10. Rory
10
RORY
I walk into the foyer, my father’s voice coming to me from the dining room.
“The Burkes have been a pain in our side for generations,” my uncle Paul says.
“This is a way to do away with them,” my father says. “Taking his daughter will start the war, and he’s not well enough to win.”
The laughter between them makes me sick to my stomach.
I know my father isn’t a good man, but I’ve never thought of him as an outright monster until now.
I walk into the dining room without announcing myself, and my father looks at me stiffly.
“What did you find out?”
“She won't talk," I lie.
I know now this was never about Bree being brought back safe. Or even if she is okay. After all, she is a traitor in his eyes.
I have to play this the right way, make him think it’s his idea instead of mine.
“We have ways to make her talk,” Paul says, looking over at me with cool blue eyes.
My blood runs cold. I’ve only known Lara for a few hours, but the idea of someone hurting her doesn’t sit right with me. It isn’t her fault who her father is, no more than it’s my fault who mine is. "I think I have a way to make this turn in our favor.”
My father lifts one of his eyebrows at me but remains silent.
“What if we just pay them back in the same coin?”
My father frowns. “We already have.”
“Yes, but they forced Bree to become a Burke, so maybe we could do the same to her…”
“You mean have one of us marry her? Are you craz— Wait. That actually might piss off Burke more than anything else.”
I plaster on a smile. “Exactly. We turn her into a Murphy. It’ll drive him crazy.”
Paul walks up to me and shakes my hand. “You've got a smart boy here, Niall.”
“Don’t I know it,” my father says, as if he’s ever given me a kind word in his life.
My stomach churns.
I hate having to do this, but it’s the only way I can see that both Lara and Bree will be safe.
I’m not just doing this out of the kindness of my heart. I’m doing it for Bree, too.
“Very well. You’ll marry her, then.”
I have to play this right, so I feign shock. “Me?”
“Yes. I want you to marry the Burke bitch. That is the ultimate revenge. She will become my daughter-in-law. Can you just imagine Patrick’s face when he knows this?” My father laughs, and my skin crawls.
“As long as it is only until the war is over. She’s cute enough. I think I can manage."
“Looks like her mother," my father says quietly, and my eyes shoot to his, but he won’t look at me.
“When do you want to have the wedding?” Paul asks, and I look at him curiously.
I wish I could get as far away from this life as possible, but for now, I have to help Lara and Bree. I don’t know when it happened, when I started to have sympathy for Lara Burke, but I do. I don’t want her hurt. Some part of me wants to protect her. Maybe because I see myself in her, the man I used to be when my father had control of me.
“This needs to happen soon,” my father says. "Within the next few days.”
Then his eyes glare at me. “You’ll move her into your room here, and we make the wedding arrangements.”
“You want the lady to have a say in what flowers she gets?” Paul snorts, and my father grins.
“Why not? I want Burke to think this is forever.” My father chuckles. He walks over and claps me on the back. “We’ll have it here, of course.”
I try my best not to grimace. “What happens if Burke wants to retaliate before the wedding?”
“We don’t give him a shot. We’ll get you two married before he even knows it.”
“And you think Lara’s going to go along with this?”
He shrugs. “She doesn’t have a choice, does she?”
I feel sick to my stomach, but I can’t allow them to know that I have any type of empathy for Lara. I need them to think I’m fully back in this life. “Very well.”
“I’m proud of you, Rory. I wouldn’t think you’d step up and do something like this in a million years.” My father pauses. “What changed your mind?”
“Seeing that Burke bitch on her knees reminded me of how much I hate them.” I hate every word that comes out of my mouth.
My father grins. “So, you're back, Rory? For good?”
He looks hopeful.
I take a deep breath and say something I never thought I’d ever say. “I’m back forever. I’m home, Pa.”
My father pulls me into an impromptu hug, and I haven’t felt his arms around me in years. It was never comforting, but this time, it’s outright revolting.
The only reason he’s accepting me is because I’ve offered to do something truly awful to a Burke. All because she was born Patrick’s daughter.
“The Burkes are done for,” Paul says. “We should celebrate.”
“I’ll get the bourbon. Do you want a drink, Rory?”
“Of course,” I know it would look suspicious if I didn’t, but I plan to nurse one drink for as long as this takes. I want to be clear-headed when I move Lara into my room, when I talk to her about everything we need to do.
I’ve never thought about making wedding arrangements before. It’s not like I’ve had any serious girlfriends since college.
“So, we’ll have it here.” Paul takes a drink from my father and chugs it down while I sip mine. “How many guests?”
“Enough to make sure it gets around town. Hell, we’ll serve steak and lobster,” my father says, clinking his glass with Paul’s and then mine.
I’m in this dance with the devil, and I guess the only way out is through it.
We stand around and talk about wedding arrangements for a while longer.
My father keeps looking at me fondly, and it’s kind of freaking me out.
We’ve never had the best relationship. He’s always doted on Bree and pretty much ignored me, especially when I told him that I wasn’t going to be following in his footsteps.
He walks over to me and pats me on the shoulder, and it’s all I can do not to recoil.
“I’m proud of you, son.” He leans in close to my ear. “You’re a lot more ruthless than I thought.”
Ruthless .
That’s something I never wanted to be. I just wanted to live out of town and calculate my numbers. I’m not built for this type of lifestyle.
I guess Bree is. I guess that’s why she’s married into the Burke family. She’ll never get away from this life, and I feel sad for her.
I’d like to have Bree far away from all of this, away from the Burkes entirely, but I know that Bree never does anything she doesn’t want to do. She’s not going to come back to Dad, and she’s not going to run away with me, either.
She’s made her decision. All I can do is try to mitigate the damage when it comes to our father.
“What’s the plan after the wedding?” Paul asks, and I look up at him, surprised.
I actually don’t really have a plan for after the wedding. Not one that I can tell them about, anyway.
I shrug. “Eye for an eye. We turn her into a Murphy just the way they’ve turned my sister against us.”
Dad grins. “That’s perfect, boyo.”
“What about security?” Paul asks.
“We’ll need to have someone with eyes on her all the time,” my father suggests. “And as for the wedding, we’ll double up security. I don’t want Patrick getting wind of it and sending one of his sons.”
I nod. “We’ll handle whatever comes.”
Paul shakes his head as if in disbelief. “Never knew you had it in you, Rory.”
“You don’t know me at all.” I finish the drink I’ve been nursing. “Well, I should go. Check in on my wife-to-be.”
Dad laughs out loud, throwing his head back, and I grit my teeth as I plaster on a smile.
I walk upstairs to the abandoned wing that Lara now resides in, hating myself.
I never wanted to be this kind of man.
Chapter Eleven