Page 167 of Brutal Vows

Declan’s voice is level when he says, “Why does your brother do anything?”

He’s not asking a rhetorical question. And I don’t have to think very long before I come up with an answer.

I whisper, “Money. Oh God.”

“The plan was to kidnap Lili and hold her for ransom.”

“But he’d be putting up his own cash for ransom!”

“Unless I offered to pay it,” says Quinn quietly. “Which I would have.”

Declan says, “Then that money would’ve gone right back to Gianni. So either he made a calculated guess Spider would put up the money or he didn’t care if he did, because there was a bigger target.”

“What target?”

When Declan only stares at me in silence, I know what the target is.

Or rather, who.

And I’m truly sick now, because I know without a shadow of doubt what Gianni was after.

I close my eyes and try very hard not to scream.

“Enzo had a ten-million-dollar life insurance policy on me. I didn’t know about it until after his death. I kept paying the insurance premiums but changed the beneficiary to Gianni. At the time, Lili wasn’t yet eighteen, or it would’ve been her.”

Quinn says, “Ten million? Why would he go to all that trouble for only ten mil?”

I open my eyes and find Declan staring at me with the answer in his own.

He already knows.

“That was only the cherry on top. The real money is what I inherited on Enzo’s death.”

Declan says softly, “Two hundred and forty million dollars.”

In shock, Quinn turns to me.“What?”

“Aye, lad. Your wife’s rich.”

After a moment of pensive silence, Quinn says, “Except she’s not really my wife, is she?”

I can’t look at him. There’s a note of finality in his voice, as if he’s just now realizing that this non-marriage of ours is skating on very thin ice.

I say, “That doesn’t change anything between us, Quinn.”

Declan says, “What if you were named capo of the Five Families? Would that change anything?”

Stunned, I stare at him with my eyes wide and my heart palpitating. My brain starts to race.

I think of the strange meeting with the heads of the other four families that day in the warehouse, the way I sensed there was something more going on than what they said, and get a tingling feeling all the way down my spine.

I also know I have to tread very carefully here, because I have no way of knowing if this is a trap, if I’m being recorded, or how Declan O’Donnell came to have all this information in his hands.

When it comes right down to it, the Mob and the Mafia are still enemies. Without that marriage license, our relationship doesn’t exist.

I say, “What-if is a dangerous question. And here is where I point out that I have no proof any of this information is real. All of it could have been easily manufactured by someone with very little skill.”

Gazing at me with the kind of cool composure that belies nothing, Declan says, “There was a vote this morning, Reyna.”