Page 72 of Broken Blood Ties

“I get it Kieran. You were there, and I wasn’t.” Summer’s standing now, her fists balled at her sides underneath her sweater. “Do you know what I feel? How much guilt crushes me every day for what I did? I did that to her, and I can never take it back. The partying, the drugs. I buried myself in it, doing whatever I could to drown out the life I lived.

“My father and mother were more lenient with me, and I took full advantage. I was awful to my sister, and yet she still came for me. Why do you think I ran?

“And after my sister’s forced marriage into the Bratva, do you really blame me for running when I had the chance? I knew what was around the corner for me. I heard the whispers at my family estate—it was me next. I hate myself for what I did to Luna. I hate myself more than you could ever imagine.”

She swipes her inner elbow across her face, and I stare at her. My breaths coming in rapid and uncontrolled. I want to tear down this room. I despised Salvatore for his decision back then, and now, as a father, I couldneverimagine choosing anything, or anyone, over my daughter.

“I let ye into Aoife’s life.” I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“I’m sorry, Kieran. How was I supposed to know who you were? And I’m not the girl from seven years ago. I’m a different person.”

“Not anymore, ye’re not,” I say, looking over at the plant now dead and wilted to the floor.

Summer gasps. “What? You can’t just hand me over to him. What about doing the right thing by Aoife? Would you send her back to a father like mine?”

I stare at the chip in the drywall where my glass poked a hole.

“Kieran? Answer me!” She pushes at the heavy solid wooden desk, but it doesn’t budge. “You can’t send me back. You can’t.”

Studying her, I recognize how familiar she is, and why I thought I’d seen her before when we first met. Luna’s sister. I’m a damn fool. The truth is, while I don’t know Summer as Isabella, she doesn’t know me in this light—as the Mob’s leader.But she’s about to learn just how ruthless I can be.

I walk around the desk and lift my chin to address her. “I’ll have Lizzy bring ye some food.”

Her mouth drops open, and she contorts her face in confusion as I stride to the door.

“Kieran, wait. Please!” She trips over the leather chair in her way, and before she can make it to the door, I slam it in her face.

“Kieran!” she yells, beating on the office door. She tries the handle, forcefully jiggling it before she pounds on the door again. “Kieran! You can’t leave me in here. Kieran!”

I count the number of times she screams my name as if they were a sequence of punches—though it’s not exactly how I pictured her screaming it these past couple of weeks.

“Aye,” I whisper into the door. “I can.”

Chapter24

Summer

Isabella

Seven Years Ago

“Girl, your ass looks fine. I’m so jelly.” A sting pops my thigh below the sequin dress that hugs my body like a glove. I have to waddle in short, stubby steps to move, but hey, beauty is pain.

Rebecca makes a kissy face at me and hands me the joint we’re sharing. I take a hit, the piney flavor tickling the back of my throat. “Where’s Penny?” I ask, letting out a disgraceful cough before bringing the blunt back to my mouth.

“Ugh. Late as ever. Are you ready to meet Tim?”

I snort out a giggle. Tim. What a pathetic name. But honestly, if he’s going to take us to one of the fanciest restaurants in New York, his name could be Rick for all I care.

Rebecca drums her fingers over the black leather steering wheel of her new Porsche. Her parents bought it for her three weeks ago for her seventeenth birthday, and she hasn’t stopped flaunting it. Granted, most kids at our private school drive some sort of BMW or Mercedes, so I don’t know why she’s such a pain about it.

What pisses me off even more is that my parents could buy me ten Porsches, but yet they won’t get me a car. I have to be picked up right after tennis practice in a styleless black SUV by one of my father’s men who smells like too much Tom Ford Oud Wood and, unfortunately, has an affinity for his job—he won’t take me anywhere other than home. No matter how much I beg or flirt with the old guy.

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Think she’s going to come tonight?”

“Uh, duh. That girl parties harder than you, Bella. She’ll be here. Probably trying to get away from her parents for the night. I told her to tell them she was staying at my place, but I don’t know. What did you tell your parents?”

I shrug. “I didn’t.” I seem to be less of a concern now that they’ve married my older sister off.