9. Declan
9
DECLAN
C ara didn’t say a word. She didn’t run, either. With the way I found her in the hallway, held up by the guards who were tasked as her personal security, I wondered who to believe, whether they’d caught her trying to escape again, or she’d been startled.
But drugging her? No. Fuck no. I wouldn’t risk anything complicating the health of my potential child. I’d only fucked her once last night, but even that could be enough. All it took was once.
After I showered and went to my bedroom, I failed to sleep. Intending to sample her sweet, tight pussy again, I found her in the guest room and debated taking her again.
But I didn’t. I wasn’t above fucking her while she was unconscious, but something held me back.
She liked it.
Even though she protested and fought me, I saw and felt the evidence of her arousal.
And that intrigued me. I’d only ever met hardcore whores and escorts who could take it rough and get off like that. Half the time, I suspected that they were faking it just to please me. But Cara hadn’t. She’d dripped for me. She’d clenched around my dick so tightly as she came.
I wanted to take her harder next time, but when I could see how much she wanted. How far she could go in the realm of pain to seek her pleasure.
The whole ride to the family estate, she stared mulishly out the window, refusing to face me at all.
I didn’t care. I hadn’t married her for her company. The idea of a conversation intrigued me, but I bet she gave me the silent treatment to piss me off. Or maybe not. I simply didn’t care. Talk or not. Be happy or not. All that mattered was her ability to give me a son or daughter.
When we arrived, I arranged for another pair of guards to take over her security. It wasn’t only to keep her safe, because as my wife, she would have my enemies by association and would inherently be at risk. She also required a protection detail because she could escape.
No one could understand how important this was. My hopes of giving my father an heir before his death relied on her.
Once she was taken to her wing, an ornately decorated area that was decidedly feminine and would provide all she might want or need, I headed to check on my father.
After his death, this would be my home. It would be my residence to share with Cara and our children. I wouldn’t give up my preferred residence, the mansion where I’d taken Cara last night. It would become more of a vacation home. But it made sense for her to adjust to living here.
For good.
Dad was awake and slightly agitated when I entered his room. Ian sat in the chair next to his bed. Upon my entrance, he nodded once and then sighed.
“You married her?” Dad asked. “You married…” He glanced at Ian as though to confirm the name again.
“Not Saoirse,” Ian replied.
“Cara Gallagher,” I said.
Dad shook his head, grimacing as he tried to sit up more. “I thought I told you to marry the other one. Saoirse.”
“She wasn’t interested.”
“The hell with what she wanted,” Dad thundered.
“Easy, easy,” Ian warned carefully as Dad fell into a fitful coughing spell.
“And I wasn’t interested,” I added. One look at Saoirse and I wasn’t intrigued. Not that it mattered whether I was. But the first glance at Cara’s stubborn glare, and I knew she was the one I’d take home. “While it was news to me that Murray had an estranged daughter, she fit the bill.”
And the fucker had some kind of leverage to force her to go along with the wedding.
“I showed him the birth certificate copy.” Ian pointed at it on the side table.
“And I fear you’ve only found cause for a war,” Dad muttered.
“What?” I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out what he meant by that.
“Nora Gallagher.” Dad picked up the certificate and furrowed his brow. “Supposedly a ‘nobody’.”
Ian nodded. “From what I’ve seen, she is no one special.”
I believed him. Shane Murray had surprised us both yesterday with this secret daughter being revealed in the nick of time. And I had no doubt that Ian had researched Cara and her legitimacy as Shane’s daughter right away. He was the office man. He handled those sorts of affairs. The guy had probably stayed up late looking into Cara’s family history.
“Perhaps not,” Dad grumbled, frowning at me. “Nora might be an illegitimate daughter of a member from the Boyle Family.”
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. “A Boyle?” Cara is a distant relation of our biggest enemy?
“I’m looking into it,” Ian said. “It seems like it was just a rumor that Dad is relying on here.”
“But,” Dad argued, “if she is in any way related to the Boyles, and they find out that you have married into their line, they will see it as a grave transgression.”
The Sullivans and Boyles have always fought. Sometimes literally. We always avoided a full-out war, but nothing was ever peaceful between us.
If they learned that I’d married into their family in any way, taking even a distant relative in marriage, this might cause a brutal battle.
