Cruel Surrender by Terri Anne Browning

Ciana

“I just need a moment to myself,”I hissed to Milo as we walked into the hotel restaurant.

“Ciana, if anything happened to you…” He trailed off, but we both knew what he’d left unsaid. Papa would kill him and Ralph without hesitation, and it probably wouldn’t be a quick death. It would be slow and excruciatingly painful.

The thought of Ralph’s demise at my father’s hands didn’t sound so terrible to me, but I liked Milo. If it weren’t for him, who knew what would have happened over the past three days while Torin was away? Ralph had grown bolder each day, and now he was trying to stay so close to me, he brushed up against me every few minutes. I was an affectionate person. Touching and hugging people I cared about was second nature to me. But that didn’t extend to Ralph. He was invading my personal space, and I was about to claw his fucking eyes out of his head if he touched me one more time.

“Please,” I told Milo. “Just let me enjoy a glass of wine for twenty minutes. I need to calm my nerves before I stab Ralph in the eye with a fork.”

His lips twitched with amusement for all of two seconds before going back to that stoic expression I was used to. “Fine. You can have a half hour. If you’re not outside by then, I will be coming to look for you.”

I gave him a thankful smile and started to skip into the restaurant’s bar, but he caught my elbow.

“Ciro or Ryan?” I gave him a blank look, and he sighed. “Who do you want me to tell about Ralph’s behavior first?”

I glanced at the entrance and caught sight of the other guard lingering there, his eyes trained on me. A shudder went down my spine. “Mama,” I said after a moment. “Tell Mama first.”

This time, Milo gave me a full-blown grin. It was gone just as quickly as it had formed, but there had been something dangerous in it that made me relax ever so slightly. “Perfect. Scarlett will make it hurt more.”

I winked before turning to walk into the bar. Finding a table in the back corner where no one was around to bother me, I dropped down into the chair and waved the waiter over. After requesting the biggest glass of wine he could find, I looked to see if I’d missed a text from Torin.

When I’d talked to him the night before, he’d said he would be on his way first thing. He hadn’t texted or called me since then, and I was hoping it was because he hadn’t wanted to wake me and was still in the air. Blowing out a long breath, I pulled up my other contacts and shot texts to both Nova and Zariah. My sister knew about Torin, but she thought we were only a vacation hookup. We hadn’t talked since we’d first discussed Torin because she was working so much.

Nova was so busy with school, tutoring, and working at some of her family’s businesses in their small town that every time I called her, I felt bad about taking up so much of her time. But with my vacation officially over the following day, I just needed to spit it out already.

Me: Call me when you get a minute. Loves you!

I got a heart emoji back almost immediately, Nova’s way of letting me know she’d seen the text and would make it happen as soon as possible. My next message went to Zariah, exactly the same thing I’d sent Nova, but I got a thumbs-up from her and couldn’t help making a face. My sister knew that stupid thumbs-up emoji annoyed me. In response, I shot her the middle finger and got a laughing face back moments later.

My glass of wine was placed on the table in front of me, but as I lifted my head to thank the waiter, it was to find someone other than the young man who had taken my order standing there. Every fine hair on my body suddenly stood up, as if the woman before me was so powerful even the peach fuzz had no choice but to stand at attention and pay respect to her.

But I knew who she was. Ryan had drilled into my head who the enemies were and had shown me pictures daily for weeks until I could recite every small detail about each and every one of them. This woman, she was the most dangerous of them all. And the most vile.

I instantly pushed my glass of wine away. If she’d touched it, then it was most likely laced with some kind of poison that would have me frothing at the mouth and seizing within seconds.

Sheena O’Brion smirked down at me. “Smart lass,” she said, taking the chair across from mine.

Sitting, she crossed one leg over the other and folded her hands on top of her lap. Her long, manicured nails were painted crimson, matching the lipstick she was wearing. She was the picture of elegance and pure evil with her long salt-and-pepper hair falling down her back. Dressed in all black, huge diamond earrings in each lobe, and her stiletto heels, she obviously belonged on the exclusive island. It was her smile that screamed for me to get up and run, run, run as fast as I could.

Instead, I sat up a little straighter and lifted my chin to stare her down. My heart was about to explode, it was beating so hard, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of showing her I was nervous.

We were both quiet for a long moment, each of us sizing the other up. Sheena surprised me by breaking our staredown first. Laughing, she picked up my wineglass and took a hearty swallow before replacing it. “You really are quite beautiful,” she said, but there was no hiding the sneer in her voice. “I can see why he was so taken with you.”

“You really are quite a bitch,” I countered. “What the fuck do you want, hag?”

