Page 55 of Captive Audience

The elevator doors opened, and a tall man with wide shoulders exited. Buzz cut, black suit, shiny shoes. His tanned skin made his pale-blue eyes pop.

Our visitor smiled brightly, and it was one of the kindest I’d seen from someone so intimidating. “What’s the craic, Boss?” he asked with a cheery Irish accent.

“Finn, come on over. I’d like you to meet my wife.”

Finn. Rook had said he’d be my bodyguard. He closed the distance between us with confident strides.

“Your wife?” Finn’s jaw just about hit the floor. “Shite. Where are my manners? I mean, congratulations to you both. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. O’Connell.”

It took me a second to realize theMrs. O’ConnellFinn referred to was me. Why the hell was Rook insisting on telling his gangster buddies that I was his wife?

Rook aimed an arched brow at me. Guessed he expected me to go along with the charade. Fun times.

I mustered up a fake grin. “Pleasure to meet you, too.”

Rook faced my new babysitter. “I need you to keep her secure when I’m not around. No visitors unless I approve them. Aidan, Torin, Orla, and Neve are the only exceptions.”

“Copy that.” Finn nodded.

“Who’s Neve?” I asked. It was the only name I’d not heard mentioned already.

“Aidan’s daughter,” Rook replied. “Which technically makes her my cousin, but I’m more like an uncle to her.”

Finn smiled. He seemed to do that a lot. “It all makes sense now. Aidan mentioned you’d been seeing someone. And now, here she is.”

Rook had a girlfriend?

Perfect. To top off this shit show, myhusbandwas a lying, cheating son of a bitch. The night of our hookup, he’d told me he was single. Ugh. I didn’t know why I had any expectation that an Irish mobster who’d forced me to marry him and had me thrown in jail would have even one redeeming quality.

If I had to stay in this house and listen to Rook screw some skank all over his apartment the same way he’d done with me, I’d lose my shit. Seriously, fuck my life.

I aimed a scowl at Rook.

“Something the matter, Wife?”

“Just thinking about how sad I’ll be with you gone all day. All those hours without you.”

“I’m sure you’ll find an important task to keep you busy.” He gave me a pointed stare before glancing at Finn. “I’d better get out of here before the wife drags me back to bed. Can’t get enough of me, this one. Insatiable.”

Heat flared up my cheeks. God, could he be any smugger? I forced a laugh for Finn’s benefit, even as I imagined strangling myhusbandwith his fancy designer necktie.

I wrapped both hands around my coffee and aimed a sweet smile at Finn. “What can I say? He has a talented mouth.” I redirected my grin toward Rook. “I just wish he’d shut it once in a while.”

If my comment pissed Rook off, he didn’t let it show. The small twitch of his lips reminded me that he liked our sparring. I really needed to stop reacting to him and feeding his appetite for friction.

“Ah, newlyweds.” Finn sighed. “So much fire and passion.” He clapped his hands. “Right. Don’t worry about me today, Mrs. O’Connell. You won’t even know I’m here.”

“Please, call me Asha.”

The men shared an uncomfortable look before Rook said, “Actually, we have protocol for this situation. Finn will call you by yourpropername.”

“Mypropername is the one I was born with, so I insist that Finn ignore your ridiculous protocol.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“We’re not doing this right now.”