Once I reach my yacht, I make my way down the pier. Since I haven’t come down here as much as I’d hoped, it’s parked in the farthest spot away at the end. My hands are shaking in anticipation, craving to touch Selene.

It’s amazing how I can touch her, sleep next to her, yet still ache for her the way I did before we started dating.

The cold, early winter breeze nips at my skin. A white cloud puffs out from my cold lips, reminding me this is the entirely wrong season to be here. When I grow closer to the yacht, all the lights are off apart from the one on the top floor, toward the bow.

“Selene?” I shout, heading straight for the small stairway, just inside the deck.

I only hired a few staff to run and manage the yacht during the summer months, so I’m not surprised to find it empty, aside from Selene being here.

But I can’t help how the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stand up the closer I get to the upper floor. It could be the colder temperatures coming up off the water, the cold settling in to my bones, or it could be the eerie, chilling silence.

“Wallflower?” I call out again once I reach the second deck. “You up here?”

I slowly walk down the side walkway, fully expecting to find Selene sitting inside the enclosed dining area.

Instead, when I round the corner to the back lounge area, I find her standing on the far side of the bench. Her bare feet sink into the cotton padding, and her dress clings to her entire body as the wind blows. My eyes travel up her body as I take in what the fuck I’m seeing.

The gravity of what’s happening hits me with the clicking sound of a pistol and my name falling from Selene’s mouth.

“Holt,” she cries quietly, a tear slipping down her cheek.

Her hands are gently layered over her stomach, her eyes spread wide in panic.

My gaze moves to the man standing beside her, tightly gripping her arm with one hand while the other holds a pistol to the side of her head.

“Get the fuck away from her.” I take several steps closer without thinking, but I’m stopped when two other men surround me, emerging from their guard positions. When they step closer, closing around me, I recognize the one on my right. Only this time, he isn’t wearing a mask. But the X-shaped tattoo on his chin is clear.

He was the one I caught Rome talking to the night of the ball.

I send the man holding Selene a fiery glare. “Who the fuck are you?”

The question has barely left my mouth before I realize the answer. Sort of.

The clover and dagger tattoo on the back of the man’s pistol-wielding hand is unmistakable.

“Name is Rhys O’Connell,” he utters in a distinctive, unmistakable Irish accent. His eyes are dark and shadowed by the night sky, but something tells me even under the brightest light, this man has no soul.

I swallow, glancing between the three men, unsure of what to say or do. Between the gun pointed at Selene’s head and how close she is to the edge of the yacht, I don’t want to do anything that might give them reason to act. There are too many risks.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. O’Connell,” Rhys mocks. “I’m Holt Capuleti, the fucker who’s been tracking you down for years.” He scoffs and shakes his head. “Italians always forget their manners.”

He gives me a devilish smirk, and the silence that follows makes me want to fucking vomit.

My nostrils flare, and white-hot anger flows through my veins.

“You’re the one who killed my mother,” I state, the words falling from my mouth with a bitter taste I can’t get rid of.

Rhys clicks his tongue in disapproval. “That’s not exactly the proper way to start this conversation, now, is it? Like I said: manners.” He frowns and tosses his head to the side. “Now, let’s start with the fact you maybe should have kept your security detail following this little viper for a little while longer. I did wonder, when my men told me they were no longer an obstacle, why you’d done it. What was your reason?”

I clamp my mouth shut and bite my cheek until the metallic taste hits my tongue. Pressure builds behind my eyes, and I look at Selene.

I keep my focus on her, even when Rhys continues.

“Did you know your boyfriend was conducting surveillance on you?” he asks Selene. “Sweet, really. But it would have been more of a grand, romantic gesture had he been consistent, no? Considering all the media attention you’ve been getting lately.”

Selene doesn’t answer him. She sobs, practically choking on her own tears. Her hands continue to press against her stomach, and I can’t imagine the fear she must be feeling.

“Moving on,” Rhys abruptly cuts in. “Let’s get to the real business of why we’re here. Why you keep following me.”

I huff and curl my hands into fists at my sides. “Let her go, and I’ll talk.”

“Not how this works, Capuleti. If you remember, I’m the one in charge here.” He presses the gun harder to Selene’s temple.

She whimpers, and I take a step forward.

“Familiar, no?” he asks, nodding toward his gun.

Bile rises in my throat.

