SINFUL OBSESSION

MAFIA MISFITS BOOK FIVE

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ASIA MONIQUE

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Copyright © 2023 by Asia Monique
All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales or, is
entirely coincidental. No portion of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without the writer’s permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews.

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 CONTENTS

Family Breakdowns
Trigger Warnings
Name Pronunciation
Quote

Prologue
1. Violet Jackson
2. Finnegan
3. Violet
4. Finnegan
5. Violet
6. Finnegan
7. Violet
8. Finnegan
9. Violet
10. Finnegan
11. Violet
12. Finnegan
13. Violet
14. Finnegan
15. Violet
16. Finnegan
17. Violet
18. Finnegan
19. Violet
20. Finnegan
21. Violet
22. Finnegan

Author Notes

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 SYNOPSIS

Finnegan O’Sullivan
The first time I heard her name, my cold heart warmed.
The first time I saw her face, a switch inside me flipped on.
The first time I heard her speak, she became my voice of reason.
I wanted to know her…
Learn her…
Love her…
She was my new obsession.

Violet Jackson
The first time I heard his name, my heart found its rhythm again.
The first time I saw his face, all of a sudden, everything made sense.
The first time I heard him speak, he became my voice of reason.
I wanted to know him…
Learn him...
Love him…
He was my new obsession.

Note: Sinful Obsession is book five in the mafia misfits series and can be
read as a standalone. This story includes depictions of violence; may be
sensitive for some readers.

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 FAMILY BREAKDOWNS

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MORETTI FAMILY
Leonardo Moretti born to Pietro Costa Sr (deceased) and Valentina
Moretti (deceased).

Nera Moretti (formally Banks) married to Leonardo and they have two
children, Luca and Lucia.

Lucia Bianchi (formally Moretti) married Enzo Bianchi (Bianchi Crime

Family) and they have one child Enzo Bianchi Junior.

Luca Moretti engaged to Galina Ivanov-Whitlock, and they have one

child on the way.

What you need to know: Though Leonardo is a Costa by birth, he does not
claim the name or the family as his own and they have never claimed him.

Notable characters: Dante Cardona, Gaia Wilson, Jazmina Porter, and

Violet Jackson.

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BIANCHI FAMILY
Angelo Bianchi adopted by Alessandro Bianchi (deceased) and Martina
Bianchi (formally Barone).

Emilia Bianchi (formally Romano) married to Angelo and they have three
children, Enzo, Matteo, and Gianna.

Enzo Bianchi married to Lucia Bianchi (formally Moretti) and they have
one child, Enzo Bianchi Junior.

Matteo Bianchi is married to Akira Bianchi (formally Wright).

Gianna O’Sullivan (formally Bianchi) is married to Cian O’Sullivan and

they have one child on the way.

Notable characters: Ricardo “Rocco” Carter, and Brandon Santoro.

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IVANOV FAMILY
Dmitri Ivanov born to Polina Ivanov and Demetri Crawford.

Sasha Ivanov (formally Whitlock) married to Dmitri and they have one
son, Nikolai.

Nikolai Ivanov (unmatched and underage - 17)

Galina Ivanov-Whitlock born to Sierra Whitlock (deceased) and Cain

Henderson. She was raised by her aunt Sasha and uncle Dmitri. Galina is
engaged to Luca Moretti (Moretti Crime Family), and they have one child
on the way.

Notable Characters: Artyom Ivanov and Erica Goode.

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SĀTO FAMILY
Mio Sāto-Wright born to Ichiro Sāto (deceased) and Kimona Deleon
(deceased).

Joaquin Wright married to Mio, and they have one daughter, Akira.

Akira Wright is married to Matteo Bianchi (Bianchi Crime Family).

Notable Characters: Seven Wright, Badrick Deleon, and Fallon Green

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O’SULLIVAN FAMILY
Darragh O’Sullivan Junior born to Darragh O’Sullivan Senior and
Jessenia Mitchell

Caroline O’Sullivan (formally Washington) married to Darragh, and they

have four sons, Sean, Finnegan, Cian, and Rían.

Sean O’Sullivan (currently unattached)

Finnegan “Finn” O’Sullivan (currently unattached)

Cian O’Sullivan married to Gianna O’Sullivan (formally Bianchi) and they

have one child on the way.

Rían O’Sullivan (currently unattached)

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 TRIGGER WARNINGS

Sex trafficking (off-page+discussed)

Rape (mentioned)
Problematic family members
Child abandonment
Unable to conceive
Drug addiction
This story includes depictions of violence; may be sensitive for some
readers.

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 NAME PRONUNCIATION

Cian (Key-In)
Niamh (Neev)
Eoghan (Owen)
Aoife (Ee-Fa)
Siobhan (Sha-Von)
The Irish have unique names, so please call them whatever you want if it
feels like it’s a lot.

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 QUOTE

Dark souls need love too.

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 PROLOGUE

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 ENZO AND LUCIA’S WEDDING…

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FINNEGAN O’SULLIVAN
“H e ’ s fine , G ianna .”
Sean crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at our brother’s girlfriend.
The two had been in a standoff for at least three minutes.
“That’s not what the fuck I asked,” she reminded him through gritted
teeth, her eyes pulled to slits. “Where is he?”
I found Gianna’s temper interesting.
She didn’t initially come across as having one, but I’d read her
personality wrong.
It’s always the quiet ones, I thought.
“Handling some business that came up,” I told her, earning her attention
and a glare from Sean, who hadn’t wanted her to know. “That scowl doesn’t
work on me. She’s about to blow a gasket at her brother’s wedding, and I’m
not in the mood to hear Cian’s mouth.”
“Why didn’t he tell me himself?” she asked, a little of the softness we
were used to from her back, though I could tell she wasn’t feeling it.
“Last minute,” Sean and I said in unison.
More questions were coming, I could see it in her eyes, but we were
saved by Nera—her mother—who called for her from the sliding door on
the deck leading into their estate.
“She’s a little scary when she’s angry,” Sean said as Gianna stormed off
in the other direction.
“I don’t expect anything less of a woman raised by wolves.”
Sean nodded, his lips twitching.
My brothers and I only made up less than half the men in our family.
The O’Sullivan tribe was run by feisty and opinionated women; we valued
what they brought to the table, but they were some crazy muthafuckas in
the heels, makeup, and menacing smiles.
I knew what a woman looked like that had the skills to kill but chose to
keep them to herself until she couldn’t anymore. Yet, somehow I had
misjudged Gianna.
Off your game.
That scratchy voice in the back of my head wouldn’t stop repeating
those three words.
 I was admittedly off my game and couldn’t figure out why for the life of
me.
Nothing drastic had changed in my life.
Business was good; I was good.
“Finn!”
I blinked and glanced at Sean.
“Fuck are you yelling for?” I asked, knowing the answer but refusing to
admit that I’d zoned off again.
It had been happening more and more lately, and by the glare on my
brother’s face, I knew he was getting tired of having to repeat himself.
“I don’t know where the fuck your head has been these last few
weeks…” he nudged me with his shoulder as he passed. “…but figure it the
fuck out, Finn.”
“If I could, I would,” I muttered to myself as I headed toward the bar.
I’d been saving my one drink minimum for the reception, but there was
an intense feeling in my gut I couldn’t shake anymore, pulling me in that
direction. As I approached, my eyes lingered on the exposed back of a
woman.
She was thin and tall, all arms and legs with skin so dark it made her
white dress stand out. The dress wasn’t the star of this show though; she
was.
I closed the distance between her and me with a little more purpose,
saddling up to the bar with nothing but learning her name on my mind.
“I’m getting a drink,” she said softly, talking to no one in particular.
I rested my elbow on the makeshift bar top and twisted my head to get a
good look at her. She had a soft jawline and high cheekbones with eyes that
slightly curved upward toward her thick eyebrows.
“It’s rude to stare,” she said, turning to look at me.
Her eyes were sharper than I’d thought, big and the darkest shade of
grey I’d ever seen.
What the fuck?
My heart thudded at an uncomfortable pace, forcing me to touch my
chest in contempt.
“It’s rude to be this goddamn pretty,” I told her, meaning every fucking
word.
She gave me this dead expression; it felt like a mental eye roll to my
compliment.
 “I guess rude is rude,” she muttered, taking the drink she’d ordered
from the bartender.
“Sounds like you agree with me,” I mused.
That got no reaction from her, but it didn’t stop my heart from shouting
at me that she was it. She was the problem I’d been having.
“What’s your name?”
When she glanced in my direction this time, there was a knowing smirk
on her face.
“I thought you’d be better at this, Finnegan.”
I couldn’t appreciate how my name rolled off her tongue because her
knowing my name at all had more significance.
She angled her body to face mine and stepped closer, bringing more
awareness to her height. I looked down, following the length of her legs to
the combat boots she wore. If I had to guess, she was a solid five foot ten.
Mm.
“I’m feeling the shoe of choice…”
I lifted my gaze to meet hers.
“You have to excuse me; I’ve been off kilter lately,” I added.
Her smirk transformed into a soft smile that changed the hardened look
she wore like armor. I wanted to know what other expressions she had
tucked away from the world.
“Violet,” she said, lifting her drink off the bar. “Violet Jackson, friend to
the bride.”
All the pieces began settling into place as she informed me of her name.
“Violet Jackson,” I repeated more to myself than her.
She backed away, and I followed her elongated steps.
“I heard you’ve been looking for me.”
I had my men searching high and low for her.
They’d come up empty every time.
She’d been like a ghost; not even Cian could find anything about her,
and that said a lot. Violet started as a name mentioned in an unfortunate
situation at the shipping yard a few weeks back—a name I hadn’t gotten out
of my head since I’d heard it.
“You’ve been hiding in plain sight.”
A friend to the bride.
Lucia Moretti kept her friends close to the chest, it seemed.
 Violet lifted her glass and said, “I like not being seen. Makes my job so
much easier.”
She turned, and I caught a glimpse of something in her ear, an earpiece,
maybe?
Who are you talking to? I wondered as she slipped through the sliding
door Gianna had gone through not long before.
“Would you like a drink?” the bartender asked, choosing to engage me
after Violet disappeared.
“Not anymore, but thanks.”
I shook my head and walked off.
A drink couldn’t top the high I currently felt; in fact, liquor would fuck
everything up, and I needed to savor what she’d so freely given. Something
told me it was a rare feat.
I reached the area set up for the ceremony and went to the row assigned
to my family. I slid into the aisle seat my mother left open, grateful that she
and my father were between Sean and me.
He knew me too well and picked up on my cues even as I actively tried
hiding them.
Being his second-in-command felt like a gift and a curse some days,
today being one of them. If Sean fucked up my high, I’d break his fucking
nose as payback.
“What’s with the look on your face?” my mother asked.
“It’s my face and in case you forgot, you gave it to me.”
She nudged my side, and I grimaced.
Caroline O’Sullivan had a sturdy elbow that I’d been on the receiving
end of on more occasions than I cared to admit.
“You were smiling,” she murmured, leaning in to deliver the message.
“I think I met my wife just now,” I told her without much thought.
My mother had always been easy to talk to.
She wasn’t the type who asked about grandkids every other week, but
the kind who encouraged us to fall in love with the right intentions and
nothing less.
“Mmm,” she hummed as the ceremony began.
Nothing else mattered when she started up the aisle, her eyes straight
forward and shoulders back. Our gazes met briefly as she approached my
row, and my life flashed before my eyes.
I saw her clear as day in every distorted flicker of the future ahead.
Violet fucking Jackson.

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CHAPTER ONE

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 VIOLET JACKSON

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PRESENT…
I had a problem — an addiction .
“It won’t be long now, Terrence, ” I murmured, stroking the side of his
face while he gasped for air. “You should relax. It hurts worse when you
react harshly.”
Or maybe it was an unhealthy obsession, depending on who you asked.
“I wanted to save you for last, but bringing in the New Year with you
still alive didn’t feel right…” I walked around the bed to get to my bag. “It
all started with you, and the year should end with you.”
Some men deserved this kind of treatment.
Especially those who walked around every day, living their best lives
while ruining others. I wanted this specific man to feel the hurt he’d caused
many women, including me.
Terrence had been one of a few made men in the Costa organization
who slipped through the cracks during the invasion of their territory. I’d
been hunting them down one by one for months.
“P-Please,” he begged. “I-I’m s-sorry-y.”
I tsked while rolling shut my syringe pouch.
“Your only sorry because you never thought you’d see me again.”
His handsome face contorted and I rounded the bed again.
I’d dosed him with adrenaline, and too much of the drug could trigger
cardiac arrest. How the body reacted to too much of a drug meant to save
lives was a sight to behold.
“My life changed in ways you could never imagine, and because of that,
I do not accept your apology.”
His pupils were dilated and glossy, while his breathing elevated slowly.
“You’re fighting the inevitable.”
I stood and leaned over him.
“You know what you have to do.”
Our eyes connected, and I regarded him closely.
“Is dying this way uncomfortable?”
“I-I was a-a…” he took a deep breath and choked, his body jerking
against his wrist and leg restraints. “a-n idiot.”
Terrence was much more than that and he knew it.
 It was bigger than what he’d did to me; this was about how many times
he’d done it after me. He enjoyed the power it gave him over women and
suddenly his debt wasn’t a burden.
“Yes, you were an idiot and now you get to pay for it.”
Terrence gasped, and slowly the life left his eyes.
I checked his pulse, holding two fingers to his wrist for a minute
straight to be sure he was gone. This kill felt surreal, glorious even.
Terrence had been a pawn in a treacherous game.
He called himself a victim; I called him a weak son of a bitch who owed
a debt.
Owing the mafia had come with a different set of consequences, and
Terrence agreed to do the unthinkable to pay it back.
My life changed because of his life choices.
He found the impressionable girl I used to be, the girl who craved any
kind of love she could get, and sold me to the wolves when I fell into his
inescapable web. I’d been so goddamn naïve and irresponsible that I missed
all the signs.
Stupid, girl.
My mother’s voice danced to the forefront. I’d never been anything but
a stupid girl with unrealistic dreams and aspirations to her. She could have
been right, but I never got to find out.
Never got to finish my senior year at Berklee.
Never got to make the music I wanted so badly to create.
I suffered for a year, and then my savior came packed in a five-foot-
seven frame with enough skill to unalive an entire organization if she damn
well pleased.
She’d also come with a last name that changed my life.
I would always be indebted to Lucia Moretti, though she’d freak if I
told her so.
I wasn’t a Moretti by birth, but I’d shed blood with and for them. They
were my family and had only ever treated me as such.
“What took you so long?” Jaz asked as I entered the townhome we
shared in Blackthorne.
Jaz barely laid her head here anymore, choosing to share a bed with the
Italian man next door instead. I loved having the place to myself but would
never tell her that.
She needed a safe space to escape, the same as I did.
 We understood one another in that way.
“Had to make a stop,” I explained, setting the bag with the wine and
cheese she’d asked me to pick up on the counter. “They had gouda this
time, so I got that instead.”
Jaz eyed me as I moved around the kitchen, gathering two long-stem
glasses, a cutting board, and a knife. She knew me better than anyone, even
Lucia.
“Still hunting, aren’t you?” she asked, her tone soft.
I shrugged and filled our glasses to the rim while Jaz sliced the cheese.
“It’s not a big deal.”
Our discussion on the matter ended there, as it always did.
Jaz never pushed, and I appreciated her for it.
“Dante invited me to move in,” she revealed as she picked up her glass
and took a few long sips. “I told him no.”
I held in my laughter.
“It was that easy, huh?” I questioned as I sipped my wine. “Telling the
love of your life that none of the work he’s been putting in is enough to
make you take one leap?”
For another person, my words might’ve been too brash and insensitive.
Jazmina Porter wasn’t just another person.
We’d both experienced a part of the world neither wished on our worst
enemy. That kind of trauma hardened a person; we were living proof.
“Yes,” she said without a second thought. “It was easy because he still
doesn’t get it. He can’t love the brokenness out of me. Once he accepts that,
I’ll take the leap.”
And she meant it with every fiber of her being.
I thought she had every right to want to be loved for who she was and
not who she once had been. Dante wanted to restore the old parts of her
she’d lost along the way. He wanted her to feel whole again, at least what
he thought represented that.
I commended him for being the kind of man he was but still being able
to make Jaz fall in love with him. She would never admit it, but she needed
a gentle and kind man.
Dante wasn’t either of those things to anyone but Jaz.
He just… he couldn’t see that she didn’t need to be fixed.
She was whole in her own unique way.
“Have you told him this?”
 “Once, but occasional reminders were not included. I won’t keep
repeating myself.”
I nodded.
“Understood…” our gazes lingered, and she rolled her eyes. “…but
maybe—”
“I knew you weren’t going to let it go.”
“—maybe a reminder could help. You two just started getting serious
after all this time. What once was, isn’t anymore. Tell him what he needs to
get a full commitment from you, and then let the chips fall where they
may.”
“It’s sound advice,” she mused, unaffected.
“Advice you don’t plan to take.”
She smiled, but her eyes were sad.
“I don’t know.”
She’d take it when the urge became too strong to hold off from being
with him in the way she truly wanted. I could only hope it didn’t happen too
late. There was only so much rejection a person could take before they
moved on.
“Maybe when you stop chasing the ghosts of our past, you can let love
in and settle down,” Jaz said, twisting the conversation to focus on me.
I laughed softly and picked up my glass.
“That’s where we differ,” I told her as I stood.
Jaz accepted what came from what she endured before Luci came along
and pulled her out. She acknowledged that someone had broken her, and
she survived; That’s what made her whole.
I would never accept that a man… that men got to break me over and
over again.
My survival was packed with a need for revenge.
Everybody needed to pay, including the small men like Terrence.
“I don’t want a man who can only be with me when my demons are
tamed,” I said as I headed for the stairwell. “I want a man who’ll chase my
ghosts with me. When that man finds me, he can have me.”
“Mmhm,” she hummed, a funny note mixed in I couldn’t place. “We
both know he found you already.”
She murmured that last part; I’d already been halfway up the steps but
heard it loud and clear. I almost doubled back to start an argument, but it
would only prove her point.
 Jaz and I knew where I’d be in a couple hours after she snuck off to
Dante’s for the night to bring in the New Year, and four hours later, we
followed through on our newfound routine.
My sometimes roomie trotted across the lawn with a duffle bag stuffed
with two days’ worth of clothes hitched on her shoulder; at the same time, I
latched a gun into my thigh holster and a retractable knife at my ankle.
I slipped my feet into a pair of combat boots with an extra chunky heel
and platform. They came just above my ankle, covering the skinny leg of
my dark blue jeans and the blade wrapped around it. I shrugged on a black
leather jacket over my long-sleeved black bodysuit and then sprayed my
new favorite scent.
My phone chimed a few times before the alarm I’d set sounded,
warning me it was time to go.
I checked the messages from Jaz and Lucia as I locked up.
Lucia: If either of you is out tonight, be safe.
She sent that exact text every night at the same time.
These used to be our hunting hours before she married the head of the
Bianchi crime family and moved to Jersey. Now she was a wife and new
mother, living a dream.
Lucia had a husband who didn’t want to change a single thing about her.
He loved the ground she walked on and the gun she toted. The second she
was cleared by her doctor to resume regular activity, Enzo would make sure
she found a way to balance both of her lives.
Jaz: I’m boo’d up.
Me: Have a good night being wholesome women. Happy New Year in
advance.
I shut my phone off and drove myself to Philly, then deep into
O’Sullivan territory, where I knew he’d be.
He never disappointed.
Finnegan was always on time, and at ten thirty-two on the dot, his
metallic blue Hellcat rolled to a stop in the middle of the narrow west
Philadelphia block. He stepped out and glanced around before he rounded
the running car with the driver’s door still open.
No one in their right mind would try and take it, but someone with
nothing to lose might.
Still, he moved like he couldn’t be touched.
 I watched his long legs eat up the distance between him and the guy on
the sidewalk. He had his gun off his waist, denting the man’s head faster
than I could blink.
I loved a good show, and Finnegan always gave one.
His voice carried as he growled between blows, “You think you can
steal from me and get away with it?"
A few guys on the block started to approach what I couldn’t call a tussle
but a one-sided ass beating. They were his men, foot soldiers part of the
Irish Mob.
None of them were actually Irish except for the boss himself, though his
dark amber complexion didn’t show it.
Finnegan O’Sullivan was the son of Darragh O’Sullivan, head of the
Irish Mob. His father was of mixed race, born to a Black mother and Irish
father. Finn’s mother, however, was Black.
I’d gotten a glimpse of her at Lucia’s wedding, where we shared a few
words; all four O’Sullivan boys shared her darker skin.
The more I learned about him and watched him, the more I felt drawn to
him as a person.
I wanted…
Something shiny flashed in my side mirror, and I squinted to see better.
A few cars back, I spotted a body lowered at the side of a dark-colored
sedan. Their gun had a shiny tip, making it visible anytime the reflection hit
my mirror.
The figure slowly edged out and stood while everyone’s attention was
still on Finn.
A part of me wanted to wait and see how the situation would play out,
but I couldn’t convince myself not to do something if this was a hit on the
man’s life.
I sighed and pulled my gun from its holster.
When Finn stood tall, and the hooded figure raised his arm holding the
gun, I cracked my window just enough to fit the barrel of my Springfield
1911 EMP handgun through. Before Finn’s executioner could get a shot off,
I pressed the trigger twice, and he dropped.
That signature pop times two grabbed the attention of the bodies
standing around. I knew I wouldn’t get off the block without it being a
problem, so I opened my door and stepped out.
Finn’s gaze met mine, and I smirked.
 It was dark, but I knew his light brown eyes had a little twinkle in them,
just as they did the last time we’d encountered one another face to face.
He’d been trying to get me to give him a chance for months, but I
moved at my own pace these days. Some of it had to do with my past, but
most was because I needed time to feel him out.
With only a head nod, the guns pointed in my direction dropped.
“He’s dead,” I informed Finn as his six-foot-four frame approached. “I
don’t miss.”
Finnegan stopped right in front of me, uncaring of the dead body in the
middle of the street or that his men were watching. He leaned in, scratching
my cheek with the bit of hair on his face he possessed.
“I knew you’d have my back,” he said softly, almost in a lazy drawl.
He spoke like he wasn’t rushing to get his words out.
I liked that about him because it gave me time to think and speak, to
gather myself and the erratic beating inside my chest.
“Couldn’t let him kill you when I’m not finished feeling you out yet.”
“It’s been months,” he complained, brushing just beneath my ear with
his nose.
He sniffed and released a deep satisfying breath after catching a whiff of
the perfume he had delivered to my door on Christmas day. It had become
my new favorite scent immediately.
“I knew only you could pull off this unique smell. When can I have my
chance?”
Intoxicated by Killian possessed three notes I never thought I’d enjoy
on my body.
Mocha coffee, cardamom, and vanilla.
Those notes mixed with my brown sugar bath scrub left me smelling
like a coffee shop.
“Cool points for you,” I said, nudging him back with my forearm while
ignoring his question.
“What will you do now that your night of stalking me has been ruined?”
I chuckled and slid back into my car.
“My night hasn’t been ruined at all,” I mused, shutting the door and
rolling down my window. “And yours is only getting started, right?”
His eyes danced with mischief, and I found it so goddamn sexy.
“Keep up,” he challenged, backing away. “Let’s see what this New Year
brings.”
 I guess I had many obsessions, and Finnegan O’Sullivan happened to be
one of them.

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CHAPTER TWO

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 FINNEGAN

I had a problem , more like an addiction .

Or maybe it was an unhealthy obsession, depending on who you asked.
“Stalking is an odd way to get to know a man, don’t you think?” my
cousin, Niamh asked.
“Is it?” I asked back, confused.
Shit felt kinda romantic to me.
“Yes, Finnegan…” she sounded exasperated. “It’s odd and obsessive.”
Violet—for the first time since we’d met at Enzo and Lucia’s wedding
—visibly trailed me to my next destination. I kept watching my rearview
mirror to make sure she hadn’t changed her mind.
Niamh sighed after I didn’t respond.
“I don’t know why I bother. She’s literally meant for you.”
“Glad to hear you’re finally seeing things my way…” I switched lanes
and watched Violet do the same. “Did you find what I need?”
“Why didn’t you ask Cian? He lives a short car ride from you.”
“He’s busy with his wife and tending to their new place.”
And I didn’t want him in my business.
Cian and Gianna had decided to tie the knot in the living room of his
penthouse apartment two weeks before Christmas. Two days after spending
the holiday in New York on the O’Sullivan compound, they returned to
Philly and moved into the home he had built for them before they were ever
a couple.
I guess we all did shit backward in this family.
 “There’s a residential address she frequents every couple weeks on and
off,” Niamh said, giving me what I’d been looking for. “Just yesterday she
was there for six consecutive hours and today for only forty minutes. It’s in
Moretti territory but borders the northeast side of Philly. Maybe she’s a
career stalker.”
I tsked, not feeling what I’d been told.
Violet was an enigma, the biggest fucking mystery I wanted nothing
more than to figure out. She either had herself wiped from every database
my family had access to or Violet Jackson didn’t exist.
Luckily for me I’d been able to sneak a tracker on her car after the
wedding reception turned into a bloodbath. Not knowing if I would ever see
her again, I capitalized off what was in front of me that day.
“Find out who lives there. Thanks, Niamh.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Finnegan!” she yelled just before I ended the
call.
I drove into an underground parking garage; first, I idled under the lifted
gate to give Violet enough time to follow through and then maneuvered my
car into my designated spot.
Violet pulled into the empty space beside me and I got out, rounding my
car to get to her door. She’d shifted the course of our night after revealing
herself, unlike the other nights she’d followed and watched me.
I’d never been more appreciative of a man trying to take my life than I
have tonight.
“Why’d you bring me here?” she asked, rolling her window down
instead of getting out to face me.
“You’re much bolder than talking to me through a window,
Sailchuach.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits, while her fingers gripped the steering wheel.
She was still holding on to the idea of leaving me standing here and I
needed to change her mind.
“It’s your name in Gaelic,” I explained. “You can trust me, Violet.”
Her eyes softened as we stared at one another, then she released the
steering wheel and turned her car off. Before opening the door, she rolled
the window up.
“I don’t give away my trust so easily,” she said, her eyes on me as she
got out. “If you break it, I’ll chop you into little pieces and hand deliver
them to your father.”
 “That sounded a lot like a declaration of love.”
She chuckled softly.
“It wasn’t…” she pointed to the gun strapped to her thigh. “Should I
conceal this?”
I eyed her from head to toe and shook my head, gaze lingering on the
two large puffs she styled her hair in. There was more of it than before.
The last time I’d physically laid eyes on Violet was at the wedding
reception, right before Enzo killed a guard belonging to his estranged uncle.
Our encounter—including what she wore, how she smelled, and the amount
of hair on her head—had been engrained in my mind for months.
“And fuck up this aesthetic you got going?” I questioned, though I
hadn’t been looking for a response. “Nah, keep it where it belongs.”
“Lead the way but remember what I said.”
I smirked and led us over to my private elevator.
“I could never forget someone professing their love to me in such a
poetic way.”
Violet scoffed, but the twitch in her lips made me wonder if it had been
a compressed laugh.
I watched her as I hit the elevator call button, really taking in that she’d
agreed to be in my personal space with me.
“We talked about staring,” she murmured, ducking into the elevator as
soon as the door opened enough for her to do so.
“Rude is rude,” I said, backing myself into the corner opposite her after
keying in the code to start our ascend. “Someone wise taught me that.”
“You don’t know enough about me to say I’m wise.”
“Why is that?” I stepped toward her. “You’re like a goddamn ghost,
Violet.”
“I think you enjoy making things hard for yourself, Finnegan…” her
gaze met mine dead on. “For a man like you, with the resources you have at
your disposal, I should be easy to find.”
I chuckled.
“You have my intentions misconstrued.”
The elevator doors parted into my living room and I nodded for her to
enter first.
“What do you mean I misconstrued your intentions?” she asked as she
spun around on the heel of her boots to face me.
 “I never said finding you was hard…” I took a step forward as she took
my back. “All I needed to know was you were a friend of the bride to find
out where you lay your head at night.”
Her nostrils flared at my revelation, but she continued to retreat.
“Where are you from?” I asked. “Your birthday? Parents names? Who
are you and why can’t I find anything about you?”
Finding where she lived had become easier after meeting her at the
wedding but her personal life was still a big mystery to me.
Her leg hit the back of my reclining chair, stopping her backward
pursuit.
“You asked me to trust you.”
I nodded.
“But, I don’t trust you,” she declared, her tone soft but firm. “Me being
here is already too much.”
I took a step back, feeling the weight of her confession on my chest.
“I think maybe a part of you knows you can.”
She wouldn’t have gotten into that elevator alone with me otherwise.
“I’d rather not unpack that right now…” she glanced around. “This
place actually looks lived in.”
“There’s even food in the fridge.”
Violet moved around the recliner and coffee table and look up at the
picture wall surrounding my mounted television. I watched her take in each
of them slowly.
She pointed to the largest frame and in it were me, my brothers, and six
girl cousins.
“There’s a lot of women in your family,” she said. “What’s that like?”
“Chaos at all times.”
She turned her body toward the floor to ceiling windows.
“Are you an only child?”
I wanted to know everything she was willing to tell me, anything to
hold me over until the next time she allowed me in her space in this manner.
“Growing up, I was.” She moved away from the windows and settled
down on the left end of my eight piece sectional. “My mom got remarried at
some point and had my brother two months before my twelfth birthday.”
“That makes him how old now?”
She smiled, picking up on my attempt to learn her age.
 “I’m twenty-five but I’ll be twenty-six in March. You don’t have to fish,
I’ll answer your questions.”
“Alright…” I started across the room, set my gun on the freestanding
fire place, and then settled on the other end of the sofa. “Where are you
from?”
Her eyes lingered on where I left my handgun.
“I’m a Brooklyn girl. Born and bred.”
“We’ve been a borough apart all our lives,” I told her, resting my head
back but turning it to face her. “You might get offended by this question but
do I scare you?”
Violet sat stiff as a board with her hands clasped in her lap. I wanted her
to relax, to remove her weapons and really sit with me until she was tired of
my presence.
“Not exactly.”
“Then, what is it?” I asked. “Where’d all that spark you possess go?”
She glanced at me, her eyes exploring mine for a long while.
I didn’t mind playing the staring game.
“It’s hiding,” she confessed, eyes still dancing with mine. “This is me.
I’m not as bold as I present myself to be at times.”
“The perfect mixture of sugar and spice.”
She smiled but looked away to hide it.
“Why’d you let me do it?” she asked suddenly, turning her gaze back to
me.
I raised an eyebrow and she scoffed.
“Don’t play coy.”
“Because some sick part of me wanted you to see me in my element.”
If she wanted to stalk me for the rest of our lives I’d let her.
Her eyes sparkled with mischief; it was an expression she wore well.
“I liked you in your element.”
“I want to see you in yours,” I said softly.
That intoxicating sensation I’d experienced the first time we spoke all
those months ago returned. She had no idea how hard I searched for this
exact feeling after that day.
“That would mean exposing myself to you completely.”
I thought about the place Niamh said Violet frequented often in the last
six months. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her I had been able to
learn one thing about her but my phone chimed once and then five more
times back to back.
As I eyed the messages from my family wishing me a happy new year,
the time became clearer.
I dropped my phone on the sofa next to me.
“Hey, Violet.”
She glanced over.
“We just brought in the new year together.”
Her eyes bucked before they turned thoughtful and then sad.
“This is the first new year in a while that I’ve willingly spent with a
man,” she muttered.
The way her words settled in my gut made me sick.
What the fuck did that mean?
“I thought you at least knew that,” she added.
Our gazes clashed and the missing pieces to the puzzle connected soon
after.
She wasn’t only a savior to victims of sex trafficking, Violet had been
one of them. The mere thought of her being taken advantage of unlocked a
new emotion in me.
Nothing had ever made me feel this indignant.
“I know nothing about you but I heard your name and my heart
recognized it. That’s all I had to go on but it was enough.”
She looked away.
I was glad she chose not to respond because I needed her to sit on it.
This wasn’t a game to me.
“You saved my life,” I said, brushing my finger across my chest to quell
the anger building inside of me. “I’m indebted to you.”
Her gaze darted in my direction.
“Are you saying that if I call on you—”
“I’ll be there without hesitation or pushback. Use me.”
Violet drew in an audible breath and then released it.
“If I allow you into my life, let you learn me, and I get hurt…”
I stood and walked to her end of the couch.
“Your hand, please.”
I held mine out and waited until she made her mind up.
Eventually she placed her slender fingers against mine and I pulled her
into a standing position. I nudged her head up with my index and middle
fingers, preferring to have her eyes focused on me.
“Can I be your friend?” I asked.
She scrunched her nose.
“What kind of friend?”
“The kind you check up on throughout the week,” I said while I stroked
her jaw with my thumb. “The kind you share meals and a couple phone
conversations with. The kind you trust enough to share your past with.”
She closed her eyes and I leaned in until we were nose to nose, just
barely touching.
“Maybe I’ll turn into the friend you eventually fall in love with…”
Violet dropped her forehead against mine and my inner monster preened
at her closeness.
“We don’t have to discuss that now,” I went on. “I won’t hurt you.”
“That sounds a lot like a promise.”
Her eyelids fluttered open and I found myself at a loss for words about
what stared back at me.
Violet was mesmerizing.
“It’s a fact,” I said, reeling myself in. “Tell me you’ll be my friend.”
She laughed and looked up at the ceiling.
“Can’t believe you’re making me do this.”
“Keep talking and I’ll make you pinky swea—”
“Okay!” she exclaimed, eyes wide as she pushed me away. “I’ll be your
friend.”
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face even if I’d tried.
“Do you want something to drink?”
Her eyes were on me as I walked toward the kitchen and opened the
fridge to grab two bottles of water. When I shut the door, Violet stood on
the other side of it with her hands clasped behind her back.
“Do you have cranberry juice?”
She rocked back on her heels as she asked.
Adorable.
I traded a bottle of water for one of those miniature bottles of cranberry
juice I kept on hand for Rían. He drank them like water.
“Thank you.”
“You’re—”
“No…” she shook her head. “Thank you for being gentle with me.”
 I wanted so badly to reach out and pull her into my chest, but I held my
ground.
“Is that what you need? Someone to be gentle with you?”
She uncapped the cranberry juice and brought it to her lips, sipping as
she watched me.
“I want someone who can be what I need when I need it,” she said
while lowering the bottle. “Tonight, I needed gentle and you gave me that.”
I nodded, taking her appreciation for what it was.
“Violet Jackson from Brooklyn,” I mused, closing the short distance
between us. “What’s your role in the Moretti organization?”
She smiled, her catlike eyes brimming with darkness.
“I…” she tapped her chin with her index finger. “…sometimes take care
of problems.”
Mmm.
“It’s a courtesy more than me being in the organization,” she added.
“They took care of me when I had no one.”
“The idea of you having no one really pisses me off.”
She chuckled softly, her thick lips spreading a little as she did.
“Don’t worry…” she reached a hand out and laid it against my chest. “I
have everyone I’ll ever need now.”
“Yeah?”
Her eyes danced with mine as she nodded.
“Happy new year, Finnegan,” Violet whispered as she brushed her body
against mine, then wrapped her arms around me for the first time. “It’s okay
to hug me back.”
I hadn’t needed to be told twice and enclosed my arms around her tiny
waist.
She felt safe against me, protected like she deserved to be.
“Happy new year, Violet,” I murmured into the top of her fro.
May our friendship stand the test of time.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER THREE

