The Marriage Contract(75)

The sheer amount of time he’d be forced to deal with this feeling was nearly overwhelming. Teague closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Devlin deserved it. He deserved to be mourned. Life couldn’t just go on as it had before, with only the slightest of hiccups. “He’ll never finish his degree. He’ll never get to backpack through Europe and have that great adventure he’d been dreaming of since he was a kid. He’ll never fall head over heels in love with a pretty girl and lose his heart. He’ll never have kids.”

She leaned back and framed his face with her hands. “I know there’s nothing I can do to make this right, Teague. I am so terribly sorry.”

There was a strange weight to her words. He looked into her blue eyes, trying to understand it. “This has to be answered, angel. You understand that?”

Her eyes shone in the low lamplight. “There’s nothing we can do to stop it now, is there?”

“No.” Part of him howled for blood to repay the loss of Devlin’s future. It didn’t matter that James used to be a friend. His brother was dead, and that demanded retribution. The other part of him? It just wanted this to end. Devlin’s death was horrible—he didn’t know if he’d ever fully recover—but if more of the people he cared about died?

If Callie died?

“Marry me.” He didn’t realize he was going to say the words until they hung in the air between them.

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Marry me.” When she still looked uncertain, he plunged ahead. “I wanted to wait until this was over, and get a real fresh start with you that wasn’t tainted by this war brought on by our fathers and a situation outside our control.” Her expression flickered, but she didn’t say anything, so he kept going, “But it’s not going to end. There will always be the next conflict, or something showing up to drag us deeper, whether we want it or not. I care about you, angel, and I’d never forgive myself if I spent another day without us being husband and wife.”

Her mouth opened, closed, and opened again. “That was some proposal.”

“It was the best I could come up with on the fly.” He kissed her, soft and sweet. “Marry me, angel. Tonight.”

“There’s a three-day waiting period to get a marriage license.” She sounded uncertain, but not panicked.

“I know a judge.” He smoothed his thumbs over her cheekbones. “Say yes.”

She hesitated still. “This won’t bring Devlin back, Teague.”

The loss rose up, ready to swallow him whole. There was no fighting it, no resistance strong enough to keep it at bay, even in Callie’s presence. He took a shuddering breath. “I know. I wanted to marry you even before this happened. This just made me realize that I can’t take the future for granted. There’s no guarantee of tomorrow, not even for us.” He shifted her off his lap and went to one knee before her.

“Teague—”

“Marry me, angel. Today. Right now.” He took her hand. “Say yes and I’ll spend the rest of my days doing my damnedest to protect you from harm and make you happy. I’m not perfect and I’ll fuck up, but say yes and I’ll never hesitate to apologize, and I sure as hell won’t ever lay my hands on you in anger. Just say yes.”

She pressed her free hand to her mouth. “Yes.” At first, he was sure he’d misheard her. But then she nodded, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “You’re right. There are no guarantees but…I want your ring on my finger and you in my life for as long as we’re granted. Not because of your family or my family or consolidating power or any of the other reasons that originally drove us to agree to this marriage. I want you, Teague. I choose you. ”





Chapter Seventeen



James stalked through his house, ignoring the way his conscience seemed to dog his heels. The time for regrets and second-guessing had passed. His fucking idiot of a brother had solidified that when he’d decided to prove his worth by killing one of the O’Malleys. There was no taking that back, even if James never would have given the order himself. It didn’t matter that he’d planned on using O’Malley’s oldest daughter as leverage to stop this shit in its tracks.

O’Malley’s oldest daughter.

Carrigan.

He turned the corner, picking up his pace when he heard male voices in the room he’d left her. Goddamn it, nothing was going right. He threw open the door, finding Ricky and two of his men circling Carrigan where she was cuffed to the chair. James didn’t like the look on their faces one fucking bit.