“Answer me!” he shouts, veins bulging from his neck.

“Yes,” I say weakly on an exhausted breath. “Just, please… you don’t understand…”

“Here’s how this will go.” Rhys ignores my plea. “I’ll give you the information you’ve been seeking—within reason, of course—and you’ll make a promise in return. Then we’ll let your precious little Wallflower go.”

My stomach drops at his use of my nickname for Selene.

“If you can’t make the promise,” he continues, “I guess we’ll just make history repeat itself.”

“What information?” I ask.

“About your mother’s untimely and unfortunate death.”

Adrenaline pumps hard in my veins.

“That is what you’ve been searching for since you were, what, twelve years old?” His eyebrows rise on his smooth forehead. He can’t be much older than me.

“How do you know all this?” I raise my chin.

“Which part?” he asks, cooly. “The part where I know all about your precious Wallflower here, or the part about your mother’s brutal murder?”

I grind my teeth. “All of it.”

“Promises first.” He glowers.

“What promise will I be making?”

“I’ll tell you the truth about your mother’s death, and you’ll stop searching for her killer. You’ll stop this pursuit, and you’ll never think of it again. You will let this go.” He quirks a brow. “Do we have a deal?”

I clamp my mouth shut and shift my gaze to Selene. I think about my mother and all the years I’ve spent searching for answers. I have them here, right in front of me, but at what cost? If I make this promise to Rhys, I’ll never be able to bring her killer to justice. But then I think about Selene. Her green eyes are spread wide with fear, her body shaking uncontrollably. She’s silently pleading for me to find a way out of this, just like the night of the auction. Her bottom lip trembles with tacit fear and uncertainty. She mouths my name, subtly shaking her head as tears stream down her soft cheeks. I wish I could wrap her up in my arms and take her away from here. My entire world is standing before me with a loaded gun pointed in its direction.

Instinct tells me a promise made to Rhys O’Connell isn’t one I would be wise to break. Especially one such as this.

I would sell the soul to the Devil himself if it meant Selene and my baby would live.

“We have a deal.” I flick my gaze back to Rhys. “I promise.”

“Good boy.” Rhys snickers.

“Get on with it then,” I grind out. “What do you know?”

He chuckles. “To answer your question about your girl first, I know about Selene, here, because your little circle has been easy to track. In fact, our family has kept an eye on yours for quite some time. Necessary, considering who your mother was.”

“What do you mean?” My focus doesn’t stray from Selene, even though I haven’t taken my eyes off Rhys.

“You’re aware your mother was my father’s cousin?”

“What?”

“Oh, yes. Sweet Tessa Saoirse Horan.” Rhys jeers. “According to my father, he and her were incredibly close growing up in Southern Ireland. Practically brother and sister.” He frowns as anger flashes in his eyes. “That was until she escaped to New York City and betrayed our family by marrying that fucking asshole Italian father of yours.”

I flash, jerking back, confusion building inside me. I try putting the pieces together but quickly get overwhelmed. If my mother was Rhys’s father’s cousin, that makes Rhys and I second cousins.

What the fuck?

I never knew much about my mother’s past. She never lived long enough for her to tell me about her life before Julianna and I came around. She was stolen from us before she ever could.

“My parents loved each other.” It’s the only thing I can think to say.

“Do you truly think love conquers loyalty when it comes to the Irish mafia… or family?” Rhys quips, his mouth still turned up in a sneer.

I shake my head, squeezing my eyes shut before looking back at him. “Irish mafia?”

“Yes, fucker,” he snaps.

Selene lets out a small whimper, and I think I may just die watching her this way. I need to end this conversation as quickly as possible. I’m afraid Rhys will change his mind at any moment and snap, pulling the trigger without another thought.

“I had no idea.” I shake my head. “My mother never told me.”

“Of course, she didn’t.” Rhys scoffs. “Why would she when she thought she was getting away from what was in her birthright?”

“What was in her birthright?”

“To marry an Irishman within the organization. Her leaving put us all at risk of strengthening our alliances,” Rhys explains. “In turn, her marrying your father was a betrayal of the highest standard.”

“I don’t understand how this plays into her death.” I wet my lips. My mouth is dry and my throat burns, but I think I already know the answer before Rhys manages to say it out loud.

“Oh, come on, Capuleti.” He laughs maniacally. “You’re family. I think you already know where I’m going with this.”

