The gunshot is painfully loud. The soldier’s head jerks back. A perfect hole appears in the center of his forehead at the same time a mess of bloody chunks fly out from the back of his skull.
He drops to his knees and topples over sideways, dead.
Looking at the body, Declan sighs.
Chaos erupts. Soldiers from both sides surge forward, shouting and waving guns. An infuriated Massimo hollers at Quinn. Tomasi and Aldo are frozen in shock, gaping.
Ricci holds up his arms, turns to the Italian soldiers, and thunders over the fray, “Shut the fuck up and put down your weapons!”
There’s a pause in the noise, into which he says in Italian, “Anybody who fires a shot won’t walk out of here alive.”
Throwing hard glances left and right, the muttering soldiers lower their guns.
Declan makes an aggravated motion with his hand to indicate his own soldiers should do the same. They comply instantly, stepping back.
It’s quiet for a moment, except for the sound of Massimo’s heavy breathing.
I turn to look at Quinn standing beside me. His eyes are wild. His face is red. A vein throbs erratically in the side of his neck.
“And you have the nerve to call me a land mine. You explode at the drop of a hat.”
He shoves his gun back into his waistband and pulls me against his side with one arm. Glaring at Massimo, he growls, “Nobody disrespects my girl.”
I am a sick and twisted individual, because this violent display of protectiveness has got me so hot, I want to push him down to the bare concrete and tear off his pants with my teeth.
Instead, I turn back to Massimo and smile. “You were saying?”
He moistens his lips and straightens his tie. He runs a shaky hand over his hair. He glances at Quinn, exhales a hard breath, and pulls himself together.
“There’s a vote for the next capo tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“We want to know if your brother is worthy of the position.”
Sensing there’s a lot more to it than that, I tilt my head and narrow my eyes at him. “Why don’t you tell me what you really want?”
“I just did.”
I say softly, “You have ten seconds until we leave. I’ve got shopping to do.”
Massimo opens his mouth, but Alessandro cuts him off. “We understand that you killed some of the intruders?”
I don’t know where they’re getting their information, but I’m not about to stand here and justify protecting my own home. So I say flatly, “Anyone who comes into my house uninvited leaves in a body bag.”
He nods, considering me. “Does that protectiveness extend to the rest of your family?” He makes a slight sweeping motion of his hand, indicating all the other Italians present.
I notice Declan watching me intently, but can’t concentrate on that. Holding Alessandro’s piercing gaze, I say, “Is my loyalty to the family under question?”
He pauses to carefully choose his words. “Forgive the presumption, but your loyalty could now be said to be…” He glances at Quinn. “Divided.”
“My loyalty extends to those who prove themselves worthy of it.”
“Regardless of blood?”
“For fuck’s sake, Alessandro. You’re smarter than that. Let me put it bluntly: family comes first. Unless they prove themselves untrustworthy, then they’re dead to me.” I smile. “Or by me. And before you get too excited, I consider the Irish family now, too. They’ve proven themselves much better friends than I expected.”
I pause to glance up at Quinn. “And for that, I’m grateful.”
The look in his eyes is all the reward I need.
Looking back at Alessandro, I say, “The bottom line is that I don’t consider my loyalty divided. I consider it extended. I’m Italian by birth, and now Irish by marriage. Do with that what you will, but I won’t stand here any longer and be forced to explain myself. I’ve given you enough of my time.”
I wrap an arm around Quinn’s waist. “You’re interrupting my honeymoon.”
Alessandro looks at Massimo. After a pause, he gives a curt nod. Then Alessandro glances at Tomasi and Aldo, who also nod.
He turns back to me. “Thank you, Reyna. Always a pleasure to speak with you.” He looks at Quinn and chuckles. “Congratulations, Mr. Quinn. And good luck.”
When Quinn narrows his eyes suspiciously, I poke him in the ribs to distract him from using Alessandro’s face for target practice.
Massimo turns to his soldiers. He whistles and makes a circle in the air with his finger. Everyone falls back and allows the four heads to pass, then they pick up the body and fall in line behind them, headed for a door at the back of the warehouse.
As they file out, Declan issues a command in Gaelic to his men. They walk to another door, leading out the side.
Smiling, Declan turns to us. “That was a grand bit of fun, wasn’t it?”
“It was a test,” I say, watching the last of Massimo’s men leave. The door slams shut behind him. A trail of blood is the only evidence they were ever here.
Declan murmurs, “Aye.”
I focus on his face, which is unreadable. “You know what this is about, don’t you?”
He lifts a shoulder and flicks his cigarette butt away. “I know all kinds of things, lass. It’s the job. By the way, Sloane wants you both over for supper tonight.”
Glancing at Quinn’s possessive arm clamped around my body, his crystal blue eyes warm with laughter. “If you don’t have any other plans, that is.”
Quinn says, “I’ve got all sorts of plans. What time?”
