The Marriage Contract(92)

“It wasn’t like that.” She wouldn’t have done it if she had any other choice.

“Who cares? It’s done and the world is a better place for it. Teague knows that, same as I do.”

“But—”

“Boston has been a powder keg waiting to be lit for years. With the patriarchs getting older and the heirs a few short years from taking over, there’s a flux coming. That scares people. If you weren’t the match that set it off, someone else would have been.”

“That’s easy for you to say when I’m the one who set it off.”

Carrigan sighed. “How about I put this another way? Do you think for a second that my father, proud asshole that he is, would sit back and let your family and the Hallorans create an alliance through marriage?”

She hadn’t really thought about anything beyond her panic at the thought of being married to a man known for his mistreatment of helpless women. Callie sank onto the chair and actually thought about it. By all accounts—and she’d seen nothing to disprove it in her direct interactions with the man—Seamus O’Malley was just as prideful and violent as Victor Halloran. Judging by how Halloran was reacting to her and Teague’s marriage, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that Seamus would have done something similar. “We can’t know that for sure.”

“Sure we can. I’m an expert on my father. The insult alone would have him out for blood, and the possibility that your two families would crush ours in the middle? Yeah, he’d come gunning for both of you—and he’d strike first, before you had a chance to.” Carrigan rolled on her back. “Or, take it a step further. Maybe if your father had refused the marriage offer, that would have made Victor Halloran declare war all on his own.”

“But—”

“Really, there’s more than enough blame to go around. No matter which way you swing it, this started before you pulled the trigger. If Brendan’s death hadn’t been enough to start a war, then something else would have happened and that would have been an inciting incident.”

Callie opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. The more she thought about it, the more Carrigan’s argument solidified in her mind. She tried to come up with a scenario that didn’t end in war…and came up short. She frowned. “You’re wasted as a pawn in marriage.”

Carrigan laughed. “Try telling that to my father.”

It was a crying shame for such a calculating mind to be relegated to such an archaic role. Callie might have agreed to an arranged marriage, but it had ultimately been her choice. Carrigan didn’t even have that. “I’m sorry.”

“You have a nasty habit of apologizing for things that you have no control of.”

“That doesn’t make me any less sorry. You deserve better than that.” She didn’t have to like the woman to recognize that. But it put Carrigan’s actions in a completely new light. Callie compared herself to a caged bird when she was feeling melodramatic, but she had a lot of freedom. And, one day, she would run the Sheridan empire.

Carrigan truly was caged. If her father was really forcing her to marry a man of his choice—and Callie had no reason to believe otherwise—then she couldn’t blame the woman for escaping every chance she got. Speaking of… “Where did you go the other night? I mean, I assume something went wrong because you ended up here.” She motioned to the room they were currently locked in.

“I went out for a bit of air, and that jackass James grabbed me.”

Callie started to ask about the man the bartender had seen her with, but changed her mind at the last minute. Carrigan was entitled to her secrets. She glanced at the window. “I think it’s dark enough.”

“Thank God.” She stood and walked to the door. “Just give me a minute to change and I’ll have us out of here.”

She pressed her ear to the door as Carrigan changed into the sweats—she had to roll them four times and knot the drawstring to keep them from falling off— and crouched next to the keyhole, holding her breath. If they were found out now, there was nothing stopping James or whoever caught them from killing them on the spot. They’d been promised death, after all. There was nothing but silence on the other side of the door.

She closed her eyes, listening harder. Was that a rustle? Was there someone standing right on the other side, listening just as hard as she was, knowing exactly what the soft clicks of Carrigan’s tools in the lock meant?

This is the only way. You die now, or you die how the Hallorans choose.

When she looked at it like that, there wasn’t really any choice at all. She couldn’t just sit here and wait for the ax to fall, proverbial or otherwise. Now was the time for action.