Chapter 22 #3
“You sure he still won’t murder you?”
“Nope.”
She nods, but I can see the tension in her shoulders, the way she's worrying her bottom lip. Part of me wants to turn this car around and take her back to the cabin, where it's just us. But Crowning's made his move, and there's no running from this now.
I park near the main house and come around to open her door. She takes my hand, steps out, and I pull her close for just a moment. My arm wraps around her back, her front pressed into mine. I press a kiss to her forehead.
“Stay with me,” I whisper against her hair. “No matter what happens in there, I want you to trust me, alright? Can you trust me, lass? I love you, Bianca. ”
“I will,” she says.
The front door opens before we reach it, and my cousin Declan's grinning face appears. “Well, fuck me, he's actually alive.” He looks as if he's ready for the runway, as usual. “About to send out a fucking search party, lad. Seamus has been losing his goddamn mind.”
“Declan,” I warn.
But he's already looking past me at Bianca, and his grin softens into something genuine. “Ah, I see the reason our boy's gone completely off the grid.” He extends his hand. “Declan McCarthy. I'm the charming one in this fucking lot.”
Her lips twitch despite her nerves. “Bianca White.”
“White.” Declan's eyebrows rise, but he keeps his expression neutral. “Welcome, love. Seamus is in the study with the others. He's in rare form, brother.”
“Grand,” I mutter.
Bianca pales, but I give her hand a little squeeze. “He's more bark than bite for people he loves. You don't want to be his enemy, but you're not.”
We follow him through the familiar halls, past the portraits of family and the heavy furniture that seemed so much bigger when I was a child. Bianca's eyes are wide, taking everything in, cataloging the details as she does. That historian brain of hers never stops .
The study doors are open, and voices come from within. People are in the kitchen and the dining hall.
Everyone looks when I walk in with Bianca. The silence is deafening.
But our focus zones in on Seamus, standing behind his desk, his arms crossed, looking every inch the head of his family. Cavin's by the window, silent and watchful, his hands pushed into his pockets. He gives me a look one might give an errant student facing a headmaster for punishment.
Lorcan is sprawled in one of the leather chairs, picking at his cuticles, but he sits up quickly when he sees the two of us coming in. “Right, then,” he mutters under his breath.
Cavin's wife, Erin, is perched on the edge of the desk, all sharp eyes and sharper tongue. “Oh my,” she says, never one to mince words. “So this is why you haven't come to dinner, even when Caitlin's made her famous roast?”
I scrub a hand across my brow. “Aye.”
“So.” Seamus's voice is low, his gaze moving from me to Bianca and back again. “You brought her.”
“Aye.” I keep my hand on the small of Bianca's back. “Wasn't safe to leave her.”
“Safe.” Cavin gives me a sharp look, pushes off the window, his movements controlled. But Cavin's a fighter, just like me, and I know this stance. He's holding himself back. “Because Crowning's fucking looking for her because you took her from him.”
“Cavin—” Declan starts, one hand up. The peacemaker. He doesn't like trouble in the family, but Cavin cuts him off with a look.
“No, we won't fucking dance around this.” Cavin's eyes fix on me. “You took Crowning's bride-to-be, and now we're in the firing line because you wouldn't keep your fucking cock in your pants.”
“ Cavin ,” Erin snaps. “My god. Read the room, will you?”
I feel Bianca stiffen beside me. I clench my hands into fists. “You watch your goddamn mouth.”
“Or what?” Cavin takes a step forward. “You'll start another war. Oh, wait, you already fucking did .”
“ Shut it .”
He shoves me, and rage builds. I could wipe the floor with him in ten seconds flat, and he knows it.
Seamus's voice cuts through the tension like a blade. “Enough. Both of you, sit down.”
Cavin glares, but we all know better than to disobey Seamus.
Cavin's one of my best mates, but he's angry because I put his family in the line of fire.
“I had my reasons,” I say, my voice tight.
“Do any of those reasons have anything to do with our family's safety?” Cavin shoots back.
“I said enough ,” Seamus says. “Sit the fuck down before I make you.”
Lorcan lets out a whistle, but I don't sit. Seamus looks at me in shock. Can't remember if I've ever disobeyed him like this.
“Ashland,” he says.
“I'm not sitting until Cavin apologizes to her.”
“ Fuck ,” Declan mutters. “He's serious.”
“Of course he's serious,” Erin says, sliding off the desk. She approaches Bianca with a look that makes me tense, but she speaks gently. “I’m sorry. This lot can be a bit much, but they’re more bark than bite.”
Cavin growls but doesn’t respond.
Bianca's voice is small but steady. “I'm fine.”
“Alright,” Erin says with a smile. “I respect that. Do you want to get some tea while the boys sort out their dick-measuring contest?”
“She stays with me,” I say immediately.
“Ashland.” Bianca touches my arm, and I look down at her. “It's okay. I could use some tea. And honestly”—she gives me a small smile—“a little bit of female conversation.”
I grumble .
“Let’s go,” Erin says. “Kyla and Bronwyn are in the kitchen. We'll come back in a bit, Ash.” She rolls her eyes when I reach for Bianca, then starts to lead her out. “They need the female touch in these meetings now.”
The moment they're out of his office, Seamus points to the chair across from his desk. “Sit. Now.”
I sit. Lorcan shifts in his chair, giving me a sympathetic look. It's not often he sees me on the end of the firing squad.
Declan smirks. He likes a good show. “How long you been obsessed with her?”