I swallow around the lump in my throat. “Your father had my mother killed because she married the enemy?”

“Exactly.” He nods, unwilling to remove the gun from Selene’s temple.

A chill seeps into my bones.

“But they’d already been married for years before she was murdered,” I argue. “Doesn’t make sense.”

“That father of yours was about to become mayor of the largest fuckin’ city in the world. Your mother was going to be in the spotlight, paraded around as the First Lady of New York City. He stole her from us, and he needed to be punished for it. They both did.”

“But…” Intense pressure builds behind my eyes. “She was family.”

“She was dead to the Horan and O’Connell line the second she left Ireland without uttering a single word to her family.” He narrows his fiery gaze. “My father took matters into his own hands and made sure what needed to be done was done.”

I curl my hands into tight fists at my sides. I don’t understand the logic. Not completely.

The anger that overtakes me is debilitating.

“Your father killed my mother” It’s a statement. A final nail in the coffin of what I’ve been trying to dig up for years.

The truth.

“Yes.” He tightens his grip on Selene. “He needed to make a statement to those in the family who might ever consider leaving. The price you’ll pay for betraying one of your own.”

I take a step forward, noticing how Rhys hasn’t let up his hold on Selene. He’s still keeping the gun pressed to her head. The fear in her expression has only deepened over my conversation with Rhys. She’s silent, aside from her quiet sobs, but I see the panic in her eyes.

“I know the truth now.” I hold my hand out. “You can let her go.”

“Not so fast,” Rhys spits out.

The two men flanking me grow closer.

“I need assurance that you’ll let this go. You won’t publish what I’ve told you in that stupid fucking magazine of yours. You’ll call off your staff, coming down to the docks, asking questions.”

“I…” I promised I would follow through on Rhys’s request to let this all go, but that was before I found out his father was behind my mother’s death. She was murdered in cold blood before my eyes because she fell in love with the enemy.

“You listen to me!” Rhys shouts, his anger suddenly consuming him. He shakes Selene and presses the gun harder against her temple. She winces, attempting to tilt her head away from it.

I’m going to be fucking sick.

“My father died years ago, along with the men who carried out his wishes that night at the subway station.” His voice booms through the cold night air. “There’s no one alive left to pursue ,but I guarantee you that if you expose the truth, I will be the one to pay the price. While I understand my father’s convictions, that he did what needed to be done, I don’t hold with killing family as he did.” He glares at me, then turns his head to stare at Selene. He leans forward and breathes her in before slowly turning his head back to me. “But seeing how she isn’t married to you yet, and she isn’t family, I have no problem making a statement of my own. Fuck up my life, I’ll fuck up yours.”

I try to take another step forward. I imagine lunging at Rhys, taking him down. But then I imagine what could happen if I do. He’ll pull the trigger. I’ll witness the love of my life and my child being torn from me within a matter of seconds. I’ll see the only future I’ve ever wanted gone. I’ll see the life drain from Selene’s mossy-green eyes, just like I did my mother’s. Or perhaps he’ll toss her overboard into the frigid water of the Hudson below us.

Her death would destroy me. It would be the end of me.

Panic overrides all logic. The two men at either side of me grip my arms, holding me back.

I open my mouth to shout at Rhys, but my gaze briefly moves to Selene. She’s breathing heavily, with mascara staining her cheeks. Her hand moves over her stomach, caressing the life growing inside her. She’s silently pleading with me again.

“I love you,” she mouths.

My mind flashes to the memory of her that night on stage. Then again to the night she opened up to me, revealing her darkest secret.

To the promise I made to her.

“Selene is family,” I choke out as a tear slips from the corner of my eye. I inhale a deep breath. “She’s carrying my child.”

Rhys’s eyes spread wide, and his eyebrows shoot high on his forehead before they pull together when he snaps his head in Selene’s direction. His eyes drop to her hands on her stomach.

“You’re lying,” he says quietly, but there’s still a darkness in his voice. He takes a step back on the bench, putting distance between himself and Selene. His arm stiffens as he pulls the gun away from her head, but he keeps it pointed at her. He cocks the gun again, staring at her down the length of his arm and the gun.

My mother’s eyes flash in front of me. The heartbreak, knowing it was the last time she’d see Julianna and me.

“You’re lying, Capuleti,” Rhys repeats in a sinister tone that makes me feel as if my soul is leaving my body. I have no other way to convince him other than my words.

