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The Marriage Contract(18)

By:Katee Robert


She tensed. He was going to ask her about the bruises again. She was sure of it. “What would you like to know?”

“Were you and Brendan together?”

Callie laughed, the sound broken. “No. I’d never met him when my father decided that we should be married.”

“Hmm.” He nodded, as if confirming something to himself. His face gave away nothing of his thoughts, though those dark eyes drank her in as if he couldn’t make himself look away. As if he didn’t want to. “Do you hope I’ll go the same way?”

No. The vehemence of the thought shocked her. Really, she shouldn’t care one way or another if this man lived or died—as long as it wasn’t her hand holding the gun. He was nothing to her. A stranger she was about to be linked to for the rest of her life. And yet…She took a sip of her wine. “You seem like a decent man.”

He laughed. “There aren’t any decent men in our world, but I’m a hell of a lot better than Brendan.”

She couldn’t argue that. She didn’t even want to. Instead, Callie looked away. “What are we going to do?”

“About the marriage? Or the fact that Victor Halloran is about to bring all sorts of fire and brimstone down on us?”

Both. But focusing on the impending marriage—just four weeks away—was the selfish thing to do. It was more important to head off the Halloran threat before he did any more damage. “The latter.”

Something like disappointment flickered across his features, but it was gone too fast for her to be sure. “In that case, I think we should talk to James. He’s not a bad sort, and he’s miles better than anyone else in his family. If there’s someone who can bring this thing to a grinding halt, it’s him.”

As long as he doesn’t know I’m the one who killed his brother. Feeling sick, she set her wineglass aside. “Then we should talk to him as soon as possible.” Before Papa or Seamus did something to escalate matters. Twenty-four hours since the shooting and she knew there were plans afoot, even if she didn’t know the details.

“I agree.” Teague pulled out his phone and started dialing.

She stared. “You have James Halloran’s number in your phone?”

“We used to play poker.” There was that flicker again, as if some strong emotion was trying to surface. “But that was a long time ago.”

“Oh.” It seemed such a strange thing, when now that their families were on the verge of trying to kill each other, that he and James used to spend time together regularly enough for Teague to have his number. She waited while Teague left a cryptic message and a request for a call back.

He hung up and pocketed the phone. “Now, we wait.”

The waitress reappeared as if she’d been waiting for the opportunity, and he ordered for both of them before Callie could open her mouth. She sat back as the woman left, not sure if she was impressed by his gall or annoyed.

Teague gave her a look that was almost sheepish. “Sorry. Old habit.”

There seemed to be a lot of those to go around. “I could be a vegetarian. You just ordered me a steak.”

“One—you’re not. The catering menu for our announcement the other night had both red meat and fish on it, so I figured it was safe to assume you had some input on that. Two—I ordered the steak and the salmon. You can have which one sounds best.” He said it so calmly, as if it was perfectly normal for a man to order for a woman he barely knew.

“Whether your deductions are correct or not—and they are—doesn’t matter. I make my own decisions.” The words came out harsher than she intended, but there’d been too many big decisions made without consulting her lately. That wasn’t Teague’s fault, though. She started to apologize, but he beat her there.

“You’re right. I’m being an overbearing ass. I’m sorry.”

She picked up her wine to cover her smile. She liked that he was willing to admit he might have made a mistake. Most of the men she knew would have glossed over it and changed the subject. They might not have ordered for her again in the future, but they wouldn’t have been so willing to apologize. “Thank you for calling James. We accomplished what I came here for.”

“Maybe you did, but I’m nowhere near satisfied.”

The way he said the last word warmed things low in her stomach. “Teague—”

“We have to get to know each other at some point—might as well start now.”

The logic was seriously flawed, but she found herself taking another sip of wine all the same. She had joked with Micah about finding out all the O’Malley secrets during dinner. “What would you like to know?”