Bronagh
Before Cathal and Darragh reentered my room, I was feeling as if I were floating. The medicine the nurse put in the IV had hit me within seconds, erasing the aching, throbbing pain that was throughout my body, with the concentration centered in my head.
I was still trying to figure out why anyone from the O’Sheeran family would feel the need to help Dad.
I knew what Darragh said, but still. I tried not to be in awe that someone of Darragh’s standing had taken the time to come himself.
He could’ve sent Cathal, or even an employee.
How did I warrant such top-tier treatment?
When Dad told me what he wanted to do with our family’s businesses, at least the most egregiously illegal and harmful ones, I’d been filled with happiness.
I’d struggled all my life to reconcile what my family did for money and the sweet inner man my dad was.
Yes, on the outside, he projected a hard-nosed attitude in business and to outsiders.
But he wasn’t cruel like his older brother.
Dad hated some of the family’s enterprises.
So, being told he wanted to phase those out and replace them with legitimate businesses had thrilled me. Then I thought of how hard and dangerous that would be. Dad agreed. That was when he told me he’d reached out to the O’Sheerans for help.
To the world, they were the largest and most dangerous Irish Mafia family in the United States.
They’d earned that place over decades that were bloody at times, just like my family.
However, when I was a kid, they’d spent years offloading their illegal endeavors and replacing them with legitimate ones, building an empire.
Not everyone believed the O’Sheerans really did it.
Many thought they had just successfully hidden those enterprises and put the other businesses in place as smoke screens.
I knew the other Irish families wondered and walked softly around them.
Or some of them did. The Doyles had tried to force things and paid the price.
That family was in shambles and no longer seen as much of a threat.
The Brynes had been the second-most-powerful Irish family, and they had a peaceful connection to the O’Sheerans for years. Or they did until the head of it, Christopher, had lost out on making Aisling O’Sheeran his wife. He hadn’t handled that well.
Not long after that, it was discovered that he had been secretly involved in human trafficking.
That revelation had led to his demise, and those in his inner circle and as partners were removed as well.
The rumor was that the Hounds of Justice had caught wind of his dealings, and they ended him and the trafficking ring.
I was glad they had—anyone who sold other human beings deserved to be wiped out. Prison was too good for them—the same for those who hurt children and women. Rapists and pedophiles were on my list, along with traffickers. My family wasn’t angels, but they didn’t sell people or do things like that.
I’d been hesitant about Dad reaching out to the O’Sheerans, but when he came back and said they agreed, I shelved my doubts.
As long as they really assisted and didn’t get him involved in anything he shouldn’t be, I was good.
I did what I could behind the scenes and remotely to help.
No one knew about that, not even our family.
When Dad broke the news to the family at a big gathering, skepticism was a big part of their reactions.
Others questioned how wise it was to get rid of those businesses that made so much money.
They were worried about their pockets. Dad explained the changing world and how the risks were growing too great.
And how, if done right, they could be as successful, or more so, if they were patient. He used the O’Sheerans as an example.
In the end, Dad had the authority to demand it.
And he kinda did when the holdouts had pushed back.
So he declared that it was happening to everyone.
Over time, a few had seen the light and joined his efforts.
However, some still paid lip service but secretly grumbled about it.
Dad and I knew and watched. We had little doubt they’d try to undermine him or even continue the enterprises on the side.
It was what Christopher Brynes did. His family, as a whole, wanted nothing to do with trafficking.
To my family, I was a fashion designer. I presented myself as someone they didn’t need to worry about.
They thought my head was filled with pretty clothes and air, and I let them.
What they didn’t know was that behind my fashion degree and creativity lay an analytical brain and a business degree.
I used that second degree to make my fashion design studio into a multimillion-dollar fashion house.
I hid it behind Ethereal Haven LLC and a label that wasn’t my name, Haute Ethereal Attire.
Some considered me unusual for using both sides of my brain.
The left side was logical, analytical, and language-oriented.
The right side was artistic, creative, and intuitive.
It was a total myth that someone was one or the other, but people persisted in believing it.
So, to my family and others, I was right-sided, meaning I was bad and clueless about business. I enjoyed making them believe it.
The truth was, if I was inclined to head the family after Dad was done, I could. But I didn’t want to run an illegal enterprise. And I wouldn’t allow certain others to step into his place. So, I worked with Dad to make changes. He conferred with me, plus Darragh and Patrick O’Sheeran.
Dad’s marriage idea had taken me by surprise, but I saw the possible advantage.
Whoever was tearing away at the edges of our territory meant to take over.
Whether it was a family member behind it or an outsider, I wasn’t sure.
We needed time to shore up our defenses so we could continue making changes and protect ourselves.
We were at a critical moment. Our success or failure would be determined over the next year.
I’d cautioned Dad not to get his hopes up that Darragh would agree to the marriage idea.
