Escaping: A Mafia Romance (The O'Keefe Family Collection #2) (13 page)

Twenty-Three.

Look Happy

Fallyn was nervous when her brother came out into the visitation room. She wanted to leap up and hug him, but knew touching would get him into trouble with the guards. Instead she mimed hugging him, and Keenan mimed putting her in a headlock and mussing her hair. He put on a forced impression of a smile and saluted Vince with two fingers, who returned the gesture from the brown plastic chair he was leaned back in. Vince had his negotiation face on, which meant he was stoic and waited to speak until the silence grew uncomfortable. “Good to see you, Vince. I hear you’re the luckiest man on the face of the planet these days.”

“I am. Fallyn’s been excited for us to meet up. How’re they treating you in there?”

“Oh, you know. Like a criminal.”

Vince nodded, his expression unreadable. “You take it, Fal.”

Fallyn’s fingers twisted in her lap as she tried to summon up the right words and the proper amount of cushioning for the blow. “So I haven’t been back to see you since our last visit because I’ve been away on vacation. The day after I saw you last, Vince and I decided to… Well, we sort of eloped.” She watched her brother’s face pale, making his light smattering of freckles across his nose stand out all the more. “So, not a vacation, I guess. I was on my honeymoon.”

Keenan hung his head, running his hand over his forehead and down past his mouth. “So when I told you to give the guys some time to come around, you heard ‘get married in twenty-four hours’. Am I getting that right? You’re married? Like, actually married?”

Vince held up his left hand to display his wedding band. “Just got back last night and came straight to tell you this morning.”

Keenan let out a bitter laugh. “Well played, telling me first. I can’t beat on you. Killian’s been in here once a week to try and catch you on your next visit.” He raised his finger to Vince, meeting his eyes with a similarly cool sadism that Vince always had on standby. “Let’s get a few things straight. I don’t like you. I don’t care how much Fally says you’ve grown, or what good things Kill told me you were doing with your territory. The only thing I care about concerning you is her. You went under our noses and took the only thing precious to all of us. Just took her. And now what? You got her cut off from her family.”

Vince shrugged. “If she was that precious to you all, you wouldn’t have cut her off just for dating someone.”

Keenan’s face soured. “Don’t pretend like you know what it is to be an O’Keefe. You’ve never had a sister, so you can’t judge our reaction to what you’ve done.”

Vince took Keenan’s lecture in stride, waiting a few beats until speaking in a cool, calm voice. “Carrigan knew, and he jumped me. We wanted to tell them all when we first started dating, but they made it impossible. You know it’s not as simple as just coming clean with them. They want her in a nunnery. She was dating someone else when we first started it up, and they chased him away the first day they met him.” He leaned back and rested his arm on the back of Fallyn’s chair. “Now if it was as simple as letting them jump me, that would be one thing, but Carrigan only got angrier after I let him beat on me. There’s no easing them in. Bottom line? Us getting married without them isn’t on us. It’s on them, and you know it.”

“You ran off and got married. You have to know no one’s going to be okay with this.”

Fallyn pursed her lips before chiming in. “They’re not okay with anything involving me dating, so I wasn’t under any grand delusion that getting married would go over well. But I’m done waiting for you all to let me go. This was my call, and I stand by my choice. I love Vince.”

Keenan’s face twisted into a grimace. “Don’t say ‘I love Vince’ like that.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. It’s just about the strangest thing a girl could say.”

Fallyn’s eyes narrowed. “You can do better than this. Do better, or I’m walking out of here. I didn’t have to come, you know. I only showed because you said you’d be cool.”

“I didn’t know you would come back in a month married! Give a guy a second to catch up, Fal. This is a lot.” Keenan bit his lower lip as he visibly seethed, mentally talking himself down from lunging across the table to throttle the man who’d taken his sister’s virginity. He rubbed his temples to relieve the strain. “Sweetie, I love you, but this was a bad move.”

“It was my move to make, and I can live with the fallout. Vince is my husband, and we’re happy. You lot are the only unhappy things in my life, and I fought for you all for too long. Be glad I’m happy, even if you don’t like how I got there. Look at me, Keenan.” She waited for her brother to meet her gaze. “Don’t I look happy?”

