“When the time comes, I promise.”
“As soon as Hannah is stable?—”
“It won’t be tonight.”
There’s a pause on Ash’s end of the line. “Why? You’re not going to let him live after everything.”
“He’s more useful alive right now than dead. At least until we get the business fully in our grasp. He’s locked in the basement with his wife.”
“What’s the plan?”
I’m thinking now isn’t the time to reveal my plans. Not while he’s with Hannah and celebrating their love and impending parenthood.
“Phoenix. The plan,” he demands.
“I’m going to marry Keira.”
Again, there’s a pause. “Well, I guess it will be a big fuck you to Hampton to reveal you and Keira?—”
“It’s not a love match, Ash. Far from it. It’s business. I know you love Hannah, but considering how your marriage started, you understand, right?” I don’t want my brothers getting ideas that I’ll end up with some fairy tale romance like they have. I’m happy for them, but there’s no love ever after in my future.I’m still focused on taking back what’s mine, making those who wronged me pay.
“Sure, but if you have control, you don’t need to marry her.”
“Like keeping the Keans alive, it can serve a purpose. It will be harder to go against me if my wife is a Kean.”
“Maybe.”
I don’t like his doubt.
“It’s a risk. And what do you do when you don’t need her? If you’re married to her, you can’t just… get rid of her.”
I can’t think about killing Keira now. “It doesn’t matter. What’s important now is making sure everyone knows an Ifrinn is in charge now. I know you need to be with Hannah, but I’m going to need you soon.”
“I’ll be there.”
When I hang up, I have a moment to be happy for Ash. He’s found peace from the guilt over losing Meghan ten years ago in the fire and new love and happiness with his wife. And they’re having a baby.
I laugh. It seems none of my brothers ever learned to use a condom. Flint is already a father, and Blaise and now Ash are both expecting.
The image of Keira carrying my child comes to mind unbidden. It pisses me off and I nearly pitch my phone across the room in frustration. I need a drink.
I wander out of the room and toward where my father’s study had been. As expected, Hampton’s is in the same location.
“Fucker.” He’s got a fully stocked bar with expensive booze. At least he has good taste in whisky. I pour two fingers. My father used to drink this same label while working late in his study. Now I'm standing in what used to be his space, trying to understand why I don’t just kill them all now. I could wipe the Keans off the face of the earth just like they planned to do to my family. It would be clean. Simple. The ultimate revenge.
But strategically, I know keeping them alive right now is the wiser choice. Marrying Keira is a part of that, and I won’t be dissuaded or undone by memories of a girl who betrayed me. In fact, forcing her to marry me is an even better revenge. Making her live with the consequences of her family's actions. Making her watch as I dismantle everything they built on my family's bones. Making her feel the pain and fear my brothers and I have endured for ten years. Making an example of her to anyone who might challenge my right.
I take a gulp of the amber liquid, feeling it burn down my throat as I plot how to break the woman who broke me. Physical violence holds no appeal. It's too quick, too merciful. No, Keira Kean deserves the kind of suffering that lingers. As do her parents.
The wedding will be my first strike. I'll parade her in front of Boston's elite, make her smile and play the blushing bride while everyone whispers about how the mighty Keans have fallen. Her pristine reputation, the one thing she's managed to maintain all these years despite not being a virgin, will crumble as I expose every dirty secret her family tried to bury.
I’ll take everything she holds of value, everything provided to her by her father through the spoils of her father’s betrayal. She can wear beggars’ clothes for all I care.
The society papers will eat it up, Boston's ice princess caught in a scandal. I'll leak stories about her parents' murderous rise and fall and about how she sold herself to save their worthless lives. Watch her perfect mask crack as her world burns down around her.
"Time to see how you handle being powerless, Princess,” I vow as I down the last bit of my whisky.
The true beauty of my revenge is that she'll have to smile through it all. One wrong move and her parents pay the price. Orthat kid. I need to find out who that kid is. Maybe I’ll be a hero and return it to whoever the Keans took her from.
