure if it’s the shock of hearing me say the word fuck that got to him, or my request that he be in the room when I have sex with his cousin or brother that did. The proof of how I just pricked the Irish king and made him bleed is all in the way his hands immediately balled into fists.

And with the knowledge that I tipped the crown off his head, I pick up my purse and begin to strut to the door. With my hand on the door knob, I turn my head over my shoulder and give my husband some parting advice.

“Those are my terms, husband. Fail to meet them, and I’ll tell the families how this treaty is null and void. You have until midnight to give me your answer. Tick tock, Tiernan. Tick tock.”