27. Declan
27
DECLAN
S leep was impossible, but I waited until the next day to go to see Cara’s family.
Calling Shane and Keira Murray her family felt like a reach. They weren’t family in the sense that I was with my dad and Ian. With all the men and women affiliated with the Sullivan name.
Family didn’t force others to make sacrifices so they could skirt away from having to own up to their own debts. Family didn’t promise to erase financial woes and then fail to come through.
Anger and rage mixed in an ugly storm, but I tamped it down and bided my time to visit the Murrays the next day.
They had been at the gala, and I didn’t want to return there after Peter Boyle challenged me in the parking lot and forced me to kill him. That shit happened all the time. This was the way of the Mob life. I wouldn’t be in trouble, not with the law. We carved our own rules and laws, anyway.
Still, I didn’t welcome the stress of having to locate Shane Murray among the crowd that had likely already dispersed from the party by the time Cara came clean about what she was hiding.
So, with Ian on speakerphone, I drove to the Murray residence the next afternoon.
I swore I’d never set foot there again after the last time I came here with Ian, and I really hoped this time would be the final and very last occasion I’d ever have to face him.
“I’m on it,” Ian promised, confirming that he would help me sort out this mess. I would never forget the sight of Cara’s tear-streaked face last night, and I would never get past the utter devastation she suffered from.
Coming here to speak with the Murrays was the first step of this retaliation. And it wouldn’t be pretty.
I was furious with Cara. It would take me a long time to move on from her lies and manipulation.
But I still cared. I couldn’t hate her for what she’d done. In another sense, I had to… admire her for it. Late last night, I realized that she really had done the best she could. To secure her future and care for her mother, she’d taken the best option possible.
If I had been her position, I knew I would have done the same damn thing.
In that sense, we weren’t so different. And it oddly served as a reminder that we belonged together.
I pounded my fist on the door, daring that crusty old butler to take his time letting me in. Standing at the front door, I waited and wished my brother were here. I could handle this myself, but if I got carried away, if I let my anger get the better of me, he’d be able to pull me back.
Shane and Keira Murray were about to be put in their places—for good. Ian simply had too many other things to do for me to be here to see it.
When the butler opened the door, he blanched and almost tripped on his feet in his haste to back up.
“Murray!” I bellowed, running into the foyer and searching the fancy décor. It was gaudy, every bit of it, and I knew they’d be saying goodbye to it all very soon.
No one approached, and I didn’t bother waiting for the butler to call for them or to announce that they had a visitor. With the dark mood I was in, I was no visitor . I was an executioner. A deliverer of bad news.
I found them in the kitchen, catching the husband and wife in the middle of what seemed to be a heated argument. Keira shut up at once, scowling at my presence as she pushed Shane in front of her. She no doubt recalled how I’d handled my last conversation with her.
Knowing she’d slapped Cara pushed me to nearly losing my temper, but she wasn’t worth a hit in return. The message I had to share with her would be the ultimate punishment for a selfish, shallow bitch like her.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
I stalked forward and grabbed the front of Shane’s shirt. He flinched, wrestling to get free as I slammed him into a chair at their table. When I turned to his wife, I glowered and pointed at the next one. “Sit your ugly ass down.”
“This is?—”
I lost my control. I lifted my hand to smack her, but I stopped. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t stoop to her level. I had my wits, and I knew she’d suffer more from what I was about to explain.
She crouched, bracing for the hit as she slunk to sit next to her husband. Shane reached for her hand to hold it, but she snatched it out of his reach. “Now what did you do?” she sneered, assuming I was here because of her husband’s actions.
I was. But I had no clue how else he might have fucked up since he'd coerced Cara to marry me.
He was an idiot. A cheat. He owed me money. He had dues with other families, like whatever incident happened last time when Keira begged me to help him out. No one could ever help this dumbass, and I would never want to.
“Did you ever intend to cover the medical debts for Nora Gallagher?” I demanded.
As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt stupid. Of course , he never intended to pay up for the “favor” he’d expected of his eldest daughter. Just like he never intended to pay my father back. Or anyone else.
Courtesy of what I heard at the gala, I also knew that he and/or Keira framed that rumor about my marrying into a distant, illegitimate relation of the Boyles in hopes that they’d kill me and avoid having to pay me back after I reneged and told them that they still owed every cent.
“What?” Shane paled. His mouth hung open. His eyes were wide with panic.
Keira reacted differently. She scowled like a bad taste wouldn’t leave her mouth. “She told you?”
“Did you?” I demanded. I didn’t care how cold and brutal I was. They deserved all my hatred.
Shane shook his head, slowly but then too vigorously like he couldn’t stop from trembling. “No. I, uh, well, I…”
“ No ,” Keira answered, clearer and firmer. She crossed her arms. “Never.”
“No?” I asked her, tilting my head to the side as I considered slapping that smug expression off her face.
“No. I never want to acknowledge her at all. All this time, it’s been a stain on my life that he had to admit she was his daughter at all.”
“But you didn’t hesitate to acknowledge her and use her when it was for your benefit,” I said.
She nodded. “I would never let my daughter be with someone like you.”
“Someone strong? Successful?”
That prissy huff made her even uglier. “Cara was nothing more than the daughter of a whore. Being with you is all she deserved.”
I leaned forward, gripping both of their necks and squeezing them tightly. “And do you know what you deserve?”
Shane spluttered, clawing at his neck. Keira fidgeted, staring at me with complete loathing.
“You will pay back every penny owed to my father. To me. And from this day forward, you will never interfere with my wife’s life ever again.”
I tightened my fingers.
Shane nodded.
Keira merely pressed her lips tighter together, damned to agree.
“Killing you would be too easy. I will see to it that you suffer every minute of poverty and hardship to pay back all of your debts with revised interest.” I released Shane but gripped Keira’s neck tighter. “And neither of you will ever interfere in my life, in my wife’s life. Ever. Again .”
She coughed, wheezing for air as I released her.
“Have I made myself perfectly fucking clear?” I asked as I straightened my cuffs and stepped back.
“Yes. Yes, Mr. Sullivan,” Shane replied shakily.
I cast one more glowering look at Keira, then narrowed my eyes at a frightened and angry Saoirse hiding in the back of the room too.
After I left, I exhaled all my pent-up fury in the car.
I doubted my rage with the Murrays would ever dissipate. I hated how they’d let her down.
And I dreaded the thought that she might assume I was letting her down as well.
I wasn’t. I had to make things right first, that was all.
Ian was checking with her medical records to see just how low her chances of pregnancy were.
If she only had half of a chance of conceiving, we would just have to try twice as hard and prepare for double the patience.
As I drove away from her worthless father’s mansion that he’d need to sell soon to repay me, I knew without a doubt that Cara would be the mother of my children. She was the only woman I wanted to be my spouse. No one else.
Before I could return to the estate home and teach her that lesson, I had another stop to make.
Ian could handle the majority of the bills, the payments, and all that administrative crap.
It was past time that I checked in on my mother-in-law and took over the situation where she was suffering.
Because I love you, Cara, I will move heaven and earth for you.
I loved her.
Which made it hurt all the more when I had to recall that she so clearly didn’t feel the same about me.
If she could still be so hesitant and hold out for so long to not tell me about her troubles, not to ask me for help or be honest with me, she couldn’t feel this deep, burrowing love that I did.
And I was sobered by how badly I wanted her love in return.