“Six o’clock work for you, lover boy?”
“Aye.” He looks down at me, and his voice grows husky. “Hope Sloane won’t be serving anything too heavy. I’ll need my energy for later.”
“You don’t have a problem with energy,” I say softly. “Are we done fighting now?”
“Probably not.”
“Great. Thanks for the heads-up.”
When I turn back to Declan, he winks at me before strolling away.
Back in the car, I ask Quinn for his cell phone so I can call Gianni. I left my handbag at the hotel because I was too distracted wanting to rip off Quinn’s head when we left.
When I dial the number, it goes straight to voicemail.
“Gianni. Call me as soon as you get this. Shit, forget that, I don’t have my cell on me, I’m calling from Quinn’s phone.” I look at him and say, “What’s this number?”
He quirks his lips. “You think I’m giving out my untraceable burner number to your idiot brother?”
Good point.
Into the phone, I say, “Never mind, I’ll try you later. And you’d better be back at the hotel with Mamma right now, apologizing for leaving her alone overnight.”
I disconnect and hand the phone back to Quinn. As soon as he’s stashed it inside his shirt pocket, he drags me across the seat and pulls me onto his lap. He looks at my mouth. His eyes start burning.
I sigh. “Not in front of Kieran, please.”
From the front seat, Kieran says, “Don’t mind me, lass. I’m blind as a bat up here. Deaf, too, if it makes ye feel any better.’”
Ignoring him because Quinn’s sliding his hand up my thigh, I warn, “Don’t you dare.”
He whispers, “You defended me. In front of all those wankers, you introduced me as your husband and called me honey.”
“Those ‘wankers’ are my family.”
“You said we were your family, too,” he breathes, eyes alight. Sinking his fingers into my flesh, he touches his lips to mine.
Pleased by how satisfied he is, I smile at him. “Don’t let it go to your head. That’s big enough already.”
He takes his hand from my leg and clasps it around my jaw. He kisses me again, this time more firmly, but still with no tongue. A thrill in his voice, he says, “You said we were on our honeymoon.”
“I was trying to distract everyone from the mess you made. Remember the dead guy on the floor? Brains, blood, sound familiar? Also, back up a second. What the hell was your problem this morning? Were you concerned about this meeting you neglected to tell me anything about?”
His jaw works. He caresses my face for a moment in pensive silence, then shakes his head.
When he doesn’t offer any explanation, I say crossly, “I see you’ve hit the mute button again. I wish I had access to that when you won’t shut the hell up.”
“Let me have this moment of happiness before you destroy my will to live, please.”
When I blink, taken aback, he says, “That was a joke.”
I chew my lip and play with a button on his shirt. “Don’t joke about your will to live. You’ve said some things in that regard that worry me.”
He exhales, pulls me against his chest, and tucks my head under his chin. Holding me tightly, he says gruffly, “Tell you what. You’re the only one in this marriage who’s allowed to kill me. How’s that?”
Snuggled in his big strong arms, I whisper, “I don’t want to kill you. I mean I do, but not right now.”
He chuckles, nuzzling my ear.
I close my eyes and breathe him in. “Quinn?”
“Aye?”
“You shot a man because he disrespected me.”
“Aye. And you didn’t even flinch.”
“Is it bad that I found it erotic?”
“The dead guy?”
I know he’s only hunting for praise, but I still sigh in exasperation. “The psychotic machismo. Watching you blow out someone’s brains because you didn’t like the way he talked about me was a real turn-on.”
A smile in his voice, he murmurs, “Careful, viper. Another compliment like that and you’ll have a hundred bodies laid out at your feet by the end of the day.”
I shiver with happiness, burying my face into the crook of his neck. Then, because I know my reaction is all sorts of wrong, I say sternly, “That’s awful.”
He laughs, squeezing me harder. “Christ, we’re a pair, aren’t we?”
Over his shoulder, Kieran says, “Look at it this way, lad: yer savin’ two other people by bein’ together!”
I say, “I thought you couldn’t hear anything!”
“Oh. Right. Sorry, lass.”
Settling back against Quinn’s chest, I say to him, “I have a question for you.”
“And I have an answer. Whether I’ll admit it or not remains to be seen.”
What I wouldn’t give for a Taser right now. “You said yesterday, you didn’t have a condom because you weren’t planning on having sex.”
“So?”
“So why weren’t you planning on having sex on your wedding night?”
Kieran chuckles. “Because he doesn’t fancy little girls, that’s why.”
At the same time, Quinn and I say, “Kieran!”
He waves a hand apologetically. “Sorry. Mum’s the word.”
After a pause to glare at the back of Kieran’s head, Quinn says, “Lili didn’t want it. I didn’t want it. There was no need for protection from something that wasn’t going to happen.”
I’m so confused, my eyes almost cross.
Then, abruptly, I’m angry.