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

“H ey , beautiful !”
I smiled as I rushed through the door Gianna held open for me.
“It’s freezing out there,” I grumbled, annoyed that a three second trot
from my car to the front door had caused so much damage.
“You aren’t wearing a coat,” she pointed out. “Not even a scarf or
gloves.”
I frowned.
“Too much material gives me hives.”
Gianna’s big eyes widened with laughter.
She was the sweetest girl I’d ever met; I only wished we’d come to
know one another under different circumstances. But our newfound
friendship had easily turned into a partnership.
Gianna had taken an interest in helping women and children who’d been
trafficked get back on their feet. She’d called on my nonprofit to help assist
with a shipping container the O’Sullivan’s stumbled upon at their shipping
yard.
We hadn’t physically met until the wedding but up until I encountered
her that day, I’d been renting housing for as many survivors as I could up
and down the east coast.
Now, I had the opportunity to build a tighter network of safe haven
homes.
“So, this is the place,” she said, leading us through a long corridor into
an expansive living room. “Enzo bought it with me renovating it in mind
but I think this place has character the way it is. Of course we’ll make
necessary updates as the need arises.”
Her brother had gifted her a townhome as a graduation gift, but her
relationship with Cian O’Sullivan left it unoccupied. It was the perfect start
to the network we were building together.
“I think it has character, too.”
The open floor plan spread into the kitchen area, which was enough for
a group of five or six to share the space comfortably.
“There’s three bedrooms,” she continued as we neared a stairwell. “The
master is on this level with its own bath. “Upstairs…” she ascended. “…are
the other two bedrooms and full bath. We can fit three women in total if we
choose not to double up the rooms, but if we go that route each could fit
two full sized bed frames.
The bedrooms had carpet so plush, I could feel its softness under the
thick sole of my boots. It reminded me of my grandmother’s home in the
Bronx.
“What about security?” I asked as we headed down the stairs again.
Gianna turned on her block heels and faced me.
We were practically the same height, my lanky frame having a solid
inch or two on her. Though we were both thin, Gianna had more curves
than me.
She was beautiful.
“Cian will set that up,” she explained, moving her hands as she spoke.
“I’m thinking camera’s on the perimeter but none inside. I’d hate to spook
are tenants.”
I nodded and pointed to the large bay windows in the living room.
“Censors on the windows and that sliding door back there.”
“I’m sure Cian already thought of that…” she rolled her eyes. “He’s
creating a new system for the network as it grows. You and I will have
access, plus whoever we see fit to have it.”
She waved her hand again and this time I caught a glimpse of something
shiny.
“Is that a ring?” I asked, closing the distance between us.
I took her left hand without much thought and gaped at the ring.
“Gianna…”
Our gazes met and she smiled.
 “Okay but you have to promise not to say anything, Violet…” her eyes
widened. “I haven’t told my family yet.”
“That your engaged, right?”
She wiggled her fingers in mine and shook her head.
“Married. We did it two weeks before Christmas.”
“Everyone is falling in love…” I knew I sounded disgusted but I wasn’t.
“Kinda weird.”
I wasn’t sure I knew how to love in this way anymore.
“Don’t sound so repulsed by it.”
She rolled her eyes and I smiled.
“I’m happy for you.”
“His brother is one of the good ones, too,” she said, throwing her two
cents about Finnegan in as she always did.
“Does he know you’ve been pandering for him all this time?”
She shrugged.
“Now why would I tell him that? He thinks I tell you all bad things
about him.”
The sound of a car door shutting drew us to the front door.
I’d never met Cian in person before but he was easy to recognize as he
rounded his truck in swift strides.
“He hates the cold,” Gianna muttered, opening the screen door for him.
“I need to measure the windows,” he told her as he slipped in and she
shut the door.
He completely ignored my existence until Gianna had given him a hug
and kiss.
“Baby, this is Violet,” Gianna introduced, pulling away from his
embrace.
“I know who she is,” he said, dipping his head in acknowledgment.
“Nice to meet you, Violet.”
“What exactly do you mean by knowing who I am?” I asked, angling
my head.
There had been a long time after being rescued where I feared being
found again. Lucia promised me she’d never let it happen and went to great
lengths to erase my existence.
Finn couldn’t uncover any information about me because there wasn’t
any to find.
 “Don’t worry…” he ambled past me. “I pretended I couldn’t find
anything about you.”
I took a deep breath and tried my best to hide my anxiety before
following behind him.
“But you were able to find something.”
Cian turned, his eyes narrowed.
“If I go looking, something will always turn up.”
“I want to see it,” I demanded, flexing my fingers until the urge to spazz
disappeared. “Whatever you found, I need to see it and I’m not really
asking.”
Gianna stepped between us and wrapped her fingers around my biceps.
She pinned her thoughtful guise to me for a long time before Cian
spoke.
“I’ll show you,” he said, his tone chill.
My heart calmed slowly.
The anxiety snaking in my belly dulled but only by a small margin.
I still felt like I’d been hit in the gut.
“Come talk to me…” Gianna took my hand and led me into the empty
master suite. “What’s going on?”
We stood in the middle of the room, both our arms crossed.
“Nothing…” I shook my head. “I need to go but we’ll talk about next
steps later.”
“Sorry, that’s not gonna cut it, Violet. Are we friends?”
Why was everyone talking about being my friend lately?
I went from having less than a handful to too goddamn many in just a
year.
“We’re friends,” I confirmed. “I just need to talk to Luci.”
She uncrossed her arms and nodded.
“Okay, but I’m coming.”
I shrugged and left the room.
“Violet and I are going on a run,” Gianna rushed out as she followed
behind me. “I’ll meet you at—Cian!”
I turned to find he’d lifted her from the floor.
Gianna’s slightly elevated body faced me while Cian whispered in her
ear.
Her eyes were lowered and fist balled. Slowly that changed the longer
he spoke to her. Eventually her entire body relaxed into him and he set
Gianna on her feet.
She turned and wrapped her arms around him like whatever he’d said
meant the world to her. As Cian tugged her close, his eyes met mine over
her head.
“Someone filed a missing person’s report on you last year,” he said.
“Took a while for me to find that out.”
What he revealed didn’t make sense.
No one had looked for me; I searched for a police report.
I had hoped for one because it meant my family cared, it meant my
mother cared.
But, a report being filed only a year ago didn’t make sense. I haven’t
seen or talked to my family in over four years. So, why now? More
importantly, who wanted to find me?
“What?” I asked, still feeling confused by the news.
Gianna turned.
“He doesn’t like when things stump him,” she said while walking
toward me.
She grabbed the coat hanging from a hook near the door and slipped it
on.
“I stumped you?”
My eyes were on Cian, whose eyes were on Gianna.
“Not being able to find anything about you…” he glanced my way. “…
stumped me.”
“H-How…” I cleared my throat. “How’d you find the police report?”
“The station that took it had a fire two days afterward. It was never
loaded in the system.”
His response didn’t exactly explain how he’d gotten it, especially if it’d
been destroyed in the fire. A hacker never gave up his resources; Gaia
would be proud.
“Who filed it?”
He shook his head.
“Don’t know. There wasn’t a name on the copy.”
“There’s a copy? Can I—”
“I’ll send you an encrypted file.”
I nodded and turned to Gianna.
“No need to tag along, I changed my mind about heading to Grayfall.”
She frowned as her eyes narrowed to slits.
 “Are you telling me the truth?”
“I wouldn’t lie to ditch you.”
“Meaning you’d openly ditch me?”
I nodded.
She shrugged out of her coat with a smile.
“That’s why I like you,” she mused softly. “Your honesty.”
Gianna glanced over her shoulder and then stepped toward me after
finding that Cian had retreated. She had this no nonsense expression in her
eyes as they met mine.
“So, here’s the thing,” she started, coming toe to toe with me. “I respect
you immensely and I hope that what I’m about to say doesn’t send you
running.”
I angled my head in question.
“Your life is now entangled with mine. Your past is my past.”
“Gia—”
“No, hear me out…” she shook her head. “I don’t mean for it to sound
like it’s about me. What I’m saying is that I’m an ally. You can trust me.”
I didn’t know what to say.
There were too many people wanting me to trust them, too many
expecting me to be a friend. It had been easy to give my trust to Lucia and
Jaz because they saved and then provided me a home, a sense of family.
Lately, I’d been starting to believe that there was more love to be given
out there.
“It’s um… o-overwhelming having so many people express their care
for me,” I told her. “But, I can honestly say that my heart is open to trusting
you.”
Her eyes brightened.
“I’m really glad you said that because I don’t have many friends…” she
waved her left hand around and huffed. “Anyway. Thank you.”
She took a step back.
“Cian’s mom offered to furnish the place, and yeah, I’m about to start
rambling.”
I backed away, then turned toward the door to save us both from her
going into a tangent about nothing in particular.
“Oh, but, Violet…”
I pulled the door open first and then glanced over my shoulder.
 “Next time, watch how you speak to Cian…” She smiled and spun on
her heels. “Drive safe, beautiful.”
I chuckled and dipped into the cold.
I really liked her.
She was easy to be around, slightly unpredictable, and strong enough to
hold her own.
I had planned to invite Gianna out for lunch before Cian showed up.
He altered the trajectory of my day the second he opened his mouth.
The idea that someone who knew me in my past life might have searched
for me, changed everything. My life was already filled with questions I
wanted answered, some more than others, but that would keep me up at
night until I figured out who it was.
I gripped the steering wheel as I drove out of the Chestnut Hill
neighborhood and back into the city. Though I hadn’t settled on a
destination I still found myself driving toward a specific place.
Where you last felt the safest.
The reminder of what I’d already known felt like a taunt from my inner
voice.
It had only been a week since I last saw Finnegan, since we’d brought
the New Year in together. He had no clue what he’d done, unknowingly
gifting me that precious memory.
I wanted to give him something in return and I guess fulfilling his
request to be friends was my way of doing that.
Finnegan lived in a building that had top notch security, even for me.
I reached for my phone to call him, just as it began to ring.
“How’d you know I was about to call you?” I asked, smiling at the
screen. “Don’t answer that. Can I take you to lunch?”
“You want to take me to lunch?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled.
“Give me a moment, Violet.”
He sounded preoccupied.
I closed my eyes and listened closely to his background.
With one of my senses gone it was easier to focus. There were no
voices, not even Finn’s. Only the distinct sound of heavy breathing… no,
wheezing.
After a few seconds of complete silence, I heard shuffling, a deep cry,
and then a door shut.
“You want to take me to lunch?” Finnegan repeated, his voice clearer.
 “I might’ve changed my mind in the last two minutes.”
He chuckled but something about it had my hackles rising.
“Care to share what you’re up to?” I asked.
“That’s actually why I called…” he cleared his throat. “I got something
for you.”
“A gift?”
“I don’t know if you’ll see it that way.”
“Then, why are you giving it to me?”
He’d softened his voice and said, “Just a reminder.”
“A reminder of what, Finnegan?”
“The difference between now and your past is that I’m in it. When I
send you my location, come straight here, Violet.”
He ended the call and I sat in my car outside his building, stunned.
Is this what I had to look forward to in this friendship? Being bossed
around while receiving gifts I might or might not hate.
Sadly, I wasn’t turned off by it.
Finnegan hadn’t been wrong about one thing, the difference between
now and my past was him. He couldn’t know just how much but maybe he
should.
My phone chimed with a text from him and I synced it to my car.
Let’s see what you’re up to Mr. O’Sullivan.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER FOUR

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

“L ift him higher ,” I ordered , circling the body hanging from the
ceiling of an old meat packing plant. “Lower.”
The sound of the chains shifting woke my guest and I stopped in front
of him.
Our gazes met as he fully came to.
He jerked against his restraints, eyes bucked wildly. He’d been roughed
up by my men but still had enough strength to propel himself forward.
I took a step back before his body could connect with mine.
He muffled a scream as the spiked wrist restraints started to do their job.
“The more you move, the deeper they’ll go,” I warned. “I suggest
staying as still as possible.”
I walked across the room to a table with three folders on it.
“I usually like to start these off with an introduction,” I said, picking up
the file I needed and turning back. “Took me an entire week to find you…”
I scanned the first page. “Mauricio.”
He jerked again but stopped immediately as the cuff pierced more flesh.
“Those cuffs have the power to do more damage than you think…” I
scoffed and stepped closer while I skimmed the information in front of me.
“The son of a capo in the Italian American mafia.”
Mauricio’s eyes lifted.
“Well, what used to be the Italian American mafia,” I mused to myself.
The Moretti family had been moving in on the territory of their kin for a
while now. It had been successful thus far, but there were a few loyalists
who slipped through the cracks.
 “I just have one question…” I crossed the room and retook my previous
position. “When your father told you his role within the mafia, how’d you
think you got here?”
I had genuinely wanted to know but my query seemed to bother
Mauricio.
The romancer.
His father’s job had been to coerce women into falling in love with him
and then either convince them to “willingly” enter the sex trade or force
them in. Men like him deserved to die a slow and painful death.
In fact, he had but not before getting his son out, untouched.
“I guess I hit a nerve.”
I shrugged and checked my phone for Violet’s location.
“Is there anything you’d like to say before she gets here? Maybe atone
for your sins?”
I pulled the duct tape back from his mouth and he cursed in Italian.
“Why do the Irish care about Mafioso business?”
“The Irish don’t care, but Finnegan O’Sullivan does,” I said, nodding to
Nozi who cranked the restraints until it stretched Mauricio’s body.
His screams were the kinda peace I enjoyed.
“You’ll see why you’ve found yourself on my radar soon…” I checked
my phone again and smiled. “Sooner than soon.”
I secured the tape over his mouth, walked over to the garage-like door,
and lifted it as Violet’s car pulled into an empty space in front of the
building.
“The fuck is your coat?” I asked as she stepped out.
The wind howled and I frowned deeper.
Violet was dressed in her usual, a black shirt, dark blue jeans, and black
combat boots. On occasion she wore a leather jacket but today she opted for
only long sleeves as a source of warmth.
“The colder it gets the less layers I like,” she said, her eyes on the body
behind me.
She walked past me and I turned to follow her movements.
Violet had the kind of confidence that could make an average man
uncomfortable. She didn’t hide herself from the world but forced them to
see her for who she was.
“Is he the something you got for me?”
 She glanced over her shoulder and smiled, her eyes filled with a gleam I
knew all too well.
Violet was like no one I’d ever met.
“Do you want to know why I chose him?”
“If it’s significant…” she slowly switched her attention to Mauricio.
“Then, sure.”
I stepped behind her and clasped my hands behind my back.
“He worked for the Costa family,” I revealed, stiffening my body as she
reared back in shock like I’d expected. “I know I overstepped.”
“Yet, you went through with your plan and then brought me here.”
“I’d do it again if I had to.”
“What do you want me to do with him?” she asked, turning to look at
me.
Her eyes were filled with accusations I didn’t understand.
“I want you to do as you please.”
“And then what, Finnegan? Hope and pray this gift will make me feel
better about…”
She sighed and then took a step to the left, removing me from behind
her.
“I don’t need a savior.”
Violet glanced around the gutted building.
“Who said anything about saving you?” I asked, forcing her attention
back where it belonged. “Making you feel better is the opposite of my
intentions.”
“You want to upset me?”
“I want you infuriated.”
Nozi—who had hidden himself—picked up on my cue and started
cranking the chains again. Muffled screams filled the open space around us
and Violet’s eyes darkened.
“How do you like them? Drugged, awake… both?”
“I’m never with them long enough to make that decision.”
I circled Mauricio but kept my eyes pinned to Violet’s.
She’d stuffed all of her hair into one large bun at the nap of her neck,
almost as if she expected to get into a little trouble today.
“We’ll need to change that…” I removed the serrated blade I’d tucked
in my sleeve and held it out to her. “Stab him.” I shoved the handle toward
her. “Watch how exhilarating it feels.”
 Our fingers grazed as she took the blade and my fucking stomach
fluttered.
Shit.
Did she feel it, too?
There wasn’t a woman living who could say they’d given me butterflies,
and then there’s Violet. She could shout it from a rooftop and I wouldn’t
deny it.
Her demeanor hadn’t changed once, but I’d learned months ago Violet’s
ability to school her emotions. She did it better than I think even the people
closest to her could tell.
I wanted to know what was happening inside that pretty little head of
hers and she provided me an answer without knowing.
“I know you,” she said softly, her eyes shifting to Mauricio.
She maneuvered her body to stand directly in front of him.
“I remember every face I’ve ever encountered in that organization,
know them like I know my own name…” she smiled, her eyes bright with
revenge as she shoved the blade into his abdomen. “Wow.”
Violet snatched it back and stared at the blood covering the blade and
her fingers, while Mauricio jerked against his restraints. The pain in his
wrists wouldn’t compare to the burning sensation of a stab wound.
“I never…” she shoved the knife into him again and twisted. “…t-
thought it could feel this good.”
Her breathing quickened and I smiled.
“Do it again,” I encouraged, circling them. “And again. And again.
Until you can’t anymore. Make. Him. Suffer.”
She followed orders beautifully and look sexy as fuck doing it.
The power in her movements showed her strength, but those quick jabs
in and out the skin told a different story.
Violet hadn’t needed my guidance.
She knew rage.
Maybe not this kind, but the emotion lived inside of her.
The blade clattered to the floor near her foot, echoing against the bare
walls. Violet held her blood covered hands out and stared at them, her eyes
low and filled with wonderment.
Blood splatter dotted her face and neck; it covered the floor in a puddle
beneath Mauricio’s feet. He was filled with more holes than I could count.
“Impressive,” I murmured, earning her undivided attention.
 She faced me and stepped closer.
The calmness in her eyes spoke to me.
“Is this what being your friend will always look like?” she asked.
I reached out and pulled her into me until our bodies collided. She
pressed her bloody hands against my chest and gasped after realizing what
she’d done.
“This friendship will know no bounds,” I told her, uncaring of the
transfer of blood.
“Will you bring me more?”
I waved for Nozi and he came with a towel I never had to ask for.
“Nozi, this is Violet,” I introduced. “Get a good look at her and then tell
everybody she’s under my protection.”
Noziah stood taller than both Violet and me.
She looked up and tipped her head at him.
“You’re a baby,” she said, her tone much more guttural than usual.
“Tell that to the family who didn’t want me,” Nozi said, cutting his eyes
at me for a quick second before walking away.
He was only seventeen with a lot of anger built up inside of him.
I had a soft spot for Nozi after catching him stealing from a grocery
store three years ago. He’d puffed his chest out at me that day, willing to
fight if I tried to stop him.
The kid had heart, but he needed more discipline.
“Noziah,” I called, forcing him to turn around whether he wanted to or
not. “Remember what I said.”
He looked at Violet and nodded.
“They’ll know.”
“Go do your fucking homework.”
He waved me off and slipped into a small office space in the corner.
“He’s a baby,” Violet repeated as I wiped what blood I could from her
hands.
“We live in a fucked up world…” I led her over to a sink and forced her
down into one of the two chairs stashed in the corner. “I can either let him
work for me or watch the streets eat him alive.”
Her gaze drifted in Nozi’s direction.
“Did his parents really give him up?”
“Dropped him at his grandmother’s house and never came back.”
 I turned the water on the hottest setting and filled the bucket inside the
sink.
As I kneeled in front of Violet with the water and towel, she brought her
attention to me.
“By which parent?” she questioned, offering up her hands.
“The mom. Can’t find his father.”
She released a deep sigh that made me lift my gaze.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re taking care of him, aren’t you?”
“His grandmother takes care of him.”
“But…” her eyes searched mine. “Then, why is he here?”
“She’s in her eighties and can’t work anymore. They’ve barely been
scraping by for years. I stumbled upon him a little while back and he’s been
hanging around since.”
“You let him do things for you and then give him money,” she surmised,
her eyes filled with understanding. “Probably more than he’ll need each
time.”
I shrugged and went back to cleaning her up, ditching her hands to
gently wipe away the semi-dried droplets of blood from her face.
Our eyes lingered on one another as I submerged the towel in water and
rung it out.
“Has anyone ever told you that your calm nature is intoxicating?” I
asked, wiping above her eyebrow.
When she looked in the mirror, did she see what I saw?
“Not to my face, I don’t think.”
“Your calm nature is intoxicating, Violet,” I said, staring deep in her
eyes as I stood and pulled her up. “We need to burn everything you’re
wearing.”
“There’s a ‘just in case’ bag in my trunk.”
I nodded and glanced at the body I still needed to get rid of.
“Nozi!” I shouted.
“I’m right here, why must you yell?”
He walked up while running that fucking mouth of his, but noticeably
avoided any eye contact with Violet.
Meanwhile, she couldn’t keep her eyes off him.
“Call Maddy for a cleanup. Wait here and keep eye, then take my car
home. No fucking stops along the way.”
 He glared at me but nodded.
“Yes, boss.”
“Nozi, I meant that shit.”
“I know…” he sounded exasperated. “I’ll go straight home.”
I picked up the roll of one hundred dollar bills I’d set on the table and
tossed it to him.
“Pay the bills first, food in the fridge second, and then splurge if you
want.”
I’d given him enough to keep a few thousand for himself, same as I did
every month.
He stared at it like always and backed away.
“Thanks, Finn.”
“Don’t wreck my car, Nozi.”
He grumbled under his breath as he retreated and I led Violet outside to
her car.
“Give me your keys…” I opened the passenger side door. “Come sit
pretty while I drive.”
“Who said you could drive my car?” she asked, eyebrows arched high
as she slid into the passenger seat.
“You did…” I nodded to how easily she’d obeyed my order. “Keys,
Moonlight.”
Violet frowned.
Her questioning gaze, left me with questions of my own.
“Moonlight?” she asked softly.
Had I called her that out loud?
The answer was obvious but my response wouldn’t come as easy. I
didn’t want to scare her with how she made me feel or with the way I saw
her.
“You’re a mixture of dark and light,” I said, carefully choosing my
words.
She was a reflection of the sun but meant to live in the night.
“The keys are in the cup holder,” she said, pulling her seatbelt on. “It’s a
push to start.”
I shut her door and jogged around to the driver’s side.
When talking to her, the cold hadn’t been a thought in my mind, but the
second our conversation ceased I felt the brunt of it.
 “I’m sorry to tell you this but…” I started the sleek Mercedes and
glanced at her. “…we’ll have to get rid of this car.”
Her eyes bucked and I smirked.
I could take it to my favorite detailing shop in the hood, but the urge to
buy her something new was too strong to ignore. She needed a vehicle for
every occasion.
“I guess that means you’re buying me a new one,” she said a couple
minutes into our ride. “I’d like an SUV. Black of course. Custom violet
stitching in the seats and make sure a tracker doesn’t magically find its way
under my front bumper.”
I let my gaze drift from the road and caught the smirk on her face just
before it disappeared.
“Got you,” I mused, focusing my attention where it was needed most.
“I’ll put it near one of the rear tires instead.”
She chuckled and rested her head on the window.
“Whatever makes you feel better, friend.”
It would make me feel better knowing I could get to her if needed,
because whether Violet wanted it or not she was now mine to protect. Mine.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER FIVE

