When Shane took the knife, she surrendered it without protest. Her gaze remained locked with Aldo’s one open eye, and she could feel a hideous, gleeful smile contort her lips as the life faded from his eyes. It had probably been minutes since she had begun, but her body ached like she’d been stabbing him for hours. The rush of endorphins sustained her for several more minutes until Aldo’s body stopped twitching.
When Patrick knelt to check his pulse and shook his head, her sickening grin widened for a second before she turned away from the dead body to bury her face in Shane’s chest. He groaned as she hit the spot where Sofia had stabbed him, and she moved slightly, but couldn’t manage any further activity. Exhaustion was sweeping over her.
“It’s finished then,” Sal said, sounding neutral.
“Not quite.” Shane’s chest rumbled when he spoke, but she couldn’t lift her head.
“What else is there? Honor has been satisfied. Ownership of the whore is established.”
She twitched at the old bastard calling her a whore but couldn’t summon the energy to protest. Besides, it wasn’t wise to cultivate Peretti’s ill-will.
“I’d like to make a request, Mr. Murphy.”
Sal made a hissing sound. “You dare ask for something after the carnage you’ve caused? You singlehandedly threatened the truce and brought the feds bearing down on us.”
“Not singlehandedly,” Patrick said mildly.
Sal snorted. “Your man should be dealt with, Murphy. If he were under me—”
“But he isn’t,” Patrick interrupted, sounding smoothly polite, but speaking in a way that made it clear he was done listening to Sal’s input. He turned his hazel eyes upon Shane, and Mia caught a glimpse of them as she slightly turned her head to peek. He looked stern, but not terrifying.
“What is it you want, Shane?”
“Please understand that I’m your man, Mr. Murphy. You have my loyalty, and if you say no, this will be the only time I’ll ask. I won’t try to defy your decision, even if I don’t agree with it.”
“I don’t doubt your loyalty, Shane, so perhaps you could get to your request?” The slight curve of his lips softened the rebuke a tad.
“Let us go, sir. Please let me leave the family and take Mia far away from here. It will reduce conflict if the reminder of what has happened isn’t always in Mr. Peretti’s face.” Shane sounded sincere, but Mia knew him well enough to pick up on the tinge of sarcasm underlying his words.
Patrick made an inscrutable sound. “You’ve been a good captain, and I’d hate to lose you.”
Mia stiffened in Shane’s arms, preparing for Murphy’s rejection of the request. It was everything she wanted, and her heart screamed for her to make an impassioned plea for his release, but she just didn’t have anything left to voice it.
“You make a good point about your presence aggravating wounds. You have my permission to leave, Shane. My blessing even, to you and your lady.”
Mia sagged against Shane, not completely from relief. A throbbing agony in her left side had suddenly increased ten-fold. “Shane?”
Somehow, he heard her soft whisper. “Yes, baby?”
“Maybe we’d better have the honeymoon before the wedding. I need to go to the hospital.” She slipped into unconsciousness before he could reply.
23
Their hospital honeymoon lasted ten days between them. In addition to matching concussions, Shane needed a transfusion, minor surgery, and over one hundred stitches. Mia had to have a splenectomy, surgical repair to stabilize the broken rib that had punctured her spleen, and sutures on a torn kidney. One of the surgeons also reversed the alloplant so she wouldn’t have to deal with the pain or bleeding during lovemaking after recovery.
When she was discharged on the eleventh day, Shane escorted her straight from the wheelchair into a limousine that whisked them straight to the airport. A private jet, complete with a content Clovis ensconced in one of the luxurious leather seats, took them away from the city where they had lived and toward their new life within fifteen minutes of arriving at the terminal.
Their first stop was Las Vegas. Shane surprised her with a sumptuous suite in one of the luxury hotels. To her slight disgruntlement, he insisted she nap and refused to join her. When Mia awoke several hours later, Shane led her from the bedroom to the living room of the suite, where three women waited, surrounded by bolts of fabric. “They’re here to make your wedding dress.”
She tilted her head slightly. “We’re getting married tomorrow?”
He grinned. “No, tonight.”
Mia’s heart raced with excitement, but she couldn’t resist needling him. “What if I’m not ready to get married tonight? Or I don’t want a sleazy Vegas wedding? A girl dreams about this kind of thing all her life.”
Shane laughed as he swept her into his arms. “You’re so full of crap, Mia. You know you want to marry me, and we both know you don’t give two shits about the locale. You promised you’d marry me whenever and wherever, right?”
Mia gave him a saucy wink. “That was conditional upon you killing Aldo.” She ignored the horrified gasp of one of the seamstresses. “Since I had to do that myself, it hardly counts.”
