***
MacNamara.
The name seemed to echo between them, and in the silence that followed, Sloan half convinced herself that she’d misheard.“That’s impossible.”She wasn’t foolish enough not to realize there had to be other people with that last name in the country.Of course there were.But for him to behere, to know the things he knew…She shook her head.“Impossible.”
“I have no issue with your family.”
Every word he said confirmed what she could hardly believe.Everyone knew what had been done to that family, though the details on why they’d deserved it were a little hazy, most likely because her brothers hadn’t wanted to traumatize her.Sloan had met Callie’s father.He might be as ruthless as her father—he couldn’t have brought his family into so much power if he wasn’t—but he seemed to actually respect the fact that his daughter had the skills necessary to take over their operations.Something he and Seamus O’Malley didn’t see eye to eye on.
She’d thought the stories must have been exaggerated, but…“I don’t understand.How are you here?Colm Sheridan…He…”
“Wiped out my entire family.Yeah, I’m aware.”Nothing showed on Jude’s face, but then, he’d had a very long time to come to terms with this truth.Sloan had had all of thirty seconds.
She shook her head again, the pieces clicking into place.“Your mother was pregnant.”Then his other words penetrated.I have no issue with your family.Which meant therewasa family he had an issue with.The Sheridans.
She started shaking.“That’s why you’re here, why you’re in this house.You were waiting for Sorcha.But she’s hardly a Sheridan.She hasn’t been considered part of the family for decades.Callie only found out about her recently.”
His eyes went hard.“Sorcha is no innocent.You can trust me on that—though I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
Except she understood all too well.After Devlin had died, if someone had wiped out every single Halloran, she wouldn’t have shed a single tear.It would have beenjustice.
But that was before her sister became a Halloran, in everything but name.
“You have some sort of vengeance scheme in place.”She held her breath, waiting for him to deny it, to tell her that she was being dramatic.
He didn’t.
Jude crossed his arms over his chest.“I would hardly call my life’s work ascheme.”
His life’s work…
She ran her fingers through her hair, panic building with each heartbeat, a steadywhoosh-whooshsound that drowned out everything else.She couldn’t do this.She gotout.She’d worked so incredibly hard to make a life for herself that had no strings leading back to Boston.
And yet she’d taken a man into her bed who had more strings than she did.No wonder Jude had told her that he had no room for a relationship—no room forher.She’d allowed her needs—allowed herself—to be put last time and time again.
She wasn’t going to do it now.
She lifted her chin, even though all she wanted to do was break down sobbing.“Please move.”
“Sunshine…Fuck, just give me a chance to explain this.”For the first time since he’d revealed who he was, he looked less than sure of himself.“I didn’t plan on this—on you.I knew you had some connection to Sorcha, which meant you had some connection to the Sheridans, but I had no idea that you were an O’Malley at first.”He scrubbed a hand across his face, half reaching out for her with the other before he let it drop to his side.“Fuck, Sloan, I like you.”
She barked out a laugh.“At first.That means you knew at some point.When was it?When you came over and let me throw myself at you?When you agreed to sleep next to me?Tell me.”
“After we had sex that first time.”
She waved a hand as if she could banish his words.“You should have told me.Youliedto me.”
“No, I omitted.I know that might seem like the same damn thing to you, but we were on the same page—you wanted my cock and I wanted you on my cock.Simple.This wasn’t supposed to last, so it didn’t matter who I was or who you were.”He raised a single eyebrow.“And if we’re on the subject of lying, you sure as fuck weren’t offering up the truth to me, either.”
“That’s different.”
“Is it?”
She opened her mouth to confirm that it was, but stopped.If the Sheridans knew that there was a MacNamara left alive—especially one as capable and filled with a need for vengeance as Jude—they would hunt him to the ends of the earth.The only way for him to pay Colm Sheridan back in kind would be to remove every living Sheridan from the equation.
Callie.
Sloan clenched her jaw to keep from asking him for details.Callie was pregnant and running the Sheridan empire with Sloan’s brother at her side.If Jude meant Callie harm, that would put him directly at odds with Teague.