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

I checked the office F inn put me in at the funeral home his family
owned. Sliding my fingers along every shelf on the bookcase at the right
side of the room, I search for any hidden cameras, doors, or listening
devices.
After a few minutes of doing the same with the lamps and light fixtures
in the bathroom, I realized how paranoid I could be at times. It felt like a
lifetime had passed but enclosed spaces still gave me anxiety.
He won’t hurt you.
I hadn’t trusted the voice in my head in a long time but for some reason
I believed Finnegan wouldn’t extort me; he was a rare find in this otherwise
cruel world.
Satisfied that the room was clean, I picked up my bag and took it into
the bathroom.
Finn made it clear that it was cleaned daily.
I appreciated his need to make me comfortable, because only a shower
could get the nasty stench of blood off me.
On the left side of the sink he’d left a towel and washcloth, both more
plush than the brand Jaz and I used at our place. No matter where men like
Finn went they always upped the value with niceties.
The right side held a basket with bar soap and my favorite brown sugar
body scrub.
I sighed and cut the small shower on to its hottest setting. Then, I
stripped from my clothes and stepped under the scolding waterfall with my
wash cloth, body scrub, and bar soap in tow.
 Finn made being only his friend hard already.
He was too thoughtful and observant, too much of everything I always
craved.
The world had ruined me inside and out and I wasn’t sure if I could be
what he needed.
Ugh.
Feeling that burning sensation behind my eyelids only pissed me off. It
was the twenty-one-year old inside of me begging for another chance at
love with the right man.
How could we be so broken inside and still so goddamn optimistic?
I finally let my tears fall because I knew why; it was him.
He’d strung a man up and gifted him to me, a man who deserved much
more than being filled with stab wounds. I didn’t know what to make of this
life I’d been afforded and that frustrated me to tears more often then I cared
to admit.
All of these people cared for me.
They wanted my trust and friendship.
They wanted me to know that I was seen and heard and it hurt me to my
core that sometimes I had a hard time accepting it.
I squeezed my eyes shut and took deep breaths.
“These are the people God want you to know,” I muttered, pushing my
emotions away as best I could.
Keep an open mind.
Once my racing heart calmed and the tears dried, I washed and then
exfoliated my worries away. The bathroom filled with my favorite scent and
I felt alive again, like I was myself and not the sad and confused version I
kept tucked away from the world.
Two single knocks on the door startled me back to reality and for the
life of me I couldn’t understand why I yelled, “You can come in.”
I felt Finn’s hesitation or maybe he’d been waiting for me to change my
mind.
He twisted the knob after a few seconds of silence and I watched
through the distorted shower door as his silhouette entered.
“When you’re done put everything inside the garbage bag I’m leaving
on the sink.”
He turned and I slid the shower door back just enough to poke my head
out before he could leave.
 “Thank you.”
Finn’s eyes were neutral as he stared into mine, filling me with a sense
of comfort I didn’t understand.
“For the bag?” he asked, his lips pulling into a deep frown.
“No…” I shook my head and held on tight to the shower door. “For
helping me slay one of my many demons.”
“Got a few more to go, right?”
I nodded as he did the same.
“Thank me when you finally feel free.”
I looked away and slid the door shut.
How could he know I felt so trapped in my mind that I couldn’t fathom
how precious the second chance I’d been given is?
“Now hurry up. I’m hungry and somebody invited me to lunch.”
“I want ramen!” I yelled, my mind quickly moving on to the idea of
eating soon.
“Your treat?” he asked.
“Yeah…” my smile hurt my face. “…my treat.”
He wouldn’t dare let me pay but it was the thought that count, right?
Finn closed the door and I lathered up one more time before rinsing and
getting out.
He’d taken what was left in the basket and replaced it with a cocoa oil
based moisturizer and mini sized bottle of the Killian fragrance he’d gifted
me.
I slathered my skin until every inch was covered and then spritzed the
perfume on top. Afterward, I dressed in my emergency Nike sweatsuit, sans
a bra and panties. The thick cotton fabric hung baggy off my frame, just
how I liked.
I opened the garbage bag Finn left and stuffed everything I’d been
wearing inside, including my favorite Fendi combat boots.
“Do you know how hard it is breaking in a new pair of boots?” I asked
as I exited the bathroom.
Finn was behind the desk with his socked feet propped up.
He’d also showered, more than likely in one of his brother’s offices, and
changed.
“You look like one of those old school mobsters,” I jested.
He looked at his Adidas track suit pants and chuckled.
“Just missing the jacket zipped to the neck, huh?”
 “Pretty much…” I dropped the tied garbage bag near the door. “Back to
my boots—”
“Got you covered,” he cut in, revealing a black designer shoe box.
I kicked off my Nike slides and padded toward him in my thick wool
socks.
“You thought of everything, huh?”
He shrugged and pushed the box toward me.
“You still have to break them in.”
Doing so didn’t feel like an inconvenience anymore.
I flipped the box open and nodded.
“I was about to buy this exact boot this morning.”
The heavy leather Prada boot with the removeable pouches felt amazing
in my hands.
Growing up having brand new clothing with the tags still on them was a
luxury. For the most part everything I’d worn up until I got my first job in
the eleventh grade had been passed down to me from family.
I never complained because I was grateful, but it felt good to be able to
afford the things I wanted.
My gaze slid from the boot in my hand to Finn.
It was also nice to have friends who had money to blow on frivolous
things and did it often.
“How’d you get them so quick?”
“Called my buyer.”
I raised an eyebrow and he smiled while rocking in the chair.
“What? A guy can’t have a buyer on standby?”
“Did they bring my new wheels?”
He chuckled and dropped his feet from the desk, then leaned forward
and pulled a pair of all black Timbs from under it. As he slipped his feet
inside, he said, “That’ll take a couple of weeks, Ms. Custom violet
stitching.”
“I wasn’t seri—”
“Too late.”
He stood and came face to face with me.
“Be careful what you speak up around me. If I think it was a request,
I’m fulfilling it.”
He was so close and he smelled so goddamn good.
I couldn’t place the scent and it would bother me until I knew.
 “What are you wearing?” I asked, lifting my gaze to meet his. “Your
cologne, what is it?”
“Misfit…” he tipped his head in thought. “Arquiste is the brand.”
I leaned in, needing another whiff, but pulled back immediately.
“Sorry, I’m all in your space.”
He laughed, a much different sound from his usually calculated chuckle.
“Put your boots on and let’s go.”
Finn picked up my garbage bag and opened the door as I followed his
command.
Once the boots were on and laced, I stuffed my Nike slides into the
Prada box and then stuffed them both into my duffle bag.
As I stepped into the hall where Finn had gone, I noticed him leaning
into the doorframe of a room a few doors down from his office. He leaned
his head back as if he sensed my presence and nodded for me to come to
him.
I slid in beside him just as the guy he’d introduced as Moe the funeral
director tossed our garbage bags into the incinerator. We stood in silence
and watched it burn for a while but then my stomach growled and Finn’s
attention shifted.
“Let me know when Voss shows up for the car, Moe.”
Moe gave a head tilt in response and Finn accepted it without question,
then took my hand and led us out of the funeral home. Parked in front of the
door and blocking the rigid wind was a running blacked out Escalade truck.
Finn shuffled me into the front seat like I was a child and I stupidly
warmed at the notion.
The smallest things opened me up, helped me breathe easy.
You don’t have to go back.
You won’t ever have to go back.
I turned toward the window as he slid into the driver’s side.
“Is it cool if we grabbed our food to-go? I need to make a stop at the
yard.”
I nodded and got comfortable.
“Think you can handle this big boy for a week or two?” he asked,
pulling around the circular driveway toward the exit.
“Yeah but I’ll probably get used to sitting up this high and want to keep
it.”
“I’m sure we can work something out.”
 I turned my body closer to the window to hide my smile.
“Your reflection is visible.”
I slapped my hands over my face and he laughed at my expense.
“Don’t be embarrassed. I take notice of everything you do, even when it
isn’t visible.”
“I like my privacy,” I informed him with a frown.
He had his hand up covering his profile, with his fingers spread so he
could watch me through them.
“Finnegan…”
“What?” he questioned. “I’m giving you your privacy, Moonlight.”
I rolled my eyes and fell back with my arms crossed.
“Is it safe to remove my hand?”
“Sure,” I groused.
“When your upset with someone you care for, how do you want them to
handle it?” he asked, shifting the energy between us in an instant.
“With the utmost respect. Talk to me nice or not at all.”
“Are you willing to hear a person out when you’re angry?”
I thought about it for a second and then nodded.
“Yes. I rarely find myself so upset that I can’t listen clearly.”
“And if I tried to apologize with a gift would that anger you more?”
“Giving gifts is your love language, Finnegan…” I bit my lip and cut
my eyes at him. “Unless you’re using material things to manipulate me into
changing my stance on something, it won’t make me angry.”
He hummed softly.
“I know how to grovel properly.”
I just bet you do.
We rode in a comfortable silence, stopping once to grab our ramen
along the way.
Shortly after, he rolled the big body SUV to a stop in front of a security
gate that lifted seconds later.
The O’Sullivan brothers owned and ran a shipping yard in Northeast
Philly. It sat on a large piece of land and looked a lot like a maze, easy for
an outsider like me to get lost in.
“I thought we were going to eat in your office.”
He cut his eyes my way as he drove through the lifted gate.
“We are. I need to handle something.”
 “We just showered off blood,” I pointed out, earning a deep chuckle
from him.
“Not that kind of business, woman.”
“Oh.”
I pulled my seatbelt off and leaned forward.
He’d parked in front of a row of shipping containers stacked in threes.
“Care to tagalong?” he asked, opening his door and letting out the heat.
I shook my head.
“Too cold.”
“Lock the door and don’t open it for anyone.”
“I know how to take care of myself, Finnegan. And even if I didn’t,
shouldn’t this be one of the safest places for me?” I raised an eyebrow at the
smirk lifting the corner of his mouth. “If the answer is no, tell me now.”
He chuckled and turned to face me from the outside of the truck.
“Do you hear yourself?” he asked. “It sounds like you trust wherever I
am. Now trust what I’m saying and lock the doors.”
He slammed his shut and stood there peering into the tinted glass until I
hit the locks.
I observed his sure strides as he walked between the containers and
disappeared into the shadows.
Finn hadn’t been gone for more than twenty minutes when shots rang
out.
Pop!
I looked around but I couldn’t pinpoint the direction.
Pop! Pop!
The last two sounded further away than before and I thought about Finn.
Didn’t he say it wasn’t that kind of business?
What the fuck changed?
In a frantic state of uncertainty, I searched the glove box for my gun.
“Where did you put it?” I questioned aloud, slamming the small
compartment door shut and opening the center console. “Yes!”
As I jumped out, I checked the clip.
I was grateful that he hadn’t emptied it and moved quickly through the
containers, following the loud murmur of two voices coming from a
specific area.
“It’s not that deep.”
 Finn’s voice carried but the infliction in his tone felt off; it did nothing
to quell my worry.
I caught sight of him soon after, his back was to me but I knew it was
him.
He had a particular stance I could spot in a crowded room if I needed to.
“Move your fucking hand before I do it,” his brother growled.
He stood in front of him and while they were almost the same height,
Sean had him by a couple inches. They were arguing in low tones but when
Sean’s eyes met mine, all talking ceased.
Finn looked over his shoulder, a sheepish grin on his face.
“There’s a body right there,” I said, pointing to the legs poking from
between two containers. “You said this wasn’t that kind of business.”
“Wasn’t planned, Moonlight.”
He shrugged and winced and then I saw red.
Literally.
Dripping through his fingers.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER SIX

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

“Y our late .”
Sean was tired of me, and rightfully so.
My brother had a lot on his plate, and I was supposed to be his sounding
board and a go-between from time to time—his stand-in if called for.
“That’s my bad,” I conceded, choosing peace over a back and forth.
He’d been more tense and quick-tempered lately.
I had a duty to get to the bottom of that, but my focus had undoubtedly
been on Violet for months.
“Won’t happen again,” I added, checking my watch. “Where’s Rían?”
Sean tossed me a look that said I should be aware of our baby brother’s
schedule.
Rían had a year left of school but picked up a second major last minute.
In an attempt to graduate on his original date, he doubled his classes.
Needless to say, I knew where he could be but that didn’t mean he was
there.
“In class,” Sean confirmed.
I nodded and checked my watch again to be sure the time I’d seen was
correct.
“Why the fuck are they still removing product twenty minutes after the
scheduled drop?”
“Niamh lost a signal on the tracker for an hour,” Sean informed me, his
gaze focused on our men moving crates from inside one of two containers.
“She’s trying to recover the data from the backup drive now.”
 Niamh was in charge of shipments, keeping track of them, and
managing their deliveries.
She had our routes tracked down to the minute.
Niamh knew when they left, where they stopped, who handled them,
and when they were to arrive here.
A shipment filled with military-grade ammunition and hardware going
off the grid for an hour was a problem. One that could be seen as a minor
inconvenience, but if looked at closer, a pattern became visible.
Niamh had never had an issue until about eight months ago.
“That’s three shipments now. I don’t like unexplainable patterns.”
“Glad you’ve finally taken notice that there is a problem,” Sean said, his
tone clipped. “Somebody is fucking with us.”
But who?
Pietro Costa and his father was dead, eliminating them from my list of
suspects.
They had been the only people we ran into issues with recently that
could warrant retaliation in this way.
“Can’t be anyone outside of our circle,” I said, confident that our
alliances were still intact and this was an inside job. “The routes change too
often.”
“Da is working on a lead, but something is off…” Sean tsked, his
frustration evident. “I can’t put my finger on it.”
“New York or Philly?” I asked.
“Don’t know. Could be either but we’ve had shit under control here for
a while. My gut is telling me New York has a problem brewing.”
Being in Philly while most of our business took place in New York put
us in a vulnerable state we’d worked hard to keep hidden.
Cian and Niamh had our security measures on lock; both were
meticulous and left no stone unturned when protecting the family.
Our uncle Eoghan was our eyes and ears behind the scene but if he
hadn’t eluded to any problems that needed our immediate attention.
“Boss…” Phil approached from where he’d been standing overseeing
the drop from a closer angle. “We should be done so—”
Pop!
The shot went off unexpectantly and left us no time to react.
My entire body stiffened as something hot pierced my skin.
Pop! Pop!
 The following two shots were long-range, but I couldn’t see or think
straight to process that Cian had been perched up somewhere and took out
the shooter the moment he got eyes on him or her.
You never put anything past a woman in this world; they wielded the
real power if allowed to tap into it.
I tried blinking the haze away but to no avail.
My body swayed into Sean, and he cursed.
He held onto my arms and barked orders to the men who approached
with guns drawn.
“Move that body. I want a fucking sweep of the yard!” he barked. “Lock
this place down and check every container.”
Boots thudded around us, and I swayed to the noise, my lips curving at
all the action I’d been getting lately. I liked chaos; it was more peaceful
than silence.
“Stop moving,” Sean ordered, drawing my attention to his wild eyes.
“You got hit.”
Hit?
Somebody shot at me?
I blinked.
“What the fuck?” I groaned, opening my jacket to find blood pooling
through my white t-shirt. “Sea—”
I pressed my hand into the gushing wound as he studied me closely like
I would pass out at any moment. A bullet wouldn’t break me down that
easily, though.
Sean knew better than anyone that my stubbornness would keep me
alive longer than most. That’s what I told myself, at least.
“Did Cian take the two other shots?”
The answer wasn’t lost on me.
Cian was a sharpshooter; his job was watching, observing, and killing
on sight.
Sean nodded in response, his eyes filled with concern as he tried to peel
my hand away from the hole in my abdomen.
“We need to get you to—stop fucking moving, Finn.”
“It’s not that deep,” I grumbled, hoping it was only a flesh wound.
“Move your fucking hand before I move it.”
I’d heard him, but the noise around us went from zero to a hundred to
zero again in a flash. Everything started to fade in and out, making it harder
for me to focus.
A loud whooshing noise was all I could hear until it all went quiet.
I smiled.
It was her footsteps that silenced it all.
Sean’s eyes drifted over my shoulder as he instinctively reached for his
gun.
I wrapped my fingers around his wrist to stop him and glanced over my
shoulder.
Violet’s eyes were murderous as they danced with mine.
Fortunately for me, I kind of adored the expression on her.
“There’s a body right there,” she pointed out as I grinned through my
pain at her. “You said this wasn’t that kind of business.”
“Wasn’t planned, Moonlight.”
I shrugged and winced.
My vision blurred, and I gripped Sean’s arm.
He held me up, and I murmured, “If I die, take care of her for me,”
before everything went black.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER SEVEN

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

I watched him closely , perched at the side of his bed .

We’d only just become friends, but Finn was special to me.
And until he was well enough to take care of himself again, I would.
“You don’t have to stay,” Sean said for the twelfth time since Finn had
been transported to a private doctor's office not far from the shipping yard.
“He’s stable and will make a full recovery.
Thankfully, surgery wasn’t on the agenda. The bullet went straight
through and hadn’t damaged anything on the way out. Finn had lost a lot of
blood and was currently on his second to last transfusion bag.
“I heard you the other eleven times,” I snapped, more irritable than
usual.
Finn should have been awake by now.
He’d been sewed up hours ago.
I observed the machines they hooked him to and took mental notes of
every person who entered and exited the room—family included.
Cian had been in and out three times.
Rían stood sentry in the hall as if this miniature hospital wasn’t secure
enough. He had reason to feel that way, seeing as his brother was shot on
their grounds.
The doctor and nurse duo running the show had been in eight times each
and counting.
“Did Cian kill the shooter?” I asked.
Sean didn’t respond, and I took that as no.
How else would they get answers?
 “Do you think he’s really stable?” I questioned, changing subjects while
staring at Finn’s handsome face.
He looked so peaceful lying there.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him this way before.
He had a fire in his eyes on most days; peace wasn’t meant to be his
moniker.
“He’s stable,” Sean repeated, his tone much softer than the first time
he’d said it.
“But how do you know?” I threw back. “Is that a real doctor out there,
or did he only used to be one?” I looked over my shoulder to find Sean
watching me from the chair he hadn’t moved from since we arrived.
He had his legs stretched out, one hand on the arm of the chair, while
the other lay atop the pretty piece of metal he had in his lap.
The O’Sullivan brothers shared the same dark amber skin and light
brown eyes but had nothing else in common regarding their appearances.
“That doctor is still board certified and licensed to practice. He knows
his job, and he’s doing it.”
“Are you always so snippy?”
He chuckled and slid lower in the chair, resting his head back so that his
gaze was focused on the ceiling and not me.
“Do you always ask so many questions?”
“When I want answers, yes.”
Sean laughed again and pulled his scully down over his eyes.
“Covering your eyes won’t stop me from wanting a reply to my
question.”
He sat up abruptly, his boots scuffing as they settled against the floor
again.
“You’ve gotten to know Finn for how long?” he asked.
I glanced at the man in question.
Would you wake the fuck up, please!
“Not long,” I admitted, turning my attention back to Sean. “I only know
what he’s allowed me to see so far.”
“And what’s that?”
“He’s committed to everything he does.”
It was the first thing that slipped, but I knew it was true once the words
settled.
And by the expression on Sean’s face, he thought so too.
 “He’s been unfocused lately,” he said as he leaned back and pulled his
scully down. “Late. Mind drifting. Taking on more tasks.”
Oh.
I heard what Sean was implying loud and clear.
It was because of me.
“I didn’t ask for that.”
“No one is blaming you.”
I sighed and looked away, deciding to focus my attention and energy on
Finn instead.
Maybe Sean didn’t like me because his brother wasn’t focused on the
business, but that wasn’t my problem. He needed to work that out with the
man himself, not me.
“When Cian met Gianna, he couldn’t focus either,” Sean said, his tone
low. “Sometimes we meet our person, and everything becomes about them.
We lose sight.”
He sounded as if he were speaking from experience, but from my
research, Sean was single and a thousand percent unmarried. Mm.
“I don’t know why you’re telling me this.”
I moved the knitted blanket the nurse had laid at the end of the bed over
Finn’s body. His arms were dressed in goosebumps.
“Gianna helped Cian find a balance.”
“I’m not Gianna.”
“Yeah, but you are to Finn what Gianna is to Cian,” he adduced.
“Maybe neither of you see it that way yet, but the truth is the truth. And
you’re right about him; he’s committed. Always have been, always will be.”
“Where is he!” a deep baritone bellowed through the hall.
I whipped my head toward the door as Sean sighed deeply and stood.
“Should’ve left when you had the chance,” he mumbled.
“What the fuck happened?” Darragh growled from the other side of the
door.
Rían pushed it open seconds later with an annoyed expression dancing
through his eyes and a hulking frame at his back.
They were all different heights, no one being that much taller than the
other but their father? He was six-foot-seven at best and bulky.
“Da,” Sean started, his tone filled with a warning as his father entered.
“He was shot in the lower part of his abdomen, but he’s fine. Nothing a
little blood transfusion and some rest can’t fix.”
 “Which, as you can see, he’s doing right now,” I chimed in, uncaring of
the three glares that settled in my direction. I slid off the edge of the bed
and stepped between him and Sean. “I mean no disrespect, but your son
needs peace and quiet.”
Darragh O’Sullivan was a shade or two lighter than his sons.
His eyes were dark and evil, but a playfulness was buried deep.
I’d heard he liked to get under his counterpart's skin with uncouth jokes
and snide remarks.
“Who are you?” he asked, angling his head to the right as he regarded
me.
“Violet,” I replied softly. “He’s my best friend.”
The length of our friendship was a technicality his father didn’t need to
know about.
Finn said we were friends and I protected my friends, didn’t matter from
who.
Everybody could get it.
“And as his…”
I glanced at Finn over my shoulder.
“His friend,” Darragh finished, his voice much calmer.
“Yes…” I turned back. “I only want him to get better. He should’ve
been awake by now…” I stared up at Darragh, actually having to tilt my
head back to do so. “…maybe you can do something about that?”
That murderous glare he’d been wearing weaned quicker than I
expected. His raven-colored eyes were much softer, a softness I appreciated.
He nodded and walked to Finn’s bedside.
“Your mother is working up the courage to come in here,” Darragh said,
brushing the back of his hand across Finn’s forehead. “Wake the fuck up
before you give her a heart attack, and I have to kill you.”
What kind of sick declaration was that?
Darragh turned with a wolfish grin spread across his face.
“My sons have their own language,” he explained. “Finnegan
understands threats…” he bypassed me, and I followed his movements with
my eyes. “Sean, let’s have a talk.”
He swaggered out of the room without a backward glance, and Sean
started to follow but stopped beside me on his way out.
“Gianna was the first to invoke that kind of respect out of him. It’s
starting to feel like a rite of passage,” he said, a twinkle in his eyes. “Keep
an eye on our boy.”
Our boy?
“Don’t look so confused,” Rían mused as he ambled into the room and
dropped down in the chair his brother had been in. “He was indeed talking
to you.”
Right.
I guess Finn was our boy now.
Maybe he should be my man.
I blinked and shook my head.
“I need to handle something,” I said, turning to the door. “Tell him I was
here, please.”
“You can tell me yourself, Moonlight,” Finn grouched, his voice
cracking between words. “Can’t believe you were gonna leave me all alone
with these hoodlums.”
“I’ll grab the Doc and Da,” Rían offered as I rushed to Finn’s bedside
and touched his face.
It was a kneejerk reaction I didn’t have the balls to renege on, nor did I
feel the need to.
“Were you worried about me?” he asked, his voice a tad clearer.
“I don’t know…” I shrugged while staring into his gorgeous browns.
“Maybe. Are you in pain? Your dad is talking to the doctor.”
He tried sitting up, and I gently pushed him back.
“Don’t strain yourself,” I ordered, using the dials on the side of the bed
to lift him into a sitting position.
“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured, touching my fingertips with his.
Our gazes met, and my heart fluttered.
Either I was dying, or this man was turning me on.
Goodness, this feeling… It….
I closed my eyes.
“I was worried about you,” I admitted, through deep breaths. “You
weren’t waking up fast enough.”
That stupid sting at the back of my eyelids reminded me of how broken
I was.
A day or two of kindness and I’ve already grown attached.
He made me feel things I knew I would never be able to escape.
“Hey…” Finn gently tugged on my chin, and I opened my eyes. “I’m
here.”
 I sniffed.
“I can see that,” I mumbled.
“She gets grumpy when she’s in her feelings,” he mused, a smile
spreading his lips. “Mm. Good to know.”
I’d rather he didn’t know.
Who the fuck was I kidding?
I wanted him to know every goddamn thing about me.
My phone chimed insistently for what felt like the first time all day.
I slipped the iPhone from the pocket of my sweatpants and eyed the
barrage of messages from Lucia asking where I’d been. Then, Jaz
threatened to burn all my things if I didn’t come home and let her see my
face.
We’d been missing one another all week.
It’d only been a matter of time before she requested my presence in a
hostile manner.
The last text to come through was from a saved number I didn’t interact
with often.
Luca: Foods ready.
“Duty calls,” Finn presumed, his brow raised knowingly.
“At the worst time, but—”
He pulled my face close to his, forcing me to brace myself on the bed.
“Duty calls,” he repeated, his lips so close to mine I was afraid to
breathe. “Come back to me. I don’t want to have to come looking for you,
but I will.”
“Is that how you talk to your friends?” I quipped, unable to miss an
opportunity to be snarky.
His chuckle felt like it had come from me like I helped him conjure it.
My chest warmed while a part of me I hadn’t felt comfortable with in
years bloomed to life, and I fought the urge to moan.
“This is how I speak to you,” he clarified, lips curling into a devious
smirk. “Best friend.”
I pulled away and spun on my heels to hide the grin on my face.
He’d been listening all along!
“Promise to come back to me, Moonlight. The world is too dark without
you.”
I felt his words deeply.
 They tapped danced on my heart in a way that wouldn’t allow me to
leave without doing as he asked.
“I promise I’ll come back to you, Sunshine,” I said over my shoulder,
leaving before he could ask me to elaborate.
Finn said I was light and darkness all wrapped into one.
The brightness he saw in me was because of him.
His light had so easily become mine, and it only made me wonder what
else of him belonged to me.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER EIGHT

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

“G ot it ,” N iamh growled from her spot at my kitchen island .

Once news began to spread around my family that I’d been shot, she
was at my doorstep with a month’s worth of clothes in two suitcases.
The women in my family were hovering.
None of them were who I wanted, all in my space telling me what to do.
Violet was working, and every day she was gone, I wondered what the
fuck Luca had her doing.
“Got what?” I asked, needing a distraction.
She picked her laptop up and brought it over to the sofa where I sat.
“The flaw in my system,” she said, sliding in close to show me her
screen. “This is my code…” she pointed to a bunch of letters and numbers
floating across her screen. “And this…”
I yawned and closed my eyes.
Niamh was as boring as Cian with their tech shit.
“Why ask if you weren’t going to listen?” she griped.
“How the fuck am I supposed to understand all that shit, Niamh? I went
to school to be a chef, not a fucking scientist.”
“Technically, I didn’t go to school to be a scientist either.”
“Break it down to me like I’m sixteen again.”
I popped one eye open to satisfy her need for my undivided attention.
My fucking wound itched right underneath my stitches, and I wanted to
rip them out just to get to it. I was irritable and needed to kill something.
“My code was compromised,” she explained. “The sequences were so
identical that I missed it during my first few sweeps.”
 “Basically, there’s a virus that allows someone else access to your
network without your knowledge.”
“See, you remember some of the things I’ve taught you.”
Niamh and I had shared an apartment while studying abroad in London.
In the beginning, I’d gone so she could.
We were close growing up, as we are now, but back then, Niamh needed
freedom, and I had the power to give her that by doing her that one solid.
Her father had control issues; he hadn’t wanted her out of his sight but
conceded when I offered to play his eyes and ears.
Following Niamh to London changed me for the better and gave my
cousin room to grow in her craft. While there, I fell in love with food; it
became deeper than wanting to enjoy a well-cooked meal. I wanted to be
the one making them.
It had been a foreign feeling to want something so bad that it didn’t
include killing and making money. The life my father and his father had
afforded us was one I appreciated and didn’t regret being a part of, but to
the twenty-year-old version of myself, I’d found a little more purpose.
“How do you plan to fix it?” I asked.
“I’m gonna trap them,” she said silkily, rubbing her hands together.
“Now that I’m aware of the issue, I can re-write the code that will trap them
long enough to give me a location.”
“Reroute the next two drops to New York.”
She glanced at me, her gaze questioning.
“Just a hunch,” I said, leaving the details out.
I slowly pushed myself up from the sofa and went into the kitchen.
“You know…” Niamh chuckled. “Anytime you get a hunch, someone
dies.”
I popped the seal on the water bottle and gulped it down.
“They deserved it.”
“Touché…” She checked her watch. “You can take pain meds now if
you need them.”
I refused to take them, and Niamh knew this, but every four hours, she
mentioned them anyway as a reminder that they were available.
“I need something to get between these stitches,” I groused, trying my
best not to rip the fuckers out. “Itches like a bitch.”
“Usually means they’re healing…” she set her laptop aside and came to
stand in front of me. “Let me see.”
 I lifted my shirt and tucked the bottom of it in my mouth to keep it up.
Niamh removed the gauze covering it and inspected the five stitches
curving slightly upward. She touched each one and nodded.
“No flinching or warmth, which is good.”
There was a box of clean gauze on the counter, and she reached for one.
“You know how Yasmine is always patting the hell out of her head?”
I chuckled, understanding where this was going.
“Just pat that shit until it stops itching…” she shrugged and returned to
her place on the sofa. “Problem solved.”
She wasn’t any kind of help, and she knew it.
That patting shit didn’t work, which was precisely why Yasmine—
Niamh’s older sister—did it until she gave herself a headache.
“Are you strong enough to cook?” she asked, typing away on her
laptop, eyes focused. “I haven’t had one of your gourmet omelets in ages.”
“I made you one before I left New York after Christmas,” I pointed out
as I grabbed a carton of free-range brown eggs from the fridge.
“That’s what I said…” she waved a hand and then went to her task.
“Ages ago.”
As I chopped onions and green peppers, I couldn’t stop thinking about
Violet.
She hadn’t been in contact since she left my bedside three days ago.
The truck I’d given her was parked at the townhome she shared with her
friend Jazmina.
“Has the truck moved?” I asked Niamh before I could stop myself.
“Still stagnant,” she reported without question. “I didn’t want to tell you
this, but there’s a ring camera on one of the townhomes across from hers.”
I stopped chopping and glanced into the living room.
“Can you hack it?”
“Is my name Niamh Cassidy?”
It was, and she was damn good, just as good as Cian and our uncle
Eoghan.
“Do that for me.”
“You could call her,” she suggested. “I don’t know. Maybe send a text?
Why are the both of you so keen on stalking one another?”
“It isn’t stalking when you care.”
Niamh made a noise that was a mix between a snort and laughter.
 “That’s literally something a stalker would say about the person they’re
watching through multiple means, might I add,” she mumbled before
announcing, “I’m in.”
She jumped up and came to stand next to me.
“It’s quiet on her side of the street.”
I watched clear live footage hoping to get a glimpse, anything that
would tell me she was alright. Regardless of what Niamh thought, I had
texted and called Violet to no avail.
My last resort was either doing this or going to find her myself.
The problem with that was the promise I’d made to my mother about
taking at least a week off. She would never say it but she was scared for me
and I wanted to ease her worries.
“Next door, too?” I asked, grasping for anything before I did exactly
what I’d never done before and broke a promise.
Violet felt worth it, and I needed so badly to know why she called me
sunshine.
Of all the things to call a man a part of the Mob, sunshine ain’t one of
them, or so I’d thought.
The way that shit made me feel was unreal.
I wanted to hear it again; I needed to.
“Yup. Who lives there?”
“Dante. He’s the consigliere to Luca Moretti.”
I caught the frown on Niamh’s face as she panned the camera the
furthest she could get it.
Watching an empty block wasn’t doing anything for my need to see
Violet’s face.
“Can you check the last three days, or is that pushing it?”
I turned toward the stove and cut the front right eye on before setting a
cast iron skillet atop it. Afterward, I coated it with butter and waited for it to
melt.
“Already on it; give me a second.”
Her second took long enough for me to finish making her omelet.
I set it in front of her, and she scarfed down three big bites before giving
me answers.
“It looks like the last time the camera caught sight of her was…oh.”
Niamh turned the laptop screen from my view.
“Oh?” I questioned, brow raised. “What does oh mean?”
 “Looks like she hasn’t been there in a while.”
“The fuck does a while mean, Niamh?”
Her brown eyes darkened at the growl in my voice.
“Watch how you speak to me, Finnegan,” she said, her tone holding no
room for argument.
I nodded, knowing we didn’t talk to one another without respect
present.
“My bad, Ni…” I stepped beside her again. “Show me what you mean.”
“It’s just… look at this…” she slid the laptop to me. “They all look the
same.”
A week’s worth of ring camera footage was lit up on the screen.
“It’s like a loop or something,” she pointed out. “Nothing changes, not
even the angle of the camera. It doesn’t pan left or right but focuses directly
on Violet and… what’s his name again?”
“Dante.”
She nodded.
“The camera focuses directly on their two places, but nothing is
happening. I think the footage is being deleted or maybe looped on
purpose.”
An odd feeling niggled its way into my chest.
Fear?
“I’ll keep digging. I’m sure she’s okay.”
Was I afraid that something might’ve happened to her?
Yeah…
I was terrified.
“Finnegan, you promised,” Niamh yelled as she chased me up the hall
toward my bedroom. “Auntie Caroline will kill me if I let you leave here.”
“Let me?”
I chuckled and stepped into my closet.
“Either tag along or stay out my way, and I mean that with the utmost
respect.”
She sighed deeply as I pulled the matching hoodie to the sweats I
already wore over my head.
“Fine, but give me a gun.”
“Where’s yours?” I asked, opening my gun safe against the back wall of
my closet and handing her a Sig Sauer before grabbing a Glock for myself.
“Long story.”
 I shut the safe and twisted to face her.
She stood leaning against the shell of the closet door.
“There’s a long story about why you don’t have a gun to protect
yourself? Last I checked, you’re part of a family that runs guns, Niamh.”
That didn’t make a lick of fucking sense, and she was aware of it.
“Don’t worry about me,” she sassed, her eyes guarded. “Let’s go find
your girl before you bust a stitch. Where are we starting?”
“The source.”
I checked the clip on my gun and then stuffed my socked feet into a pair
of wheat Timbs.
“Okayyy,” Niamh droned. “And who is the source? Dante?”
“Luca.”
“Mmmm.”
I ignored her accusatory hum.
“What else do you know about her?”
“Not enough,” I said, feeling the weight of my words.
I wanted to know everything, her hopes, and dreams.
Her fears. Her strengths.
What made her tick.
I wanted to be able to pinpoint her mood by a simple shift in her body.
We still had a lot to learn about the other, and I couldn’t do that properly
with so many variables on the table.
“You can’t go into this all aggressive,” Niamh schooled as she followed
me to the elevator, where we both bundled up in bubble coats. “Be cool,
like always.”
“How I handle it will be depended solely on them.”
I needed an in, and I would get it by any means.
As Niamh and I crossed over into Blackthorn and out of O’Sullivan
territory, I could feel her apprehension. She’d been acting weird as fuck
since showing up on my doorstep.
“What’s up with you, yo?” I asked, cutting the radio off. “All I’m
getting is nervous energy from you, and I ain’t feeling it.”
“Cian didn’t talk to you?” she asked softly.
I cut my gaze her way as I pulled to a red light.
“Talk to me about what?”
“Anessa asked him to vouch for her going to school here.”
I nodded.
 He’d keyed us in on the conversation they had on Christmas Day.
“What does Anessa going to school here have to do with you?”
“She’s running from marriage.”
Apparently, he hadn’t told us all of it.
“The fuck you mean?”
Niamh sighed and turned her body toward the window as I pulled
through the green light.
“Your dad still won’t let our dad in.”
Her father wasn’t good for business.
Since I could fully understand, Landell Cassidy had always been a sore
spot in my father’s side.
The story was simple.
He had a crush on my ma back in the day while she was in law school.
She never saw him that way and kept it moving with her life, eventually
meeting my da and falling in love.
Her sister, Niamh’s mother, moved to New York shortly after Sean was
born.
She was pregnant with Yasmine and married to Landell.
He got hip to the family business over time, wanted in, but my father
refused and hadn’t changed his mind all these years later.
Instead, he gave him a job as a driver—a six-figure paying job he griped
about.
Ungrateful.
“He won’t ever let him in, Niamh.”
“I know. Everyone knows…” her eyes were on me. “He’s sick in the
head. Trying to marry Anessa off before she can leave for college.”
My chest tightened.
Anessa was the baby, barely eighteen.
Everyone called her baby doll because of her animated features.
She was the most mild-tempered of the girls in our family. Her father
was extorting her pliable nature, and I didn’t fuck with that.
I pulled my truck to a stop outside MoreSoul — a Moretti-owned soul
food spot.
“Where’s your gun?” I asked, circling back to what I felt had everything
to do with this conversation.
“I gave it to Nessa before I left,” she confessed. “Just in case.”
Just in fucking case?
 What the fuck was happening in my family?
“We’ll talk about this again later,” I said, opening my door. “Stay here
and—”
“Hell, no.”
She had her door open and shut before I could respond.
“I’m not letting you go in there alone. I don’t care how solid your
alliance is.”
I smirked and pulled the restaurant door open.
“Glad to know you got my back.”
Niamh brushed past me, and I followed.
The hostess at the front turned and smiled, ready to get her scripted
spiel out but paused when I started to speak.
“Is Luca here?”
Her eyes widened, and she pointed to the left of her.
“H-He’s over there, but—”
“Thank you.”
I made my way to the booth he occupied alone at the back and in the
corner.
Eyes from the few diners seated were openly pinned on me as I passed.
I knew Luca was the big man in town to them, but to me, he was just
another man who made his money the same way I did.
Without asking if I could sit, I slid in.
I didn’t need to turn around to know that Niamh had posted up by the
door.
We’d done this too many times together; she wasn’t new to it.
“What can I do for you?” Luca asked nonchalantly as he flipped the
notebook he’d been writing in shut.
His questioning gaze met mine, and I got straight to the point.
“Where’s Violet?”
He leaned back, and I did the same.
“Why?”
“Because I asked.”
Luca chuckled, his eyes filled with genuine amusement.
“She’s around.”
I clenched my teeth but kept my cool.
“Not what I asked.”
 “It’s all the answer I’ve got for you. Anything else you need to discuss
that isn’t related to my business?”
“Your business includes someone who happens to be my business.”
“Again, not my issue,” he said.
“Yeah, I don’t give a fuck about any of that. We can play who has the
bigger balls another day…” I placed my arms on the table and leaned in. “I
came to you out of respect. Somebody gotta cough up an answer before shit
gets hectic out there.”
He lifted an eyebrow, and I shrugged.
“That a threat you willing to stand on?”
“I don’t send threats…” I slid out of the booth. “I say, and I do. There’s
a difference.”
My brothers and I were known for minding our business. We stayed in
our territory and had enough respect for everyone else’s to handle things
accordingly when problems arose.
I was doing Luca a solid by coming to him first.
Fucking up whatever he had her doing would be no fault of mine.
Luca slid out of the booth with a smirk on his face.
“Every time I see you, it’ll be an issue,” he said, stepping toe to toe with
me.
He was the kind of made man you had to watch, the kind who kept their
inner monster under lock and key.
I liked to poke the bear on occasion; what was one monster? Sounded a
lot like a good time to me.
“Yeah, yeah. I hear you. Where’s Violet?”
“Handling Moretti business.”
I tipped my head and laughed.
“Cool,” I said, turning to leave. “I’ll see you around, Luca. That was not
a threat, by the way.”
As I reached Niamh, she pushed the door open and asked, “Did you get
what you need?”
The phone in my back pocket buzzed, and I nodded.
“Yup. Let’s go.”