“I’m not.” My voice breaks. I’m hollow and empty. Desperate. “We just found out the other day. She’s pregnant… and she’s the love of my life. So, please…” Another tear spills as Rhys looks up at me. “Please, Rhys. I’ll do whatever you want, just, please… don’t hurt her. She’s my whole world.”

It doesn’t matter the promise I made to myself for all those years to pursue my mother’s true killer. Rhys’s father is dead, and I can’t change the past.

Selene is my future, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her. To keep her safe.

“Say I believe what you’re telling me,” he challenges, sticking out his chin, still skeptical. “You’ll let this go?”

“Yes.” I tear my arm out from one of the henchman’s grip and slap my hand against my chest. “You have my word, as family, that I’ll keep the truth to myself. I’ll let go of the past.”

Selene’s shoulders wrack with heavy sobs. She wraps both arms around her stomach and hunches over. Rhys watches her in silence, then slowly looks up at me.

I hold my breath the entire time, not certain I’m going to survive.

That is until Rhys lowers his arm. He shoves his gun into the back of his black slacks, under his suit jacket. He darts his eyes to his left, sending Selene a silent acknowledgement that she’s free.

Selene takes a breath and steps down from the bench before falling to her knees on the wooden deck. She presses one hand to the wooden planks, keeping the other wrapped around her stomach. Her blonde hair curtains her face as she sobs uncontrollably.

“I’ll hold you to your word, Capuleti.” Rhys glowers at me from under his thick, dark brow. “But don’t think for a moment I don’t have eyes and ears around this city. They won’t hesitate to tell me if they have the slightest inclination of you lying about this or breaking your promise to me.”

Rhys’s men drop their hold on me. I curl my hands at my sides, itching to get to Selene. But I wait, just in case. Just in case Rhys decides to change his mind.

“You have my word.” I steel my chest, holding my breath until I’m almost certain I’m going to faint.

Rhys shoves his black hair off his forehead, then casually buttons his jacket as if he wasn’t just holding a gun to my pregnant girlfriend’s head.

I stay frozen in place, aching to get to Selene. Rhys moves past me, stopping only long enough to grip my shoulder and lean in. “Congratulations, Capuleti. Enjoy fatherhood.”

Then he disappears, with his two henchmen following quickly behind him.

Once Rhys’s hand falls from my shoulder, I’m racing to Selene.

I sink to my knees in front of her. With shaking hands, I reach up and brush her hair away before lifting her face up. When I see her eyes, I fall apart. My heart is both shattered and pieced together. I feel relieved knowing her and the baby are safe and unharmed, but I’m left broken over the pain and trauma this has caused.

It’s obvious the memories are playing out in her mind. The terror and fear of what she experienced the day she witnessed her parents’ deaths.

“Holt. I… I t-thought…”

“I know,” I soothe her, running my hands along the side of her face. “I know, Wallflower. You’re okay. We’re okay.”

Tears flow from my eyes.

I can’t hold it in any longer. “I’m so sorry, Selene.”

My voice cracks. My entire world is sitting in front of me, and I nearly lost it.

Selene’s wide, red-lined, green eyes stare up at me. She wraps her hands around my wrists. “Sorry for what?”

I frown, choking back my own tears. “Sorry for putting you in danger.”

“You couldn’t have known,” she strains.

“The thought of losing you…” I start. “Fuck, I was terrified. I thought I was witnessing it all over again…”

“I know.” She hiccups on a sob. “I felt the same way.”

I close my eyes, but Selene implores me to open them.

“You saved us, Holt.” She slides her shaking hand from my wrist to wrap it around my hand. She takes it in hers and guides it to her stomach. “Your promise saved us. You kept your word.”

I tilt my head to the side, and my shoulders drop with relief. I feel drained and alive all at once. I cradle her head in my hand while keeping the other pressed to her stomach. “I told you I would, Wallflower.”

Her lips press together as she inhales a shaky breath. She frantically nods as though the reality of the situation is catching up to her before wrapping her hand around the back of my head and pressing her forehead to mine. “You did, Holt. You did.”

When she presses her lips to mine, I taste her, surrendering my entire body and soul into this one kiss. I wrap my arm around her and pull her close, promising over and over again that this is forever.

I leave the past behind, vowing to never let her go.

And I don’t.