Keenan’s shoulders drooped. “You do. I hate to admit it, but you do look content. Older, but in a good way.” His disheveled auburn waves were short, and the unruliness suited him perfectly. He looked lost, waiting for anyone to say something that could set all this right. “I would’ve liked to’ve seen you get married. I would’ve walked you down the aisle, even if Dad or Kill wouldn’t. I would’ve found a way to be there for you.”

Fallyn closed her eyes, emotion rising up inside her. “Thank you. That’s all I needed to hear. Thank you, Keenan.”

“Tell me about your big day,” he said, trying to get on board with the best feigned cheer he could muster. “Give me a dose of all the girliness.”

“Justice of the Peace, but it was nice. Vince’s family was there, and I had Jen. I wore a simple white dress, and Vince gave me this.” She opened the locket and showed him the photos.

“Justice of the Peace?” Keenan whined with dissatisfaction before he could stop himself. “I mean, that sounds great. I’m totally supportive. Lean closer. Let me see the pictures. Is that Papa D and Mama Antonia? Oh, and that’s the two of you?” He squinted and tilted his head to the side. “Huh. You really do look happy there.”

Fallyn looked on her brother in his orange jumpsuit and smiled. “I am.”

Twenty-Four.

Missing Something

Fallyn dropped Vince off at the industrial plant his family owned a part of and employed half the city with while she checked up on her own business. Jen’s arms flung around her with genuine glee for her best friend. “You’re back! And tan, too! How was it? Tell me absolutely everything.” Jen felt no guilt at leaving Hannah alone to man the front of the store. It was post-breakfast, pre-lunch, so the crowd was on its way to thinning. Jen dragged Fallyn to the kitchen and sat her on the stool as she waved Loretta over. “Girlfriend just got back from her honeymoon!” she informed the store manager.

Loretta looked taken aback as she congratulated her boss. “I didn’t even know you were engaged. Honeymoon? I thought you were just taking a step back from being here in person. You should’ve told me!”

Fallyn grinned, finally able to gush about the marvelous time she’d enjoyed with her husband. She displayed the ring to Loretta, who gasped and clutched her chest. “Child, since when are you allowed to have that big a diamond on a ring without a permit? It’s huge! And how many diamonds on the band there? So pretty!” She put her hand on her generous hip. “Okay, so who’s the lucky fellow?”

Guilt crept over Fallyn’s shoulder at telling her employee before her brothers. “You’ve met him. Vince D’Amato’s my husband now. I am taking a step back from being here all day every day, but for the last month I was on my honeymoon in Italy.”

“Vince?” Her eyes widened with caution and surprise. “I had no idea. Why’d you hide it from everyone?”

“My brothers still don’t know. I’m telling them tonight, so no cracking before then.” Fallyn inhaled the deep scent of butter that permeated her nose. The croissants were heavenly, and she longed for the comfort of her own recipes. “Are those fresh?”

Loretta took one off the pan and handed it to her boss. “Just made them. Natalie, the girl you hired to do the custom orders, is out on delivery. She’s been great. Gives me time to do things like make the best croissants in the city.”

Fallyn bit into the pastry and rolled her eyes at the goodness that melted on her tongue. The salty sweetness swirled around in her mouth as Jen and Loretta filled her in on everything she’d missed. Aside from the few ups and downs and ordering mishaps, the business was growing steadily. “You’re doing it, kid. You’ve got a business up and running, and you don’t have to kill yourself to keep it afloat.”

Fallyn beamed at Jen, who’d never doubted her, even when Fallyn had doubted herself. “Thanks. I…” Just as she was about to declare her loyalty to her friend, Fallyn’s stomach turned once again. She’d thrown up again that morning, and had thought that would be the end of the rancid chicken fiasco. “Be right back.” Fallyn barely made it to the bathroom before she emptied the meager contents of her stomach into the employee toilet, smacking the floor in frustration. She knew she had to go see her brothers in less than an hour for the meeting she’d called, and she didn’t want to be a sickly shade of green when she got there. She guessed they would probably blame Vince for her food poisoning, global warming and everything else they could.

