“Hmmm.”
Before James could relax—his father was actually considering changing his course—Ricky bolted upright. “You can’t be thinking of letting that bitch go.”
“Sit down, and shut your fucking mouth.”
Ricky ignored him and turned to their father. “She shot Brendan. She killed him. That’s unforgivable. Or am I the only one who cares that he’s dead?”
James saw the exactly moment his brother’s words tipped their father over the edge and into a madness that would get them all killed. Victor pushed to his feet, his whole body seeming to rattle with his shakes. “Your brother’s right.”
“But—”
“Justice must be served, James. Unless you think your brother’s killer should walk free because the little bitch has some connections?”
There was only one right answer to that question. To do anything else would get him thrown into the same boat as the women upstairs. He gritted his teeth. “No. Of course not.”
“We do it tomorrow. The boys deserve a spectacle.”
Jesus Christ. “Yes, sir.” He turned, but his old man’s words stopped him the second his hand touched the door. “The O’Malley whore, too. Make examples of both of them.”
Well, fuck. This situation had just gone from bad to catastrophic.
It took an hour for Teague to convince his mother to take Sloan and Keira to their house in Connecticut. An hour wasted, but he couldn’t move on the Hallorans with his family vulnerable. It would be horrible to come home victorious only to find out that they’d lost two more.
He refused to let another member of his family be hurt—or worse.
He ducked into a side room and pulled out his phone. There was one person who could put a stop to this before any more blood was shed, but it was a long shot. Teague dialed from memory, and impatiently waited for the call to connect.
“Well, well, well,” Finch drawled. “I was wondering if I’d hear from you today.” He sounded far too pleased with himself. It set Teague’s teeth on edge.
“I’m assuming you’re up to date on the current clusterfuck? The Hallorans have my sister and my wife.”
“Wife, huh? You sure move fast.”
“Cut the shit, Finch.” He made an effort to keep his voice low. “You can put a stop to this right now. You damn well know that they’re behind the shooting that killed—” He choked on the name, but finally forced it out. “That killed Devlin. Do something.”
“There’s no conclusive evidence and you know it.”
It was an effort to keep from beating his head against the wall. “They’re going to kill the women.”
“I heard something along those lines.”
It couldn’t be clearer that this piece of shit wasn’t going to do a damn thing. Teague had betrayed his family time and time again, telling Finch things he never could have found out on his own, and for what? To be left hanging in the wind repeatedly. That shit stopped now. “Then I’ll take care of it myself.”
“Now, Teague, don’t go and do something stupid. We have things under control.”
Fat fucking chance of that. They were playing him the same way they’d been playing him from the very beginning. “This thing between us is over. Find another rat.” He hung up, and then threw his phone against the wall so hard the screen cracked. All he wanted to do was stomp on it and find something heavy to crush it with until it was no more than pieces.
But there was still the slightest chance Callie would find a way to call him.
Cursing, he scooped it up and gingerly thumbed it on. The screen lit up despite the spiderwebbed glass. Thank God for small favors. He slipped it back into his pocket and walked down the hall, where he met his remaining brothers and father in the study. Father, naturally, didn’t look pleased. “Your fiancée started this war.”
“She wasn’t my fiancée at the time, and you’re as much to blame for this war as she is. She was defending herself.” He refused to believe anything else. Callie would only take a life if she had no other choice. He hadn’t known her long, but he knew that to the very core of his being. Of course, his father didn’t care about that.
So he had to give the man something that he would care about.
Teague kept his tone calm and even. “Beyond that, I married her last night. She’s an O’Malley now, as well as being a Sheridan. The Hallorans also have Carrigan. We can’t sit back and do nothing. You know what those sick bastards will do to them.”
Support came from the unlikeliest of places. Cillian stepped forward. “I just watched Devlin die. I’m not going to lose Carrigan, too.”