Page 131 of Stolen Hearts
“That would be coffee. Also known as, that mysterious dark liquid hiding somewhere underneath all that fake milk and sugar you typically dump in.”
She rolls her eyes and flips me off. I watch with amusement as she tries to take another sip of the black coffee, but the mug doesn’t even make it all the way to her lips before she shakes her head with finality and gives it back.
“Nope. That’s straight up nasty. How the fuck do you drink it like that?”
“I’m a purist?”
“More like a masochist.”
I chuckle as she turns to frown out the window at the morning light.
“And what freaking time is it?”
“Almost eight-thirty, Sunshine. Day’s a-wasting.”
She groans. “I don’t know how you get up so fucking early.”
“Yeah, you’re really chasing the dawn at eight-twenty in the morning, aren’t you?”
I’ll give Callie this much: shehasbeen waking up earlier than she used to. But I’m a usually-up-by-six-at-the-latest type of guy. So when sleeping beauty stumbles into the living room two and a half hours later acting like it’s the ass-crack of dawn, yeah, that’s comedy gold to me.
“Well,” she stretches her arms up luxuriously, lifting the tank-top up her body as her nipples pebble against it. My eyes slip down, shamelessly tracing over the taut lines of her stomach and hips, drinking in the way her panties mold to her pussy.
“I mean,someonekept me up last night.”
My eyes raise to hers, relishing the way the heat rises in her cheeks.
Ididkeep her up last night. Just I have pretty much every night for the past month, ever since the day of her MBA interview where I almost killed that fucking kid outside the club that evening.
Between Massimo marrying Eloise LeBlanc and the hitman that tried to kill us getting offed himself, the threat levels for us have been lowered. Which means we’re a little more back to normal. Callie’s back in the world, where she’s hard at work getting her ducks in a line for business school. She’s also been getting things ready for the eventual relaunch of The Banshee, the Irish bar she, Neve, and Eilish are opening together. That’ll probably happen in the next year.
On my end, the transition from Cillian to me at the head of the organization has gone so seamlessly that we’re both frankly almost holding our breath waiting for another shoe to drop.
But I’ve also been going full steam ahead with a wide range of plans that’ll make the Kildare family even stronger and more secure. We’ve started making the alliances that will facilitate our expansion into Boston. And through Hades, I’ve had a sit down with Jayden Robinson, the head of the Jamaican Mafia here in New York, and signed an official pact between our families.
Thanks to Gavan making introductions, I’ve also had meetings with the heads of some of the major Bratva families to hammer out some handshake agreements. After all, when Eilish and Gavan marry in a few months’ time, the Kildares will become family with the Tsarenko/Reznikov family.
It’s been an intense crash course in diplomacy and leadership. But Cillian was right: I’d been doing this from over his shoulder for years. So officially stepping into the role isn’tquiteas much of a near-drowning experience as I thought it might be.
Ostensibly, Callie and I are still living together here in Konstantin and Mara Reznikov’s apartment because one, it’s easier than finding our own place, and itisa goddamn fortress. And two, because even if Massimo is married now, no one quite knows how the other Italian Mafia families would feel about Callie and I not adhering to the original terms laid out in the blood-marker saying we’re supposed to remain married for a year.
It’s probably nothing any of them would give a shit about if we divorced tomorrow. But Italian families have a lot of convoluted histories. If we were to end things prematurely, there is a possibility that former allies of Luca could foment enough anger and push Massimo hard enough to seek reprisal for the perceived slight of being duped out of his father’s promised bride.
So that’s allostensiblywhy I’m still living here with Callie. The reality is a lot more complicated.
For the first time in my entire life, it actually feels like I’m in a relationship. That’s a conversation we haven’t had, and a label we’ve never used out loud. But, I mean, for a month, I’ve shared a bed with her every night.
We eat together. Wego outto eat together. We work on our laptops on the couch next to each other, and we brush our teeth next to each other.
I mean, for fuck’s sake, the girl walked into the bathroom and took a piss the other day while I was shaving.
Ifthat’snot a relationship, I’m not sure what the fuck is.
But aside from Deimos, we’re still keeping it a secret. And even between the two of us it’s left unsaid. But for now, whatever this is, it feelsgood. It feels like I know peace for the first time maybe in my entire life.
And that’s gotta count for something.
“What’ve you got going on today?”