The Killer's New Wife by Hamel, B. (uplifting novels .TXT) 📗

He looked at me and tilted his head. “That’d be hard, since Ewan drowned him in a toilet.”

I bared my teeth, but sank back down into my seat. “What the hell do you want from me?” I asked.

He released my arm and sighed, cracking his knuckles. “If it were up to me, nothing,” he said. “I’d leave you the hell alone. The Valentinos want you? They can have you.”

“Then you can get away from me whenever you want,” I said icily.

“I assume the name Colm means something to you?” he asked, ignoring my comment.

“He’s the head of the family,” I said.

“Well, I’m his son. My name’s Ronan.” He flashed me a charming half smile, lip pulling up slightly, eyes crinkled. He was an athletic-looking man, muscular and toned and tall. His voice was deep and melodious, though he sounded tired, and the beginnings of a reddish beard grew along his cheeks and jaw.

I wanted to scream. Son of Colm, sitting next to me, here on this bench. If we weren’t surrounded by people, I’d truly panic, but I knew he couldn’t abduct me in public. There were too many witnesses. I was safe, more or less, at least so long as I stayed in the park.

Eventually though, I’d have to leave, and I didn’t know what I’d do on the quiet, lonely walk back to Ewan’s apartment.

Coming out here was a bad idea. I knew it, but I couldn’t stay in there, not when the place reminded me of the impossible choice I had to make.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, and hated the pleading tone I couldn’t quite suppress.

“Nothing,” he said, then laughed at the annoyed look on my face. “Truly, nothing. My father though, he thinks you’re a prize. He thinks you know something that can help our family.”

“Know something?” I took off my sunglasses and shook my head. “I have no clue what you mean.”

“Your father’s business,” Ronan said gently. “What do you know about it?”

I blinked at him for a full five seconds before I laughed in his face. He grimaced slightly and frowned, leaning away, clearly not happy. I couldn’t help it though. The idea that I knew something about my father’s business was the most absurd and hilarious thing I’d ever heard in my life.

“I only just found out what he did,” I said, my tone bitter and hilarious. “I didn’t even know he was some fucked-up sex trafficker until a few days ago.”

“Really?” he asked, and sounded genuinely surprised. “I find that hard to believe. Jermaine was notorious.”

“Well, not to me,” I said, and my laughter slowly died. “I thought he was an accountant.” His eyes went wide and I glared at him. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Accountant,” he echoed. “Come on, you have to be kidding.”

“I’m not,” I said. “That’s the lie he told me, at least, and I believed him. He was my father and I didn’t know any better. I didn’t look into his business. I trusted him.”

“Shit,” he said, and took a deep breath. He leaned his head back into his hands and stared up into the trees. “That’s fucked up.”

“One day, some guys showed up and murdered him, then burned down my house, and I had no clue why,” I said.

“I guess Ewan explained it eventually.”

“Eventually,” I said and turned slightly toward him. “If you want information about my father’s business, you’ll have to go somewhere else. I don’t know a thing.”

“That’s a shame,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll tell my dad, but I don’t think he’ll believe you.”

I felt like an anvil fell onto my shoulders. I slumped slightly, and clenched my jaw as Ronan turned toward me with a strange, evil smirk on his lips, like he enjoyed my suffering.

“I’m not going with you,” I said angrily. “I don’t want anything to do with your family. You people were my father’s best customers, weren’t you?”

Ronan shrugged and waved a hand in the air like swatting a fly, like that wasn’t consequential. “I suppose that’s all right,” he said. “Ewan’s probably treating you well. Killed your father, and now you show him loyalty. Hard for me to believe you, if I’m honest. Hard to think you really don’t know anything about your father’s business, and that you’re not feeding it to the Valentinos.”

The whole, horrible truth became clear in a flash of sudden intuition. Why the Healys wanted me so badly, and why the Don wouldn’t let me go.

The Healys thought I was helping the Valentinos. They thought that was why I didn’t run from Ewan or let them save me. Maybe they even thought I was in league with them, and they were paying me for information, or I was even running the trafficking for them.

And the Don thought he could get that information out of me sooner or later.

Everyone was convinced that I knew something I didn’t, everyone except for Ewan. He knew I didn’t have any knowledge of my father’s business, yet he was the only one that actually cared about me.

“I don’t want anything to do with you or your family,” I said and stood. This time, he didn’t grab for me.

“Whatever they’re paying, we’ll double it,” he said. “And we won’t force you to live with your father’s killer.”

“Go to hell,” I said. “I don’t know anything about my father’s business. I don’t know how many times I have to say it.”

Ronan only smiled at me and crossed his ankles. “I hear you,” he said. “But I’ve got to make the offer. Otherwise, my father would be pissed that I didn’t even try. Good luck then, I guess. You must’ve really hated your dad, if you’re fine living with the man that murdered him.”

I balled my hands into fists. I didn’t have to explain myself to this asshole, but the way he looked at me with a cocky smile, and the way he leaned back on that bench like