It sounded like a compliment, but she couldn’t shake the instinct demanding she go for his throat. So she stayed silent. That didn’t stop him, though. He shifted closer. “You’re going to die for what you did. But not for a long, long time.” He grinned. “Baby, I’m going to enjoy breaking you.” His gaze moved back to Carrigan. “Both of you.”
“Ricky.”
Callie jumped, but the man didn’t. Obviously he’d heard James approach. He didn’t turn. “Yeah?”
“Get the fuck out of here.”
“Yeah, sure.” He tipped an imaginary hat. “I’ll be seeing you two again real soon.”
James waited for his brother to walk out of the room before he turned his attention on them. “Make whatever peace with God you can. You only have tonight.”
Then he was gone, too, shutting the door behind him. Callie sagged, adrenaline beating against the inside of her skull like she’d just been in the middle of a fight. Carrigan sat up, the cuffs dangling from her hands. “It’s almost a shame those two are going to miss out on their entertainment tomorrow.”
How could the woman joke at a time like this? Callie kept her mouth shut, because she was afraid if she opened it, she’d start screaming and never stop. So she held very still and watched the minutes tick by on the clock; the slow movement of time, much steadier than her heartbeat, grounded her. She finally took a breath and made an effort to unlock her muscles. “I don’t suppose you can pick a door lock as well as your handcuffs?”
“Normal doors? Not so much. But the ones they have in old houses like this?” Carrigan motioned to the heavy wood door between them and the rest of the house. “Piece of cake.”
She certainly was a woman of unexpected talents. Callie moved to the window and glanced at the sky. They were well on their way to dusk, but it would be a good hour yet before they could make a move. “How did you learn to pick locks?”
“Aiden taught me.” She smiled, though it was a touch bittersweet. “He convinced one of the men to teach him, and he passed it along to Teague and me. Though Teague never quite picked it up. I have a natural skill for it, I guess.” She shook her head. “And a tendency to want to be where I’m not supposed to.”
“It sucks being shut out for your own protection.” She’d dealt with that time and again growing up. Even as young as ten, Ronan was considered mature enough to sit in on meetings with Papa, while she was told to go play with her dolls. She’d resented it then, but that resentment only grew the older she got. Even when she’d stepped up to take over the legitimate side of the business, Papa had done his best to shield her from the uglier sides of what being a Sheridan meant. And then Ronan was gone, between one breath and another, and it was left to her to fill the shoes he’d left behind. She didn’t feel guilty about that early resentment, really, but most days she wished she could go back to being that naive girl who didn’t know any better.
“So-called protection. They blind us and then are surprised when we’re gunned down because we had no way to keep ourselves safe.” Carrigan looked away, her shoulders bowing in. “That didn’t help Devlin.”
“I’m so sorry.” My fault. God, wouldn’t she ever learn that apologizing after the fact wasn’t worth the words that came out of her mouth? “I know that doesn’t mean much now, but I was trying to make it right by coming here.”
Carrigan snorted. “Is that what you were doing?”
“I killed Brendan.” It shouldn’t get easier to say those words, but they still flowed off her tongue. “This is all my fault.”
The woman turned on the bed to face her fully. “That’s a crock of shit.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re worse than Teague is with playing the martyr.” Carrigan sighed. “No wonder he’s head over heels in love with you.”
She’d known he cared. Of course she’d known he cared. He wouldn’t have acted the way he had, or touched her with such tenderness if he didn’t care on one level. But that didn’t matter now. “Even if he did before, he won’t now. Not when Devlin was killed because of a war I started.”
“You didn’t kill my brother.”
“I might as well have. They were out for vengeance for Brendan’s death.”
Carrigan rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin on her hands. “I can’t say I’m sorry to hear that you’re the one who put that monster into the ground. My father was considering selling me off to him before your engagement was announced. I would have put a bullet in his brain before I walked down the aisle, too.”