“Do you think that’s why Peter showed up with his guy last night?” I asked Ian. It had peeved me, seeing them among my guests at the reception, but I hadn’t considered why they'd happened to stop by.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged, but didn’t seem too worried. “I got the impression they were being nosy and happened to be around.”
That was what I’d thought too. Until this news about Nora being an illegitimate daughter within their protection. Sons ruled. The patriarchy was strong within our families, but every child mattered. No one could cross loyalties, even by taking a wife associated with an enemy.
“This is bullshit.” I fumed, looking from Dad’s worried and tired eyes to Ian’s sharp and alert ones. Fury coursed through me, heating me up and making my heart race faster with the need to fight.
I felt duped, like Murray had pulled the wool over my eyes. And that wouldn’t do.
“Fucking Murray.” I shook my head, gesturing for Ian to stand and come with me.
“I’ll look into this,” I promised my father. It was too late to renege. I’d married Cara. I’d consummated it too. She was mine, but it looked like I had to figure in some damage control now.
Ian wasn’t chatty on the drive to the Murray house, and I was grateful that he’d given me the time to think. To mentally prepare. To consider what I could say to this spineless little fucker who’d handed over Cara to me last night.
I grunted, shaking my head. “Was it really just the day before yesterday?” I glanced at him driving. “When we came here?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah. It really was.”
“It had better be the last damn time I have to see his face again.”
Like that first “visit” where I demanded the wedding to happen, I pounded on the door.
Ian sighed, lowering his finger from the bell and surrendering to my method of announcing our arrival. “Now it makes sense.”
I shot him a side-eye as we waited for that old butler to come to the door. “What do you mean?”
“How nervous they were and what we overheard them say after we left.”
I nodded. It did make sense. Shane had seemed willing to cooperate, too scared, but Keira had insisted that her daughter wouldn’t be my bride. They must have already planned then on forcing Cara to fulfill that role.
And it was that vapid woman who answered, not the butler.
Keira slit her eyes at us, glancing from me to Ian, and back and forth again. “Yes?”
Fuck you and that tone. I pushed past her, inviting myself inside. She bristled, huffing, like that sound would make me change my mind about my attitude.
“Where’s Murray?”
She shrugged and sniffed, holding her nose in the air. “Out.”
“What do you know about Nora Gallagher?” Ian said, seeming to realize how close I was to strangling this uppity woman.
“Nora?” Keira smirked. “She’s nothing but a worthless whore.”
“Is she a relative of the Boyles?” I demanded.
She rolled her eyes. “You expect me to know about her parentage? It doesn’t matter. I heard her mother abandoned her and her father never wanted her. No one wanted her for anything good.”
“Like your husband?” I goaded.
Her lip curled. “Shane met me well after he’d sent that whore packing. It was never a choice between picking me or her.”
“Does Murray know anything about Nora’s past?” Ian asked, proving he had patience in droves. I was two seconds from torturing this woman to explain herself.
“No. He never cared to because she was so clearly no one and nothing.” She smiled, cruel and slow. “Just like Cara is.”
I stepped forward, getting in her face and waiting until fear streaked over her stiffly plastic face. “Cara is now my wife,” I reminded her.
I didn’t emphasize that as a defense for who Cara was as an individual. I didn’t know my wife. But she was mine. She was linked to the Sullivan name. To me. And I’d be goddamned she tried to insult anything of my possession.
She nodded, taking a shaky step back.
“Ma’am.” The butler rushed into the room, panting and just as out of shape as he was the other day. Alarm showed in every line of his wrinkled face as he looked at his mistress, the lady of the house. “Mr. Murray has been captured. His…” He glanced at me. “His work associates were not pleased with their meeting, and they have decided to keep him hostage until he pays up.”
Keira gasped, covering her mouth.
I glanced back at Ian, who wore the same expression that I bet he saw on my face. One that implied, what a dumb fuck.
“You must help,” Keira pleaded firmly, with authority she was an idiot to think she had here.
I turned, calling out over my shoulder. “No.”
“You’re family now!”
I stopped, pivoting to face her. “Not with you .”
With a final huff, amused that she’d try to beg me for help, I left with my brother and truly planned to never have to return.
We didn’t get many answers, but I knew we’d get to the bottom of this and handle any problems that might arise.
All I had to do, all I must , was knock up my wife and secure an heir.