“I don’t think I could, if we go by Kieran’s reaction. Better to let the attention go to where it is needed.”
“Yeah, well, Kieran isn’t the kind of guy to roll out the red carpet.”
Cormac huffs a laugh. “Didn’t expect him to. I’m not exactly his favorite person.”
I glance over at him, noticing how much older he looks. His dark hair is cropped shorter than I remember, and the lines on his face have become more prominent, despite him not even being thirty yet.
“How long are you staying?”
His gaze falls to the ground. “Not sure.”
“You should know that Dad left us all equal control of the family business, but he named me as the one in charge.”
Cormac raises a brow as he glances at me.
“No surprise there.”
“But there’s a clause.”
“There always is.” He rolls his eyes. “How bad is it?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“You.”
Cormac’s head snaps up as he turns to face me with something like panic in his eyes. “What does he want?”
“He wants you to move back to the city, to present a united front.”
It’s not a complete lie, but it’s also not the entire truth, either. But Cormac doesn’t need to know that yet.
“Fuck.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “He really loved forcing us into impossible positions, didn’t he?”
I don’t disagree. “And I’m not saying this to pressure you, but with Ciara and I getting married in five days, the wolves are watching, and wedoneed to present that united front.”
“Ciara? As in theMcCarthychick?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Oh, I bet.” He shakes his head, smirking. “Shit, brother, you have a lot to fill me in on.”
“That would involve you sticking around.”
His jaw tightens as he looks back at the city skyline, a city he hasn’t called home in a number of years.
But if our family is to have any chance of keeping its power, that’s going to have to change.
“Just… say you’ll think about it.”
“Fine.” He sighs, still not looking at me. “I’ll think about it.”
As I head back inside, leaving Cormac to his thoughts, my mind shifts to the wedding—and more specifically, to Ciara.
Five days.
That’s all the time I have left before I legally tie myself and my family to the one woman who awakens something in me, the same woman who wants to ruin me.