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER NINE

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

OceanofPDF.com
THREE DAYS PRIOR…
“A re you sure you ’ re up to it ?” L ucia asked , her sharp eyes
meeting mine from where she stood. “This is different, unlike what we’ve
been doing all these years.”
“I’m not new to this.”
She nodded.
We were standing in the safehouse we’d done operations out of since I
came into the picture.
The front of the house doubled as a command center of sorts.
It was set up like a security office with monitors for every occasion.
“I know,” she said. “Becoming a mom made me a little softer to the
people I love.”
Her expressing that so openly only proved her assumption right.
“I guess having kids will do that to you.”
I didn’t want them, at least none that I had to push out myself.
To be fair, I couldn’t have them naturally, whether I wanted to or not.
My choice to live a childless life had been made long ago, but it didn’t
change my distress about having it taken away from me at such a young
age.
I felt most broken about that specifically.
“You’ve been spending a lot of time in Philly,” she mused, her tone
cheerful. “What’s out there?”
I shrugged and continued to clean and oil my long ranged rifle.
“You knew about Enzo.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed.
I knew about Enzo because we’d plotted on him from day one. We
hadn’t foreseen him proposing a marriage arrangement, but life only ever
took the road it was meant to.
“I brought in the New Year with Finnegan,” I confessed, ignoring her
saucy-eyed expression. “Wasn’t like that. We just talked or whatever. I
don’t know.”
“Oh, you know,” Jaz threw out as she entered the safe house. “And yes,
I was listening through the security system while heading here.”
“You two didn’t need to come,” I griped, not wanting to talk about Finn.
“I’ll be in and out in a few days.”
 “I’ve barely seen your face in weeks,” Lucia complained. “I know I got
married, moved an hour away, and had a baby, but am I not loved
anymore?”
“What kind of dramatic-ass response is that?” Jaz asked, her eyes wide.
“I thought pregnancy hormones went away after the baby popped.”
“How about I shoot past your ear and blow your eardrum?” Lucia
deadpanned, her expression anything but playful.
Those weren’t hormones.
She was getting antsy.
“I’ll keep my eardrums, Ms. Sassy.”
Jaz poked her tongue out and then turned her attention to me.
“I programmed three locations in the GPS on the car,” she said. “With
Gaia gone until next month, I want us to be extra careful. Everything is
encrypted. You gotta leave your phone and watch.”
That part of this mission I was dreading.
Being without a form of communication for however many days meant
blocking Finn out until it was complete. My anxiety spiked at the idea of
something happening to him. Out of all the jobs I’d been on, losing
someone had never been so prevalent in my mind.
That had to mean something, right?
“Did you know that someone filed a missing person’s report on me back
home?” I asked Lucia as I set my rifle aside to fill the five clips I planned to
take.
She frowned.
“No, they didn’t. We doubled-checked for two years straight.”
Jaz dropped down in a wheeled chair and slid in front of the monitor.
“I’m checking the police servers,” she said, typing out a few words that
populated one page. “Nothing.”
I’d known what she would find, but a small part of me wanted to be one
hundred percent sure. Maybe this person had gone back to follow up or
tried another station.
I hated how disappointed I felt about none of those things happening.
“There’s an encrypted file I sent to the server here yesterday. Pull it up.”
Jaz got the file up quickly, and there it was, the police report Cian’s
source found.
“There’s no name for the person who made the report,” Jaz said.
 “How do we know it’s real?” Lucia questioned, staring at the monitor.
“It’s from a year ago.”
“Cian O’Sullivan found it.”
They both whipped their heads in my direction.
“Apparently, he has an issue with information not being readily
available when looking for it and went a different route. It was never
uploaded into the police database because the station set fire soon after.”
Lucia's eyes were ablaze.
“Why the fuck was he looking into you in the first place?”
It was a general question, and I hated that I knew the answer.
“Not for himself,” Jaz surmised when I took too long to respond. “His
brother asked him to do it, didn’t he?”
I nodded.
“He’s been obsessed with finding out who you were since that Costa
container ended up in their shipping yard. I don’t like it.”
“Does it matter now? He knows who I am.”
“That matters,” Lucia said, pointing to the screen. “What do you want to
do about that?”
“There’s nothing to do…” I shrugged and started packing up my duffle
bag. “Without a name, it’s just a lost report. I don’t want to start digging
holes I won’t be able to climb out of. These past two days have been a lot
for me. I’m overwhelmed and need to focus on the task at hand.”
It frustrated me to admit that.
“What is going on with you?” they asked in unison.
“I don’t know. I feel out of whack, just off.”
“Bad feeling in your gut about this job?” Lucia pushed.
“No…” I sighed and stilled my movements. “Yesterday Finn got shot,
and I—”
“Whoa. Whoa…” Jaz stood and approached. “Let’s start right there.
Finnegan O’Sullivan was shot?”
I nodded.
“And you were there?” Lucia asked.
“I was in the vicinity. He passed out after I got to him, and I was so sick
about it. Felt like I might lose a part of me I’d just gotten back.”
“Wow,” Jaz murmured, her gaze filled with understanding. “Is he
okay?”
 “That’s the problem…” I zipped my bag to give myself something to
do. “He was out for a few hours after his brothers got him to their doctor,
but when he woke up, I got the text about this and left.”
It had been horrible fucking timing, but this job was time sensitive and
lucrative for me.
After this, I could focus more on my nonprofit with Gianna and take
time to figure out what I wanted for myself.
It was a lot to process, and I needed to focus.
“And you’re worried about him,” Lucia said, picking up what I was
putting down. “Did they kill who did it?”
“I thought Cian killed him, but when I asked Sean, he deliberately
didn’t answer. I don’t know anything else, and it’s bothering me.”
“I’ll put out some feelers.”
I shook my head.
“Nah. He won’t want anyone to know he was shot until they have a
handle on it.”
Lucia smirked and met eyes with Jaz.
“What?” I asked, wanting in on their silent conversation.
“Nothing…” she shrugged. “You just sound a lot like his protector.”
I tossed my bag over my shoulder and started toward the door.
“I need to get a head start,” I said, refusing to engage them. “Is
everything set up at my first stop?”
They followed me outside.
Our safe house sat on a large piece of land with no neighbors in sight
for miles.
“You’re good to go,” Jaz confirmed as I popped the trunk and stashed
my bag in a compartment beneath the spare tire. “When this is done, and
Gaia is back, the four of us need to have a sit-down.”
“If it’s about my love life, then no…” I opened the driver’s door and
peered at them over it. “Unless we can talk about how you turned down
living with Dante full-time.”
Lucia’s head damn near spun full circle as she turned to Jaz. I slid into
the car with a smile, satisfied that I’d caused a little chaos in her life for the
night.
Before I could back out, Lucia jogged over.
“Be careful…” she handed me a burner phone. “Only use this for
emergencies…” she leaned into the window. “I know you’re worried about
him, but focus up. Don’t get caught slippin’.”
“I won’t, and hey…” I put my hand on hers to stop her from pulling
back. “I know I’ve never said it before, but I want to be more open about
my feelings…”
Her eyes were knowing.
“You don’t have to—”
“No, I’m really thankful for you,” I told her. “You and the girls have
been the best parts of my life, you know? I love you deeply.”
She blinked and then pulled away.
“I love you deep,” she replied softly. “Go and be back before Sunday.”
I nodded, rolled my window up, then backed out and headed into enemy
territory.
This was the job of all jobs.
It wasn’t Delegation related.
No Red Society involvement.
Luca was playing a dirty game, one he knew I wouldn’t shy away from
being part of.
He didn’t want to stop at taking the Costa territory, but the other four
Italian-American mafia families too. Because Enzo set his sights on taking
out his uncle, who was the head of one of those four families, Luca set his
on the Mancini, Lombardi, and Greco families.
The Commission is what they called themselves.
I thought of them as the unseasoned version of our Delegation. They’d
gotten on our good side by giving Leonardo the nod to kill Pietro Costa, one
of their own.
It made infiltrating the Costa ranks much easier, but they hadn’t known
they were next on the list.
Nobody was safe.
My targets were the head of the Mancini family, Giordano, and his son,
Frank.
The Mancini family was the smallest and less protected, making them—
by fault—the first to be dismantled.
Luca had a motto, and I’d heard his father use it many times before.
Chop the head and watch the body fall.
The mafia won’t look the same when we’re done.
I was honored to be a handler of a long overdue reckoning.
Good fucking riddance.
OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER TEN

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

“I cannot believe you cloned that man ’ s phone and didn ’ t tell me
it was the plan,” Niamh complained.
She pulled a portable encryption decoder from her pocket and hooked
the phone up.
“You brought a decoder with you,” I pointed out. “Who had plans the
other didn’t know about again?”
Niamh snorted.
“Okay, how do you want to do this? “
I knew what she was asking, just like I’d known Luca wouldn’t give me
any information on Violet. If the roles had been reversed, the outcome
would be the same.
His family business was his to protect, and I respected that.
Didn’t change my stance on getting what I wanted by any means
necessary, even if it meant rubbing a mafia boss the wrong way.
He could see me about it another day but I had a feeling he’d be sending
a clear message sooner than that. It wouldn’t take long for him to figure it
out, all he had to do was look at it.
“Don’t pry too deep,” I decided aloud. “I only want to know about
Violet. Her location, preferably.”
I couldn’t be sure which phone my cloning device attached itself to.
He had two.
One was encrypted for business and the other for personal use, same as
my brothers and I.
 “They have some top-notch encryption over here in Moretti land,”
Niamh said, her voice filled with astonishment. “Wow.”
“Niamh…”
She glanced over as I pulled to a red light.
“Sorry, it’s hard not to give credit where it’s due. I think I know what
she’s doing, but they talk in code, literally.”
I drove through the light.
“Repeat it to me word for word.”
“First message says, ‘foods ready,’” she recited. “Then there are only
sequences, three distinct locations, it seems, but I’ll need my laptop to
check.”
The area around my stitches started to throb a little. I could feel it up the
side of my body and slowly began to get agitated by the sensation.
I pulled into the first gas station I saw and opened my door.
“Switch with me…” I slid out and walked around to her side before she
could exit. “I need you to drive us to the shipping yard.”
“What’s wrong?” Niamh asked, looking me over with concern after I
opened her door.
“Nothing, I’m good.”
I moved to the side, giving her room to get by before I took her place.
“You aren’t good,” she fussed. “I’m calling Sean.”
She slammed my door shut and, a few seconds later, saddled up in the
driver’s seat, where she mumbled about how far back my seat had been.
“You were shot three days ago, Finnegan,” Niamh started, gearing up
for a lecture. “I know you found someone you genuinely care about, and it’s
a new feeling that maybe you’re afraid to lose. But you have to take care of
yourself, too.”
Niamh wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t want to hear any of that.
Deep down, I knew Violet was good; Luca’s nonchalant reaction to my
demand said so.
She was handling Moretti's business, doing what she was good at for the
people who were essentially her family, but I was fucking obsessed.
I needed to see her or I wouldn’t be able to function properly.
It was insane but it was the truth.
“How can you really win her over if something happens to you because
you were too stubborn to sit the fuck down and heal properly?”
“I’m sitting right now. Just drive, Ni.”
 “And I’m driving right now,” she quipped, switching lanes. “Look, I
don’t mean to nag you, but someone has to do the logical thinking right
now.”
I cut my gaze her way.
“You saying I’m acting off emotion?”
Everything we were doing felt logical to me.
I missed my… friend and decided to pop up at her job.
What wasn’t logical about that?
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. When have you ever done anything
like this over a woman?”
Never.
She was the first and last if I had any say in the matter.
“Let Violet do her job, and she’ll return when she’s done. In the
meantime, stay alive so she can have someone to come home to.”
Was I her home?
I focused my attention forward as I pondered that.
Home for me was the chaos of my family, the loud talking over one
another, petty arguments that occasionally turned into boxing matches, and
good fucking food.
I had no idea what home was for her.
Did she want kids?
A large estate to fill them with?
I wasn’t sure if I wanted that for myself, but I could change my mind for
her.
Maybe we could adopt? Give a less fortunate child a stable home.
“Let me ask you something, Niamh. I need you to speak freely.”
She nodded, her eyes moving from the road to me and back.
“What do you want to do about your father?”
I needed to focus on anything other than what my future might look like
with Violet.
“I don’t know…” she shrugged. “He can’t force any of us to get
married, but I feel he’s gonna do something more drastic if this scheme
doesn’t work. My mom doesn’t want to poke the bear, but I think even she’s
concerned.”
“You and your sisters might want to figure that out together. There are
two ways this could go; both don’t end well for him.”
He was scum, but he was still their father.
 Our family meant everything to me, and I didn’t want to inflict pain—
directly or indirectly—on some of my favorite girls this world had to offer.
My mother’s love for her sister saved Landell’s life more than I could
count. He could do only so much poking before the big bad wolf bit his
head off.
“Maybe he’d be better off dead,” she murmured.
I knew it hadn’t been for me to hear and chose not to address it.
We rode the rest of the way to the shipping yard in silence, and my mind
immediately drifted back to Violet. It was short-lived because upon arrival,
standing outside our office building was a face I hadn’t expected to see so
soon.
Luca hadn’t wasted any time sending that message in the form of his
sister.
“Isn’t that Enzo Bianchi’s wife?” Niamh asked.
“Mmhm,” I hummed, removing my seatbelt.
“Luca Moretti’s twin sister.” she glanced at me as I opened my door.
“This isn’t a coincidence. She’s the assassin, right?”
I shrugged, not really giving a fuck, and got out.
Lucia was indeed a member of the Red Society—an elite group of
assassins that not many could identify even if they were standing in front of
them. If she wanted me dead she wouldn’t be standing here with me. This
was a message from her brother and nothing more.
“What can I do for you, Ms. Bianchi?” I inquired as we closed the
distance between us.
First thing I noticed was she didn’t have a coat on. Lucia and Violet
were nothing alike, but that small detail made me think of my Moonlight.
“It’s not about what you can do for me but what I can do for you,” she
replied, her tone smooth and eyes sharp.
“Didn’t know I needed anything from anyone.”
She smiled, picking up on my sarcasm, but schooled it as quickly as it
had come.
“We all need something every now and again. I’m here with a
message…”
She stepped closer and looked up, reminding me I was not talking to
Violet.
Where was the height on this woman?
“I’m listening.”
 “First…” she cut her eyes to watch as a truck belonging to Cian pulled
into an empty parking spot. “I want the phone you used to clone my
brothers.”
I smiled, raised my hand, and flicked two fingers at Niamh.
She’d know what I wanted.
“He figured that out faster than I expected. It’s yours.”
“Next,” she went on, tracking the movements of Niamh as she exited
the vehicle and approached from behind. “Violet is good; she’s working.”
I nodded, not satisfied with the vague information but appreciative that I
got something.
“This is a show of good faith, Finnegan.”
Niamh stepped beside me and handed the cloned phone over.
Lucia checked it and then stuck it in her back pocket.
“I don’t appreciate threats to my family but especially my brother.”
Her eyes were wicked, and my smile grew.
“Is this the part where I apologize for my actions?”
She chuckled.
“No. It’s the part where you realize I’m not to be fucked with, and
messing with my brother is doing exactly that.”
Feisty.
“Noted,” I crooned as Cian finally made his way over, Gianna in tow.
The expression in Lucia’s eyes immediately softened at the sight of her
sister-in-law.
“Are we taking my car or yours for lunch?” she asked, her tone bright.
That switch-up was crazy.
“Yours,” Gianna said, looking between us suspiciously. “Everything
good?”
“I’d like to know the answer to that,” Cian chimed in.
“Everything is everything,” I told them.
Lucia nodded.
“He isn’t wrong. Everything is everything, right Finn?”
Her eyes met mine as I acknowledged her with a chin lift.
“Right,” Gianna murmured, her eyes knowing. “Whatever you say.
Let’s go. I’m hungry.”
She kissed Cian and walked toward Lucia’s truck.
“Tell Moonlight I’m a little sick without her.”
 Lucia considered me after I said it, her head tipped. Her eyes drifted to
where I’d been shot, and then she turned to follow Gianna.
“Maybe I’ll deliver the message,” she said over her shoulder. “Maybe I
won’t.”
She would.
I had no doubt about it.
“Tell Luca I said hi, and I can’t wait to see him again.”
She threw her head back and laughed; it was boisterous and dramatic
but genuine.
“I see you for who you are, Finnegan O’Sullivan…” Lucia turned her
body halfway to face me. “I think maybe she sees it, too.”
What the fuck did that even mean?
Lucia left like she hadn’t ruined the rest of my day.
Threatening me about her brother? I couldn’t give two fucks about that.
Talking in code to me about the woman I wanted to marry someday?
Yeah, that was enough to send me into a frenzy.
“Ni, did you write those sequence numbers down?”
She laughed.
“You know me better than that…” she tapped her temple with two
fingers as we followed Cian into the office. “I have them stored up here.”
“Do I want to know?” Cian asked.
“He cloned Luca Moretti’s phone and stole information,” Niamh replied
for me.
“You did what?” Sean asked, having heard her from where he stood in
the upstairs hall.
“I technically didn’t steal the information,” I explained, holding both
hands up in surrender. “Niamh is the one who brought a decoder and told it
to me.”
Niamh gasped and spun on her heels, her brown eyes filled with
contempt.
“I can’t believe you!” she exclaimed, hands on her hips. “I should give
that hole in your stomach a friend.”
I rubbed the sore spot.
“Too soon,” I griped.
“We need to talk,” Sean barked, walking toward his office. “You, too,
Cian.”
 “If I have to hear a long lecture because of you, sleep with one eye
open,” Cian threatened as he passed.
I waved him off and glanced at Niamh.
“Use Cian’s office. I want to know where those three locations are.”
She sighed.
“You really won’t let this go, huh?”
I walked away without responding.
What was there to let go?
I didn’t say I would go to her, but knowing her location would hold me
over until she returned.
“What were you looking for that warranted cloning Luca’s phone?”
Sean asked as he dropped down in the reclining chair near the window in
his office.
“Violet.”
Cian chuckled.
“You fucking simp,” he jested, crossing his arms as he leaned against
the door.
“A phone call couldn’t give you that answer?” Sean asked.
“She’s on a job…” I shrugged. “Don’t worry, Luca only despises me.”
“I don’t give a fuck about that. Was it at least worth it?”
I nodded.
“Niamh is getting me the information I need as we speak...” I glanced
between the two of them. “What’s up?”
“Shooter mentioned that someone named Valen hired him,” Cian
explained. “Never heard it before, but I’ll know all we need to know soon.”
That was disappointing.
“I can only assume that same person hired the shooter from new year’s
eve, too,” Sean said. “Those attempts could’ve ended worser than they did.
You need to stay out of sight until we get this figured out.”
I glared at him.
“If it were meant for me to go, the first attempts would’ve been
successful.”
“Third times' the charm,” Cian mused, pushing off the door after
someone knocked. “Don’t be a dumbass. You’re smarter than that.”
He opened the door, and Niamh entered, her eyes landing on me as she
did.
“I know where she is.”
 “Stay out of sight or I’m calling the twins to keep you in check,” Sean
threatened.
I grimaced at the mention of Aoife and Siobhan, the daughters of our
father’s only brother, Eoghan. They were two category-five hurricanes in
human form, and I wanted no parts.
“I need to see Violet first,” I reasoned, almost willing to beg for extra
time. “Give me a day.”
Sean dropped his head and chuckled.
“One day, Finnegan,” he agreed. “I swear to Christ if you die, I’ll kill
you myself.”
His unachievable threat went in one ear and out the other.
I had my day, and it was all I needed.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER ELEVEN

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

“H ere ’ s your water …” the server set it in front of me . “A re you

sure you don’t want something stronger?”
I picked up the capped bottle and opened it.
“I’m okay,” I said, tossing a quick smile her way as I slid a hundred
dollar tip over. “Thank you.”
She nodded and turned in her sky-high heels, switching away with
confidence only a woman as stacked as her could be.
Once the server was out of my purview, I slowly took in the semi-
crowded room.
Bars had never been my scene, even though I worked at one during
college.
I always preferred to be where the music wasn’t so loud you couldn’t
enjoy it.
I craved melodies every day of my life back then.
Making them.
Hearing them.
Learning about them.
It gave me peace.
Music had always been what I thought home felt and looked like.
The first time I touched a piano, the noise in my head went silent. My
mother’s insistence that music should be a hobby and not a career couldn’t
penetrate the sound of those sweet melodies.
I only wished I could have lived in that space forever.
God had other plans for me.
 If only my mother could see me now.
My gaze settled on a pair of baby blues, and I pretended to look away
shyly, picking up my water bottle to take a few sips. I only returned my
gaze when I knew he was making his way over to where I sat alone at the
back of the rinky-dink bar.
Sure enough, Frank Mancini was on the prowl, his gaze smoldering as
he swaggered his six-foot-one frame my way.
I almost laughed.
Was that supposed to be sexy?
“Do you mind if I sit?” he asked, revealing a deeper voice than I’d
expected.
All that baritone was about to go to waste.
Rest in peace.
“It’s a free country…” I lifted my left shoulder and rested back in my
seat. “At least for you, it is.”
His eyes bucked at my bluntness as he dropped into the chair across
from me.
“Whoa. I knew you were intense, but—”
“Let me stop you right there,” I cut in, my tone soft. “You don’t know
me.”
He lifted his large hands, his thin lips spreading.
“I don’t,” he agreed. “I came over here to figure you out. You’ve been
sitting alone all night drinking water.”
“I’ve been here for forty minutes.”
“All night for you,” he quipped smoothly. “Can I buy you a drink?”
“I’m good.”
“Can I know your name?”
I smirked.
“For what?”
He rested his elbows on the table and pinned me with his gaze.
“Never seen you around here before.”
I shrugged.
“I’ve never seen you either.”
The quick shift in his eyes made me smile.
He didn’t think I was telling the truth about never seeing him before.
This was his town, so to speak.
Everyone who was anyone would know who Frank Mancini was.
 He’d been coming to this bar since before he could drink because the
owners didn't have cameras in or around the building. This was his favorite
place to prey on women, so I decided to make it the place I preyed on him.
“You look disappointed. Am I supposed to know you?”
He chuckled.
“I’m a nobody.”
I tsked.
“So, what’s a nobody like you doing in a janky bar like this?”
They still had a jukebox set up in the corner for music; It was tragic.
“A little bit of this…” he leaned back. “A little bit of that.”
“Sounds like that could be fun.”
Frank smiled, his lips spreading wide.
I slid out of the booth and walked toward the back, replying to his subtle
invite with action. He would follow; they always did.
I slipped into the single-stall bathroom and left the door slightly ajar.
Quickly, I pulled my Glock and chambered one—grateful that I’d
chosen to twist the silencer on beforehand.
I glanced at myself in the mirror as the door opened just a little, and
Frank dipped in.
I was so dolled up that even I didn’t recognize the person staring back at
me.
My thick, coarse hair was braided down under the auburn-colored wig I
wore.
My skin was lightly exposed in my black mini dress, fishnet stockings,
and thigh-high boots.
“I was wondering—”
“Last rights,” I spoke softly, smiling as he stilled and met my eyes in the
mirror.
The barrel of my silencer dug into his temple.
“Who are you?”
“Your judge, jury, and executioner.”
I tipped my head.
“Who sent you? This isn’t what you want to do?
“I do whatever the fuck I want, Frank,” I snapped, nudging his head.
“Anything you’d like to say?”
I sensed his movements before he made them and dipped back to miss
his elbow.
 He spun, and I pulled the trigger, hitting him in the forehead.
The way his eyes enlarged as the bullet pierced his skull filled me with a
beautiful rush of energy.
“Do you see what you did?” I questioned, leaning over him to make
sure he was dead. “Now you can’t have your last rights.”
I stashed my gun and flushed the toilet for the hell of it. After I washed
and dried my hands, I wiped off everything I touched, and stepped over his
body to get out.
I turned in the opposite direction I’d come from and dashed out the back
exit.
The car I’d chosen for the job was right where I’d left it, two alleyways
over.
I slipped inside and drove until I was out of Mancini territory.
Once I’d crossed over into a neutral zone, I cut my camera jammer off,
and merged onto the highway.
There wasn’t a camera in a thirty-block radius of the bar that caught
sight of my dark blue sedan with Florida plates. I was confident in that until
I took notice of a large SUV trailing me a mile from the safe house I was
using on the outskirts of Jersey.
This job was almost over, and I refused to let it go on any longer than I
had to.
I switched lanes to get confirmation that I was being followed.
The SUV moved with me, and I rolled my eyes, annoyed with having to
handle it.
I sped up and zipped through what small amount of traffic there was,
hitting about ninety before gradually coming up off the gas.
As I slowed, I eyed my rearview mirror.
The SUV had gotten stuck between two semi-trucks, and I quickly took
a different exit, deciding that back roads were my best option.
A zapping noise filled the car's cab and it startled me. It went on for
about thirty seconds, stopped, and started again.
“Oh, shit.”
I turned onto the gravel road leading to the safe house and opened the
glove compartment to grab the phone Lucia had given me.
Just as I wrapped my fingers around the device, it started to vibrate
again, and a number flashed across the screen I recognized.
My heart raced as I picked it up but didn’t speak.
 How the fuck did he find me?
“Moonlight,” Finn crooned, his voice sing-song. “Did I scare you?”
I frowned into the darkness, confused by what he meant.
“Scare me?”
He hummed or moaned, maybe a mix between the two.
“Your fearlessness makes me proud,” he said, warming my heart. “I
appreciate the way you take care of business.”
I could hear the sound of wind in the background like he was driving
with his windows down.
“That was you following me,” I stated, knowing deep in my heart that
the answer was yes. “Where are—”
My car filled with the bright lights of a vehicle pulling in behind me,
and I had my answers. The home I was using was an old farmhouse hidden
behind a thick brush of trees.
It was in no man’s country, so deep within New Jersey that no family
claimed it as officially theirs. There wasn’t a paved road in sight for miles.
I parked on the side of the house, and Finn rolled his truck to a stop
beside it
A sense of urgency filled me at the idea of seeing him, and I quickly got
out to speed up the process, the burner phone still to my ear.
Finn unfolded his lanky frame from the driver’s seat and strode to me.
His eyes moved up and down my frame, across my face, and then back
again.
“Why are you here?” I asked, ending the call and sticking it between my
cleavage.
His eyes stayed trained in that area until I cleared my throat.
“Why is your hair straight?” he asked, ignoring my question.
“It’s a wig.”
His lips pulled into a slow smile.
“Someone was out being a bad girl.”
His tone was light and airy, but those eyes told a different story.
“Finnegan—”
“Call me sunshine, or don’t call me nothing at all,” he cut in, taking my
hand. “Let’s get out of the cold.”
“You can’t be here.”
I really wanted to sound like I meant it, but truth was I needed to put
eyes on him.
 Three whole days.
We were barely touching day four with it so close to midnight.
“You don’t mean that shit, but even if you did, it’s too late.”
I punched in the security code to unlock the door, and we hurried inside
to avoid being in the cold any longer.
Finn locked the door, and I watched him until he met my gaze.
He looked tired, the bags under his eyes showing his lack of sleep. It
didn’t take away from how handsome he was, but it made him more human.
The man walked around like the world couldn’t touch him, but this
showed how aware he was of the uncertainty surrounding us.
Life was short and unkind to so many.
He’d been blessed, but I knew he recognized just how privileged his life
was, and that made a difference.
“I missed you,” he confessed. “I have no reason for being here other
than to see how work went.”
I blinked at the seriousness in his tone.
He meant every single word.
“You finessed your way into finding me somehow…” I narrowed my
eyes, wondering exactly how he did that. “…because you wanted to know
how work was for me today?”
He nodded, and my heart essentially signed itself away to him.
It was his to protect and nurture, didn’t matter if I was ready or not.
I wrapped myself in my arms, feeling exposed all of a sudden.
This wasn’t what I typically wore, and he’d noticed it immediately
outside.
He still looks at you the same.
“I missed you, too, Sunshine,” I admitted.
Finn touched his chest.
“I really felt that.”
“I meant it.”
He closed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around me.
Without much thought, I secured mine around his body and rested my
head against his chest. Being in his arms was like listening to music;
nothing could get me here. Especially not my fears and anxiety.
This was home.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER TWELVE

