Page 35 of Sins of Arrogance

I’m just…cu­ri­ous.

“She doesn’t want me here. The way she looks at me? She’s jeal­ous. Trust me, one woman rec­og­nizes that emo­tion in an­other.”

I don’t think so. Kara and Dier­dre are so dif­fer­ent from each other, they might as well be dif­fer­ent species.

Dier­dre slides closer to me her per­fume a cloy­ing cloud be­tween us. “And you know I’m used to get­ting more than my fair share di­rected at me.”

“Kara is fine.” Where is this go­ing?

“I didn’t come here to cause trou­ble.” Dier­dre turns her head, rub­bing her fin­ger del­i­cately un­der her dry eye as if dis­pos­ing of a tear. “But if Kara doesn’t want me here, I can go. I un­der­stand. I can’t stay some­where I’m not wel­come.”

She waits.

There it is.

She wants me to ask her to stay. To what end? She’s al­ready our guest. She and I both know that’s not go­ing to change any­time soon.

We may sus­pect her of spy­ing for the Nor­thies, but that’s all it is: sus­pi­cion. They’re our al­lies. Re­fus­ing her sanc­tu­ary would put that at risk.

She knows it.

I know it.

So, what’s her endgame here?

Dier­dre shifts so her skirt rides up her thigh, then drops her gaze. “It’s just…it’s hard. Be­ing here. Not know­ing who to trust. Feel­ing like a bur­den.”

“You’re not a bur­den,” I say, voice even.

She’s an in­for­ma­tional re­source.

Her head snaps up. The re­lief in her ex­pres­sion there and gone so quick, I would have missed it if I wasn’t ob­serv­ing her so closely.

“Micky…” She sighs and blinks away mois­ture that never had a risk of spilling over. “I’m so glad you feel that way. But you’re the only one. And I can’t…”

Again she lets her voice trail off.

“Can’t what?” I need this in­ter­view over so I can get back to work.

“You must re­al­ize how iso­lated I feel. How un­com­fort­able I would be din­ing with the Shaugh­nessy fam­ily with Kara look­ing at me like I’m filth.”

“Kara is too well man­nered to look at you like any­thing other than a guest at her fa­ther’s ta­ble.”

“You think so? I know she’s young and so sweet, but she can get her point across. Be­lieve me. She did this af­ter­noon.”

Good for Kara.

“Maybe I should re­turn to Ire­land. I don’t think I can spend any more days, much less weeks be­ing treated like a pariah.”

She’s gone from be­ing looked at like she’s filth to be­ing treated like a pariah in two sen­tences. What’s next, claim­ing some­one in the fam­ily wants to kill her?

I bite back a sigh. I have bet­ter things to be do­ing, but for now, Bro­gan and I want Dier­dre here. That means bridg­ing the di­vide be­tween her and my wife.

“I’ll speak to Kara.” She’s the per­fect mob daugh­ter and wife.

She does what she has to do for the good of the fam­ily. I’ll ask her to re­as­sure Dier­dre that she’s wel­come here.

“Only if you think it’s best. I don’t want to make her un­com­fort­able. And it’s ob­vi­ous that my be­ing here does that. I re­spect your mar­riage.”