She tossed her head back, laughing delightedly. “Now I truly see it. That fire. So like your grandmother. Aslinn and my daughter-in-law were as close as sisters. Cormac should have married her instead of Sheena’s mother.”

“I’m sure he picked the right psycho to procreate with,” I snipped. “What do you want?”

“Right to it then, eh?” She opened her purse and pulled out a stack of what looked like pictures and a ring box. Placing both of them in front of me, with the pictures facedown, she leaned back once again, looking relaxed…in control of everything, including me.

I sat there, refusing to give her that kind of power, never taking my eyes off the snake sitting in front of me. She was too deadly, and if I looked away even for a second, she would strike without remorse.

“Tell me, lass,” she said when I didn’t move to pick up the pictures as I was sure she wanted me to. “How much do you love Torin Kennedy?”

It was impossible not to react when she said his name with that sly smile on her face. I flinched, then lifted my chin higher. “Leave him alone. If you touch him, I swear to God, I’ll—”

Sheena cackled, actually honest-to-God cackled, cutting me off. I’d never heard a sound like that before. It was full of mirth and so sinister that it made me sick to my stomach. “You are damn amusing, I’ll give you that. I almost want to keep you around just to have a good laugh from time to time.”

“I mean it. Torin has nothing to do with your feud with my family. Leave him alone, or I will kill you myself.” The thought of her going after the man I loved was enough to make me shake, but I clenched my hands in my lap, refusing to allow her to see how close to the surface my emotions were.

Something similar to respect flashed in her eyes for all of a second before she leaned forward and tapped a long blood-red nail on the stack of photos. “Let’s see if you feel that way after seeing these.”

Rolling my eyes at her, I snatched them up and turned them over. The first picture made my stomach cramp. It was Torin, dressed in a suit, stepping out of a town car outside a huge estate. The look on his face was blank, yet oddly fierce. Oh God, how did she know that he and I had gotten so close? Was she watching me the entire time I was on the island and then followed him when he left?

The next picture was of Torin, same suit, same blank yet fierce look, outside the same location. But there was a woman standing in front of him, and the way she looked up at him with hearts in her eyes made my fingers clench reflexively on the photos. She was beautiful, with her dark hair cut into a chic bob, her porcelain skin giving her an almost ethereal glow in the afternoon sun. She was maybe a few inches taller than me, but I couldn’t be sure if that was natural height or if she was wearing heels. Forcing myself to relax, I flipped to the next picture to find the beautiful woman had thrown herself into Torin’s arms.

The picture was snapped from behind, so all I saw was his back, but the woman’s face was in focus and the sheer happiness there made me queasy. No. No one was allowed to look—fucking be—that happy when hugging my man. He was mine. Not whoever this woman was.

Picture number three was of the woman holding Torin’s hand, tugging him toward the huge mansion. The way she looked up at him was sultry, and from how comfortable she seemed holding on to him, I knew they had been intimate. Jealousy like I’d never felt before rushed through me, giving the world a red haze around the edges of my peripheral. I knew Torin had other partners before me. He’d called them mistresses and said they all knew the score before their relationships even started. He promised none of them had mattered. No one had ever mattered until me.

But with the way this mysterious, beautiful woman was looking up at him, I had to wonder if he’d just been bullshitting me…

I flipped through the photos quicker. They were all of Torin and the mystery woman, all of them close, her always touching him in some way that suggested their intimate relationship was still burning strong. In a few, Torin was actually touching her back, and each time I saw it, that red haze only darkened more and more.

When I reached the last photo, it was of a local newspaper article in Ireland. Torin Kennedy to wed Cori O’Brion in May.

I frowned at the name. Of all the names Ryan had had me memorize that were related or associated with the O’Brion family, I couldn’t remember a Cori being on there.

“Cori was adopted,” Sheena informed me, almost as if she could read my mind. “Her mother married one of my sons a few years ago, and she was welcomed into the family with open arms. I’ve always liked her. Honestly, she could possibly even take the place in my heart of my dear, sweet namesake, Sheena.”

“She and Torin are together?” I choked out through numb lips.

“Have been for well over a year, in fact,” she said with that evil smile. “But Cori knows him better by a different name.”

I was going to be sick, and from the way Sheena’s eyes sparkled, she knew it too. But that didn’t stop her from delivering the death blow.

“The world knows him as Torin Kennedy. But within my family, he’s Bain O’Farrell.”

I swallowed the bile that threatened to choke me. “I don’t believe you.” There was no way this was true. Sheena was just trying to cause trouble. Those pictures could have been taken at any time. This Cori woman could have been a mistress in the past. He wouldn’t marry her when he’d been with me the past two weeks. He’d asked me to be with him, move in with him, stay with him always. A man about to marry someone else didn’t do things like that.