“Let me get this straight. You were going to marry Lili with no expectation of consummating the marriage, but you demanded our marriage include sex and then made me propose to you?”
He makes a face as if I’m being silly, then brushes me off with, “Let’s talk about Aldo. Why don’t you trust him?”
I reply with a pointed stare. “Because he’s moody, arrogant, and incomprehensible.”
“Ah. Then we’ll get along just fine.”
Kieran tries to stifle a laugh by coughing.
Positioning me more comfortably between his legs, Quinn says, “So where should I take you shopping first?”
“The Neptune Society.”
“What’s that?”
My smile is acidic. “A cremation company. Did you know they’ll pick up a dead body from anywhere in the world?
“You’re being funny again.”
“Yes, but you often mistake threats for humor, so there’s really no telling.”
Dismissing that, he changes the subject. “Speaking of sex—”
“We were talking about where to go shopping!”
“—what kind of birth control are you using?”
Blindsided by that, I stare at him blankly.
He stares back at me with a patient, curious look, waiting for my answer.
My answer which will make not one damn ounce of sense, so I take a page from his playbook and change the subject. “Why do you think Alessandro was so interested in what happened at the house last week? That was strange, wasn’t it?”
“Aye. What’s even stranger is why you’re trying to get out of answering my question about birth control.”
“Rewind to the part in the conversation where you said you’d have an answer for me, but might not admit it, and we’ll go from there.”
He furrows his brows, gazing at me with growing concern, then murmurs, “Oh.”
“What do you mean, ‘Oh’?”
He glances out the window and gives me a squeeze, saying softly, “It’s all right. We don’t have to talk about it.”
“I can tell you’re formulating some kind of bizarre and utterly incorrect hypothesis in that lump of coal you call a brain, Quinn. Stop thinking so hard. It doesn’t suit you.”
He glances back at me, his look wary. “So there’s not a big reason you don’t want to tell me?”
I sigh. The man is hopeless. “Just tell me what the big reason is that you’ve manufactured, and I’ll tell you if it’s right.”
Hesitating, he licks his lips. “Are you…?”
I lift my brows. “Breathless with anticipation? Yes. Spit it out before I faint.”
He sends a furtive glance to my lap, then looks at my face again. When he winces, I know what he’s thinking.
“No, I’m not infertile.”
His pause is so loud, I need earplugs. “Did you have your tubes tied?”
“No.”
“So everything is in good working order. Down there.”
I say drily, “I’ll have my gynecologist send you the records, Doctor. You can pore over them yourself.”
Looking relieved and also a little sheepish, he admits, “I just didn’t know if you…if Enzo did something…fuck.” He looks out the window again, his cheeks ruddy.
Horrified to realize his meaning, I say softly, “Oh God, Quinn, no. Nothing like that. I was on the pill the whole time I was married.”
He exhales, nodding. “Okay. Sorry, I’m just…” He stops short, then looks me in the eye. “So you’re saying you’re still on the pill?”
I feel heat creeping up my neck, but there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. “No. That’s not what I’m saying.”
His gaze turns intense. “Then what kind of birth control are you on, woman?”
Looking at the roof of the car, I crinkle my nose and say, “Um…”
With the speed of two fingers snapping, he devolves from an adult human male with a fully functioning frontal lobe to a cave-dwelling primate composed of ninety-nine percent penis.
A growl rises from deep in his throat. His arms tighten around me. His intensity level ratchets up a few thousand notches, and his eyes turn black. His energy crackling hot, he stares at me as if I’m about to be devoured.
In a guttural voice that raises all the hairs on the back of my neck, he says, “You’re not using anything.”
I nervously lick my lips. “Don’t go all George of the Jungle on me. I simply didn’t know I’d be needing anything because I didn’t know I’d be getting married.”
His savage grin is reminiscent of how an animal bares its teeth. His eyes gleam with a disturbing light. And his erection is now the fourth passenger in the car, quickly sucking out all the oxygen.
“You never mentioned that, viper. You let me fuck you and—”
“Keep your voice down!”
“—begged for me to come inside you. Begged me. And the whole time, you weren’t on birth control.” He bites my throat, then says hotly into my ear, “What does that mean?”
Shivering, I whisper, “That I have brain damage and should be taken to see a specialist immediately.”
He wraps a hand around my throat and takes my mouth.
The kiss is consuming in its intensity. He thrusts his tongue into my mouth and ravages it passionately until I think I’ll pass out. When he breaks away, we’re both panting.
But he’s the only one laughing.
Low, rough, and thoroughly pleased, his laughter is a victory lap around the race that I’ve obviously just lost with my admission.
“Quinn?”
“Aye, viper?”
“Don’t talk to me for the rest of the day, okay?”
Still chuckling, he kisses me again. His mouth is possessive, his embrace is tight, and his eyes are living fire.
“Whatever my queen wants.”
Looking away from his triumphant face, I wonder how soon is too soon to start marriage counseling.
