She parked in the garage, and spent the next thirty minutes scrubbing down every part of the car she’d touched with cleaner. Then she stripped off her wig, heels, and pathetic excuse for a dress, and threw them into the furnace in the basement. This early, there was no one else about, and things had been quiet on the illegal front as well, so she was able to slip on a pair of coveralls and make it back to her room without having to explain her presence.
Callie turned her shower as hot as it’d go and stepped in. Then, and only then, did she bury her head in her hands and let loose the hysterical sobs that had been threatening ever since Brendan Halloran wrapped his hands around her neck. With the water running over her head and down her face, she could almost pretend she hadn’t broken her father’s cardinal rule.
Callista was a Sheridan, and Sheridans didn’t cry.
“Brendan Halloran is dead.”
Teague O’Malley didn’t look up from the book he was reading. “And?” But he already knew where his brother was going with dropping that tidbit out of nowhere. And the death of an heir was a game changer, more so because the Sheridans had lost their heir less than six months ago. There was a potential power vacuum created as a result, and he had no doubt his father and brother would be racing to fill it.
Aiden dropped onto the coffee table and swatted the book from his hands. “And you know what that means.”
“Shouldn’t you be talking to our father about this?”
“I’m talking about it with you.” His brother turned those guileless green eyes on him, a trick he’d learned from their oldest sister. It had gotten both Carrigan and Aiden out of a shit-ton of trouble while they were growing up—trouble then never failed to fall squarely into Teague’s lap.
The prickling at his neck signaled that he was about to be on the receiving end of another round, and he wanted no part of it. “Go away.”
“Not until you hear me out.” Aiden and Teague both looked up as Carrigan came into the library and closed the door behind her. Fuck. He really was about to get into deep shit if these two were settling down to plot. Aiden must have known he was about to bolt, because he slapped a hand down on Teague’s shoulder, holding him in place. “Until you hear us both out.”
He wasn’t going to get out of this room until he did just that. “You have five minutes.”
Carrigan crossed the room, her long dress swishing around her feet, and perched on the arm of the couch. “That’s all we need.” She looked particularly virginal today in the white dress with her dark hair falling loose around her face. It was a part she liked to play when it suited her—the devout Catholic good girl—and it had kept their father from pushing too hard for her to be married. Teague suspected their father thought a nun in the family would somehow magically balance the scales for all the evil shit he did, so he’d been pushing her hard in that direction. After all, he had two more daughters he could use to secure a general’s allegiance in marriage.
Only Teague knew she was anything but innocent when away from the watchful family protection, but he wasn’t about to out her. Every one of them dealt with living in the O’Malley cage in their own ways. If her way of dealing helped her hold on to sanity, he wasn’t going to judge the means. Not when he had just as many secrets.
His sister patted his foot. “With that despicable Halloran monster put out of his misery, we have an opportunity if we move fast.”
Giving up the pretense of being relaxed, Teague straightened and swung his feet to the ground—and out of the reach of his sister. “The next words out of your mouth had better not be that we should take this chance to eliminate the Hallorans.”
Aiden huffed. “Are you scared?”
“No, but I’m also not suicidal, either.” He glared at his brother. “And that taunt stopped working on me when I was ten.” It had taken months for his broken leg to heal from jumping off that bridge into the creek on their Connecticut property, and he still had the scar and fear of drowning from the result.
Carrigan laughed. “We’re not suicidal.”
That remained to be seen. “Then stop dicking around and tell me.”
“The Sheridan daughter, the only one in the immediate family left, was set to marry Brendan Halloran. They were going to announce the engagement today.” Carrigan twisted a lock of her dark hair around her finger.
That got Teague’s attention. “I hadn’t heard anything.”
“No one did. That’s the point. They brokered the deal in secret—or as secret as anything is these days. You already know the name of the game. They were consolidating power.” Her tone told him her thoughts on that.