What little I knew of his family, they weren’t the kind to go into a marriage on a whim.
As unusual as it was in our type of families, they made love matches.
Many in our and the other Irish Mafia families married for alliances, wealth, and more territory.
Something I’d been adamant I would never do.
But to save what my dad was building, I’d make that small sacrifice. It wasn’t forever.
I let myself believe the fantasy that the marriage did occur, and that my husband would be Cathal.
I’d never forgotten him, even though he’d never spoken to me.
He did smile that day after my mom’s funeral.
Was I silly to be caught up in a little girl’s first crush at the age of twenty-eight?
Yes, but it was there. What I needed to do was talk sense into Cathal after finding out why there had been a change of heart.
Seeing him tonight had rammed home the fact that even a temporary, in-name-only marriage would hurt, and it wouldn’t be what I wanted.
The year would be miserable. I didn’t think I could do it, not with him.
Maybe someone else would take his place.
Someone I had no connection to, who I could see as a roommate, and treat as a friendly companion.
That would be the only way I could do it.
And during the year, I’d do everything I could to avoid spending time around Cathal.
My business was busy enough that I could travel a lot if I chose to.
A rapid triple knock at my door made me jump. Then it swung open, and in waltzed Darragh and Cathal. I saw the contemplation on Darragh’s face and what I thought was satisfaction on his cousin’s. I tried to sit up more, but my body had finally relaxed.
“You look more at ease already. How is the medication working?” Cathal asked, coming to stand next to the bed, where he had been when he kissed me.
Forget about that kiss, Bronagh. It didn’t mean anything. While I knew it was true for him, it wasn’t for me. I made myself answer him.
“It’s doing its job. Thank you for coming. I know it was a waste of your time, but thank you. Dad should be here soon. I’m in a hospital, so there’s no need to leave anyone here to watch over me,” I rattled off.
“You’re welcome, but thanks isn’t necessary. You didn’t waste our time. As for Faolán being here soon, he called. It’ll be around dawn. He’s not coming from New Mexico,” Darragh told me.
“Where is he coming from?” I asked. It was news to me.
“He didn’t say. But even if you are in a hospital, we can’t leave you alone. And we need to talk about something before he gets here,” Darragh added.
“What is there to talk about? Other than the bodyguards, staying is unnecessary. Come on, no one here knows who I am. The last name Bragan means nothing to them. It would be different if it were one of you,” I replied.
I watched as Darragh glanced at his cousin, and there was some kind of unspoken communication between them. Then Cathal took over the conversation.
“We need to talk about the engagement and wedding. You know as well as I do that it’s the best way to protect you, your dad, and the others in your family while Faolán works to build up his defenses.
Being connected to my family gives him a powerful force behind him.
Anyone messing with him will get our family involved.
Not to sound boastful, but no one with half a brain wants to do that. ”
I stared at him, stunned. Despite what he said before and the kiss, I hadn’t thought he was serious.
I assumed he was playing around. But the way he looked at me, I wasn’t getting that vibe.
But to be sure I understood him, with my head spinning from the medicine and my thoughts, I asked for clarification.
“Let me get this straight. You, Cathal O’Sheeran, have decided to sacrifice yourself to a loveless, in-name-only marriage with me, a woman who comes from a family that technically most would call your enemy, for a year?
And you’re willing, if the necessity arises, to use your family’s considerable resources and clout to back up my family in the fight to retain control of our territory, even if it gets bloody?
You will tell the world that you want this marriage and pretend until it’s time to announce that it didn’t work and we part ways? ”
“Darragh, I need to speak to her alone,” Cathal told his cousin.
“Cathal, I need to hear her agree of her own free will.” I heard the warning in Darragh’s tone.
“I understand, but there are things I want to speak about that are better kept between us.”
They stood there, staring for close to a minute before Darragh sighed.
“Alright, you have fifteen minutes, then I’m coming back.
Bronagh, I want you to know that no matter what my cousin says, you do not have to agree to marry him.
We’ll find other ways to help your dad, even if it’s finding someone else connected to us who’ll marry you. ”
A low growl came rumbling out of Cathal’s throat.
I gave him a surprised look. Darragh had a faint smirk on his face as he turned and left.
The quiet in the room hung there for several seconds before Cathal sat.
He lowered the rail. He must dislike having a bar between us.
He reached over, found my hand that didn’t have the IV in it, and took it in his.
The warmth felt good, and so did the calluses, though they shocked me. Shouldn’t he have baby-soft hands?
“Let’s talk for real, Bronagh. I don’t want any misunderstandings later on about what this marriage will be.”
I was tired of fighting him on the fact that there wasn’t going to be a marriage between us, so I just nodded and said, “Okay, fine. Talk.”
I wondered what he was about to say and why I felt that my entire future was about to change.