The Wedding Pact (The O'Malleys #2) (21 page)

She murmured something, twisting a little to look at him over her shoulder. “I don’t sleep with people. Not normally.”

“I know.” He kissed the back of her neck. “Sleep, Carrigan. I’ll watch over you and keep you safe while you do.” There wasn’t much he could promise her—that he could follow through on or that she would accept—but this he could manage. Tonight no one would demand anything of her. He’d make sure of it.

Chapter Fifteen

C
arrigan opened her eyes and yawned.
What time is it?
There was no clock in the room that she could see. She reached blindly for her purse and turned on her phone, still half-asleep. The screen lit up, and the phone immediately dinged to indicate a new message. And then another. She sat up, causing James to tighten the arm he’d slung around her waist.
God, he’s so sexy
. He’d woken her up twice in the night for more sex, and she shivered at how thoroughly tired her body felt from the attention.
I could get used to that
.

Her phone rang, startling her¸ and she hurried to answer before it woke James up. “What?”

“Where the hell are you?”

Aiden
. She shoved her hair back. “What’s going on?” It was ten in the morning. There was no reason he’d be calling her this early—or at least no
good
reason.

“Where. The. Fuck. Are. You?”

Okay, this was bad. She looked around wildly, but the answer didn’t magically pop into existence. There were two options. She could keep avoiding and cowering, or she could try to brazen her way through this. So, really, there was only one option. “It’s none of your damn business.”

“Wrong answer. Would you like to know
why
it’s my business?” A car door slammed. “Because our goddamn father is on a rampage, and our mother is practically breathing fire at the thought of someone, let alone one of her children, ruining this fiasco of a wedding.”

The wedding
.
Shit
. She did some quick mental math. “The wedding is tomorrow.”
Thank God
. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten about it. Yes, she’d had a whole hell of a lot going on, and technically Teague and Callie were already married, but neither of those were legitimate excuses.

“I’m aware. The rehearsal, however, is this evening, and no one can find you.”

She glanced over to where James was now awake and watching her. “There’s plenty of time. Calm down.”

“There would be, but Aileen has
activities
planned for Callie and the bridesmaids—including
you
—today. Activities that you’re not participating in because
no one knows where the fuck you are
.”

Carrigan read between the lines. Their mother was furious, and she’d gotten their father riled up, and both of them were taking it out on Aiden. Shit rolled downhill and all that. “I’ll be back in an hour.” She hoped. Traffic would be heavier than it had been on the way up here.

“You have explaining to do, Carrigan. I’m not kidding.”

That’s what she was afraid of. But hopefully if she slipped back in and played her part for the next twenty-four hours, everyone would be too busy to ask her uncomfortable questions. Hopefully. “Just stall a little longer. I’m on my way.” She hung up before he could yell at her any more.

“Trouble?” The sleepy gravel of James’s voice made her body perk up despite the stress.

“Not in the way you mean.” She slid out of bed and started throwing her clothes on. “Can you drive me back?”

“Yeah, no problem.” He followed her to her feet, and she got hung up on how damn good he looked naked. Her gaze caught on the scars on his chest and held when he turned around to pull on his pants. His back was an identical mess, though the scars there almost looked…layered.

“James…”

“Let’s get you home before they send out a search party.” He yanked on his shirt, not looking at her. “If we leave now, we can swing by a drive-thru and eat on the way.”

He didn’t want to talk about the scars. She got that. She had plenty of secrets of her own. But that didn’t mean she didn’t want to know. Even if she could put two and two together—the sheer amount of scars and their placement told her they weren’t from some sort of accident. No, every single one of them was intentional. There was only one person Victor Halloran would allow to hurt one of his children like that…and it was Victor Halloran.

She held her dress in a white-knuckled grip. He beat James. He
scarred
James. She wanted to march down to the prison and put a bullet between his eyes. Everyone knew Brendan—and probably Ricky—was a monster. Had they started out that way? Or had their father—the one person put on this world to protect his own children—been the one who broke something inside them beyond repair? Children were to be protected. Yeah, Seamus wasn’t exactly father of the year, but he’d never hurt her like that. He’d never so much as lifted a hand and
threatened
that kind of violence. And to go so far as to cut and whip and do whatever had caused the marks on James’s body?

Her mother would have killed him on the spot.

She forcibly loosened her grip and finished getting dressed, fury all twisted up with sadness for the boy he used to be. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe it hadn’t been Victor who’d hurt his boy. Whoever did it hadn’t broken James. The more she found out about him, the more amazed she was that James had grown into the man he was. A man of worth. He might not see it that way—and she was pretty damn sure he thought the exact opposite—but it was the truth.

By the time she made it out of the bedroom, he was flipping his keys around his finger and staring out the window at the ocean. Carrigan paused a few feet away, not sure what the protocol was. Did she kiss him? Touch him? Just smile and head for the car? Throwing herself at him and hugging him and promising vengeance on whoever hurt him wasn’t an option, no matter how much it was exactly what she wanted to do.

He glanced at her, his expression shuttered. “You ready?”

“Yeah. Sorry about hauling you out of bed and forcing you to drive me back.” This was so wrong, so stilted. She hated it. She cleared her throat. “Look, we don’t have to talk about your scars. I’m sorry I mentioned them at all.”

He crossed to her, stopping within arm’s reach. “It’s fine. It’s not something I want to get into.”