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

V iolet had been fussing with her hair for thirty minutes ,
grumbling under her breath about it from time to time. She had a lot of it,
and I could only imagine the frustration of caring for it alone.
“Let me help.”
I stepped behind her and finished undoing the last four of six braids
she’d worn under her wig. We stared at one another through the bathroom
mirror, our gazes unmoving.
I could do this all day, get lost in her steely orbs.
She was so goddamn pretty; there wasn’t a sole fucking with her face
card.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” she said.
“Can’t rest when you’re out here risking your life without me at your
six.”
“You’re taking this best friend thing seriously, huh?”
She tried to play it off like a joke, but we both knew what the fuck was
up.
“Stop playing with me, Violet.”
After freeing the last of her hair, I pushed my fingers through it and
massaged her scalp.
She leaned her entire body into mine, slowly relaxing without realizing
it.
“You know exactly what being friends with me will ultimately lead to,”
I said, daring her to deny the truth.
“I know what I got myself into.”
 She turned to face me and gripped the counter.
“Why do I trust you?” she asked, peering up at me.
“Because your heart recognizes that I’ll never lie to, break, or
disappoint it.”
Our eyes danced momentarily, and then she surprised the fuck out of me
by gently pressing her lips to mine. It was the softest, quickest kiss I’d ever
shared with someone I wanted to do a bunch of nasty things to. I had the
patience of a Saint, but she couldn’t give me that small piece of her and
expect me not to lose my mind about it.
“Violet…”
She shook her head and encircled her arms around my neck.
“I needed to know if I’d feel anything.”
I gently brushed my fingers up her hips and then around her waist.
“And, did you?”
She kissed me again, much firmer this time.
And then again with a little more mmph.
“Yes,” she whispered into my mouth. “I’ve… it’s…” she sighed. “I need
a second to breathe.”
I stepped back, and she latched onto my shirt, her fingers curled tightly
around the fabric.
“No, I meant with you right where you were.”
Our eyes met.
“Please, come back,” Violet begged, and I obliged.
She still had a hold on the bottom of my shirt when she brushed my
gauze with her knuckles. Her eyes were downcast as she pushed the cotton
fabric up.
“How are you feeling?”
“Sore,” I admitted. “It itches like a bitch, too.”
She chuckled softly.
“You should be resting, Finnegan. This is serious.”
“You left me.”
She playfully rolled her eyes.
“I went to work and promised I’d be back.”
“You did,” I agreed and pulled away. “Have you eaten?”
She slid past me and cut the shower on.
“I fast on jobs.”
 “You’re telling me I have to starve for however long we’ll be here?” I
asked, eyeing the way she secured her hair at the top of her head. “How
exactly long will we be here?”
“I’m leaving here in one hour to finish what I need to…” She pushed
me out of the bathroom with a small grin. “You, Sunshine, are going home.”
I chuckled as she stepped back and shut the door in my face.
Her command was cute, but I wasn’t going anywhere unless she came
with me.
Violet showered, and I walked through the farmhouse to get acquainted
with the space.
It was as bare as a place in the middle of nowhere could get.
But safe houses weren’t meant to be lived in. You pop in and out on
jobs, use it as a hideout for a short time, but never fucking live in it.
I could tell what Violet brought with her only consisted of the book bag
she had stashed in the bathroom and the duffle bag near the front door.
After opening every closet and checking all three bedrooms for nothing
in particular, I sat in front of the security monitors and watched the property
until Violet entered the room again.
Her long frame donned a skintight black bodysuit.
I bit down on my lip as she lifted one leg on the coffee table and started
to lace up her boots.
“Are you going to sit there and stare instead of talking?” she asked,
cutting her eyes in my direction. “Like what you see?”
“I—”
she straightened and walked toward me.
“—do actually.”
“Tell me again,” she urged, sitting sideways in my lap.
“I really like what I see.”
“This is reckless,” she said, lifting my shirt and revealing a tube of
antibiotic cream in her hand. “You being here still. Me not caring that you
decided to stay anyway. It’s all bad for business.”
“I don’t give a fuck about any of that.”
“I know you don’t…” she smiled, her eyes sparkling. “It adds to the bad
boy appeal you got going.”
“I need your help.”
She lifted an eyebrow, and I pointed to my now uncovered stitches.
“Do we know why someone is targeting you?” she asked.
 “My family,” I corrected. “Not just me.”
She shook her head.
“No, I mean you, Sunshine…” she lifted her gaze. “First, someone
attempted on New Year’s Eve, and now you’re wearing stitches after the
second attempt got you shot.”
She smeared the thick petroleum-like cream around my stitches, her
eyes laser-focused on the task.
“Our shipments…” she looked up as I started to speak. “Are you alright
with me sharing business shit with you?”
“I’m okay with that; thank you for asking.”
“Just want you to know that there’s always a choice with me,
Moonlight.”
She shook her head, her lips curling into a smile.
“You say all the right things.”
“I don’t want them to always be right,” I told her. “I only want to say
what I mean and mean what I say.”
She handed me the antibiotic cream and stood.
“What about your shipments?”
She went back to packing her things, moving effortlessly around the
room.
“Three of them have been compromised in some way.”
Violet met my gaze from where she stood and regarded me closely.
“Two different problems.”
“You sound sure about that with so little information.”
We’d already concluded that they were isolated events, but I wanted to
hear her theory if she had one.
Violet smiled and zipped her bag.
“Do you trust me?”
My response felt more natural than it should.
“Yeah, I trust you.”
Her smile brightened, and that light inside of her I was beginning to
love sparked in her eyes.
“Then take my word for it. Someone might be targeting your family, but
it isn’t whoever wants you dead.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought about this.”
She nodded, her eyes filled with mischief.
 “It’s been on my mind,” she said. “But we can discuss it more later, you
have to help me kill Giordano Mancini first.”
I chuckled and brushed my hand down my face.
Sean was going to love this.
“Whatever you want.”
“Great. We’re taking your truck…” she tossed her duffle bag over her
shoulder. “It’s time to go. With his son dead, he’ll be out in the open to
make a statement that he’s not scared.”
This bossy side of her was sexy as fuck.
It made my dick brick up.
“Oh, and Finn?”
I stood once her back was to me and adjusted myself.
“Yeah?”
“When I said help, I meant keep me company. You do not interfere. You
do not try and take over my op. I’m getting in and out, and then you and I
are going to go home and figure out how to make this work.”
She opened the front door and walked out without another word.
May God be my witness; that woman was going to be my fucking wife
one day.
I ambled out of the safe house behind her.
“Keys,” Violet ordered, her hand out as I approached.
She stood underneath the lifted hatch.
I didn’t move at her command, and she turned her eyes in my direction.
“Finnegan…”
“I’m starting to think you like bossing me around.”
“Kinda,” she murmured with a smile. “May I please have the keys? I’ll
only be able to focus if I’m driving.”
I was always going to give them to her, but I appreciated the honesty
that came with the request this time and handed them over right away.
As we settled into the truck together, I asked, “Are we coming back for
that car?”
“No, I’ll send someone to grab it in a few days...” she backed up and
whipped the truck around. “No one will be looking for it by then.”
“You avoided CCTV?”
She nodded as she maneuvered down the unpaved road.
“And I used a camera jammer where it couldn’t be avoided. I know I’m
good, but I like being sure.”
 I could listen to her talk about illegal shit all day. It fed my soul.
“What kind of problem does Luca have with the Mancini family?” I
asked, resting my head back and then rolling it to watch her.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it a problem.”
I thought about that for a second and then chuckled.
“That’s one slick muthafucka. He’s taking it all, huh?”
She nodded.
As he should.
His family had been done dirty well before he was ever thought of. I
couldn’t imagine growing up and finding out that my father had been
outcasted by his kin because his skin was too dark.
I never had the pleasure of meeting my grandparents. They’d both been
killed in a drive-by shooting while my mother was pregnant with me.
Darragh Senior had made waves during his reign as the Irish Mob boss.
The people hadn’t been sure about him because he was different.
The man had gone against tradition when he met, fell in love with, and
married a Black woman. No one knew it at the time, but my grandmother
played his second-in-command until their untimely demise.
To him, according to stories told, my grandmother was his end-all to be
all.
She was his partner through and through.
The two of them dying together had been the only way; neither would
have survived long without the other.
Hearing those stories growing up shaped not only how I viewed women
but what I wanted in one.
Violet was the kind of woman I could see as a partner, not just in life but
in crime.
She had it, and I wanted in.
“Hey, Moonlight…”
“Hmm,” she hummed, eyes still focused on the road.
“Do I at least get to keep my gun?”
She made what sounded like a sputtering noise and then burst into the
cutest laughter I’d ever heard. It was less controlled, something I was
certain she prided herself in being.
This was a side of Violet I never thought I’d see. It made me think of
our kiss and the way it came about.
“You kissed me,” I said, my eyes still pinned to her side profile.
 The small grin she’d been wearing evened out.
“Was that okay?” she asked softly. “I should’ve asked first, but—”
“You can kiss me all you want,” I cut in.
She didn’t need to spiral with me.
I wanted her.
I wanted there to be an us.
“There are a lot of sides to you,” I went on.
“You’re seeing parts of me I didn’t know existed anymore.”
I noticed the way her hands tightened around the steering wheel and
reached for one.
She gave it to me with ease, but I could feel her apprehension until I
laced our fingers and rested them on my thigh.
A calm washed over me that I knew she felt.
“What you said earlier about figuring us out…” I squeezed her hand. “I
want that, too.”
She smirked, and for a brief second, our eyes met; I saw appreciation
staring back at me.
“I know you do,” she murmured.
Yeah, I bet you do.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER THIRTEEN

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

“W hat do you want out of life ?” F inn asked , his back up against
the edge of the building we were on top of.
Taking long-range shots was all about the waiting game.
In this instance, I knew exactly when Giordano would show his face at
the bar. The owners had already cleared it out after Frank was found.
His body would stay exactly where it was until his father came to
examine it.
Luca had been able to come up with that information from a source
inside the family.
Giordano did the exact same for his father after he suffered a heart
attack during a business meeting. He’d done it for his only other son, who’d
been gunned down during an altercation with an unknowing cop.
Law enforcement in small towns like the one the Mancini resided in
was easier to control. Unfortunately for Jordan Mancini, he encountered a
rookie with a God complex and lost his life.
“Peace of mind,” I said, answering Finn’s question while I tested the
direction of the wind one more time. “Sometimes, I wake up from a dead
sleep and think I’m locked in a dark room I can’t get out of.”
My time being moved from post to post with a handful of women was a
blur, but the one thing that stuck was the hours I’d spent in dark spaces.
Small dark spaces.
“You feel comfortable talking to me about that in detail?”
I shrugged and laid flat after I maneuvered the barrel of my rifle through
the hole I’d drilled my first day on the job.
 “What do you want to know?”
As I eyed the emptied street through my scope, I could feel his eyes on
me.
They seemed to always be pinned in my direction when we shared the
same space.
Finnegan unnerved me in the best kind of way.
I wanted to tell him everything, but sometimes the words were hard to
find when it wasn’t a direct question.
“How old were you?” he asked.
I wished I could look away from the street and into his eyes, but letting
his presence be a distraction wasn’t on the agenda for tonight.
“Twenty-one.”
“What were you doing at twenty-one? Working or in school or maybe
both.”
I smiled.
He was trying to answer his questions while asking them. Finnegan’s
curiosity about me as a person was endearing. The man had been trying to
figure me out for months, and I guess he deserved to know, right?
“I was in music school. Not exactly working. My scholarship covered
all of my expenses, but sometimes I would bartend for extra money.”
That bar was the center of everything that changed my life.
I’d met Terrence there.
At the time, I hadn’t known I was being set up by everyone inside, but
when I learned the truth it was the first place I asked to visit after Lucia and
Jaz pulled me out.
Together we burned it to the ground with the owner and his wife inside.
“Music, huh?”
“Don’t you dare ask me to sing.”
He chuckled.
“I’m more of a composer. I can play five instruments, but the guitar and
piano were my favorites.”
“Were your favorite? Are they not anymore?”
“I… no, they are. I haven’t touched either in years.”
His thoughts were so loud as we sat in silence.
“Do you want to?”
“Touch them again?”
“Not just touch but play,” he said quickly.
 “I think I’m afraid that I’ve forgotten how,” I admitted. “The memories
are better than the possibility of that.”
“How much do you love music?”
I didn’t have to think about my response; the words easily fell from my
lips.
“With my whole heart. It’s who I am.”
The sincerity in his voice echoed through his words as he said, “I don’t
want you to have any regrets. Part of your life was already taken from you,
so if music is who you are, then don’t deprive yourself of it, Moonlight.
Don’t be the reason you walk around with a broken heart.”
A light inside the bar flicked on and then off, and I was grateful for the
signal that this was about to be over. I couldn’t tell him how much I
appreciated his words from up here like this.
He needed to know what they meant to me while my eyes were staring
into his.
“Count down from thirty for me.”
Finnegan obliged without question, and my heart thumped at his
readiness to assist.
How sick was that?
Those people had turned me into a monster, but I’d never felt more like
myself than I did right now with my finger on a trigger, waiting patiently to
tug it back while Finn counted down in a sing-song voice.
“Fifteen… Fourteen… Thirteen….”
Giordano’s driver had been thirty seconds out when I asked him to start.
I could see headlights as Finn reached ten.
“Ten… Nine… Eight…”
A black sedan rolled to a stop, and behind it, a large SUV—with my
target inside—did the same.
“Seven… Six… Five…”
A guard exited the sedan and glanced around the deserted block.
He nodded while a second guard exited the SUV and opened the back
door.
“Four… Three… Two…”
The second Giordano’s head was exposed, I took my shot.
“One,” Finnegan finished.
I killed both guards in quick succession and then pulled back.
 As I disassembled my rifle, I said, “We have twenty minutes to be in
Bianchi territory.”
I had my rifle packed down in less than ten seconds—a new record for
me.
Mancini territory was on the border of Enzo’s, so once we crossed over,
we were in a guaranteed safe zone.
At the bottom of the stairwell near the exit, Finn spun me around to face
him by the strap on my bag. My eyes widened at his abruptness, but then
they met his, and I couldn’t breathe.
He pushed me against the door and leaned in, bringing his lips to mine.
My goodness.
Everything inside me wanted to jump this man’s bones right here
against the door, but we had to get the fuck out of here.
Even knowing that I couldn’t find the strength to react until he smashed
his lips against mine. I cupped his face and slipped my tongue into his
mouth because what the fuck else was I supposed to do when he had me
like this?
Was this how we would bond?
Over killing.
My pussy throbbed at the idea of that.
It wasn’t the first time Finnegan garnered a reaction from her that left
me grasping for more.
“That was the sexiest shit I’ve ever got to experience,” he murmured
into my mouth before snatching me to him and opening the door that led to
an alleyway. “Let’s go, Woman.”
All I could think as we jumped into his truck was, I’ll follow you
anywhere.
“Finn…” he took my hand as I drove us away from the scene. “If you
hurt me—”
“You’ll chop me into a million pieces and hand-deliver them to my
father,” he finished for me. “I know. He knows.”
Good.
My word was bond, and I was thankful he understood that.
We crossed over into Grayfall, New Jersey, at one-fifty in the morning,
fifteen minutes after I wanted us to be here, but I wasn’t upset.
The job was done, and Luca could move his men in to clean house.
 “I should tell you that I might’ve gotten on Lucia’s bad side while you
were gone,” he said, not an ounce of regret in his voice. “I’d for sure do it
again, but that’s your girl, so this is me warning you.”
I sighed.
“What did you do?”
“Threatened Luca and cloned his phone.”
Of course.
“In my defense,” he continued. “I was respectful.”
“To whom?” I asked, rolling to a stop at a red light.
His eyes were filled with amusement.
“Lucia.”
“And not Luca?”
“I matched his energy…” he shrugged. “Never really cared for him
anyway.”
“Why is that?”
He shrugged again, and I pulled through the green light, heading toward
the casino owned by Enzo and his family.
If I didn’t stop to see Lucia, she would have my head.
“None of us really like each other, Moonlight. It’s the life.”
“Sure, but Luca is family. You gotta figure that out, Finnegan.”
“I’ll think about it.”
I chuckled.
He wasn’t going to think about it, that much I knew.
Once a man like Finnegan decided he didn’t like a person, he would
probably never like them. He and Luca were a lot alike in that sense.
“You won’t let her kill me, right?”
He was dead serious, and it made me wonder if he knew she was a Red.
Not many people knew of her connection to the Red Society, but in case
he didn’t know, I wouldn’t help put the pieces together by questioning him.
“I won’t let her kill you,” I said. “Play nice with Enzo, though.”
The love she had for her brother was nothing like what she had for her
husband. If Finnegan wanted me to protect him from Lucia, he had to keep
his snarky personality on lock for at least ten minutes.
“Sure,” he grumbled as I rolled to a stop outside of Lucia and Enzo’s
building.
They lived in a luxury high-rise next door to the casino, and both were
connected by a breezeway.
 “Maybe you should stay here and—”
He opened his door before I could finish.
Shaking my head, I got out and met him at the back of the truck.
“You aren’t going to play nice, are you?”
He didn’t respond; instead, he took my hand and led us to the doorman,
who doubled as a guard.
“She’s waiting for you in the basement,” the guard said, eyes pinned to
Finnegan. “Sir.”
Finn lifted his head in response as I led us toward the elevators.
“Thank you!” I called over my shoulder.
I hit the call button and the doors slid open right away.
We slipped inside and the moment they shut, Finn was all in my space.
“Is this okay?” he asked, placing his hands at either side of my face.
“I’m not afraid of being close to men. This is okay.”
He tipped my head back with his finger and searched my eyes for a long
while.
The elevator sat stagnant because he hadn’t given me time to hit the
button labeled with a B.
“Men don’t matter, only me. Are you comfortable with me being this
close?”
His chest brushed mine.
“Yes.”
“And when I kissed you before? Was that okay?”
The expression in his eyes was genuine concern that his behavior
might’ve crossed a line. It was partially true, but we crossed it together.
“It was more than okay...” I gently caressed the side of his face. “I want
you to do it again.”
The elevator started to descend on its own as the request left my mouth,
and he acquiesced. We were in an intense lip lock when the doors slid open,
and someone cleared their throat.
I didn’t have it in me to care that we were caught.
“I told you to let her work, Finnegan,” Lucia chastised, making herself
known.
He pulled back a little and brushed my bottom lip with his thumb as he
replied, “You said she was working. There wasn’t anything in there about
me letting her work.”
Our eyes were latched onto one another.
 He was so beautiful to me, inside and out.
“But,” he went on, turning to face the open doors. “I did let her work
with me there.”
Lucia’s questioning gaze met mine as I looped my arm with hers and
moved us deeper into the half-lit space.
“It’s like a fucking cave down here,” Finn said to no one in particular as
he followed behind us. “Can’t believe Enzo never invited me to see it.”
He was such an unserious human being.
There would never be a dull moment with him.
“What the fuck, Violet,” Lucia whispered.
“I know,” I murmured back. “He showed up, and I wanted him there
even though I should’ve sent him on his way.”
“I’ve never seen you so…”
We stepped into the pit, where Enzo and Matteo were overseeing
product being broken down. The pit was nothing but an open space with a
tunnel that led to an underpass on the other side of the building.
The Bianchi brothers turned at the sound of us entering and immediately
looked at the formidable being following behind us. Finn ambled over like
he’d been invited down by them personally.
“He’s so confident,” Lucia said. “I don’t know if I hate it or like it.”
“I think he just lives like there’s no tomorrow, and in this life, our
chances are much slimmer than an average person.”
“He’s reckless. Did he tell you what he did?”
I nodded, my lips pulling into a smile.
“Yeah. Kinda romantic if you ask me.”
“You’re so far gone already,” she said, her tone airy. “That’s exactly
why I didn’t kill him. Luca was not happy with that decision.”
“Luca will live.”
“You’re right…” she laughed. “He didn’t really want him dead anyway.
If that were the case—”
“He’d have done it himself.”
She nodded.
“Besides him showing up, did everything go smoothly?”
I nodded.
“What’s next?” she asked, forcing me to look away from Finn.
“What do you mean?”
“I meant exactly what I asked.”
 It was the kind of reply I expected from her.
“I don’t know…” I shrugged and glanced at Finn again, who was now
watching us. “… but I’m confident I’ll figure it out.”
She hummed.
“With him?”
Finn raised an eyebrow, and I nodded.
“Yeah, with him,” I confirmed. “I’m tired. I haven’t slept in days, and
he needs to be resting.”
“Go home and catch up on sleep; I know how it goes. We can talk about
the police report later.”
I shook my head.
“I’ll handle it, Luci…” I met her confused gaze. “I don’t want to go
backward. My life is here with you and everybody else. If whoever filed
that report is meant to be a part of this, we’ll find our way to one another
somehow.”
“Is that how you truly feel?”
“Yeah, it is.”
I didn’t want to be the reason for my broken heart anymore.
Letting go of the hope that my family wanted me in any way was my
first attempt at mending it. What was meant to be would be.
Finn stopped in front of us, his eyes on me.
“You alright, Moonlight?”
“Sleepy,” I admitted.
He nodded and took my hand, then looked at Lucia.
“Thanks for taking care of her these last couple of years,” he said,
tugging me into his side. “But, I got her now.”
Hearing him reassure her that I was in good hands without being asked
to was like music to my soul. It was more than a declaration but nothing
less than pure fact.
He simply stated what he believed, and it made his words mean much
more.
I had confidence in him to follow through.
That kind of trust, after what I’d been through, gave me a sense of
clarity.
He was my voice of reason.
The man I would have always found my way to in this life or another.
Finnegan O’Sullivan was my end game.
OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER FOURTEEN

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

“W ho lives across the street ?” I asked , observing the darkened

townhome with the ring camera Niamh hacked into.
Violet and I had decided to crash at her spot before heading back to
Philly later in the day, but once we pulled in, sleep became the last thing on
my mind.
“No one,” she said, coming to stand beside me at the end of the
driveway. “Jaz and I bought it from the guy who lived there before, and
we’re turning it into a command center of sorts. Why?”
“Hear me out…” I cut my eyes at her. “I might’ve had someone hack
into that ring camera.”
She shook her head and turned away from me.
“That’s why we loop the footage from time to time. Let’s go to bed now,
Sunshine…” her shoulders dropped as she walked up the driveway toward
the door. “I’m so tired.”
I knew exhaustion would hit her hard at some point.
“I need to know who you’ve roped into doing your dirty work…” she
unlocked the door and glanced at me. “Hacking cameras, cloning phones,
and what else?”
I picked her up bridal style, and she yelped.
Her eyes widened for a second before she relaxed.
“I cloned the phone all on my own,” I boasted as I adjusted her. “The
rest was my cousin Niamh.”
“Who else in your family besides Cian and Niamh do I have to worry
about digging into my life?”
 I cleared my throat and set her down at the bottom of the stairwell.
“Well, there’s my uncle Eoghan. He knows all and sees all when it
comes to us.”
“So, he knows about me already.”
I shrugged.
“He’s great at minding his business while doing his job, if that makes
sense. As long as it doesn’t harm the family, he’ll never speak on it.”
She started up the steps, and for a second, I stayed where I was and
watched the sway of her hips.
“That’s a lot of trust to have in someone,” she said as I began to follow.
“It is, but I have a close-knit family. Everything is dependent upon that
never changing, and we put in the work to make sure it doesn’t.”
That meant Niamh’s father had to go. He was bad for business.
I knew what my father would say when it came to handling him.
Yasmine, Delilah, and Niamh had joined the mob ranks right around the
time my brothers and I did. Anessa was still on the fence, but she was
young, and there was time.
Their father was their problem to handle.
I hated that for them, but they knew what they signed up for.
Blood in, blood out.
I’m sure it was hard for Landell to accept that his daughters had real
rank. They’d been afforded something he'd tried decades to get.
“I’m glad you’re close to your family…” she walked into her bedroom,
and I leaned against the doorframe to watch her. “I’ve always wanted a big
family that I was close to.”
Her room looked to be the master; it was too large in size not to be.
The dark blue and black aesthetic she created matched her everyday
vibe. She’d even gone as far as putting up matte black wallpaper behind her
canopy bed.
The lights were low and set a specific mood.
I wasn’t sure if I was turned on or tired.
“You can borrow my family.”
Violet sat on the bed and started to undo her boots. She glanced at me
and then looked away with a smile on her face.
“Are you going to stand there or come in?”
“I was waiting on an invite, Moonlight.”
I crossed into her domain, not needing to be asked twice.
 She sat up as I kneeled in front of her and took over, removing her
shoes.
“This is my job now,” I said, tugging the thick boot until her socked
foot was free. “Understood?”
I removed the second one and then started on her socks.
“Moonlight…”
She blinked and shook her head.
“Yes?”
“Did you hear me?”
“You want the job of removing my shoes?”
“Want?” I questioned, palming her bare foot. “It’s mine. Keep up.”
Her toes were painted black, as I expected, but there was a hint of
purple reflecting off them.
I brought the sole of her foot to my mouth and kissed it.
She gasped, her eyes bucking in shock.
“O-okay. I get it.”
I smiled and brushed my lips down the center of it.
“Finnegan, my feet have been in those boots for hours…” she tried
snatching it away, and I tightened my hold. “That’s so…”
I kissed the tips of her toes and watched the rise and fall of her chest
increase.
“That’s so, what?”
“I-I think…” she shuddered. “I like it.”
I smirked and stood.
“Nah. You love it…” I started to remove my shirt and then stopped. “I
can’t sleep in the shit I been outside in all day.”
“No one’s asking you to…” she stood and moved past me. “Be
comfortable. I know I will.”
I watched her disappear into her closet and then removed everything I
had on except my boxers. My dick was brick as fuck, and there wouldn’t be
another layer of fabric helping to conceal it.
“Which side do you prefer?” she asked from behind me.
I pulled the thick duvet back and climbed on the side closest to the door.
I opened the space for her next to me and nodded toward it. She
sauntered around in a pair of biker shorts and a matching sports bra.
“Come on...” I tapped my chest. “I want you right here.”
She crawled to me and sat back on her legs.
 “Finn, the last time I shared a bed with a man, and it was my choice, I
was twenty-one. I-I don’t know how to express that. I—”
“I don’t want anything from you but you, Violet. We can wait as long as
you need.”
She smiled and looked down at her thighs where her hands were
splayed on them.
“What if I want something from you?” she asked, lifting her gaze to
meet mine again.
I regarded her closely.
“You want me?”
“I want you,” she confirmed. “But I also need you to know something.”
“Tell me anything.”
She looked down, and I kept the urge to lift her head to myself.
“My body has been through a lot…”
Her voice was just above a whisper, but I heard her loud and clear.
“Um… when I came home, I was in the hospital for a short time. I had
to have a complete hysterectomy.”
She touched her stomach and took deep breaths.
“I never wanted children, but something about the option to change my
mind being taken from me really pisses me off.”
The anger she felt gave her the confidence to look into my eyes.
“I don’t want you to be here thinking we’ll be married with children one
day. I can’t give you that, Sunshine.”
“Are children and marriage a package deal for you?” I asked, needing
the answer before I responded how I wanted.
“No?”
I sat up and dragged her into my lap.
She straddled me and wrapped her arms around my neck.
Almost immediately, I regretted the position.
Her hot ass pussy was right on top of my erection, and she had the
fucking impudence to push down on it.
“That sounds like a question. Do you want marriage?”
She was having an internal battle with my question. It was written all
over her face as she gathered her thoughts.
“I want marriage, but I can’t have kids.”
It was a strong statement but felt like a debate, like she thought you
couldn’t have one without the other.
 “I don’t want children, Violet,” I confessed. “Not gonna lie, I was
willing to pop a few in you if that’s what you wanted.”
She smiled, and it softened her eyes.
“I want you…” I maneuvered us until she was flat on her back with me
between her thighs. “I don’t want to put your body through anything but
pleasure. Am I allowed to do that?”
She cupped my face and drew me close.
“You’re allowed to do that,” she murmured, pressing her juicy ass lips
to mine.
“Yeah?
Our eyes danced for a long while, leaving me in a deep trance I never
wanted to find my way out of.
“I give you permission to have me, Finnegan O’Sullivan.”
Consent had never sounded so sexy.
“You smell so good,” I murmured, kissing down the length of her neck
and then across her shoulder.
I slipped my hand into her sports bra and cupped one of her breasts.
Violet arched into me as I brushed the pad of my thumb against her nipple
in a circular motion.
She whimpered softly in my ear, and my dick stiffened at the sweet
melody.
I sat up and brought Violet just enough to get her bra over her head.
She fell back into the mattress, exposed for me.
Her nipples were as dark as her skin and erect.
“I’ve been waiting to do this.”
Our eyes danced as I raised her right leg by the ankle and brought it to
my mouth.
I used my left hand to cup her breast and toy with her nipples, rolling
the fleshy bud between my fingertips while sucking on her toes.
“F-Finn, please-e,” she groaned, stumbling over her words.
“I know you want me, baby…” I released her leg. “But, I need to
worship your body before I enter its temple. You deserve that.”
“If you keep talking to me like that, I won’t ever leave.”
I placed kisses underneath and around her breasts, lingering on the
flesh-colored scars scattering the area.
“You have the prettiest skin,” I whispered, eyes on hers as I flicked the
tip of my tongue over her nipples.
 She gripped the sheets and whimpered as I began to work my way down
her body, caressing every dip and curve with my tongue and fingers.
As I settled my head between her thighs, I kissed her center through the
stretchy fabric of her biker shorts.
“Do you believe me when I say you deserve to be worshipped?”
I wanted to be in her head whenever she thought about her past.
I wanted to be so deep under her fucking skin that it was my voice she
heard whispering sweet nothings in her ear when no one was there.
“I believe you,” she moaned, raising her hips until I obliged in
removing her shorts.
Underneath, she wore a pair of black lace panties that looked to be
painted onto her skin.
I pushed her legs further apart and ran my tongue in the crease between
her thigh and pussy.
Violet rose off the bed, covering my mouth and nose with her core.
I took a deep whiff and groaned.
“This pussy is intoxicating.”
Our eyes were locked, and she watched me kiss her pussy lips through
her panties.
I tugged the fabric to the side and used the other to hold her waist before
I dove in.
I sloppily kissed her pussy, sucking her clit into my mouth as I rolled
the tip of my tongue over it repeatedly.
Violet gasped and slapped her hands on the back of my head to hold me
in place.
“Don’t stop,” she begged through soft moans.
I’d been waiting to please her this way, to have her beg me not to stop.
I pushed my hand up her body and cupped her breasts.
“Finn!” she cried, rolling herself into my mouth as I tweaked her
nipples. “Baby, I-I c-can’t take ittt.”
Her body did the exact opposite of what she was saying, and I watched
her come undone, feeling satisfied with my handy work.
“Don’t ever say what you can’t do again…” I slapped her clip with two
fingers, and she jerked forward, the aftereffects of her orgasm hitting her. I
lapped up her essence and licked it clean from my lips. “Look how good
you came for me, Moonlight.”
I played with her pussy, showing her how wet she was for me.
 She tugged my boxers down, and I kicked them off, gripping my dick
and slapping it against her clit afterward. Her body shuddered, and I
avowed, “I’m gonna fuck you now.”
I hooked one of her legs in the crook of my arm and poked at her
center.
“Have me,” she encouraged, lifting her hips. “I want you to have me.
Please, baby.”
Shit.
I plunged in deep, filling her to the hilt.
Violet drug her nails up the length of my spine as I thrust in and out of
her.
“This pussy is good, baby,” I murmured before she stuck her tongue in
my mouth.
The deeper I went, the more intense and sloppy our kiss became.
“I want to be on top,” she said, surprising me.
I released her leg and slipped an arm under her body to turn us.
Once on my back, I rested my hands behind my head.
Violet balanced herself on my chest with one hand while holding my
dick with the other.
She hovered over me, her eyes on mine.
“I want to make you feel good, too,” she told me, lowering herself on
me.
Inch by inch, she took me in, giving me all she had, and it felt so
goddamn good.
Her pussy greedily devoured me.
I moaned softly, and she smiled.
She got to the soles of her feet and rode me from tip to base.
“Mmhm. This dick is so good, baby.”
Her voice dropped an octave as she talked her shit.
She wasn’t shy when in the thick of it.
Violet had a take-charge personality, and it showed well in the bedroom.
I liked that shit.
“Ah,” she whimpered as I planted my feet and lifted my pelvis to meet
her halfway. “Just like that, baby.”
“Like that?” I asked, speeding up my thrust as she rocked into me
simultaneously.
 Our flesh stuck together from sweat and her pussy juices dripping
between us.
She dropped my head against my chest and cried out, begging me not to
stop.
“Don’t stop… Please…”
“Mmhm,” I hummed, feeling her tighten around me. “Give me that. It’s
mine.”
She cried out and bounced on my dick harder, even as she came.
My toes curled; she was fucking me so good.
“Shit,” I cursed, thrusting up as I came. “Goddamnit, woman.”
There was no going back now; Violet and I were locked in.