Fallyn slumped against the wall as she wiped her mouth on a paper towel. The whole month she’d been on her honeymoon, she hadn’t so much as sneezed twice, but now that they were back, she couldn’t stop puking.

Clarity slowly swept over her mind, with panic chasing closely on its heels. She’d been in Italy for thirty days. She hadn’t missed anything while she’d been away. Anything, that is, except her period.

Twenty-Five.

The Intervention

Vince had tried to talk Fallyn into letting him go with her to tell her brothers, but Fallyn was unbending. She had lucked out with Keenan, and only just. She knew that were he not surrounded by guards, the outcome might’ve been far different. But as she stood outside of her childhood home, she wished she hadn’t sent Vince away. There would be yelling, threats and things they would never be able to take back once shouted.

She wanted to run to her house and take a pregnancy test. She wanted to run to Vince and bury her nose in his neck so his intoxicating scent would steady her knocking knees. She wanted so many things, but a baby hadn’t been in the plan. She touched her stomach, telling herself not to get too worked up. Fallyn clutched the box of croissants she had made with Loretta that afternoon at the bakery and sucked in a deep breath, donning a bland smile so they didn’t sense her fear.

The men sitting and standing around hushed when she strolled into the house, glancing to her left to see half her brothers in the living room, and to the right to find the other half in the kitchen with her father. Wordlessly she moved to the dining room and set the peace offering down on the long table, taking a seat in her mother’s spot at the end as she waited for them to filter in and find their seats. She sat as if a ruler were taped to her back and kept her hands in her lap, unwilling to let them see her diamond-encrusted wedding band and surmise what she’d done before she could squeeze in a proper explanation.

She waited until her father took his seat at the head of the table before she spoke. “I’m here because I love you, and no matter what you’ve done or how you feel about my life, I will always love each of you.” She leveled her gaze to Killian’s. “When you bought that fast food chain that went under, we all stood by you and never said we told you so.” She locked eyes with Liam. “When you fell for that gold digging whore Tonya, we let you get it out of your system. I even went shopping with her to make her feel more part of the family. None of you made even the slightest effort to welcome Vince in. Carrigan, when you found out we were dating, you beat him so bad, he could hardly walk! I would never do that do you. I would never take the thing you loved and break it.”

Declan made to speak, but Fallyn stood, holding up her hand. “I didn’t come for a discussion, and it’s too late for apologies – not that I assume any of you were going to do that.” She displayed her hand to them, closing her eyes as two of her brothers looked away from the sight as if it was a blight on their family. “I came here to tell you that I didn’t want to wait for you to try to talk me out of it, or beat on Vince some more. So last month we went to the Justice of the Peace and got married. We’ve been on our honeymoon in Italy since then. Just got back last night, actually.”

There was stunned silence. The men stared at her with varying degrees of shock, hurt, anger and betrayal, all except her father, who had a glazed over expression due to his meds. No one spoke for an entire minute, so Fallyn wrapped up her speech she’d practiced far too many times in anticipation of this very reaction. “I’ll thank you all to leave my husband alone. I don’t want to see a scratch on him. In fact, if he so much as breaks a nail, I’m coming for each of you.” She straightened, throwing her hair over her shoulder. “I’m Fallyn D’Amato now, so I know I’m not allowed in O’Keefe territory anymore, because of the stupid turf wars that you all insist need to keep happening. I just thought you should hear it from me. Now that you know, I’ll be going.” She turned and walked toward the foyer of the home she had a feeling she might never see again. “Oh, and Carrigan? I stole the starter to your car. It was my ‘something borrowed’ on my wedding day. I’ll leave it on the porch.”

“Stop!” Declan shouted. “Stop her! Fallyn get back here right now!”

Carrigan trotted to Fallyn, standing in front of the door. “We’re not finished.”

“Really?” Fallyn looked up at the brother she couldn’t have felt more betrayed by. “You taught me how to fight. This is how you want to do this?”

Carrigan leaned against the door and punched his fist into the wood at his back. Then he pounded his fist to his heart with a pained expression that told her without words or violence just how much she’d hurt him. “How could you do this to us?”

“How could you make me?” she spat, confused when Declan’s arms surrounded her in a hug she had not anticipated. “What are you doing?”