“Shut up, Declan.”
“I'm just saying it's very Beauty and the Beast of you. Very tortured hero.”
“Shut the fuck up before I break your fuckin’ nose.”
“You'll have to catch me first, brother.”
The banter dies the second Seamus's fist slams against the desk. The sound cracks through the room like a gunshot, silencing us both.
“One more goddamn word from either of you,” Seamus says, his voice low and lethal, “and I'll give you somethin' real to joke about. Understood?”
Neither of us speaks. The tension coils tight as Seamus leans forward, planting his hands on the desk, his knuckles white against the dark wood, his cheeks ruddy .
“Marcus Crowning says you stole his property.”
“She's not property .”
“ I know that. You know that. He sees it very differently, doesn't he?” Seamus's jaw tightens. “He wants her back, Ash, and if we don't hand her over, he's threatening retaliation.”
My hands curl into fists. “He's not getting her.”
“That's what I told him.” Seamus straightens.
I look at him, surprised. “I knew you would not have taken her unless you had a very good reason.
And it's my job as head of this family to support the decisions all of you make.
But it's your job to make sure that every decision you make supports the family.” He meets my eyes.
“We need to know exactly why you took her.”
“Crowning was going to kill her.” The words come out harsh. “He's killed two women before her. I couldn't—” My throat tightens. “I couldn't let that happen.”
Lorcan's expression shifts. “Are you sure about that?”
“I have been tracking him. He dates them, isolates them, then they disappear. One was an 'accident,' supposedly. One was a 'suicide.' But his brother, you know who his brother is. He's buried the details, Seamus. That's him. It's always been him.”
Declan lets out a low curse. “Christ. Does she know?”
I nod. “She didn't believe me at first.” I run a hand over my head. “But she's seen him. She looked up the details. She knows who he really is now, and that’s why she came back with me.”
“What do you mean, came back?” Lorcan sits straighter.
“I took her when she was going to marry Marcus Crowning. Took her to the cabin. She escaped. I brought her back. She escaped again, and that time I let her go. He tried to hurt her. She asked me for help.”
Seamus and Lorcan exchange a look. Seamus's sigh is long and heavy. “Right. So she’s with you willingly now. I don’t have to sort out a fucking kidnapping allegation on top of the rest of this shite?”
“Aye.”
“And you're telling me you're ready to go to war with the Crownings over this?”
It's not a question, but I answer anyway. I swallow hard and lick my lips. “I don’t want war. I want his head on a fucking silver platter.”
Silence. Lorcan grins. “Well, shite. I never thought I'd see the fucking day.”
“Fuck off .”
“Really, it's sweet. Kind of. In a deeply fucked-up way.” He looks at Seamus. “We're backing him, right?”
“Of course we are.” Seamus leans back in his chair.
“As if we have a choice. Crowning's already made this public.
If we back down, we look weak. And if there's even a chance that Crowning is what Ash says he is—” He shakes his head.
“Can't send her back to that. Won't have that fucking arsehole here in Ballyhock another second.”
The McCarthy clan is a bit of a legend in Ballyhock. We take care of the citizens, and in turn, they’re loyal and protective.
Seamus cracks his neck. “Gives me a reason to fucking put him six feet under.”
Relief floods through me, so intense it's almost painful.
“But if you think about it…” Seamus strokes his chin. “We destroy Crowning. We take what he's been hoarding for years, aye. This could work in our favor quite well, couldn't it, lads?” He pauses. “There's at least one, two, three families that haven't taken sides. Us versus Crowning.”
“And it's not just that.”
Seamus gives me another look. “What?”
“How I met Bianca. I found her. Some eejits in an alley were trying to take her for god knows what reason…”
“Jesus Christ.” Seamus shakes his head. “We’re not in the habit of saving people, Ash. You know this.”
“Aye, but we keep the streets of Ballyhock safe, don’t we? Could’ve been Kyla or Bronwyn, Seamus.”
“Fucking hell,” Lorcan says, shaking his head.
“But you need to tell her everything.” Seamus's voice hardens. “Who we are. What we do. That her father died serving us.”
“She knows.”
“Good.” Seamus nods. “Now go get your girl before Kyla interrogates her to death.” Lorcan shoots him a look.
“You know she will. They all will. Right?
You check on her. Make sure she's alright.
Then we make our plan. We fortify this house, then strike against Crowning.
If we strike first, he won't see it coming.
Then we bring everything he's been doing to the news.”
“Aye.” I nod. “Mam still has contacts.”
Back in the day, when my parents were getting married, my mother was an investigative reporter. She's still best friends with people who still work for them. It's been useful having her on our side.
Seamus leans across the table, holding my gaze. “Your entire fucking life, you've been loyal to this family. Every decision you've made has been for the betterment of our family.” His hands clench into fists. “There's no one more loyal than you, Ashland.”
I nod.
“I've watched what you've sacrificed for us. For our family.”
I nod again, a lump rising in my throat when the face of my brother flashes into my memory.
“Aye,” I say, my voice hoarse.
“We'll do everything we can. We will fight to the death. Do you hear me, Ashland? To the death.” He smiles suddenly and winks at me. “Don't fuck it up with the girl.”
I turn and head toward the kitchen.
Seamus is on my side. All my brothers are on my side. If we make the move… if we do this right.
For fuck's sake. We walk a knife's edge. One brisk blow of wind, and we'll teeter off to our deaths. I could bring destruction down on the whole family.
Or.
Or… we’ll go down with them.