“Can you sit with her, Athair, while we deal with this shit?” Shay asks, pulling me away from his mother just to place a gentle kiss on my lips.
“Aye, Shay. Your woman is safe with me.”
I’m at a loss for words as Niall and Saoirse both lead me away from Shay just so we can sit in the first pew of the church. But as I stare at the altar where the jeweled cross I had once admired on my wedding day stood proudly, my forehead creases now that I see it laid flat on the altar’s surface. Only now does it dawn on me that I—alongside everyone else sitting here—am about to witness Father Doyle’s torturous execution. My father and mother-in-law both hold on to my hands, either to comfort, or to keep me from stopping this madness.
If it’s the latter, then their concerns are unjustified.
The man in front of me awaiting his trial deserves my men’s wrath.
He tried to kill our family before it had a chance to bloom.
I don’t pity him.
Nor will I lose sleep over what’s about to go down.
My gaze falls on my husband as he cracks his neck from left to right and orders his men to place the priest on the laid-out cross and hold him down. Shay fans out his razor-sharp blades on the altar and begins to twirl his favorite one in his hand. He then grins as he stands just above the priest’s head while Colin stands opposite him at Father Doyle’s feet.
Tiernan throws the evil man another searing look and then turns his back on him to address his audience.
“You all know why you are here. This man… this pitiful excuse for a human being, tried to kill the woman I married in this church not so long ago. You were all here that day as he pronounced us husband and wife and said those who God has joined together, let no man put asunder. Apparently, he was under the misguided assumption that excluded him.” Tiernan scoffs, his nostrils flaring. “Worst of all, he tried to kill my child inside her.”
The few women in attendance gasp at the statement, but mostly everyone else just remains silent, impatiently waiting on their Irish king to start wreaking vengeance.
Tiernan’s eyes then land on me, giving me a glance at the anguish and fear he must have felt when he thought my life was in danger.
“He deserves what’s coming to him, acushla. But if you tell me this is not what you want, I’ll follow your command. Reluctantly, but I’ll do it. For you.”
Mercy.
That’s what he’s willing to show the monster.
For me.
He’s willing to go against his very nature and give the priest a quick death just to spare me from witnessing what kind of men I’ve fallen in love with and the horrific things they are capable of.
But I already know who I gave my heart to, and even if I didn’t, I’m a Kelly now.
And long before that, I was a Hernandez, my father’s blood coursing through my veins, whispering that I must set an example for anyone else who wishes to do me and my family any harm. On steady legs, I get up from my seat and bridge the gap between us.
His blue eye is almost as black as his heart, compared to the softness of his green.
Two men live inside my husband.
One is capable of kindness and mercy, while the other hungers to swim in his enemy’s blood.
I give in to the one whose bloodthirst will only be satisfied with the screeching howls of pain from my kidnapper and would-be murderer.
“Those who God has joined together, let no man put asunder, husband. Show him what happens to men who are foolish enough to try.”
Tiernan grabs me by the nape of my neck, and crashes his mouth to mine, sealing the priest’s fate with a kiss.
And for the next few hours, I sit back in my seat with my in-laws and watch Shay nail the priest’s hands and feet to the cross with his blades, pulling out each fingernail and then cutting off his fingers and toes as he goes about it. Tiernan takes his time beating Father Doyle’s face into a bloody mess with his knuckles, while Colin does the same with the rest of his body. Once they tire of that, Tiernan grabs hold of Shay’s dagger and starts cutting into the priest’s body, making sure he feels every wound and waking him up every time the pain is too much for him to remain conscious. After Tiernan guts his belly from navel to neck, pulling his insides out while the priest watches in horror, my husband’s men pull the cross back up to its rightful standing position. That’s when Colin brings his blowtorch into play. He lights the priest on fire, his tormented screams sure to give most people in attendance nightmares for years to come.
But not me.
I watch in utter fascination, as the blood of my enemy streaks down my men’s faces, surprised that his burning flesh doesn’t churn my stomach as I thought it would.
I’m suddenly reminded of Alejandro’s words to me as he described the family I was about to become a part of. My brother said that the Kellys were nothing but animals. Filthy, unscrupulous, vicious animals, he made sure to add.
But that’s not what I see here today.
I see men who would do everything in their power to protect those they love.
I see a hand of just retribution for those who decide to take it upon themselves to hurt us.
But most of all, I see love and what they would do to anyone who dared take it away from them.
If this is what my brother meant when he called them savages, then I guess I am one, too.
A vicious savage who couldn’t be more proud to call herself a Kelly.
Come hell or high water, that’s who I intend to be for the rest of my days.
Chapter 25
Rosa
Nine months later
“MOVE!” Colin shouts, pushing people out of our way, left and right.
I’m too focused on doing my Lamaze breathing to reprimand him for being rude. Tiernan wheels me down the corridor, cursing in Gaelic while Shay stares at his watch, counting the seconds down to my next contraction.
And here comes another.
“ARGH!!!” I wince, clawing at Shay’s arm as the pain physically rips me in two.