Right?

She could so easily say anyone was Bain. The head of the O’Brion family was an enigma. No one, not even Ryan, knew what Bain O’Farrell looked like. He could have been a seventy-year-old man for all the world knew. Sheena was more than aware of the fact that I had no clue what Bain looked like and was using that in her favor.

“No?”

I shook my head, unable to speak without spraying the table with puke.

“He’s such a good boy, my Bain. When we learned that you would be here all on your own, he didn’t hesitate to do as I asked. Poor Cori, she’s been beside herself, eaten up with jealousy over what I had the boy do, but she understands. Planning the wedding has taken her mind off the fact that her groom was here in paradise fucking your brains out.”

The world began to spin. “Shut up. Torin wouldn’t…”

“No, I’m sure Torin wouldn’t. But Bain is a different matter completely, lass.” She gave me a sympathetic shake of her head. “And whatever I ask of him, he follows through beautifully, without hesitation or questioning his dear granny. This time was no different.”

I couldn’t believe it or anything else she was saying. It was all lies. Every word. I knew Torin. He loved me. I’d seen it in his eyes as we’d lain side by side in bed, still a part of each other after making love for hours.

“You are special to Ryan.” The way she spat my beloved cousin’s name made me stiffen my spine. “And hurting anyone that idiot boy loves, in turn, hurts him. Seducing you, making you fall in love with Ryan’s enemy, tempting you into running away to Ireland? Then watching you fall apart with a broken heart?” She pressed her palms together, pure delight radiating from her face. “Priceless.”

I stood, putting steel into my spine and knees so I didn’t fall on my face in front of her. “It might have been priceless if you hadn’t come here to gloat. But now you’ve shown your cards.”

She grinned. “Admit it. Your heart is broken.”

“Is it, though?” I smiled down at her, making sure it reached my eyes, while inside, part of me was dying. “Huh, maybe you should have had Bain try just a little harder. Don’t get me wrong. He was definitely fun in bed. You couldn’t possibly know, but he’s got a huge cock. Who wouldn’t want to spend a little time playing with him? I mean, really, the orgasms alone were worth all the money my parents threw down for this trip. But that was all it was. Orgasms. My heart didn’t even flutter once. Sorry, but you missed the target this time. I’m not stupid enough to fall for a guy after just a few sweet words, meaningless gifts, and a couple random ‘I love yous.’ I mean, honestly, my parents would freak if I actually moved to Ireland with a man I barely knew. I wouldn’t have actually done it. That’s hilarious.”

Sheena snatched up the ring box from the table and flipped it open. Inside was the biggest, most beautiful vintage ring I’d ever set eyes on. The oval diamond in the middle was radiant cut, with smaller round cut diamonds surrounding it like a halo and around the delicate band. The way the bigger center diamond caught the light was nearly blinding, but it was so gorgeous, it nearly took my breath away. “Then it won’t bother you to see Cori’s ring. It was Bain’s paternal grandmother’s. He always did like the O’Farrell side more than the O’Brion. He said he would only give this ring to the woman he intended to spend the rest of his life with.”

I forced my gaze from the ring and grinned down at her. “Well, I hope Cori can bear to put up with him for that long. I mean, the ring will definitely get her a nice brownstone in New York City if she comes to her senses and gets away from you psychos. Good talk, Sheena.”

She slowly got to her feet, taking her time just to play with me. Once she was standing, she took a single step into my space and smirked at me. I was scared, but I would have eaten a bullet before I let her see just how much. “Give Ryan my love, won’t you?”

I didn’t answer, and she laughed once again before turning on her heel and walking away. Not toward the exit where Milo and Ralph were waiting, but in the direction of the kitchen, which must have been how she’d come in without alerting my guards.

Once she was out of sight, I finally released the breath I was holding. Reaction was trying to set in, and I felt shaky as I picked up the pictures and left the bar. Part of me still held out hope that everything Sheena had just spewed was lies, and I wanted to show Torin how far that crazy bitch had gone to tear us apart.

Ralph was already waiting by the door, and I nearly sagged against him when he put his hand on my arm. I didn’t want him to touch me, but right then, anything was better—safer—than Sheena.

“What’s wrong?” Milo demanded, his eyes scanning my face.

“Just a headache,” I excused, waving him off and finally taking a step away from Ralph. “Change of plans. Get the jet ready.”

“I’ll tell them to get us a takeoff time first thing in the morning,” Ralph said, pulling out his phone.

“No,” I snapped, forcing the last of my strength into my knees. “Now. As soon as possible. I want to go home.”