“This is a hug,” Declan clarified. “I need it, and you will too after I tell you what’s coming next. Sit back down. I have to talk to you.” He released her and held up his hands. “I’ll talk, not yell. I promise.” It was only because his hands were shaking that Fallyn consented to return to the lion’s den. Declan sat her back down at the table before resuming his seat, his hands covering his face. “I’ve got the floor, so just everyone shut up for a minute.” He breathed like he might start hyperventilating into his hands. “Killian, Keenan and I have a secret.”

The men turned with curious stares that broke up the fuming they’d all been doing amid their plans for Vince’s destruction. “What?” Killian asked, confused that the focus seemed to have shifted. “What secret?”

“When I…” Declan cleared his throat, starting over. “When we were younger before Fally was born, do you all remember when Mama left Dad for that bit?”

“A little,” Carrigan admitted.

Killian stiffened. “Why are you bringing that up now?”

Declan’s voice was trembling, a grown man shooting uneasy glances toward his father as if the patriarch might fly off the handle and punish him. He called the nurse in to take Patrick out for a walk, and refused to say a word until he was out of the house.

Then the secret tumbled out of Declan’s mouth – an ancient confession to a darkness he’d been carrying around for far too long. “I saw something I shouldn’t have. I saw Mama kissing Papa D Christmas Eve when they thought we were all in bed. I never told anyone, but Dad walked in on them. Mama told him she was having an affair, and the day after Christmas, she took Killian and left.” Declan hung his head. “Then she came back a year later with Killian and a little baby girl. The math’s there. The rest of you were too young to think the nine months through at the time. Except Killian and Keenan, of course. I asked Dad about it, and he made me swear to keep it to myself. He was going to raise you as his, even though he knew you couldn’t be. Fally, I’m so sorry. I never wanted to tell you. I was going to take it to the grave, I swear! Keenan didn’t know about the kiss, but Kill, Keenan and I knew you couldn’t be Dad’s. I didn’t want you to find out ever, but I didn’t think you’d go and marry a D’Amato! I didn’t know!”

Fallyn tried to work out Declan’s words to mean something other than the awful implications that hung in the air around her. “You’re saying Daddy’s not my father?”

“I’m saying there’s no way he could be.” Declan’s face was covered with his hands, so he didn’t have to look on his sister’s face to see her heart breaking in plain sight. “Mama was having an affair with Papa D.”

Fallyn heard nothing else but white noise as her brothers erupted in outrage and confusion, trying to make sense of the puzzle that just couldn’t be. Nearly five minutes passed of their questions and groanings before they realized Fallyn hadn’t said a word. She was frozen to her chair, hands in her lap, eyes wide in shock.

“Fal? Honey, it’s okay. We can get it annulled, no problem,” Danny assured her, his hand shaking on her back as he tried to rub feeling into her spine.

Despair and depression ripped through Fallyn. She’d wanted to escape her brothers, but she ended up marrying one of them instead. The things they’d done washed through her brain under a new filter that didn’t see their honeymooning as beautiful and perfect. Now it was filthy and illegal.

No
, she mouthed, unable to get the word to come out. “You’re lying, Declan.”

Declan moved around the table and leaned over in front of her so he was looking straight into her eyes. “I wish I was lying, sweetie. There are a million other reasons I could give you not to be with Vince. This is the worst one, and I wouldn’t use it if we weren’t in this situation.” His eyes turned sad with ripe pain. “You married him, Fal. You married your brother. If you’d just waited and heard me out, I would’ve told you.”

“But… But…”

Declan slowly shook his head, his ruling absolute. “I’m sure Vince doesn’t know. He’s a bad guy, but he’s not a sick one. I can tell him, if you want.”

The verdict churned over and over inside of her, tumbling her guts and slicing her heart through with the worst thing she could hear about the man she loved. “No, I…” Fallyn made to stand, but collapsed when her knees went out from under her. Declan caught her before she hit the ground, but Fallyn had checked out, her eyes blank as she stared at the ceiling when Declan carried her out of the kitchen and lowered her to the couch in the living room.

Fallyn knew that no matter how much she loved Vince, nothing would be the same ever again.

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