The Marriage Contract(5)

“I know.” Carrigan plucked the glass out of his hand and took a sip. It was only then that he saw her hand was shaking. “You know Father made an offhand comment last night at the dinner you conveniently missed? He thinks it’s time for me to shit or get off the pot.” She laughed softly at the look on his face. “He didn’t say it in so many words, but the meaning was the same. My goddamn biological clock is ticking away in his ear, and the man wants heirs.”

He watched her finish the whiskey. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” She set the glass down with the care of someone who wanted to throw it across the room. “I’m as much in a cage as you are—as we all are—but I can’t talk to anyone about it.”

He knew the feeling. It all came down to the bottom line—family. It didn’t matter what was good for the individual as long as the family’s interests as a whole were served. “You can talk to me.”

Her smile was so sad, it would have broken his heart if he had anything left to break. “No, Teague, I really can’t.” With that, she turned and floated out of the room, leaving him alone in his misery.

He refilled his glass and went back to his seat on the couch. It was tempting to shoot the whole thing back and chase oblivion, but he needed his wits about him if he was going to get through this in the best position possible. The idea was absurd. The best position possible? He was a drowning man with no land in sight and the sharks were circling. There was nothing to do but pick the best way to die.

Each sip, carefully controlled, gave him some much-needed distance. He mentally stepped to the side and forced himself to look at the situation without the tangled mess of emotions in his chest. There might be no way out, but he could make the best of it regardless. The Sheridans had been a thorn in the family’s side for as long as there had been both Sheridans and O’Malleys in Boston. They might be looking to bolster their strength, but it wouldn’t take much to weaken their position.

He took another drink. No, it wouldn’t take much at all. And if he were with the Sheridans, he wouldn’t be here, so there was something to be said for that as well. The further he got from his father’s grasp, the easier it would be to slip free when the time came.

Slip free? The pipe dream of a child. He knew better by now…but that didn’t stop the tiny flare of hope inside him. It was a mistake not to crush it—if he didn’t now, then someone else would, and it would hurt more that way. Reality had a nasty way of intruding on pipe dreams, and the reality was that marrying into the Sheridan family wasn’t likely to give him an out. It would entangle him further in the type of life he wanted to escape. They may have a different last name and territory, but the type of beast was identical to the O’Malleys.

But if there was a chance to be free—truly free—wouldn’t he be a fool not to take it?

He picked up the book his brother had knocked to the floor, and carefully marked his page before closing it. He couldn’t leave Carrigan behind. Hell, he’d be a selfish prick to leave any of his sisters behind. And his youngest brother, Devlin, was the least suited of all of them for this life. The thought of hauling three women and Devlin into hiding with him…Teague shuddered. It was impossible. He couldn’t run without them, and he couldn’t run with them.

So what the fuck was he going to do?

He laughed, the sound harsh from his throat. He was going to do exactly what he was told, like a good little piece-of-shit son. He was going to marry the Sheridan woman.





Chapter Two



Callie followed her father into the reception hall, barely keeping her questions in check. All day, he’d acted as if nothing was wrong, and now he’d dragged her here even though she knew she wasn’t marrying Brendan any longer. She pressed a hand to her stomach, silently commanding it to stop churning. She hadn’t been able to keep anything down today, and four scalding showers weren’t enough to wash away what she’d done.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to bring the Sheridan empire, such as it was, into the future. They had enough clean money for legitimate investments now to be on the up-and-up, and she had fully intended to be the one to make the transition.

Now?

She looked at her hands, pale and clean despite the blood she was sure she could feel drenching them. Now, she was no better than her father and all the men who’d come before her.

She could almost hear Ronan in her head, as if he stood right next to her. Jump the back fence and meet me in the park. We can be at the airport before they even know we’re gone. An old joke of theirs—all the various ways they’d slip away from their protection detail and flee for another country. He’d stopped playing when he hit eighteen and graduated high school, but she’d never stopped her side of things.