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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 VIOLET

“S top staring at me so I can open my eyes ,” I begged , burying my

head into Finn’s chest.
He wrapped me in his arms and kissed down the length of my neck.
The way he handled me with the utmost care only made me want to
hide from him more.
I had real-deal butterflies in my stomach.
“I can’t help myself,” he murmured against the shell of my ear. “Too
goddamn pretty not to stare at.”
“It makes me nervous.”
“I’ll keep doing it until it makes you so comfortable you can’t help but
stare back.”
I lifted my head and regarded him through the thickness of my hair,
grateful that it kept my eyes from his view.
He never said anything he didn’t mean, but sometimes I found myself in
awe of how he addressed my insecurities.
I rested my chin on his chest as he brushed my hair back to get a better
look at me.
“Good morning, possibly afternoon,” he said, his voice still deep from
sleep.
“Hi,” I whispered, smiling. “I think it’s late afternoon.”
He stretched and then pulled me until I gave him what he wanted and
straddled his waist.
I wasn’t in anything but a sports bra and a pair of boy shorts.
I never imagined being this comfortable with a man seeing my body.
 Finn wasn’t just any man though, and I kept reminding myself of that
while he held me all night.
“I kind of want to stay like this for a little while longer,” he said,
grazing the length of my spine with the tips of his fingers.
“Jaz won’t be back until morning,” I told him, bracing my hands against
his chest. “She’s on a job.”
“What does that mean? You down to lay around all day?”
“I mean…” I shrugged and stared into his pretty browns. “Yeah, I’m
down. I think I heard somewhere that you love to cook, and I just so happen
to love food.”
I stuck my lip out to really draw my point home.
Fasting on jobs kept me hyper-focused.
I hadn’t touched anything of substance in four days, and now that I
wasn’t on the move, it was only a matter of time before I started to get
hangry.
“I’m so hungry, Sunshine.”
He chuckled and pushed himself up.
“I was wondering when we’d break fast,” he said.
I couldn’t focus on the way he’d hardened beneath me because his
statement stole my attention.
“What do you mean you were wondering when we would break fast?”
He swung his legs off the side of the bed and stood with no warning.
“I said what I meant perfectly clear. You fast on jobs.”
“But you could’ve eaten at the casino or made something when we got
here last night,” I pointed out.
“We were fasting.”
He said it slowly and stared at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“No one ever fasts with me. Luci, Jaz, and Gaia won’t even try.”
It was such a small gesture but it meant everything to me.
He set me on my feet, and I gripped his chin, forcing him to bring his
lips to mine.
“You’re so good.”
“Nah. Nothing about me is good.”
It was such an aggressive statement.
Didn’t he know that the bad could be good, too?
Finn was the definition of exactly that.
 I kissed him and then took a step back to admire his sculpted body. He
was built like a fighter, long and cut the fuck up.
“Favorite breakfast food?” he asked.
“Waffles, Sausage but the links. Eggs with every cheese available.”
He nodded.
“Onions? Green peppers?”
“Yes. All of that.”
He pulled a pair of sweats from the duffel bag he said he kept in his car.
“You won’t have to go to the store. Everything is down there…” I took
another step back. “I’m going to shower and then find my way to you.”
I went to turn but stopped myself and went back to him, eating up that
distance in three swift strides.
He pulled me in but didn’t say anything; it was like he knew I had
something to get off my chest and needed a second to gather the right
words.
“You do bad things, but you’re good,” I told him. “There’s no question
about it.”
“You mean that?”
“I really do.”
I backed away as he started toward the door.
“The problem with good people is they think they’re good people,
Sunshine.”
He stopped, but I kept going, turning and shutting myself inside the
bathroom.
My dramatic exit lasted all of a few seconds. I waited until I felt like
he’d left the room and slipped out of the bathroom.
I went into my closet and opened the safe on my floor; inside were all of
my important documents but, more importantly, my cell phone, right where
Lucia said she’d stashed it.
Four days without it, and I hadn’t missed the thing.
I powered it on and set it aside.
Under a pile of papers, I dragged out a thick manila envelope. The
papers inside had been given to me two years ago, and I still hadn’t found
the courage to look at them.
I sat crossed-legged in front of the safe and contemplated looking
inside.
They were from my grandmother’s estate.
 She had been the first person I wanted to run to, but it never happened.
Later, I learned that she’d died just six months before Lucia and Jaz pulled
me out.
I missed her by six months; all I had left of that relationship was what
she left me.
Money.
A shit ton of money, I hadn’t even known she possessed.
It wouldn’t bring her or the love she’d given back, nothing would.
Sometimes I wondered if my brother thought of me since I’d been gone.
He’d only just turned ten when I disappeared.
Maybe he thought I abandoned him.
I couldn’t just show up after all these years hoping for a connection with
an almost eighteen-year-old boy.
I stuffed the envelope back inside and shut the safe.
Maybe another time, I thought.
My stomach growled as the smell of Finn’s cooking filled the entire
place.
Still, I took my time going through my self-care routine after a job.
I soaked for fifteen minutes in lukewarm water with Epsom salt in it;
afterward, I always felt refreshed, and my skin glowed like no other.
Next, I showered, using a wash regime tailored to my sensitive and
slightly dry skin type. I lathered my washcloth with a bar of unscented
Dove soap and cleaned myself from top to bottom, rinsing between two
washes.
My next lather was a bamboo-scented body wash with two percent
salicylic acid to keep the back acne away. I exfoliated with my homemade
brown sugar scrub afterward and then a thorough rinse-off ended my
routine.
After I dried off, I stepped into the bedroom to find Finn waiting for me.
He was stretched across the bed on his back until he heard the door
open.
As he lifted, his eyes were pinned to my towel-wrapped body.
“Came to do my other job,” he said, licking his lips as he eyed me up
and down.
“What job is that?”
He beckoned me with two fingers, and my legs moved before my brain
caught up.
 “I have this innate urge to take care of you in every way I can think of.”
The way he looked at me settled well in my chest.
I liked him.
Maybe, I loved him already, too.
He slipped his fingers into my towel and touched me gently between my
thighs.
“Take care of me then.”
His eyes danced with mine, and he smirked.
“Breakfast is ready,” he said, sliding a finger through my wetness before
he stood, forcing me back. “That’s my new job. Telling you when it’s time
to eat.”
I gaped at him as he retreated, laughter in his eyes.
“You’ll pay for that.”
His eyes went dark.
“I so look forward to being punished…” he turned. “Bring your ass
before the food gets cold. Nobody likes cold food.”
“I like cold pizza!”
He chuckled, the deep rumble filling my heart with a deep sense of
comfort I never knew I needed.
I moisturized as quickly as I could and tossed on an old, tattered shirt
with nothing beneath.
“I like this chill version of you,” Finn said as I breezed into the kitchen
feeling rejuvenated.
“What about the other versions of me?” I asked, stealing a sausage link
from the feast he’d put together.
“If I told you the whole truth, you might run…” he opened the fridge
and pulled out a jug of orange juice. “This isn’t real cooking.”
He waved to the waffles, cheesy eggs, sausage links, and grits he’d
made.
“It’s real cooking,” I argued, taking the fork he handed me. “And I’m
appreciative.”
We migrated to the small two-seater table inside the kitchen.
“Can you cook?”
He watched me as I stuffed my mouth with a little bit of egg, waffle,
and sausage.
“My grandma taught some of her old family recipes. She was Haitian,
and a lot of them are from her mother’s spin on traditional dishes.”
 I thought about the papers from her estate.
“I need some advice.”
He nodded slowly and sipped from his cup.
“Break it down to me, and I’ll see what I can do.”
I ate a little more food and he did the same.
My stomach wouldn’t forgive me if I let it go to waste. Finn had done
good, and I couldn’t wait to see what he considered real cooking.
“Actually, I have to say this before we move forward…” I shook my
head, hating how easily I got off track. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to
tell you about the things done to me in detail. A lot of it feels like one big
blur, but some of it shaped me into who I am, and those things I’ll share
because I want you to know and understand me.”
He worked his jaw good for a second, clenching and unclenching it.
The things that had been done to me made him angry, and I found relief
in that.
I didn’t want his sympathy, but I could accept his anger.
“I only need to know what you want me to.”
“My grandma had an estate that she left to me. It’s real money that I
didn’t even know she had. I just… I don’t want to use it for nefarious
reasons.”
“Then, what do you want?”
I shrugged and finished off the last of my food.
“I could use it for my projects, but I feel weird taking money that she
probably thought I’d never see.”
“You were gone, and she never changed it…” he leaned back in his
chair. “Sure, there’s a possibility she never got the chance to update it after
you disappeared. Or maybe she had faith it would land where it needed to.”
I wouldn’t know until I opened the damn envelope, and doing that felt
so final.
“My family has always been dysfunctional in a way, but my grandma
was special. If it weren’t for her, I don’t think I could sit across from you
after what I went through. Her love is the reason I still believe in it.”
“You can sit across from me because you recognize my intentions for
exactly what they are. I’ve never hidden who I am or what I like. What you
see is what you get with me. You deserve that, somebody who can be what
you need while staying true to themselves.”
He’d read me so easily.
 “What about what you deserve? What does that look like for you?”
His eyes were unmoving.
“What I deserve looks a lot like you.”
I pushed my chair back and went to him; he tugged me into his lap, and
I wrapped myself around his body and the chair. Was it weird that I wanted
so badly to live in this man’s skin?
“What you deserve is me,” I corrected, smoothing his unkempt
eyebrows. “I couldn’t have given myself to you last night otherwise.”
He’d spoken so highly of me and my body, the same body men used
over and over.
I’d been stripped of my self-worth for so long.
My smile.
My need for music.
They took it all.
I’d been bare inside and out, angry and in need of revenge.
None of that changed, it would always be part of my story, but it didn’t
have to be the story. I still had so many pages to fill, and I wanted to fill
them with him in mind.
“Thank you for trusting me with your body,” he murmured into my lips
after a chaste kiss.
“It was easy to do…” I rolled my hips against his erection. “You make
this easy for me.”
I’d been so nervous about allowing him to see my body and my scars,
but he’d spoken beautifully of me.
“I’m so wet for you right now.”
I could still hear his sweet nothings.
“Yeah? Show me.”
I lifted up, pulled his dick from his sweatpants, and then sat on it, filling
myself with his elongated shaft.
Finnegan was blessed between the legs.
What they said about tall, lanky men wasn’t a lie. He was hung and
thick and fit me so good.
I rode him slowly as we stared into one another’s eyes.
“You’re so good to me,” I murmured softly. “So good inside of me.”
Finn cupped my ass and took over lifting me up and down his dick.
I started to cum almost immediately after he thrust up, hitting my g-spot
at just the right angle to send me over the edge.
 “Love the way you take this dick, Moonlight.”
Mine.
I’d never seen myself as a selfish person until he came along.
“That’s my dick now,” I corrected, kissing his neck in that spot I’d
found last night while he slept.
Finn moaned right up against my ear as he came inside of me.
“Yeah, baby. That’s your dick now.”
I rested my forehead against his, and we caught our breath together.
“Can I try something?” I asked, feeling spontaneous. “You have to
promise not to stare.”
“Don’t make a liar out of me, Violet. Asking me not to stare at you
should be a crime.”
I untangled myself from his embrace and stood.
“But if you do that, I won’t follow through with it.”
He lifted an eyebrow and I turned on my heels to grab what I needed.
The first Christmas I spent with Lucia and her family, she gifted me a
brand new guitar, and not just any kind but a Gibson L-5. It had been
custom-made with my name engraved in the matte black exterior in the
shade violet.
It sat in the original packaging all this time, untouched.
Luci hadn’t known that giving it to me would send me into a deep
depression.
I never had the courage to tell her, but she knew and never made me feel
ungrateful for not using it.
Today, I wanted to change that.
My fingers shook as I removed it from the travel case.
“I’m sorry it took me so long,” I murmured, bringing it close to my
chest.
I made it back to Finn to find him sitting in the living room with one leg
propped up on the coffee table. He looked up, and his gaze immediately
shifted to the guitar.
“That's why you don’t want me staring?”
I nodded and sat on the floor right where I was standing and crossed my
legs in.
“I don’t want to be the reason for my broken heart anymore.”
I refused to look at him as I settled my fingers on the strings and stroked
them for the first time in almost five years.
 My heart raced as the notes went from high to low.
It sounded a little wonky at first, but eventually, muscle memory took
over, and the strings melded with my strokes. Those gritty notes only a
guitar could make consumed me.
Finn’s presence felt much closer than before, and I opened my eyes to
see that he’d seated himself in front of me. I removed my fingers from the
strings and released a deep satisfying breath.
“How did that feel?” he asked, his voice thick with emotion.
“I’ve never felt so free,” I admitted, staring at the beautiful instrument
before lifting my gaze to meet his. “Between you and this, it’s
overwhelming.”
Finn rested his back against the coffee table and patted the space
between his legs. I crawled where he wanted me and turned so that my back
was facing his front.
He brought his lips to my ear and whispered, “Watching you realize you
remembered how to play got me a little choked up, baby.”
I wasn’t even facing the man and tried to hide my smile.
“When I told you I wanted to see you happy…” he buried his face in my
neck. “…this was the kind of happiness I meant, Moonlight.”
I stroked the strings on my guitar while his words settled tenderly in my
heart.
This was the kind of happiness I’d hoped he was talking about.
“Would I be taking a step backward if I said I still wanted revenge?”
“Nah…” he slipped his arms under mine and held me close. “You’ll get
all the revenge your heart desires. We won’t stop until you're satisfied.”
Until I was satisfied.
“What if I never reach that point?”
He softly kissed just below my ear and murmured, “What if it’s not
meant for you to reach it? The sex trade will never stop, and you shouldn’t
either.”
I hadn’t planned to, but it was nice to know that I had his support.
“Can I play you something else?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
He put a little space between us, but his presence never wavered.
This is where we were meant to be, with each other, plotting on the
world.
“Hey, Sunshine?”
 “Yeah, Moonlight?”
“After today, it’s time to get focused…” I looked over my shoulder and
into his questioning gaze. “You haven’t been focused because of me, and
Sean deserves a second-in-command that’s present.”
He nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Satisfied with his response, I turned back to my guitar and got lost in the
music.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER SIXTEEN

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

“I tried to warn you !” N iamh shouted as the elevator doors opened

into my apartment. “Next time, don’t turn your phone off.”
Violet stepped from behind me, and Niamh’s eyes widened. Not only
had Sean kept his promise to sick the twins on me, but he’d called our
fucking mother too, and she looked pissed.
Fucking snitch.
“Finnegan Oisin O’Sullivan!”
I cringed, hating she used that tone in front of Violet.
“Hey, mama,” I greeted, smiling.
“You broke your promise,” she said, sounding hurt.
“I can’t believe you hurt mama's feelings like that,” Rían instigated
before shoveling cereal into his mouth. “Should be ashamed of yourself.”
The threat to shoot him was on the tip of my tongue, but Aoife and
Siobhan were on me before I could dish it. Tendrils of red hair crowded my
space as they hugged me tightly.
“You stupid idiot,” Aoife chastised, slapping my chest. “Why are you
off playing captain—”
“Watch your mouth,” Violet warned, drawing my attention to her. “I
don’t know you, but remember, you don’t know me either.”
Aoife had a temper.
She was a shit starter who could back it up.
I wasn’t sure if I’d let them fight it out or step in until Aoife made that
decision for me.
“You know what…” Aoife nodded. “I can’t be mad at that.”
 She shocked the fuck out of me.
“Thank you,” Violet responded softly. “I didn’t ask him to come play
captain save a hoe. He just couldn’t help himself.”
Aoife threw her head back in laughter, appreciating Violet’s sense of
humor.
My baby wasn’t to be fucked with, and I was certain Aoife sensed that.
Violet was one of them.
“I’m sorry he broke his promise,” Violet went on, her eyes on my
mother. “I’ll make sure he does what he said he would from here on out.”
She turned back to me with her eyebrow raised, and all I could think
was, damn, I got nothing but love for this woman.
“Yes, ma’am,” I conceded, as she expected me to.
The gasps around the room pissed me off, but I decided to let them slide
until the jokes started to trickle in about me being whipped.
“I’m sorry, ma…” I stepped into her space and whispered for only her
to hear, “You can’t be mad at me for making sure my future wife made it
back home to me.”
She leaned back and considered me for a moment.
“I’m serious,” I added for emphasis. “Violet is it, ma.”
She nodded and squeezed my arms.
“You’re right; I can’t argue with that…” she glanced at Violet. “It’s
good to see you again, beautiful. I hope you’ll stick around and share a
meal with us. I have Irish stew simmering.”
“I’ll never turn down a home cooked meal,” Violet said, looking from
my mother to me. “He already has me spoiled.”
My mother seemed satisfied with that response and went back to the
kitchen.
That gave my cousins their cue to engage.
“I’m Aoife, and this is my sister Siobhan…” she waved between
them… “We’re twins, in case you didn’t notice. Our dad is brothers’ with
his.”
They were O’Sullivan’s through and through.
Aoife draped her arm around Violet’s shoulder and led her into the
kitchen with Siobhan in tow.
“I don’t know whether to be concerned or proud that Eef is playing
nice,” Niamh said.
 “She recognizes when someone is on her level…” I watched them
closely. “I’d put my money on Violet any day but don’t tell Eef I said that.”
Niamh laughed and then headed into the kitchen to get her time in. They
would hold Violet hostage for a while and then accost me later about her.
Violet’s eyes met mine as I moved toward the hall, and I mouthed, “You
good?”
She waved me off, and I hesitated.
My family could be a lot; this wasn’t even half of them. There were
Niamh’s three sisters who were more chill than the twins but overwhelming
in their own way.
Violet signaled for me to go once again; I took her word for it this time.
It wouldn’t be long before Sean and Cian made their appearance for our
meeting with Niamh to discuss what she’d found since learning her code
was compromised. She refused to talk about it without the four of us
together, and that told me all I needed to know.
If there was a thing my cousin hated, it was talking to my brothers and
me at once.
She said we were intimidating as a foursome, whatever the fuck that
meant.
I took my time in the shower, washing a day and a half off my body.
Violet and I laid around yesterday while she played her guitar on and
off. I enjoyed watching her enjoy getting reacquainted with herself.
She’d worn this easy smile throughout the day that I wanted to keep to
myself; it belonged to me now, as she did.
The bathroom door opened, and out of my peripheral, I watched Violet
slip inside. She leaned her back against it, shut the door, and took a breath.
"They’re a lot to handle, huh?”
She scoffed.
“Those twins are like feral cats,” she said, smiling wide. “I love cats.”
I chuckled.
“They’re great, though,” she added, taking her shirt and sweats off.
“Can I join you?”
“Yes, baby.”
“I didn’t want to disturb your alone time…” she slid the door back and
stepped in. “…but then I thought of you in here all wet and naked.”
I hid my face and the smile on it.
She made me feel like a fucking kid with a crush.
 Violet wrapped her arms around me from behind and rested her
forehead against my spine. Her fingers grazed my stitches, and she sighed.
“I’ll look into this.”
“Don’t worry about that…” I turned and backed her into the shower
wall. “My brothers and I have it handled. I want you to focus on other shit,
like real estate. You and Gianna will need more than that three bedroom in
Chestnut Hill.”
Slowly, I enclosed my fingers around her slender throat.
Violet melted.
She trusted me to treat her with respect, while handling her like a slut
behind closed doors. I knew it from the moment she allowed me to invade
her walls.
“Your mom is out there,” she whimpered. “We can’t—”
“We can do whatever the fuck we want. She doesn’t live here.”
I stroked the inside of her thigh, and she shuddered, her eyes falling
close as I inched closer to her pussy
“We can stop if you want, Moonlight,” I teased, brushing my thumb
against her clit and then removing it. “Say the word, and I won’t—”
She dropped her hips, and I smirked.
“That’s what the fuck I thought.”
I stroked the length of her wet pussy, gathering as much of her sticky
essence as possible and then sticking the fingers into my mouth.
“Exquisite.”
“Finn—”
“Don’t say it,” I cut in, pushing those same two fingers into her core
until her slick walls swallowed them. “That pussy taste good, baby.”
I worked my fingers slowly, twisting as I pulled them in and out.
“Do you believe me when I say it?” I asked, watching a barrage of
emotions move through her gaze.
She nodded, and I halted my finger thrusts.
“I don’t speak silent cues, Ms. Jackson. Say that shit plainly and make it
sound believable. Do you believe me when I say this pussy tastes good?”
I swept my thumb over her clit, and she whimpered softly, her eyes
widening as I lifted her leg and worked my fingers into her g-spot
simultaneously.
“Do you hear how she’s talking to me?”
She gushed down my hand in response.
 I loved that shit; it got me worked up, knowing I caused it.
She was so goddamn wet, I couldn’t bring myself to deny us another
taste of one another.
I snatched my fingers from her pussy and lifted her.
Violet wrapped her legs around my waist as I buried myself deep inside
her.
“I can’t,” she cried, tears filling her big eyes. “It’s too much, Sunshine.”
I pressed her closer to the shower wall and thrust deeply, over and over.
“It’s never too much,” I murmured into her ear. “You deserve this shit.
To feel desired by somebody who really fucks with you. Show me how
much you fuck with me and cum on my dick, baby.”
“Fuck you,” she moaned, her eyes wild as she bucked against me.
“Love it when you talk to me like that.”
“No, I-I take that back. This is too-oo good.”
Violet convulsed in my arms, her nails digging into the fleshy part of
my shoulder.
I kept us in the same position until she relaxed in my hold.
“You just made me late, by the way.”
I kissed her forehead as I let her down.
“Your brother’s arrived…” her shoulder shook from laughter. “…and I
offered to drag you out of here faster. That wasn’t supposed to happen in
there.”
I didn’t give a fuck about making them wait.
“I thought you were running from my cousins.”
I turned the shower off and ushered Violet out after quickly washing us
down.
“I like them,” she said, picking up my towel and then turning to face
me. “They’re your family, and they love you.”
“They can be your family, too.”
She smiled but didn’t respond, choosing to dry me off instead.
“Your stitches are starting to dissolve. That’s a good sign.”
I wanted to complain about them itching again but decided to thug that
shit out.
“You should go see your family.”
Violet pushed the towel into my chest and turned to grab one for herself
from the built-in shelves behind her.
 “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said, covering herself. “It’s
been such a long time, and I don’t want to get my hopes up. I just—”
“You’re afraid, and that’s okay. Maybe it won’t work out, but maybe it
will.”
She turned to face me and leaned her back into the shelves.
“You’re right. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, but I can’t do it
alone.”
She blinked those steely irises at me, twisting me up inside without
much effort.
“Whatever you need, I got you.”
“Your support is appreciated. I hope you know and feel that.”
“I do.”
She nodded and pulled open the bathroom door.
“Will you fill me in about your meeting later? Is that allowed?”
I regarded her closely.
“Will you always work for the Moretti’s?”
“If I said yes, would it bother you?”
“Not on a personal level,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “Let’s
say I want you as my second-in-command; could you see that for yourself?”
She faced me, her eyes thoughtful but unreadable otherwise.
“Are you asking me to join the mob ranks, Finnegan?”
Was I?
“The option is on the table,” I said, answering my own question. “Think
about it for me but know that I’m not asking you to leave your family
because that’s who the Moretti’s are to you. I want you to know that my
family can be that, too. I can be that.”
Maybe it was too much, too soon, but I had to throw my hat in the ring.
“I’ll think about it…” she nodded. “Let’s get dressed. You have a family
to help run.”
Right.
I followed Violet into the bedroom and snatched her into me.
“Finnegan,” she chastised, turning in my arms with a smile. “What do
you want?”
“What’s my name, Violet?”
“It’s Finnegan Oisin O’Sullivan…” her eyes were filled with laughter at
my expense. “It’s kinda cool you and your brothers share the same middle
name.”
 “Just shows how uncreative my parents are,” I grumbled, tipping her
head back by the chin. “Stop playing.”
She peered up at me.
“Your name is Finnegan, but you’re my Sunshine. There’s a difference.”
“Why?”
“The light you see in me is because of you; that’s why…” she pushed
herself up just a little and kissed me. “Now get dres—oh, can I borrow Nozi
later?”
I lifted an eyebrow, and she shrugged.
“Just need a hand with something.”
I regarded her for a moment and then nodded.
“I’ll send him your way.”
She smiled and started rummaging through her bag.
“Stop staring and go get dressed.”
I dropped my towel, and she took a peek from under her lashes just as
I’d known she would. My dick wanted me to engage again but I fought the
urge and ducked into my closet.
I moisturized up quickly before dressing in a dark blue Nike jogging
suit. Walking around ashy simply because I was running behind wouldn’t
fly, especially not with a house full of women who didn’t play that shit.
“Your brothers are in your office by now,” Violet said as I re-entered the
bedroom.
“I hear you. Come give me a kiss.”
She pulled her jeans over her ass and then padded toward me.
I lifted her and dropped a kiss on her forehead, then her lips.
“You really care about me, huh?” she murmured, caressing my cheek.
“Forehead kisses have meaning.”
Don’t you know I’m in love with you by now, Moonlight?
I wanted to say that shit but it didn’t feel like the right time.
“I care about you deep…” I set her on her feet and opened the door.
“Real fucking deep.”
She rocked forward on the soles of her feet.
“I care about you,” she said, placing her hand over her heart. “It’s all in
here.”
That sounded a lot like an I love you, too.
“Come the fuck on, Finn,” Cian yelled.
Violet chuckled and turned away.
 “Go before they decide to jump you.”
I did as I was told and entered the room closest to mine.
“My bad,” I said while shutting the door.
I leaned against it and glanced around.
It was much emptier than a home office should be, but I spent more
time in the field than here. Save for a sofa, desk, and security monitors, it
was empty.
Cian and Rían were on the sofa, while Sean and Niamh were at the
desk.
“You’re worse than when Cian decided he wanted Gianna,” Rían
mused. “She already has you wrapped around her finger.”
“What’s the problem with that?” Cian questioned, his brow lifted.
“You’ll understand that shit when it happens to you. Leave his whipped ass
alone, and let’s get to this bullshit about the shipments.”
“I agree,” Niamh chimed in. “Not about the love part, eww…” she
faked gagged. “…but this is bullshit.”
She connected her laptop to one of the monitors and mirrored it.
Up on the screen were a few old route plans.
A lot of our products came straight from Ireland, but we had dealings all
over Europe and South America.
“These are the route plans I made…” she pointed to them individually
and then changed the screen. “These are plans after the hacker takes over.”
They looked identical at first glance, but I could see the subtle
inconsistencies after observing them longer.
“What’s this stop here?” Cian asked, getting up to point it out. “It’s in
New York, but where? This looks too close to our dock near the
compound.”
Niamh sighed.
“That’s because it is our dock; only the shipments aren’t actually
docking.”
“In other words, someone in our camp is doing this.”
Niamh slammed her laptop shut, and I knew the answer before she
could say it.
“That deadbeat son of a bitch fucked with my code, and now I have to
kill him,” she growled, her eyes wild with revenge.
She’d been calling her father a deadbeat since we were teenagers. He
was visibly present and in the household, but he wasn’t there.
 “You think Landell is smart enough to hack your system?” Rían asked,
not buying it.
“He’s smart enough to hire someone,” Sean mused, his eyes lingering in
my direction before he looked away. “Doesn’t matter. I want the hacker
snatched.”
“Is that why the twins are really here?”
Sean nodded, his gaze slowly meeting mine.
“And to fuck with you, but mainly because this falls in their preview,
and Niamh requested them.”
While I was head enforcer in Philly, Aoife and Siobhan shared that role
in New York.
It had been an even trade.
They wanted in, and my brothers and I wanted to build in Philly.
“I tracked down the hacker after rerouting our shipments, per your
request Finn,” Niamh informed us. “It was smart. She fell into my trap, and
I have all her information, which is why I called Aoife and Siobhan. If you
were listening closely, our hacker is a woman.”
Sean worked his jaw, and I narrowed my eyes.
“Alright…” I pushed off the door and opened it. “Leave Sean and me
for a minute. We need to talk.”
“Let the twins know their job is a go, and I’ll be tagging along,” Sean
said as they exited.
I turned and gave my brother, who I knew better than anyone, a pointed
look.
“What’s the problem?”
He dropped down in the executive chair behind him and brushed a hand
down his face.
“She’s doing it to get back at me,” he said.
I frowned, confused by who the fuck he was talking about.
“Who is she, and what did you do?”
He mumbled a name I hadn’t heard in a long fucking time.
“Come again?”
Sean tried that older brother glare on me that hadn’t worked since I was
nine years old, and I shrugged.
“We’re in my home. I got all day besides if you touch me, I’ll tell ma.”
“Blair!” he shouted, loud enough for the entire apartment to hear if they
were listening. “The hacker is Blair.”
 I started to put the pieces together slowly.
“Blair Phillips? I thought you two haven’t talked since—you never
stopped, did you?”
He shook his head, and what little guilt I felt about being focused on
Violet went out the window.
Blair Phillips had been off limits all our lives, and Sean loved her for
just as long.
I knew eventually they’d find themselves back in one another’s clutches
but not in this way.
“What did you do?”
“I haven’t done shit.”
I sighed.
“Then why the fuck is she messing with our shipments for Landell of all
fucking people? What’s the reason?”
“I just told you the fucking problem, Finnegan. And Landell doesn’t
know it’s her he hired.”
I was embarrassed that it took me so long to figure out what he meant,
but it all made sense when I did.
“Ah,” I mused. “You’re too pussy to go get your girl, and now she’s
forcing your hand. Da won’t be happy.”
He stood, a concerning smirk on his face.
“Too fucking bad. Blair wanted a wedding, and she hacked her way into
one.”
“I’m almost certain that hadn’t been her goal, but whatever makes you
feel better about wanting that with her.”
“Fuck you, Finn. Not all of us can do what you’ve been doing lately.”
“You’re right,” I conceded, lifting my hands. “I’ve been slack as fuck
with business, and I take full accountability for that shit. I’m willing to step
up while you handle this Blair situation.”
It was the least I could do.
Blair wasn’t just anybody; Sean would have many hurdles to jump
before shit smoothed out. Especially if he was about to do what I think.
“It might be a while.”
I shrugged.
“I got my own second-in-command to assist while you’re away.”
He chuckled.
“You can’t make that decision without Da knowing.”
 I nodded.
“I’ll talk to him. When are you leaving?”
“After dinner tonight. I’m not missing Ma’s cooking.”
“Alright. Don’t leave Philly without your tracker on you, and put one on
the twins when they aren’t looking. Good luck with Blair.”
He needed all the luck he could get.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