Maybe it was something he
needed
to get into. But she wasn’t a shrink, and he couldn’t have made himself clearer if he’d turned on a neon sign that read,
Back the fuck off
. He’d shared about his mother last night. That was unexpected enough. This whole baring-of-the-souls thing wasn’t what they were about. It couldn’t be. “I understand.”

“Okay.”

“Good.”

“Great.” He snagged the back of her neck and pulled her in for a kiss that curled her toes. “Let’s get you home.”

*  *  *

Carrigan barely made it through the door when Aiden appeared, grabbed her elbow, and hauled her upstairs. He didn’t say a word, and she kept silent because yelling at him right now would undoubtedly bring one—or both—or her parents down on her. Aiden and she might not be as close as they used to be, but his anger was still preferable to Seamus and Aileen.

As soon as he closed her bedroom door behind them, she shoved him away. “Get your goddamn hands off me.”

“Where the fuck were you?” He took a step toward her, but seemed to think better of it and circled her instead. “Those are the same clothes you were wearing last night, aren’t they?”

“You’re not my keeper.”

“Wrong.” He ran his hands through his dark hair, making it stand on end. “Jesus, Carrigan, I know you’re having a hell of a time with the way things are going, but can you stop being so goddamn selfish for one fucking second and
think
?”

For the first time since he’d towed her up here, she actually
looked
at him. Aiden had always been the classically handsome one of her brothers. Teague was dark and brooding. Cillian was the edgy, too-gorgeous one that made women lose their minds. Aiden was the rock.

He looked like he was cracking under the pressure. There were dark smudges beneath his brown eyes, and he’d lost weight recently—weight he didn’t need to lose. She reined in the impulse to yell at him like he was yelling at her, and sat on the edge of her bed. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not fucking okay.” He paced from one wall to the other and back again, each step jerky with barely restrained fury. “You disappeared without a trace from that restaurant and turned off your phone. The only message you got out was telling Liam not to worry.”

She was going to have to send Liam a gift basket of whiskey. “It’s fine. Obviously I’m okay.”

“It is
not
fine.” He looked like he wanted to shake her. “Last time you disappeared like this, that bastard Halloran threatened to send us your head in a basket if we didn’t comply. He would have, even though Callie turned herself over in exchange for you. Do you have any fucking idea what it did to me to sit here all night, wondering if I’d ever see you again, or if one of our goddamn enemies—who seem to be multiplying by the day—had gotten a hold of you?”

No, she didn’t have any idea. She hadn’t stopped to think that anyone would worry about her. She’d assumed that they’d be so caught up in their own dramas that she could slip back into the house without a word. “I—”

“You can’t keep doing this—the clubs, the men, the drinking. I know how much these little escapades mean to you, but it’s not safe.”

She knew that. Of course she knew that. But she’d weighed her growing panic over the approaching deadline against what could possibly happen to her while she was out and about.

Nothing’s going to happen with me when I’m with James
.

She didn’t have a right to that belief, but she couldn’t shake it. He might have been the reason she was taken the last time, but so much had changed since then. Hell,
everything
had changed. She couldn’t say as much to Aiden, though. “I’m sorry I worried you.”

“Which isn’t the same thing as saying you won’t do it again.” He dropped next to her on the bed with a sigh. “We might be at peace, but that doesn’t mean a damn thing and we both know it. There are more enemies to fear than just the Hallorans.”

Considering she’d spent the night with one and was no worse for wear, she believed it. Except…“What other enemies?”

“I don’t know.” He laughed, but not like anything was funny. “All I’m getting are rumors and things that could be coincidence. Father thinks I’m insane, but I can’t help feeling like someone is circling us, looking for weaknesses.” He grabbed her arm. “Promise me you won’t go out alone anymore, Carrigan. I couldn’t handle it if something happened to you.”
Again
. The last word might be unspoken, but it still stood between them. The truth was that she was a liability, and her habits made her even more so.

“You know I only have until my birthday to make a decision.”

He didn’t look at her. “I know.”

“And you’re still asking me to be good and stay out of trouble, even though this is my last chance at a little slice of freedom?”

“I am.” A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I might be a dick, but I think your life is worth more than your happiness.”

She wasn’t sure if she agreed. Oh, Carrigan didn’t want to die. She’d come face-to-face with that fate in the Halloran house and she’d fought tooth and nail to avoid it. But happiness was such a delicate and fleeting thing. She’d gotten a glimpse of what it might feel like last night with James, and she craved more, like a junkie jonesing for her next hit.

She couldn’t make the promise Aiden wanted—not without lying. She slipped her arm free of his hold. “Let’s get through this wedding, and then we’ll talk.”

“Carrigan—”

“I’ve got to shower and get changed. I’ll make sure I apologize to Mother for missing the activities she had planned today.” Maybe if she kept talking, he’d realize there was no way in hell this discussion was happening today—or ever.

Aiden sighed again. “Fine. You win this time. Get your shit together and I’ll see if I can calm down Father before the rehearsal. Don’t be late.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She held her breath until he left her room, closing the door softly behind him, and then lay back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Aiden didn’t understand what he was asking of her. He felt bad about it, at least in theory, but he was like Seamus in only seeing the bottom line. The only difference between her brother and father was that her brother would lose his mind if he lost her. Even with all the changes he’d gone through lately, she never doubted Aiden loved her. That love wouldn’t be enough for him to defy their father’s plans for her, but it was there nonetheless.