“Tally, honestly, I just don’t follow your line of thinking sometimes. My family aren’t people to be scared of. Your name is on everyone’s lips after what happened with Daisy. My ma and da are overcome with gratitude.”
“Which is what I’m not exactly keen on. From an outsider’s point of view, Ronin, your da isn’t like normal fathers. You get that, right? He could be thrilled to see me today, and then next week, he could have me hanging upside down under his house, asking questions.”
Ronin stops driving, turns, and stares me down before belting out one of his laughs. It takes a few moments until he can stop chuckling and start talking again. “He’d never hang youupside down, Tally girl. You’ve got some warped ideas about what we do.”
He starts driving again, but I stay swiveled in my seat so I can focus on him and this ridiculous conversation.
“So, you’re saying you don’t interrogate those that have wronged you?” I challenge, but he’s speaking gibberish.
Another of his over-the-top smiles. “Have you wronged me but?”
“Jesus, Ronin, you’re missing the point.”
“What’s the point, cause I’m as lost as you are. There’s nothing you could do that would make them love you any less. You’re our wife. You’re an O’Connor, as much as Daisy is.”
“You don’t know me! They don’t, either! How can any of you love me?”
There’s a symphony of disbelief and argument coming from the others, but none of them speak, leaving it all up to their Alpha to resolve.
Ronin’s head tips to the side as he considers what I said. He also pulls into a car park right out the front of the church.
He switches off the car, then undoes his seatbelt so he can loom over me. Loom is a stretch, since his expression is full of nothing but the joy and determination that lives inside Ronin. His hand brushes my hair back behind my ears, and he ruins my already weak resolve with his tenderness. “I wish I could fucking lie to you. Paddy knows you’ve asked for time to get to know us. Me asking you to wear our ring is more for my ma. But yeah, there’s a huge part of me that wants you walking in with my pack and that wedding ring where it should be, for the whole fucking world to see. I know you got things you need to fix first, but I’m asking you for a favor to wear the ring today. For a few hours at Mass, then back at my parents’ place. After that, I won’t ask you again. I vow that.”
When I turn to look at Keegan, he’s got the same hope and determination on his face. Rafferty’s is almost a mirror image of them both, though he’s also got a growing flush to his cheeks. Tynan is the one that decides it for me; his reservation is a reflection of mine, but we also share the impossible reality that this pack is everything I could wish for, if I’m brave enough to take it.
I stare at him, because I think he’s as scared as I am, as I answer them truthfully. “Until the sun sets. That’s all I’ve got in me.”
I swear, my heart starts to break there and then.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
RONIN
My wife sits like a statue beside me.
Tally met my mother with a wide smile on her face, laughing, even, when Daisy refused to let her put her down when Ma moved in for a hug. Her confidence wavered when she turned to Da, and Daisy did get put down then.
She read the moment properly and gave Paddy O’Connor the respect he deserves. Which Paddy returned in spades. Tally is, after all, a hero to our family, saving Daisy the way she did, but it’s also Tally’s connection back to Noinin that gives her a head start in our family. It won’t buy her favors, but it should mean she gets a better welcome than she received from Paddy O’Connor’s inner circle.
Paddy O’Connor has sat at head of the Irish Mafia since before I was born. He never took a pack, and there’s certainly no requirement for anyone in power to have a pack behind him. What Paddy has is my mother. Jeanie O’Connor is a strongwoman. A fierce protector of our family. The two of them have forged a name for themselves together.
Then, exactly like you would see in any successful organization, Paddy has at his disposal a group of trusted men who act on his behalf in certain situations—his inner circle. Ultimately, though, decisions and responsibility rest with Paddy. And Jeanie.
If I find out Paddy whispered in Father O’Leary’s ear about the importance of loyalty, I better also find out his intention was to silence the discontent of those closest to him. And not an attempt at passively threatening my wife.
I wouldn’t put it past him.
She’s locked up tight, even her scent has all but disappeared.
Father O’Leary’s gaze sweeps through the nave and settles on Tally as he speaks. “Without loyalty, we are not truly living righteously as God expectsnorare we serving others devotedly.”
“That’s fucking it. We’re going,” I hiss at Keegan, who’s sitting on the other side of Tally.
“Ssh,” Tally says without moving a muscle. Her gaze is locked on the clergy standing before us, her face devoid of emotion as she assesses Father O’Leary while he openly stares at my wife.
Once he looks to the rest of his congregation, she squeezes my hand, drawing me out of thoughts about filling Father O’Leary full of bullets.
Keegan is reading the room the same as I am—all these fuckers are trying to intimidate our wife. Trying to get her to leave our side. Keegan’s scent is bitter, and people in the pews behind us are anxiously shuffling in their seats as a result. She goes to grab his hand, but Keegan’s got other intentions about what needs doing. Before he does it, though, he touches her hand softly.
