The name lands in the room like a bomb.
The father's face falls. His bluster collapses in on itself. His golf-club tan goes a shade paler.
I offer my hand because I’m diplomatic that way. He shakes it because he's too frightened not to, and I hold on just a beat too long.
"Mr. O'Rourke. I…uh…we didn't realize…obviously there's been a misunderstanding, emotions running high, boys will be boys.”
"Boys will be boys." I look at Tyler. "Tyler will be suspended for bullying and assault. Five days.” I glance at Galdek. "That works for the school, I assume."
"That—yes." Galdek is already pulling a fresh incident report from her drawer. "Yes, given the new information, that's entirely appropriate."
"Jamie's suspension, of course, will be withdrawn and, since he was forced to step in and handle an incident that should have been handled by the administration, the school will issue a formal apology—which will be added to his file." I don't phrase it as a question, and she doesn't treat it as one. She nods as she writes.
I crouch down to Tyler's eye level. He shrinks back into his chair, ice pack forgotten.
"You got off easy today," I say it quietly, almost kindly. "Next time you won't be so lucky."
Then I straighten up and address the father.
"Cara and Jamie are O'Rourkes now. They have the full protection of the O'Rourke family behind them—every last one of the O’Rourke family and their associates. You might want to make sure your son knows it."
“Yes, yes, of course. He'll know it," the father says. "He knows it now."
"Wonderful. Great meeting." I clap Jamie on the shoulder. "Jamie, Maeve, we're leaving."
Jamie looks up at me like I've just walked on water. Maeve hasn't said a word.
She stands when I offer my hand, and walks out of that office with her chin up. But the second the door closes behind us, out in the empty hallway, she turns and stares at me like she's never seen me before.
"You just…” She stops. Starts over. "They were going to…and you just walked in and...”
"Handled it? Yeah." I lean in close so only she can hear me. “Nobody fucks with my family.”
Chapter 15
Lorcan
All through dinner, Maeve keeps catching my eye across the table and then looking away fast with a pink blush spreading over her cheeks. Every time it happens, my cock tries to punch its way out of my zipper.
If I’m not mistaken—and I don’t mean to brag, but I’m rarely mistaken when it comes to women—she’s ready to consummate our marriage.
The kids go down easy. Oisin conks out. Jamie's lock clicks. Cara's door closes. And I'm standing in our bedroom doorway watching Maeve pull the pins from her hair, watching it tumble loose around her shoulders.
In seconds I'm crossing the room?—
A sharp cry comes through the baby monitor.
Not the stairwell-echo shriek. Not a tantrum howl. This one is different, and it has Maeve racing through the door and down the hall in seconds.
I'm two steps behind her.
Oisin is sitting up in his bed, cheeks flushed cherry-red, hair plastered to his forehead, crying a raspy, hiccuping cry of a kid who feels miserable and doesn't have the words for it.
"Hey, hey, baby, I'm here." Maeve's already got him, hand pressed to his forehead, and I watch her whole face change. "He's burning up with fever.”
Her voice is high-pitched and frantic. "I need a thermometer, children's Tylenol, a cool cloth—god, I don't have any of that stuff here.”
“I’m on it." I'm already moving.
