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“Don’t be tiresome, Lucia. I just wanted to finish my article.”

I slam the phone down, lasering him with a hard glare.

“You had me kidnapped off the street in Manhattan, Dad.”

“Stupid child.”

Something in me snaps. I’m sick of being called horrible names, sick of the abuse I’ve taken over the past couple of days. First that maniac O’Sullivan and now Dad. I just want to go home. To my husband.

It doesn’t matter that Callahan doesn’t love me and that it’s just another prison. It’s a better cage, and maybe one day he’ll love me back.

It’s better than here, with Dad. Whom I don’t think I like. I love him. But I don’t like him.

“Don’t say that. I’m not a child and I’m not stupid. You had Mikey take me. Against my will. That’s kidnapping.”

“I had him bring you home because you’re not safe with that Callahan. I tried. I did, but it’s not working. He’s not sharing the avenues he promised me, the riches he said would come my way. And he’s taking advantage of you and of me. He even put you in danger.”

“The man who took me was a monster.”

“Hisenemy. You need to choose your family. Callahan has enemies, and that man, the monster, was the one working to bring him down because Callahan took his sister and did horrible things to her. Help me destroy Callahan.”

“Dad…” I stare at him, shaking my head. Not for one second do I believe any of his bullshit. “That’s not true. How… how did you even come up with that? If O’Sullivan fed you that story, trust me, he was lying. He wanted revenge on Callahan for an old beef in Ireland and he absolutely was a monster of the worst kind. You have no idea what he did to me.”

“I have a path open, but I need Callahan out of the way. If I hand him over, have him and his family taken out, then we’ll be safe and my power will grow. Help me do that.”

Horror fills me.

“I can’t. I won’t.”

“The Murphys will kill you. Ican’t let you leave.”

Callahan won’t stand for this, and I have to talk Dad down from whatever madness this is. Because there’s one thing I know. If Dad goes ahead with this insane plan of his, no matter what I do, what side I choose, only one man will walk free and alive.

Dad.

Or Callahan.

And my own father is making me choose.

But it’s not even a choice.

“What’s it going to be, Lucie Joy?”

My father’s cheeks turn red with anger and my knees threaten to give way when his voice hits my ears.

“Callahan,” I breathe out when he appears behind my father. “Dad’s just scared, he’s got it wrong, he thinks the?—”

“I know what he thinks, don’t I, de Rosa?”

“If I kill you,” Dad says as Callahan pushes past him to get into the study, “I get everything.”

“Try it.”

They both pull their guns and I step right between them. “We can work something out. No one needs to die,” I shout.

“Move, Lucie,” Callahan says, “Please.”

“See, Dad? He’s a good man.”