“King—”
“Enough.” He cut me off with a sharp movement of his hand. I sent a desperate look back to Emery as Kael led her from the room and met her eyes. Hers were clear and bold, the green strong and bright like her voice when she paused and spoke.
“I love you, Brodie Gallagher.”
Then she was gone, and with her my chance to return the words. Because with everything I did say when I put my ring on her finger, that was the single thing I had neglected, too fearful that she wouldn’t return the feelings that had sprung up out of nothing and blossomed into everything.
I closed my eyes. I prayed. And then I turned back to King to begin negotiations for our lives.
He flattened a hand on his desk before tapping his fingertips, his rings clinking against the surface. “Sit.” I took the chair in front of him, a small metal folding number chosen for its ability to make someone uncomfortable. “As I said earlier, we have a problem, Brodie Gallagher.”
I felt like my thirteen year old self, called to task for something I had failed to do properly. Pride warred with common sense. I wanted nothing more than to fling afuck you very muchin his face and walk out, dragging Emery along with me, but one simply couldn’t do that with Donegal Gallagher of the East Coast Irish. He’d as soon slit your throat as look at you. I had a small advantage in that I was family, but he wasn’t a sentimental man. If the right eye offended, he plucked it loose.
So I held my tongue and bowed my head in deference.One day.
“The question is…what are we going to do about it.”
I needed to give King a reason to keep Emery to alive. If I could do that, I could save both our asses. “Do you…know anything about Emery Bishop,” I began, “or why she was targeted?”
King’s eyes flickered behind me and Kael took the seat at my side. “What is it you think I should know?”
“He wants her dead because his son raped her. He’s worried that she’ll change her mind about staying silent and go to the authorities. Everything he’s built for himself is at risk.”
King’s brow creased. “I wasn’t aware there was a son.” He sighed and wrapped a hand around the back of his neck. “And I didn’t know about the rape. I was under the impression this was about money.”
From my left, Kael made a sound. “So…it was okay to kill a young woman for profit and greed, but that changes if she’s been assaulted?”
“None of your mouth, boy.” King looked a cross between angry and shamed and I held my breath. “You don’t understand the circumstances. I owed this man a favor. I didn’t get to choose what that boon would be. But this…” He shook his head. “This situation is not what he made it out to be.” He brooded quietly for a moment, plucking at his lip. Then he squinted at me, as he’d done when I was a kid and he was aiming to get to the bottom of a story. “What makes you so sure it’s the truth, and not just her trying to save her pretty little arse? And if you knew, why is this man even alive? That doesn’t sound like you, Brodie.”
I shifted, deciding on a near truth. “I just learned of it recently, sir. She was having some…issues. It took me a while to get the truth out of her, and by the time I did you’d sent me that fecking contract. I had to take a minute to figure things out, which is why I didn’t immediately kill the prick.”
“Ah.” He nodded sagely.
“What are you thinking, Da?” It was Kael that asked the question.
King drummed his fingers with one hand and stroked the beard on his chin with the other. His gaze fixed on me. “You love this girl?”
I nodded firmly. “She’s it for me, sir.”
He grunted. “I had intended to marry you to that Italian girl. Cement an alliance, fix that unrest. This is going to be tricky. I’d already started negotiations.” I was annoyed at the suggestion that I’d simply fall in line and marry some unknown girl, but at the same time I knew I probably would have done exactly that if I hadn’t met Emery. “We’ll have to figure something out there, but make no mistake—you will be disciplined for taking matters into your own hands. I think some time in the old country is in order—alone. So we can reestablish our faith in you. I have a matter there that needs to be taken care of.”
Fuck.It seemed no matter what I did, Emery and I were going to be separated. I nodded; jaw tight.
“What if I do it?” Kael spoke up and I whipped my head to him. He was looking at his father, his jaw tight. “Marry the chick, that is.”
“Kael…brother…you can’t—”
He turned to me, gray eyes blazing. “I owe you. Or have you forgotten?”
I hadn’t forgotten. I had taken a bullet meant for Kael several years ago. I made a gesture with my hand. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. That’s not something you need to repay me for, especially like this.”
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I’ve never looked for a love match. Marriage is a convenience. She’ll do what she’s told when she’s needed, reap the rewards, and stay out of my way the rest of the time.”
“Yes.” Donegal broke in. “We’ll marry you to the Italian girl. I’d planned on arranging something for you with the Dublin crew, but this will be more to my advantage. I’ll have Brodie take care of the Dublin crew another way.”
I stood and clasped my hands behind my back. “Jaysus, Kael—” He wouldn’t have made the offer if it was going to bother him; I knew this. It was a good solution. And yet I couldn’t help but feel like I was consigning him to a life of hell. Who wanted to be tied to a spouse they had no feeling for, who had no consideration for them?
“It’s decided, then,” Kael said firmly. “Now we need to discuss how we’re going to go about making this client happy.”
