Mam laughs quietly into her teacup, and Seamus narrows his eyes.
“You said you’d do anything for the family,” Seamus pushes.
He’s got me. The bastard knows it. I did say that, swore it in blood when I joined the clan’s business. But this? Shackling myself to a woman who hates me? Who’ll spend every day of our marriage wishing I were dead?
A woman I apparently can’t stop thinking about since I touched her?
Fuck my life.
I sit up straighter. “Aye.”
And I will. I remember how it felt—searching for Bronwyn, tearing the world apart just to bring her back. I remember the hours inside that godforsaken high-security prison as I paid the piper for sins I didn’t commit. Torin still is… still locked away.
OfcourseI meant it.
“Then we’ll arrange a marriage,” Mam says, her voice final.
“Aye,” Da agrees. “It’s time.”
My stomach drops, free fall.
Jesus fucking Christ.
“Erin Kavanagh’s grown into something of a beauty, hasn’t she?” Kyla says with a grim smile, though her eyes look a bit troubled. Is that relief I see as well?
“I suppose.” I purse my lips.
“You don’t look thrilled, Cavin,” Seamus notes.
I shrug. “That girl, thatwoman, was a thorn in my side at St. Albert’s. She got me into more trouble than the devil himself.”
“Was ages ago,” Seamus says, crossing his arms on his chest.
“Right.” I won’t go back on my word, but give a man a fuckin’ minute.
“Honestly, Cavin,” Kyla mutters. “It’s not high school anymore.”
Still. I remember the way she looked at me—those cold, narrow eyes. The way she’d rat me out without flinching. She hated me. Still does. I’d bet my life on it.
“Only one problem though. She’d never agree to marry me. You do know that, right? She fuckin’hatesme.”
I made her life hell at St. Albert's. Called her names. Made her cry. She's got every reason to hate me.
But I have every fuckin’ reason to hate her right back.
They stare. Declan shakes his head, but the rest look like I’ve just handed them the keys to the kingdom, and I know, if I marry, it’ll benefit all of us.
“Fine. If marrying into the Kavanaghs is what it takes… If this is how we solidify the family… make us stronger…”
I stand, my shoulders tense.
“Fine. Do it. Tell me where and when.”
And with that, I turn.
“I’m going to bed.”
Erinfuckin’Kavanagh.
