Page 58 of Chains of Recompense
“Yes,” I say flatly. “So it would look more suspicious if I suddenly stopped hating you.”
“And what happens to our little arrangement if they tell your father?”
I laugh. “Tell my father what? That you fucked me before we got married? You think he’ll back out of the alliance if he knows youruined his little girl?”
Raf leans forward, his face within inches of mine now as his voice drops into a deadly murmur. “Stop messing around, Aisling. Does he know what happened between us?”
My stomach tightens, but there’s no sense in keeping it from Raf any longer.
My brothers blew the chance of him not discovering the truth the moment they decided to take hispunishmentinto their own hands. “Why else would my family hate you so much? You think they would go to war just for the hell of it?”
He doesn’t blink. “So, they allied themselves with the Yakuza to get back atme? They came after my entire family because you and I have a history?” His jaw tics, a tendon jumping beneath his skin as he grinds his teeth.
“Something like that,” I say bluntly. “But it’s not like the apple fell far from the tree when it comes to Chiaroscuros screwing the people around you. Judging by how many enemies came for you that day, I’d say we were all tired of watching your family running around Chicago like you own the entire city. Like your claim on this town and everyone in it is some kindof divine right. Like you can take whatever you want without consequences.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
I stare him dead in the eyes. “You took my virginity, and when you were done with me, you tossed me aside. Don’t deny it.”
His reaction is immediate, ugly, and unfiltered as a snarl erupts from his lips, and then Raf’s hand is curling around the base of my throat, not choking, but shoving me back until my spine meets the wall.
His face is so close, I can smell the whiskey on his breath, and the room seems to shrink around him as his fury turns dark and frightening.
“I didn’t force myself on you,” he growls, voice low and full of heat. “You came to the club that night looking for an experience. Youwantedit. You even came back for more. And now you want to tell me your family’s part in the destruction of my house—my entire family—was all because I fucked you before I knew who you really were?”
“I never said you forced?—”
“Yeah, well, you must have implied it. Because, shy of that, your family has no defense for their actions. What happened, Aisling? Did they find out you weren’t a virgin anymore, so you made up some sob story about me stealing your innocence to protect yourself? Or are you so petty that when I broke things off that night, you wanted to hurt me, to make me pay, and you didn’t care who else got caught in the crossfire?”
“I would never do that!” I say, slapping his hand away and stepping forward to get in his face.
His nostrils flare. “No? Then what? Tell me why your family believed that what happened between us was worth going to war over.”
The blood drains from my face as I realize we’re getting far too close to a deeper truth that I refuse to voice—a truth we’ve kept so quiet that nobody knows outside my immediate family.
We haven’t even told Siobhan and Riley.
Because it could cost meeverything—could cost those I hold dear so much more.
And though it kills me to do so, if I don’t back down from this fight, I know Raf will pry the answers from me, one way or another.
“Isn’t the fact that you broke my heart enough?” I whisper. “Men have gone to war for far less.”
He scoffs, his sneer cold and unapologetic. “That would require having a heart in the first place, and considering you unleashed an army on my entire family over my ending a three-night fling, I can’t imagine your chest is anything but hollow. Besides, you’re leaving out the part where you tricked me.”
I throw my hands up, anger bubbling inside me once again. “You think I asked for what happened?” I practically scream. “I have no more control over my father’s temper than you would yours. I didn’t get a say in how he or my brothers chose to respond. And don’t go accusing me of deceiving you. You didn’t tell me who you were either. That’s kind of the point of those clubs, isn’t it? Anonymity? Masks? Not exactly the environment for swapping legal names and family pedigrees.”
“You could have told me who you were.”
“So could you,” I fire back.
His mouth opens—then closes as he seems to realize he walked into that one.
“I wouldn’t have walked away because of your last name, either,” I add, softer, more bitter. “I wasn’t afraid of who you were. But you wanted nothing to do with me.”
His expression flickers as something vulnerable and dangerous tries to surface—but he shoves it down. “Can you blame me after what’s happened? This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.”
“Oh, please. Don’t pretend you cut me loose for anyone’s benefit but your own,” I say. “You don’t care about women. You just use them and toss them aside, and my last name was a convenient excuse to end things once you got what you wanted from me.”
