“She lives above a girl named Winter. I believe they’re best friends. Her landlord’s name is June, a batty old lady, wanted to kick them out many times over the years, but was amenable when I told her very firmly that it wasn’t an option. She works at several bars, especially one with a Lobster in the name. Keeps to herself. Rides her bike.”
I leaned back, stunned.
I hadn’t spoken a word to him, and yet he knew all that.
Worse, he meddled in my affairs.
“Thank you for confirming,” Roman said and covered one of my hands with his own. It was comforting and protective all at once, and it kept my heart under control.
My breath was ragged. I worked on getting that even and smooth.
Dad never let me alone. Roman hadn’t lied.
He’d been watching me this whole time.
I wanted to scream.
Why would he do that, when he made it so clear that he didn’t give a damn about me back home?
If he wanted to be in my life, he never should’ve acted like I was ruined.
He made that choice, not me.
And yet he never left me alone. He was watching out for me.
The realization made my stomach twist with nausea.
“If you don’t mind, Mr. Lenkov, I want to know why you brought me down from Boston for this.”
“Call me Roman.”
“Okay, Roman. You know who I am, and you know that I’ve been involved in my daughter’s life from a distance, but I still don’t know what you have to do with any of this.”
“I met Cassie at a party over a month ago. Since then, we’ve been seeing each other in secret.”
Dad’s eyebrows raised. “Seeing each other? I would’ve heard that. I knew she left with you—“
“Do you really think you would’ve known?” Roman spoke quietly, intensely. His fingers tightened on my hand.
Dad glanced at me and paled. “I suppose not.”
“Your daughter and I are married. We made it official several days ago, and I’m here to ask for your blessing.”
Dad rocked back in his chair and his mouth fell open.
I’d never seen him surprised before.
I wished Roman would kick him in the teeth.
“Married?”
“I’m here to ask for your blessing, and to request that you and Oisin both attend the ceremony. We’re having a wedding, Eamon.”
“Wedding.” Dad barked a laugh. “You’ve got to be joking.”
“There’s no joke here.”
“You despise my family. I know the history between you and Oisin. There’s a reason I didn’t want to come, but I thought, I wasn’t involved in what happened. Surely you’d understand that.”
“And I do.”
“Why this charade? You, marrying my daughter?” Dad laughed again, shaking his head. “Why the hell would you want someone like her?”
Roman moved fast.
He reached across the table, snatched up Dad’s beer, turned the glass sideways, and smashed it into his face.
Dad grunted in shock and pain as his chair tipped and he fell backwards with a crash. Beer spilled out all over the table and floor, dripping down onto Dad’s fallen body.
The silence that filled the room afterwards was thick.
Roman tossed the glass aside. It hit the ground and rolled beneath a booth.
“Get up.”
Dad grunted and struggled. He stood, his clothes stained with Guinness. He righted his chair and sat. He bled freely from a cut in his forehead.
“Do you want to try that again?” Roman asked.
“You can hit me as much as you want, but it won’t change the fact that Oisin will never agree to any of this.”
“Oisin’s been living in a cave for the past three years. My men have been searching for him day and night, and that stupid old man knows that if he ever emerges into the world again, he will die. You will go back to your boss and you will tell him that this is his only chance to survive. I’m married to your daughter, and I want your boss to pledge fealty to me. Tell him that if he wants to have a life again, he’ll come to the wedding, get down on his knees, and beg my forgiveness.”
Another silence like the bottom of the ocean. Thick, black water, drowning me.
Dad’s blood dripped down onto the table.
“You’re serious,” he said at last. “We take money from Darren Servant.”
“I know that. You’ll end that relationship.”
“He won’t be happy.”
“Do you think I give a shit? I have the Drozdov Bratva and the Liberto Mafia in the palm of my hand. When Oisin gives me the MacKenna, I’ll take control of the east coast and push deeper into the Midwest. None of the others will stand against me.”
Dad watched Roman for a long, tense moment. Neither of them moved. My brain screamed that I should get up and run away, because something violent as about to happen—
But it already did.
“I’ll tell him.”
“This is his only chance. He will swear loyalty to me on his knees and beg my forgiveness, and then together we’ll take the country by storm.”