B eing with F inn ’ s family didn ’ t feel as frenzied as it should have ,

and maybe that had everything to do with the Sunday dinners the Moretti’s
had once a month.
When Lucia married Enzo, his family joined in, and then Luca got with
Galina, opening the door for her family to do the same. The noise level
grew in the Moretti home every couple of months, and I enjoyed it.
I hated to admit it, but I think I appreciated this version of getting
together better.
Finn’s people talked a lot and argued hard, but not once did I feel an
ounce of animosity.
The twins were currently going tit for tat about a story circling in Five
Points, their stomping grounds in New York. Apparently, a woman hired a
private investigator to find her boyfriend, who had gone missing after their
son was born.
The PA was able to track him down and came back with devastating
news.
He’d gone back to the family she had no idea existed and left her to be a
single mother.
The woman wanted revenge and got it, but the twins disagreed on
whether her actions were enough. It was a fascinating argument.
“I don’t see what you mean,” Aoife said, her hands moving dramatically
as she got her point across. “You don’t lie to a woman about wanting
children and then disappear after she births one for you. Who the fuck does
that? He deserved to have his di—member…” she smiled at Caroline, who
wasn’t paying her any mind. “…chopped off and fed to him.”
“I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that,” Siobhan chimed,
shrugging. “She should’ve robbed him and his family blind and let them
live with the consequences.”
“His family, too?” Aoife questioned, her brows hiked.
“The kids, the pets…” Siobhan smiled wickedly. “Why should she care
about them when he doesn’t? Besides, she don’t know them kids.”
Neither of them was wrong, but it seemed they got off on disagreeing
with one another.
“You both sound right to me,” I said, smiling as they glanced in my
direction. “He should’ve had his…” I shifted my gaze to Caroline, who,
again, wasn’t paying us any mind, but I knew she was listening.
“member cut off and fed to him, but only after she had him robbed blind.”
“Sounds like Ms. Jackson knows how to get revenge the right way,”
Caroline chimed in, her back to us as she checked the stew simmering on
the stove. “You two spend so much time disagreeing that you don’t realize
how much your tactics work well together.”
Aoife and Siobhan shared a look, both wearing identical smirks.
It was a little creepy, but it worked for them.
“We know,” they said in unison.
“Eef and I shared the same womb, and people think we should be
alike,” Siobhan explained as Caroline turned to listen. “It took us until our
sophomore year in college to realize we didn’t have to be identical to still
be considered twins. Our bond is soul deep; it’s where we connect the most.
No one can tell me what my sister is thinking better than I can, and vice
versa. It’s how we do our jobs so well.”
Aoife nodded.
“I couldn’t do this without her.”
“Aww, bubs! I knew you loved me.”
Siobhan tried enclosing her arms around Aoife, who palmed her head
and held her in place.
“Stop being all nice,” Aoife growled. “It’s giving me hives.”
They struggled like that until Rían and Cian entered the kitchen with
Niamh in tow.
Rían walked between them to get to the rolls on the counter, forcing
them to break apart.
 He snatched one of the golden brown pieces of bread and pulled it apart,
stuffing the first into his mouth.
“Ma, I can’t stay but put some of that stew up for me,” he said,
smacking. “I’m always hungry after this night class and haven’t had your
cooking in a while.”
Caroline opened the microwave and pulled out a travel container she’d
stashed in there.
“Already got you covered.”
“I know I’m your favorite, but you’re giving yourself away,” he jested,
sticking his tongue out at Cian, who didn’t look worried.
I watched Rían lean in and kiss his mother’s cheek, and my heart
constricted.
That was the kind of love from a parent I wanted to experience.
“I’m out…” his gaze tracked around the room and landed on me. “Take
care of him.”
He was gone before I could respond.
“I need to go grab Gianna,” Cian said, kissing his mother’s forehead.
“Don’t let Sean get seconds until we make it back.”
I noticed that every time one of them left, Caroline had an unambiguous
expression in her eyes.
“Do you worry about them?” I asked.
She only turned to look at me after the elevator doors closed behind
Cian.
“As their mother, yes,” she admitted. “As the wife of a mob boss? Not
so much.”
I believed her.
“Auntie Car is the only person who can keep uncle Darragh in his
place,” Siobhan chirped. “He turns into a puppy dog. It’s cute but also
disturbing when you see him in his rare form.”
“We’ll probably get to see that side soon,” Niamh huffed, dropping her
head on the counter twice. “My father is a horrible human being and now he
has to die.”
Aoife and Siobhan gasped, but Caroline’s stoic expression stood out.
She’d known it was coming.
“What the fuck did Landell do?” Siobhan asked.
“Hired the person who hacked our route tracking system.”
The twins perked up at that.
 “So, it’s a go?” they asked, piquing my interest.
Niamh rolled her eyes.
“Don’t sound so excited about it,” she grumbled. “But, yes. It’s a go,
and Sean is tagging along.”
“What for?” Aoife asked, her tone filled with annoyance. “We work
better without extra bodies in our way.”
“Too bad,” Sean said as he entered the kitchen with Finn following
closely behind. “I have a vested interest in this. My presence is obligatory.”
Finn stopped behind my chair, and I tipped my head back to see his
eyes.
“Everything okay?”
“We’ll talk about it later.”
I nodded and focused on the conversation happening around us.
“Something weird is going on,” Siobhan mused. “I want to know who
the target is.”
She looked between Finn and Sean, who were staring at one another.
“You’re about to have us in some bullshit, aren’t you?” Aoife
questioned, her arms crossed and eyes pinned to Sean’s.
“It’s Blair,” he revealed.
They tensed as a collective, and I had never felt so out of the loop
before.
“Fuck no!” the twins shouted.
“We aren’t doing your dirty work,” Aoife started.
Make that happen on your own,” Siobhan finished.
“It’s not up for debate. Blair hacked into our system and now she has to
deal with the consequences.”
“And what might those consequences be?” Caroline asked.
Her tone was a mixture of I dare you and please, try me.
Sean, in fact, did not try her.
“She’ll have options,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “But you
know this can’t go unpunished just as I do.”
Caroline nodded and then beckoned him with her right index finger.
Sean hesitated but leaned his ear to her mouth.
The look in his eyes never changed as he listened to what she had to
say, but whatever she finished that spiel off with had him taking a giant step
back.
He clasped his hands behind his back and said, “I understand, ma.”
 Caroline had sway over more than just her husband.
She was the very reason her sons had a goodness inside of them you
didn’t often see in men of their repertoire.
“Nozi will be here in an hour,” Finn murmured into my ear. “I’ll make
you a bowl.”
He kissed my temple and moved around the island to get to the stove.
“You better not—Finnegan!”
He lifted his mother off the floor and spun her around against her
wishes.
That kind of love being displayed convinced me of what I needed to do
next.

“FINN SAID you wanted my help with something,” Nozi said, breaking the
silence that plagued us for twenty straight minutes. “But, he didn’t say with
what.”
After pulling into the driveway behind Gianna’s truck, I glanced over at
his freckled face.
Cian had come to pick her up even though she’d driven her own vehicle
to the safe haven home.
While I was away, she’d been working on getting it furnished and
decorated.
“That’s because I didn’t tell him.”
Nozi’s wary eyes met mine.
“He agreed without you explaining why first?”
I nodded.
“We trust one another,” I told him. “And I would never break his trust.”
Nozi trusted Finn enough to come with me, but he didn’t trust me
enough to relax.
I wanted to do everything I could to reassure him that I wouldn’t do
anything to betray him or Finn.
“Okay,” he said, looking away. “Why are we here?”
“Is it okay if I show it to you?”
He gave me his eyes before nodding in agreement.
 We got out together, and I let us inside the home. The newly installed
alarm system beeped insistently upon entry until I entered the personal pin
Gianna gave me.
Cian wanted everybody with access to have a unique code they could be
identified with.
“You live here?” Nozi asked, following me into the living room.
Finn’s mother had donated an entire living room set, down to the rug,
fireplace tv stand, and waterfall painting sitting on the floor waiting to be
hung.
The color scheme Gianna had decided on was dark grey and yellow. I
could see her vision now that it was in front of me.
“No, it’s a safe haven home,” I told him. “For a good cause.”
Nozi started to move the sectional pieces together without me having to
ask.
“What kind of good cause?” he asked.
I pushed the coffee table to the center of the room.
“I help victims of sex trafficking get back on their feet. This is one of
many homes I hope to have for those without family to return to.”
“That’s admirable of you.”
His eyes weren’t on me when he said it, but I felt the weight of his
words, and they meant a lot.
“Do you mind helping me organize the kitchen?”
He looked past me at the mess covering the island counter that needed
to be put up.
“Sure,” he agreed. “I don’t think this is why you brought me here,
though.”
I chuckled.
“It wasn’t, but you started moving furniture, and I figured why not take
advantage of the help while I can.”
“I don’t mind helping as long as you tell me why I’m actually here.”
“Fair enough…” I started loading the new dishware into the dishwasher
for a rinse. “I could see how much you mean to Finn and wanted to put in
an effort to get to know you.”
Nozi looked up from the box of cookware he’d just ripped open.
“That means you plan on being around for a while?”
“Yeah, I plan on being around for a while.”
He nodded and started unloading the box.
 “I believe you.”
Oh, my heart.
“Where are you from?”
“Brooklyn,” he answered softly. “Haven’t been there in a while.”
“I’m from Brooklyn, too, and I haven’t been there in a while either.”
He blessed me with another look, but I focused on my task this time.
“Why haven’t you been back?”
“I thought my family wouldn’t want to see me after being gone for so
long.”
“Where did you go?”
The accusation in his tone was unmistakable.
He’d been abandoned before and thought I did the same to my family.
“The reason I’m so passionate about helping victims of sex trafficking
is because I was once one of them.”
Our eyes met, and I watched his soften by the second.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” he said, voice firm. “If your family is
out there, you should reconnect.”
“What if I’m afraid of being rejected? They never looked for me.”
I thought about that police report.
Someone had attempted to look; I just didn’t know who.
“Maybe they thought you didn’t want to be found.”
I’d never considered that an option.
“I guess that could also be true.”
We worked cleaning and organizing the kitchen in a comfortable silence
for a while.
“You won’t hurt Finn, right?” Nozi asked. “He’s one of the good ones.”
“I’m happy to hear you recognize the good in him as I do. He’s safe
from harm with me.”
He nodded and glanced around.
“I guess we’re finished.”
“Thank you for helping. I hope our talk showed you that I’m on your
side just as Finn is.”
I started toward the door to avoid us standing around in awkward
silence.
After setting the alarm, we stepped out, and I turned to lock the door.
“I’ll drop you off at home and maybe—”
“Whoa, shit,” Nozi cursed, his body bumping into mine.
 He knocked me against the screen door, and I thought it was an accident
for a second until I realized he was shielding me.
“You don’t want to do this,” Nozi reasoned, his voice calm.
It broke my heart that being held at gunpoint sounded like an everyday
occurrence in his tone.
“Shut the fuck up and move.”
I nudged Nozi’s body as I turned mine to get a good look at the gunman.
Standing at the end of the steps was a hooded figure with a gun pointed
at us.
“What is it that you want?” I asked, holding Nozi back with my elbow.
He stood stock still against the door, the tension in his body palpable.
Finn didn’t let him carry a gun.
There was nothing he could do but let me handle it.
If the shooter wanted us dead, neither of us would have known he was
there until the first shot went off. He wanted something specific, and lucky
for him, I was in a mood to bargain.
With only my blade on me, I had to be more calculated.
“If you tell me what you want, maybe I can make it happen.”
“I want you to come with me,” the gunman ordered.
He had his head angled in a way that muffled his voice slightly.
“You want me to come with you?” I repeated, my heart racing. “Why?”
“Stop asking so many fucking questions!”
The hand holding the gun shook.
He was scared or nervous.
Neither of those was a good look.
One wrong move, and I could be dead.
Worse, Nozi.
“Okay, I’ll go with you.”
“No, the fuck you won’t!” Nozi growled, thrashing against my hold.
He was strong enough to move me but wouldn’t out of respect.
“Finn is going to kill everything moving if you do this, Violet. Don’t do
this to him.”
I took a step toward the shooter after dropping the key to the truck, my
hands up.
“My job is to protect you,” I told Nozi. “Not the other way around.”
“You don’t even know me. Violet, do not—”
 I angled my body to the left and kicked my leg out, knocking the gun
from the shooter's hand. He lurched forward at the same time that I tackled
him into the bushes.
We struggled a little, but eventually, I got my forearm pressed into his
neck and my blade out. I knew an amateur when I saw one standing in front
of me. It was the only reason I took the risk of attacking.
“Violet, are you okay?” Nozi called from the other side of the bush.
He parted it and stuck his phone inside with the flashlight on.
I glanced at our gunman, who laid unmoving for far too long, and my
heart stopped.
The same steely grey eyes I’d inherited from my mother stared back at
me.
“Valen?” I questioned, softening my hold on him.
He didn’t respond, but I knew in my heart it was him.
My baby brother.
I guess he wasn’t a baby anymore.
“Do you know it’s me?” I asked. “Can you tell me that?”
He jerked away and I let him go, watching as he jumped over Nozi to
get out from between the bush.
“What the fuck, Violet,” Nozi cursed as he pulled me out. “You know hi
—”
I took off in a full sprint after Valen, following between townhomes and
over a few gates.
My lungs burned, but I refused to lose him.
He ducked behind a large green dumpster and I came to a stop, knowing
a trap when I saw one.
I inched forward a little.
“Can you come out and talk to me. Tell me why you’re doing this?”
“You wouldn’t care,” he said after a while, his tone elevated.
He had a raspy cadence I didn’t remember him having before.
“Can you tell me why you feel that way? Is it because I’ve been gone
for a while?”
“Gone?”
He stepped from behind the dumpster, his hood down and dark skin
visible.
We stood at the same height, but he had a little weight on me.
“You weren’t just gone; they stole you!” he shouted.
 I took a step back.
How the fuck did he know that?
“And now you’re working with the same kind of people who hurt you,
Violin.”
My eyes burned with tears.
He remembered.
Before he could say my name correctly, I was his Violin.
“They aren’t the same kind of people,” I defended. “They saved me.”
“You didn’t come home,” he argued. “They saved you and kept you
from your family. Do you know how hard it was to find you?”
I wanted so badly to reach for him.
“How did you find me?”
“Grann hired a private investigator, and even after she died, he
continued to receive payments from her estate. H-He told me what they did
when he found you. How they were all bed men.”
“Valen, I’m sorry I didn’t come home, but no one forced me to stay
away after I got out; it was a choice I made.”
“Ma acted like she didn’t notice you just stopped coming home every
few weeks. I asked about you until she forbade me from doing it. She said
you didn’t want to be part of our family, and I believed her for a short
while,” he explained, ignoring my apology.
I took a step toward him.
“W-What made you change your mind?”
“It was all over the news. The rise in missing women and girls in the tri-
state. I-I thought about how the sister I knew would never leave without
saying goodbye.”
I took another step toward him as headlights moved toward us from
behind and tires screeched.
“Violet!”
Finn’s voice stopped me in my tracks, and Valen took advantage of that,
pulling me toward him. He spun me around and held me against him while
holding a blade of his own to my neck.
I wasn’t afraid for myself but for Valen.
“It’s okay, Finn,” I said calmly, watching him vividly plan Valen’s
demise as he and Cian had guns trained on us.
I couldn’t let that happen and allowed Valen to keep me.
“Finnegan, look at me. Not him.”
 “No, look at me,” Valen demanded, jerking us back another step. “None
of you deserve her.”
“And you think you deserve her when you’re holding her hostage like
that?” Finn asked calmly, his brow raised.
“Sunshine,” I said, deciding to try again. “Look at me, please.”
Finn obliged, and I silently pleaded with him not to do it.
“Please. I promise I’m okay.”
“None of this is okay,” he growled. “Why are you protecting him?”
“Look at him and tell me why you think I’d be protecting him.”
He gave Valen a long hard look.
It wasn’t long before realization set in.
“He’s just protecting me from harm,” I said. “Right, Valen?”
Finn’s eyes narrowed before he shared a look with Cian.
“Valen, you got an issue with me you need to address?” he asked, his
gaze on us again. “You’ve only tried to kill me twice this month.”
What the fuck?
“I should’ve done it myself,” Valen snapped, digging the knife into my
neck as he moved us again. “She would be free.”
Is that what he thought? That I was still being held against my will?
My goodness.
“I am free!” I shouted, believing myself for the first time in a long time.
“You don’t get to tell me if I’m free or not. I’m sorry I didn’t come back to
you. I’m so so sorry that it came to this, but you have to let me go, or he’ll
kill you, Valen. That’ll break me. It’ll break my heart that the man I love
has to kill you to save me. Don’t make him make that decision.”
“You love him?” Valen questioned.
“I do,” I admitted. “I’m safe with him. Do you see how quickly he came
for me? No one can touch me in that way again, right, Finn?”
I hated he had to learn of my love for him in this way.
“She’s right…” his eyes were pinned to mine. “With me is the safest
place she can be. I protect those I love, and I love your sister. Deep.”
Valen loosened his grip, and I hit him with a stiff elbow to the jugular.
He doubled over, and I knocked him into the dumpster to give myself
more leverage over him. I lifted my hand to stop Finn from approaching as I
kneeled in front of my brother.
“That’ll be the last time you threaten me with bodily harm. You aren’t
saving me, Valen. You’re reminding me of everything I’ve been through by
going about it in this way. Tell me why you’re really lashing out like this?”
“I don’t have anyone,” he murmured, holding his throat. “Grann is
gone, and Ma might as well be. She’s never been a real mother to me but
especially when she’s high or missing for weeks at a time. I’m alone, and I-
I thought you were only here because you had to be. I wanted us to be a
family again, where you were safe.”
Had my disappearance traumatized him so badly he thought kidnapping
me was the best option?
My mother being a drug addict was another shock.
She’d never touched them before, at least not to my knowledge.
It was a lot to take in for one night.
“I’m here because I want to be,” I explained. “This is where
I’m supposed to be. Those people you’ve seen me with are my family, and
they can be your family, too.”
His eyes were filled with hope as they met mine.
“After this, you think he’d accept me?”
“He’ll do anything to make me happy…” I stood up and held my hand
out. “If you’re done making a mockery of my night, let’s go.”
We had a lot to discuss.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

OceanofPDF.com
ONE WEEK LATER…
“W hile S ean is gone , everything is being run by me ,” I bellowed
from the top steps of our main office. “If there’s a problem, fix it. And if
you can’t, come to me with a solution that I can work with.”
I observed the crowd, making eye contact with all of our men.
We had a sizeable crew that worked the yard, but only twelve handled
our special shipments. Today that number was going to drop to eleven.
“Chase, stay behind,” I ordered, not giving him the courtesy of a glance.
“Everybody else, get to work and take your fucking breaks today. This isn’t
a goddamn sweatshop.”
I waited until everyone was a reasonable distance away to address the
last man standing.
“Let me ask you something, Chase…” I started down the steps. “When
you agreed to let that shooter in here, did you think you’d get away with
it?”
As I approached, he took steps back.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I chuckled.
“Okay, then, how about we jog your memory.”
Chase took his last step back and collided with the person standing
behind him. He lurched forward in shock and spun around, only to trip over
his feet and stumble backward.
“Tell me you never met this kid.“
I walked up behind him and pushed him forward into Violet’s brother,
Valen.
The actions of everybody in this situation had me in a fucking mood.
I grabbed the back of Chase’s neck and drew back until his eyes were
on me.
“You stupid son of a bitch, I could’ve died,” I growled, squeezing.
“That’s what you wanted? Mmm. What were you gonna do next? Try and
kill my brothers, too?”
That pissed me off more.
My fucking brothers?
I released Chase, and he fell to the ground.
“F-Fiin-n—”
 I smashed the sole of my boot into his nose.
“Shut the fuck up!”
I met eyes with Valen.
“Do you see what happens to men who go against the grain?” I asked.
He had those same fucking grey eyes as his sister. I couldn’t look at the
little menace without seeing her goddamn face.
“Nothing goes unpunished,” I continued, holding Chase down with a
boot to the chest. “Especially not what you did to your sister, to my fucking
Moonlight!”
I beat my chest.
Thinking about him having a blade to her throat, let alone a fucking gun
to her head made me irrationally upset. I wanted nothing more than to kill
the little fucker, but that would mean giving up the love of my life, and I
refused to do that.
“I apologized,” he spoke, his eyes genuine. “I thought—”
“I know what the fuck you thought, Valen...” I pulled out my Glock.
“And to be quite frank, I’ve killed for less.”
Our eye contact never wavered.
The kid had a little fight in him, and I wanted to put it to the test.
“Since you wanted to kill someone so bad, kill him.”
I waved to Chase with the gun and then held it out to Valen, who
hesitated as I expected.
“A week ago, you came with two weapons to kidnap your fucking
sister, and now you can’t hold a gun?”
“I—”
He closed his mouth and took it.
“Kill him, Valen.”
I took a few steps back and crossed my arms.
He pointed the gun as Chase slowly pulled himself up from the
concrete.
Just as Violet said, his hand shook like he was afraid of it.
“You want to get on my good side, right?”
“Yes,” he hissed, his eyes wild.
He wouldn’t do it.
I knew a pretender when I saw one.
This life wasn’t for Valen; he needed the notion beat out of him and I
had no problem being the bad guy in order to make that happen.
 “Do it! This is what you wanted. To be a fucking killer…” I pushed him
back and got into his face. “Be one! Be a killer, Valen.”
“I can’t!” he yelled.
I took the gun, pointed it at Chase, and pulled the trigger twice.
“Here’s how this will go,” I started, turning to face him. “You won’t use
your sister as a crutch while you figure out life. You will go to college or
trade school or start a goddamn business for all I care. What you won’t do is
break your sister's heart. You won’t talk to her crazy. She will only be
handled with the utmost respect. You will appreciate her the way she does
you. Do all of that, and you can have whatever you want, Valen. The world
is yours, but it comes with those stipulations. Can you handle that, or do I
have to make you disappear?”
I would do it.
Break her heart to protect her from harm.
That’s how fucking deep my love is for her.
“I can handle it.”
I nodded.
“Good…”
I walked toward the office stairs and ascended them.
“Now, what am I supposed to do?” Valen asked. “You know… with the
body?”
“You’re a smart kid. Get creative.”
I opened the door that led into Cian’s office. He was seated at his desk
with a smirk on his face.
“Look at you being a good father figure.”
“Fuck you, Cian. This is exactly why I don’t want kids. They grow up
and try to kidnap their sisters.”
He stood and looked outside.
“You should see this shit,” he said, laughing. “He’s clueless.”
I moved toward the window and shook my head.
The kid was dragging the body toward the stairs.
“How long are you going to let him struggle?”
“Until he either comes clean about not wanting to do it or asks for
help.”
Cian returned to his chair.
“I’ll keep an eye out for the kid. There’s someone in your office who
wanted to see you.”
 I waited for him to elaborate, but he went back to work and shut me out.
“Better get used to it while Sean is away,” he added as I stepped into the
hall.
Fucking Sean.
I found the door to my office propped open, and the seat behind my
desk occupied.
I chuckled.
“We meet again,” I mused, leaning in the doorway. “What can I do for
you, Moretti?”
Luca leaned back and lifted his feet to the desk.
“Came to see the kid for myself.”
I lifted an eyebrow.
“You got a vested interest in a kid you don’t know?”
“I don’t like you,” he said, ignoring my question.
He dropped his feet to stand.
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“Finn, I can’t—”
Luca approached, and I pushed off the doorframe to block his view of
Valen.
“You can’t, what?” I asked Valen, eyes on Luca.
“I can’t move the body alone,” Valen explained.
“He’s a fucking kid,” Luca growled, pulling his gun and pointing it at
my head.
I smiled and stepped closer.
“I dare you,” I taunted.
“Uh…” Valen cleared his throat. “I’ll come back.”
“Aye, kid,” Luca called, his eyes trained on me. “There’s a different
way.”
“All mighty savior Luca,” I hackled, putting my forehead to the barrel
of his gun. “Stand there, Valen…” I pointed beside Luca, and he went.
“Now tell the fucking Italian what you want.”
“He’s Black,” Valen pointed out, earning a chuckle from Luca and a
glare from me.
“No fucking shit,” I growled, knocking Luca’s hand away. “Go tell Phil
to call a cleanup crew.”
He moved to step past me, and I gripped him up.
 “This is a speak now or forever hold your peace kind of family. You got
a question, ask that muthafucka. Don’t want to do something, say that shit.
Feel disrespected; speak your peace about it. I’m not a mind reader, and
neither is your sister. Got it?”
He nodded.
“Words, Valen.”
“I got it,” he said, nodding again.
I let him go, and he went in search of Phil.
“I’m offended that you find me capable of forcing a kid to do some shit
he doesn’t want to do…” I walked around him and dropped into my chair.
“If there wasn’t anything else you can get the fuck out, I’ve had enough of
you for today.”
Luca laughed straight from the fucking gut, and it pissed me off. I could
only take so much of his annoying presence.
“My mother is extending an invitation to our monthly family dinners
starting next Sunday at six. You show up, or I kill you.”
I opened my laptop and tuned him out.
I’d rather smother myself with a pillow than share a meal with the man.
“My sister was right,” he mused halfheartedly as he turned toward the
door. “This was fun.”
“Shut the door!”
His laughter echoed through the hall as he did the exact opposite.
“Fucking, Italians,” I grumbled.
“I’m starting to think he’s your best friend now.”
“Shut the fuck up, Cian…” I banged my head against the desk and then
stood. “I’m out. I’ve had enough human interaction for one day.”
“Remember, this is your show for a while. Keep your phone on.”
I nodded and poked my head into the security office where I knew
Valen would be.
“You staying or riding out with me?“
“I’m allowed to stay?” he asked
“You are. Use the phone I gave you to call when you’re ready, or ask
Cian to drop you off.”
He nodded.
“Thank you...” he stood. “I know I have to prove myself to you, and I
will.”
 “You don’t need to prove anything to me. Prove it to yourself.” I
gripped his shoulder. “Just remember what we talked about.”
“I won’t forget it.”

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER NINETEEN

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

“V alen , where the fuck have you —”

Farah stumbled into the living room and came to a screeching halt at the
sight of me.
My mother looked nothing like the woman I’d grown up with.
She was unhealthily thin, her skin dull.
What used to be thick, coarse, overgrown hair like mine was a small
matted fro.
The person in front of me was a stranger.
An addict.
“Well, look who we have here…” she stood a little taller and started to
smooth her clothes out. “I knew you’d be back one day.”
“That’s quite some ability you got there, being able to see the future.
Here I am, back like you expected.”
“You should’ve called,” she fussed, brushing her hand down her neck
and then over her hair. “It’s a mess. I could’ve cooked.”
She started picking up the empty take-out containers covering the coffee
table.
The tattered sofa still had the blanket and pillow Valen told me he used
to sleep with.
I watched her move back and forth from the kitchen to the living room
until there was nothing left for her to clean.
She swayed and chuckled.
“Are you high right now?” I asked, tipping my head to the left. “What’s
your poison?”
 “Where is your brother?”
“Pills?”
Her eyes didn’t waver from mine.
“Where is Valen?”
“Are you snorting it?”
I marched toward her, and she backed away. Her foot caught in a piece
of lifted carpet, and she fell into the arm of the couch.
I stood over her.
“Don’t you dare check me!” she screamed, thrashing around.
“Farah, don’t make me hurt you.”
She stilled, and her eyes met mine dead on.
There wasn’t an ounce of emotion in them.
Nothing for me, the daughter she hadn’t seen in years.
“The world changed you, didn’t it? Made you meaner.”
I dragged her arms over her head and pulled her sleeves down to expose
the track marks.
“The world changed you,” I said, releasing her and taking a step back.
“All that shit you talked about my father. How he ruined himself with
drugs, and here you are shooting that shit up in your goddamn arm!”
“You-u can’t talk to me-e that way,” she slurred, her lips curled into a
smile as she looked at nothing in particular. “I’m your mother.”
“Girl, fuck you…” I maneuvered her to sit and then sat on the coffee
table in front of her. “The world did change me, by the way. I was
kidnapped and then sold into a sex trafficking ring that operated on good
ole USA soil. I was raped repeatedly for weeks, then months, and then
those months turned into an entire year before I was saved and given
another chance.”
Her eyes were glossed over.
Nothing I’d said registered, and it was sickening to watch.
This is what I’d left my brother with.
All those years, I feared her rejection, and she wasn’t even thinking
about me.
Valen would be eighteen in a few days.
Nothing about this half-assed life had to be his anymore.
The money our Grann left him was set to pay out on his birthday.
He wouldn’t want for anything ever again, not with me in the picture.
“Do you want to live or die?” I asked while unrolling my syringe pouch.
 She groaned as her head lolled to the side.
Her empty eyes met mine, and she smiled.
“Look at you,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “All grown up.”
“Do you want to live or die?” I repeated.
Farah shook her head from side to side.
“You don’t get to decide my fate.”
“That’s the thing about being thrust into the world I’ve found myself
in…” I smiled, thinking about my chosen family. “You learn that you
absolutely do have the power to choose the fate of others. It happens every
day. Happened to me. Don’t worry; I’ll prove it to you.”
I had to do it.
It was the only way for Valen to live a life without being in a constant
state of worry. He was the kind of kid who harped on situations and the
people involved.
Valen had been worrying about this woman for years, even before I’d
been taken, and I had no clue.
A fucking drug addict.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I would have never believed
it.
“Do you want to live or die? It’s a simple question.”
“It was either you or me,” she murmured. “I had to choose you. I had to
choose you. I had to. I had to!”
She jerked forward and gripped my forearms.
“You took one for the team, baby girl. I had to do it!”
“What…” I pushed her back. “What did you have to do?”
“I owed them money,” she rambled, the expression in her eyes so far
away that I wasn’t sure if she knew who she was talking to. “And they came
to collect.”
My stomach rolled at her drug-induced confession.
“W-Who did they come to collect?”
Our eyes met, and she smiled.
“You, of course. Who else?”
That can’t be.
My own flesh and blood would never do that to me, no matter how
much of a disappointment I was, right?
“You sold me to pay a debt?” I asked for clarity. “Y-you did that to
me?”
 I couldn’t take the smirk on her face.
Or the glazed-over expression in her eyes.
She was the reason.
“You got to feel love for a little while, right?”
“What?”
“I-I wanted you to feel love b-before…”
Slowly, her eyes closed as she mumbled the last of her statement.
“Before what?”
There was no response or movement from her, and it sent me into a
frenzy.
She wanted me to feel loved?
“Before what!” I yelled, shaking her by the shoulders. “Before you
handed me over like I wasn’t your flesh and blood, like you hadn’t birthed
me! You sick bitch!”
I withdrew and reached for the gun tucked in the waistband of my pants.
“All this time, I’ve been chasing demons when the biggest one of all
was my mother, and I had no clue…” I gripped the handle tightly and
pointed the barrel of my pistol at her. “I pray you burn for eternity.”
I hugged the trigger, while taking steps back to avoid getting blood
splatter on me. Once at a safe distance I tugged it back nine times, emptying
the clip into her fray body.
I stood there afterward, gun still pointed in her direction. The relief I felt
quickly transformed into grief and then anger, and I lost it.
“How could you!” I shouted, kicking the coffee table over. “H-How
could you do that to me. To me!”
It was too much.
I couldn’t take it.
My heart couldn’t take that truth.
I trashed the room, breaking and throwing everything I could get my
hands on.
Nothing made me feel better.
The front door opened, and I spun on my heels, pointing my empty
Springfield toward the man I loved.
He looked from me and then to my mother.
Without saying a word, Finn stepped inside and shut the door behind
him.
 “I have a cleanup crew on the way,” he said. “Get it out. Don’t leave
this apartment without getting it out.”
He backed himself up against the door and crossed his arms.
“It was all her fault.”
I glanced around.
“S-She’s the reason I’m broken, Finn.”
“You’re whole,” Finn affirmed.
I scoffed.
“I’m broken,” I argued, waving the hand still clutching my pistol. “I’ll
never be whole again.”
“Where you see pieces of yourself missing, I see the places meant for
me to fill. I see you, mama. I know who you are, and I love you even more
for it.”
Some of my anger melted away, and I lowered my arm.
“It doesn’t feel good, Sunshine.”
I brushed the fingers of my free hand across my chest, where it hurt the
most.
“It’s not supposed to, Moonlight.”
He uncrossed his arms and opened them for me. I wasn’t ready to go
yet, so I stood my ground.
“This is the part that always hurts the most. The truth is always much
harder to handle than the narrative we create in our minds,” he said. “The
difference is you don’t have to feel it alone. You don’t have to feel anything
alone anymore because I’m here.”
I looked at my mother’s lifeless body.
I did that to her and didn’t feel remorse, but my heart still ached for the
young woman she did wrong.
“I told you to stay outside while I handled this…” I took one step
toward him.
Finn smiled, his arms still out for me.
“You don’t run me. I waited as long as I could. Kinda hard to sit back
while I listen to my woman destroy everything she can get her hands on.
Everybody in the walk-up heard those gunshots.”
I looked at my pistol and then at my mother.
“The gun wasn’t part of my plan…” I shrugged. “Spur of the moment
decision.”
I took another step forward.
 “I love you,” he spoke softly. “You got me standing here with my arms
open, waiting for you because of how much I love you. I… Violet, baby,
come the fuck here.”
“Finn…” I closed the distance between us in a couple of strides and
buried myself in his arms. “I love you, too.”
“I know you do.”
Only when he held me this way did I feel most safe.
A hard knock at the door brought our moment to a halt.
Finn pushed me back and looked through the peephole.
After confirming it was who he had called, he pulled the door open and
let our guest inside.
I hadn’t expected it to be Josephina Edwards.
My childhood friend had entered the room where I’d killed my mother
without a glance in the direction of the body. Our eyes clashed; for a
moment, she looked like she’d seen a ghost.
Josephina was different than I remembered.
Physically nothing had changed.
She was short, her skin dark, and her eyes big and round.
Her innocence was gone, not in the way mine had been taken, but by
choice.
I knew the day would come when our paths would cross, especially
after I’d learned about her new business venture and the man she married.
“Violet?” Josephina questioned, dropping the duffle bag in her hand on
the floor as she took a step toward me. “Oh, my God.”
She rushed and enclosed me in her arms before I could respond.
I stiffened and met eyes with Finn.
My friends didn’t hug me.
They all assumed I didn’t want them, and I never corrected their
assumptions.
It wasn’t until I’d hugged Finn for the first time that I ascertained how
healing one genuine embrace with another human being could be.
“Maybe let her breathe for a second, Joe,” Finnegan said, saving me
from having an anxiety attack.
She took a giant leap back and regarded me.
“I’ve always wondered what happened to you,” she said.
I’d been avoiding this for far too long.
 My insecurities wouldn’t allow me to reach out to the friends I once
had, and as time passed, life kept going and reconnecting with the people
from my past went with it.
Josephina and I hadn’t seen one another since we were thirteen and my
mother moved us from their neighborhood. I’d thought about her
throughout the years.
There had even been a time when I first got out and contemplated
showing up on her doorstep for help, but then Lucia offered something
much more promising and I made my decision based solely on the need for
revenge.
Josephina was the daughter of a now-retired career policeman.
Her family all worked in the field, but in recent years a lot changed for
them.
“I’ve always meant to seek you out,” I told her, choosing honesty. “But
you know…” I waved toward the couch. “Life.”
“Well…” she picked up her duffle bag, walked over to the coffee table
I’d kicked over, set it back right, and dropped her bag on it. “It’s a good
thing I’m an expert at cleaning up the messes life brings.”
She turned and peered at the body, tipping her head from left to right.
“My crew should be in and out in three hours…” she sent a text and
turned to us. “The building is in King territory, and no one is calling the
cops.”
The most significant change she made was marrying the head of the
King crime family.
“Appreciate the favor,” Finn said, reaching for me.
He put his arms around my shoulder, and Josephina looked between us
for a second.
“You owe me,” she told him as her eyes lingered in my direction. “As
for you, I hope we can get a chance to catch up. Maybe we can talk about
why you did this. Farah was a bitch, but…” her voice drifted, and then she
changed tune. “We can talk about whatever you want.”
“I can handle that,” I agreed as Finn opened the door. “Oh, and when
you’re ready to cash in on that favor, come to me, not him.”
She smirked.
“Roger that.”
“It was really good to see your face, Joe.”
 Finn pulled me into the hall, and as the door closed, Josephina’s voice
carried through it.
“It was good to see you, too, boo!”
“Went better than you thought, huh?” Finn asked, slipping his fingers
through mine.
“How’d you know?”
I covered my nose as we entered the fifth-floor stairwell.
Everything about this building reminded me of the one I’d grown up in,
right down to the smell of piss.
“I didn’t until she walked in and I saw your face.”
We hit the first-floor landing, and he stepped in front of me.
“I’m starting to think you like cornering me in stairwells,” I mused,
looking in his eyes.
Finn chuckled.
“There might be some truth to that…” he gently caressed my cheek with
his thumb. “Do you want to go home?”
“Right now?”
He dipped his head in response, and I shook my head.
“I don’t care where we go as long as we’re together,” I admitted.
He turned us and opened the steel door.
“I’m glad you feel that way…” his eyes met mine as we lingered
between the doorjamb. “I know a place that’ll help you forget about being
sad for a while.”
“Take me.”
He cupped my face and pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead.
“You know, whenever you’re ready to openly be sad, I’m here, right?”
I wrapped my arms around him and laid my head against his chest.
“I know, Sunshine.”
He hadn’t let me down yet, and I trusted he never would.

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CHAPTER TWENTY

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

T he music from a popular jazz spot in Q ueens filtered outside

through the open doors.
A line wrapped the building, but not everyone would get in. The owner
was picky about its guests.
Violet’s eyes were pure excitement as she turned to face me.
“Are you taking me inside?”
I pulled in front of the building and idled.
“Only if you’re up to it. I know the owner; he blocked off a spot for us
away from everyone else.”
“Is something wrong with me?” she asked, focusing her attention
elsewhere. “I just killed my mother, but I really want to go inside.”
“Nothing is wrong with you…” I opened my door, and she turned. “This
is the life we chose. We can either live how we see fit and deal with the
consequences later, or punish ourselves for some shit we don’t really give a
fuck about.”
I shut my door and walked around the truck to get to hers.
All eyes were on us as I helped Violet out.
“I should care,” she murmured, taking my hand.
Our parents shaped us.
They had the power to destroy or uplift.
We didn’t have a choice in the matter, but they did, and some failed
more than others.
Her mother was one of many.
“Feel however you want, just do it with me.”
 Her eyes met mine, and she nodded.
“Okay. Let’s go inside.”
I led us toward the entrance, and the security guard lifted the rope to
allow us inside.
A few grumbles in contempt from people waiting brought a smile to my
face.
“Finn!” My uncle Eoghan shouted the second we crossed over into his
baby.
Owen’s was a few hundred square feet with exposed brick for walls,
large high-back circular booths for privacy, and a bar stocked with premium
liquor.
The aesthetic my uncle had been going for was simple and to the point,
much like his personality.
We approached the bar where he stood, his large frame just as
formidable as his brothers.
The music ceased as sets began to change, making our conversation
much easier to have.
“What’s up, Unc?”
We slapped hands, and he pulled me into a loving embrace.
“Heard you were up to no good in Brooklyn,” he murmured in my ear.
“Worth it?”
I nodded.
He pulled back, his light brown eyes searching mine before accepting
my word for it.
Eoghan O’Sullivan was nothing like his brother.
He was the chill type, the kind you waved off as non-threatening until it
was too late.
He and my father might’ve been polar opposites, but it worked.
Eoghan was the calm to Darragh’s storm.
“And you must be, Violet,” he greeted, dipping his head in
acknowledgment. “I’ve heard nothing about you.”
Violet smiled.
“Yet, you know my name,” she said, earning a chuckle from him. “I’ve
heard only one thing about you.”
She’d easily picked up on who he was.
“Oh, yeah? And what might that be?”
“You’re trustworthy,” she surmised, holding my hand tighter.
 It took a lot for her to say that, but she believed it because I did.
Eoghan was on our side; he always would be.
“The next set is going up in ten,” he said, quickly shifting the
conversation. “Take the booth over there…” he pointed to a section near the
stage but in the cut. “I’ll send a server your way.”
The next set started when we settled in our section and made drink and
food orders.
Our booth opened up directly to the stage, giving us a close view of the
band and their lead singer.
Violet had her arms wrapped around me and her face against my chest
as she listened.
Surprisingly the music was soothing more than loud, but I couldn’t
focus on anything but her.
“You’re staring,” she said, tilting her head back.
The dimly lit room made her eyes stand out more than usual.
“You’re beautiful.”
“I know you’re worried about me but I’m okay,” she added softly, her
eyes darting back to the band. “This is a new happy place for me.”
I drew her attention to me again, and our eyes danced.
The server had dropped off our orders and left before we broke eye
contact.
“You’ve grown comfortable with my extensive lingering.”
“I’ve grown comfortable with you,” she corrected, reaching for her rum
and coke. “And the way you make me feel.”
She sipped from the miniature straw, her eyes moving from me to the
band.
“How do I make you feel?”
“You are a reminder that home doesn’t have to be a place. No matter
where we are, home is with you.”
Her words settled nicely in my chest.
I gripped her chin for a kiss, and she obliged, pressing her lips gently
against mine.
Our night took a turn after her hand grazed my growing erection.
“Watch it,” I warned, enclosing my fingers around her neck. “Don’t
start nothing you can’t finish.”
She smirked, her eyes filled with mischief as she slid back some and
lowered her head in my lap.
 Quickly, she had my jeans unbuttoned and the zipper down.
“Violet, baby—”
She kissed the tip, and it shut me up.
“It’s okay,” she reassured me, pulling my dick out completely. “So,
pretty.”
Fuck.
No one but the band—who were focused on performing—could see, but
to avoid Violet being exposed in any way, I hit a button under the table and
closed the booth.
The high backs came in handy, but the option to close out the world
from your date was perfect.
“Look at me, please,” she requested.
Our eyes met, and she stroked me slowly with both hands.
“Don’t ever stop looking at me like that.”
“I couldn’t even if I tried,” I murmured, pushing her hair back. “You
gone suck that muthafucka or leave me in suspense?”
In response, she wrapped her thick lips around the head, and I stifled a
moan.
“Mm,” she hummed, slowly filling her mouth with me.
The tempo of the next song in the band’s set was slow and felt more
intimate. I slid my fingers into her thick curls and massaged her scalp as her
head bobbed to the beat.
“Keep doing that, baby,” I coached softly. “I love the way you take care
of me.”
Her eyes met mine, and we gazed passionately at one another. I thrust
my hips up and fed her the dick repeatedly.
“Fuck,” I cursed, briefly looking up to catch my breath.
This fucking woman had no idea how bad I wanted to fuck her in this
club.
I was barely holding on to my resolve.
She released me with a pop, slurping up her saliva and spitting it back
again with her steely irises on me.
“Don’t be shy,” she murmured, licking the underside of my shaft. “I
thought you said I deserved everything I want.”
“When did I-I…” I bit down on my lip as she stroked me with both
hands, twisting them in opposite directions. “When did I give you the
impression you didn’t deserve everything you want?”
 “Why haven’t you cum down my throat yet?”
She stroked faster, sucking me in and out of her mouth to drive her
point home.
I gripped her hair and held her in place while I fucked her slick mouth.
“Ah, fuck…” I stilled and shot cum all down her throat like she’d
wanted. “Such a good girl.”
Violet sat up and grabbed the napkins on the table to wipe her hands and
mouth. She reached for more and started to clean me.
I stared at her in disbelief.
Never in all my years of fucking had a woman cleaned me.
“You shouldn’t be surprised that I’m doing this,” she said softly, reading
my mind as she finished. “We take care of each other, remember? This isn't
a one-sided relationship.”
“A relationship, huh? You know we’ve never discussed being
exclusive.”
She chuckled, zipped, and buttoned my jeans.
“Finnegan, stop playing with me. Since I called you my best friend,
we've been in a relationship.”
“What if I wanted us to skip a few steps and get married?”
She sat back with a smile on her face.
“You want to marry me this quickly?”
It already felt like a lifetime had passed between us.
“Yeah, I do,” I admitted, draping my arm over her shoulder. “My
grandparents got married a month after they met. He was crazy about her,
and I’m crazy about you.”
“Where would we live?” she asked, resting her head against my chest.
“Where do you want to be?”
“With you,” she answered without pause. “I want to wake up with you
every morning for as many as we can squeeze out of the universe.”
“As my wife?”
“As your wife and your second-in-command.”
“Keep talking to me like that, and I’ll spread you out on this table,
Moonlight.”
She tilted her head back with a smile and drew me close.
“I accept your offer to be your partner in life and in crime.”
It was just what I needed to hear.
 “You know what I think…” I tugged her bottom lip between my teeth
and sucked softly on it. “…we need another big wedding around here.”
The corners of her mouth lifted ever so slightly and then bloomed into
the prettiest full-on smile I’d ever seen from her.
She earned the right to smile this way after everything she’d been
through.
“Luca and Galina are getting married in April before she has the baby,”
she pointed out.
I’d never met his fiancée before and only learned of her relation to
Dmitri Ivanov—the Russian mafia’s pakhan—after she and Luca became a
thing.
“I got the invitation,” I said, kissing her forehead. “This is about us. My
family’s compound upstate has more than enough space.”
“Finnegan…” she sat up straight. “Are we really doing this?”
“Yeah, baby. We’re really doing this. Think you can find a dress in two
weeks?”
“Two weeks!” she shrieked, her eyes wide. “Finn. It’s cold as hell, and
eventually, we’ll get another snowstorm.”
I shrugged.
“I said we have a compound. An inside ceremony is no problem,
Moonlight.”
“Take me to see it.”
I lifted an eyebrow.
“Right now? It’s a four-hour drive up there.”
“What’re four hours in a confined space with the love of your life?”
I smiled and looked away.
She had me there.
“Alright, baby. Let’s take a drive after we have my uncle bring us fresh
food.”
We’d fucked around and let our shit get cold.
I hit the button under the table to open our booth.
Violet tugged on my shirt before I could slide out and kissed me.
“Thank you for helping me forget for a little while.”
“Don’t thank me for doing the bare minimum. I never want to see you
sad or hurt by somebody else’s actions. If you hadn’t killed her, I would
have.”
 There was only so much I could let slide when it came to Violet and her
well-being.
Valen had gotten lucky, but the next person to try her would have to see
me about it.
“I love you, Sunshine.”
I pressed my lips to her forehead and murmured into her skin, “I love
you, Moonlight.”

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

OceanofPDF.com
 VIOLET

OceanofPDF.com
THREE DAYS LATER…
“H appy birthday !” I sang as N ozi stepped off the elevator into
Finn’s apartment. “I bought you something.”
I held up the wrapped box, and he frowned.
“You bought me a gift?” he questioned, stepping into the living room.
“Why?”
There was never a day that he didn’t ask why something was being done
for him.
It was his birthday but receiving a gift from someone other than Finn
and his brothers didn’t make sense to him.
“Because your family, that’s why.”
He grinned a little and took the box.
No real-time had passed, but Nozi was important to me now, and he
deserved the world.
“Are you okay?” he asked, shaking his gift. “I know it’s only been a
couple of weeks, but…”
We migrated into the kitchen; Nozi slid into a stool while I posted up
beside him.
“I’m okay. I never thanked you for trying to protect me.”
He avoided eye contact, but I felt he appreciated my words.
“Kinda felt helpless.”
I figured he had.
“Go ahead and open it.”
He picked it up and shook it until the bottom half disconnected from the
top.
Inside was his very first gun—an M&P 9 shield with a custom pearl
handle.
“Finn said you could have one at eighteen, and I figured it might be the
perfect gift. Now you won’t ever have to feel helpless again.”
He stared at it for a long while and then looked at me.
“If I keep trusting you, you can’t hurt me,” he said softly.
“I promise I won't ever hurt you, Noziah.”
He nodded and stood.
“Can I… Is it okay if I hug you?”
I nodded, and he lifted me off the floor while squeezing me tight.
 “Thank you, Violet,” he said, setting me down.
What I felt at the moment was nothing but love for the kid.
“You’re very welcome…” I backed away. “I’ll grab Finn. He wanted to
give you something.”
He was too busy examining his new baby to respond, and I retreated.
“Did he like it?” Finn asked as I stepped into his bedroom.
He stood in the full-length mirror, dressed in black slacks, a burgundy
turtleneck, and black loafers. Finn had on designer from head to toe, but the
look was subtle. He never did too much or too little.
I’d chosen to wear a burgundy sweater dress that stopped just above the
knee and a pair of thigh-high boots with a chunky heel to match his fly.
“I think he did,” I said, brushing my thick curls from my face. “He
hugged me.”
Finn moved in my direction.
“He hugged you?”
I nodded.
“He’s only ever let me embrace him.”
“Really?”
Finnegan stopped in front of me, and I fixed his chain.
“Yeah. He’s guarded with everyone, but it feels good to know that he
accepts who I’ve chosen for myself.”
He tipped my head back with his index and middle finger.
“You look beautiful, baby.”
“Thank you. I—”
A loud crashing sound followed by a string of curse words from two
distinct voices startled us both. We rushed toward the front, only to find
Nozi and Valen engaged in a fistfight.
They were going toe to toe, knocking the stools in the kitchen over as
they moved throughout the space.
For some reason, I’d seen this coming.
Neither had crossed paths since Valen held us at gunpoint. Finn had
purposely been keeping them separate because Nozi wanted blood.
I didn’t think Valen could handle the confrontation, but from the looks
of it, my brother could hold his own in a physical fight if it came down to it.
“Should I break them up or let it ride until they’re tired?” Finn asked as
we stood side by side, watching them tear his kitchen up.
“Let it ride,” I said. “I think they both need it.”
 It didn’t take long for them to tire out.
Valen pushed Nozi and wiped the blood from his lip.
“Are you done now?” he asked. “I fucked up, and that was my bad, but
I’ll be around whether you like it or not.”
Aww.
Valen and I were still working through that night we had two weeks
ago, but everything would smooth itself out with time.
He wouldn’t stop apologizing because the guilt was eating him alive,
but I liked hearing that he wouldn’t disappear on me.
“As long as you understand that hurting her won’t fly while I’m
around.”
Valen nodded.
“It won’t fly with me either.”
Nozi held his hand out, and as Valen took it,
Finn and I shared one of those proud parents' looks.
“Now that y’all are done tearing up my fucking kitchen, clean it!” Finn
ordered, but there was no real bite in his tone.
He sounded more proud than anything, and they both jumped into
action, righting all the stools first.
“Sorry, Finn,” Nozi said as he approached. “I had to get that off my
chest before we all started walking around like one big happy family.
“It’s all good. You handled it how you saw fit, and I respect that. I’m
sure Valen and Violet do as well.”
Finn tossed him a set of keys, and Nozi’s eyes widened.
“I know how much you love my hellcat,” he said. “It’s yours now.
Happy Birthday.”
Nozi and Finn embraced, and I left them to have their moment in
exchange for one of my own.
“It’s kinda weird that he and I share the same birthday,” Valen griped,
pinning his grey eyes on me. “Sorry about all this.”
I smiled and shook my head.
“You handled yourself well, Valen. No matter what, you don’t let
anybody punk you.”
He dropped his head to hide the smirk on his face and picked up a stack
of papers meant for him from the floor.
“Those are actually for you. Happy Birthday, Valen.”
 His eyes were filled with surprise as he read over what was in front of
him.
“You bought me a condo? I can’t—”
“You can and you will,” I cut in, placing my hand on his. “I know you
have your inheritance now, but I wanted to do this for you, Valen. I saw
how she had you living; that should’ve never been your reality. This is me
changing that for you. Use your money for something else.”
He stared at the papers and then looked up at me, his eyes filled with
tears.
The building his condo was in sat near the UPenn campus. Rían lived
nearby, and it was in O’Sullivan territory where he’d be most safe.
It was the perfect area for an eighteen-year-old to be.
“I… I wish I could take back what happened,” Valen said. “I’d never
felt so desperate for a real sense of family until I knew you were alive.”
“When you’re ready to talk about that, I’m here. As long as we
understand that your apologies are no longer accepted or needed. I forgive
you, Valen.”
He winced after touching his lip again.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered, checking his face for more incoming
bruises. “You got his eye good.”
Valen smirked.
“I don’t like guns, but I’ve always known how to fight.”
“It’s in our blood.”
He looked at the deed to his brand-new condo again and then stepped
around the island to get to me.
“Is it okay if I hug you?”
Every time someone asked me that, my heart swelled.
“Of course, you can hug me.”
He wrapped his arms around me as I secured mine around him.
“It’s been so long,” I murmured, squeezing him tight. “Never again.”
Valen sighed and pulled back.
“Never again,” he agreed.
“Moonlight, we need to go,” Finn called.
I took a step back, my eyes still on Valen.
“You know how you apologized for not coming back for me?” Valen
asked, stopping me in my tracks. “I think… I needed to hear that, and I
want you to know that coming back wasn’t your responsibility. Not after
what you’d been through.”
“Valen—”
“You should also know that I forgive you, too,” he went on. “It wasn’t
your responsibility, but I appreciate you acknowledging my pain. Now we
can both stop apologizing.”
I rushed him for another hug.
He had no idea how bad I needed to hear that he forgave me.
“I love you, Violin.”
“I love you, too,” I murmured, taking steps back again and then turning.
Finn’s eyes met mine as I approached.
“You alright, Moonlight?”
“Yes…” I took his hand. “I’m more than alright.”
I was so fucking happy.
My second chance kept getting better and better.
“Are you ready for your first Moretti Sunday dinner?” I asked as we
stepped into the elevator.
He scoffed.
“I’m only going to piss Luca off.”
I chuckled.
“Sure, my love. Whatever you say.”
He decided to go because not only was it important to me, but Finn
could hardly let me out of his sight for a few days, let alone a few hours.
I loved that for me.
So goddamn much.

OceanofPDF.com
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

OceanofPDF.com
 FINNEGAN

OceanofPDF.com
VALENTINE’S DAY
T oday , I was marrying my best friend before our friends and
family.
“Who has a wedding on Valentine’s Day and decorates everything
black?” Rían asked as he entered the library.
“I’m standing right here.”
He shrugged.
“We all know it was that insane ass woman of yours who wanted this
gloomy ass ceremony.”
He wasn’t wrong.
She loved the color black, but so did I.
“Rían, leave us and go find your father,” my mother ordered as she
fixed my tie for the fifth time. “Don’t come back without him.”
“The tie was fine before you started fussing with it,” I said. “Go ahead
and tell me what’s on your mind.”
“You’re getting married. This life…” she patted my chest. “…it’s not
for the weak. You picked a good one, so don’t fuck it up.”
I chuckled.
“I thought you’d have more to say than that but I won’t fuck it up.”
Violet and I were locked in.
She was my soulmate in every form.
“There’s no need for long speeches. I’m confident that you will be the
man your father and I raised you to be.”
I nodded.
“Your brother has already incited a war with this Blair mess. How are
you with being in his place right now?”
I shrugged.
“I’m good, and so is Sean. He’s here. You’ll be able to put eyes on
him.”
“I know, but I want you to talk to him before he slips out. Make sure
he’s really good. He’ll confide in you. I don’t need to know, but I’ll feel
better knowing he’s not bottling it in.”
My mother would never stop mothering us.
“I’ll talk to him.”
She nodded and adjusted my tie one last time before taking a step back.
 The library door opened, and Rían entered again, with da in tow as
requested. Behind them was Cian and a tired-looking Sean.
“What is this?” I asked. “I don’t need any more speeches.”
When my uncle Eoghan stepped inside, I frowned.
“What happened?”
“He can’t make this decision for you,” my father said, pointing to Sean.
“What decision do I need to make on my wedding day?”
“Landell is here right now,” Eoghan informed me. “The girls haven’t
moved on him yet, and I think we need to handle it.”
”They need to handle him…” I shook my head. “If any one of us in here
kills Landell before they execute the plan I know they have, it’ll fuck up the
flow of the family. All that trust we’ve built will be gone. No.”
My father and Sean shared a look, and I realized it had been a test.
“Why am I being tested right now?”
“It’s time for Sean to step up and take my place,” Da said, shocking the
fuck out of me.
I hadn’t expected him to give up the reins yet.
He was still in his prime; at least, it felt that way to me.
“I won’t step completely into the role until after Blair and I are married,
but once I do, I have to come back to New York.”
He and I had always been planning to return to New York part-time
once he took over.
“You’ll be coming back full-time,” I surmised, earning a nod of
confirmation from him.
“Philly is yours if you want it.”
“Elaborate…”
I knew what he meant but needed to hear the words.
“As a collective, we are the Irish mob,” he explained. “I’m the boss of
New York, and if you accept, you’ll be the boss of Philly.”
Damn.
I glanced at my watch and started toward the door.
“Give me five minutes,” I requested, stepping into the long corridor and
turning right.
I walked to the last door on the end and knocked.
“It’s open!” someone shouted, but I knocked again.
Eventually, the door swung open, and at the sight of me, Jaz shut it.
“No!” she yelled from the other side. “You cannot see her right now.”
 “I don’t need to physically see her. Tell Violet to come to the door.”
For a brief moment, I was met with only silence, but then her soft voice
filtered through the door, and I smiled.
“If you’re trying to end things, I’ll kill you.”
“You get more romantic by the day, Moonlight,” I cooed. “I’m not here
to end things. I need to ask you something.”
“Okay. I’m listening.”
I rested my forehead against the door.
“How would you feel if my title went from Enforcer to Mob boss?”
“Proud,” she said, reminding me one of the many reasons I fell in love
with her. “I think you possess great leadership skills. You’re fair but firm
and a man of your word. People can trust you; I know I do. Even though I
don’t fear you, they should. You’ll do great things, Sunshine.”
I took a deep breath and let my insecurities go.
She’d known exactly what I needed.
“With you,” I corrected. “I’ll do great things with you.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “Which is why I need to get my dress on. I’ll see you
soon, husband.”
The smile in her voice conjured one of my own.
“I’ll see you soon, wife.”
I walked up the corridor toward the library and entered.
“I accept,” I said as the door shut behind me.
“Good,” Da spoke up. “Now, let’s get you married. A mob boss is
nothing without his wife.”
I couldn’t have agreed more as Violet walked down the aisle arm-in-arm
with her brother thirty minutes later.
Our guests whispered about her dress of choice while I stared in awe.
She wore an all-black strapless gown with fabric that glinted against the
light in the room and a hooded veil to match.
My baby looked like the goddamn princess of death.
“Now they all see why I’m obsessed,” I whispered into her ear as I took
her hand.
She smiled through the hood of her veil.
“Just so you know,” she whispered back as we faced one another, ready
to take our vows before God. “I’m sinfully obsessed with you, too.”

The End
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 AUTHOR NOTES

Thank you for reading.

I hope you enjoyed the fifth book in the Mafia Misfits series.
The O’Sullivan family are in for long ride.
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