Illicit Temptation (Astoria Royals #3)

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Trace

S tunned, Shea stumbles back a few steps. Then turns and bolts from her father’s office, pushing me out of her way. She takes off down the hall at such a speed it even surprises me.

“Lachlan!” she yells in the middle of the grand living room.

When I reach her, she looks like a cornered animal. Eyes wild, tears running down her cheeks. A much different response when Kieran brought up a marriage deal for her.

I’m ready to fucking rip someone’s head off. We’re out of our element. We’re both cornered. All she has to fight is Lachlan, Darragh, and me. But Faolan has a prison full of men at his disposal.

Men her father needs.

Faolan told me about his arrangement with her father out on the back deck after she left. A deal he wasn’t inclined to make until he saw Shea.

Saw Shea with me .

Now he wants her. Because she’s mine. And got pretty graphic telling me how he’ll take his marital liberties with her, cruelly , were his exact words. And if I dare to get in his way, he’ll throw me in Dunbar along with Cormac.

Faolan admitted to quickly drumming up those charges against Cormac as insurance. Sweetening the deal to release him in exchange for Shea’s agreement to marry him. All while her father thinks she’s getting a strong husband where he can keep an eye on her.

Faolan is a fucking psychopath.

“What?” Lachlan emerges from their mother’s hospice room with Darragh on his six.

Shea runs into his arms, his massive biceps coming around and swallowing her. His eyes land on me as if I’m the one who has her in this lather.

Faolan and Fergus join us in the living room. The old man has lost his mind making this arrangement and springing it on everyone when his most lethal son is present. Only, Lachlan is outnumbered here.

Holy fuck, this is complicated.

I’m trying my best to keep my cool because I need my wits and sanity to think about how I get her out of this. She is not marrying Faolan Malone. I’ll kill him myself as a last resort. Even if it causes his people to gun me down in the process. There’s no point in living if I have to look at a ceiling every night and think about what my worst enemy is doing to her. I’d give my life to save Shea from that kind of hell.

“Lachlan, this doesn’t concern you.” Fergus waggles a finger at his son. “She’s my daughter.”

“What is he talking about?” Lachlan spits out.

“Your father and I made an arrangement,” Faolan speaks up confidently. “Your sister is to be my wife.”

“Over my dead body,” Lachlan growls without flinching.

“Are you willing to die, Lachlan?” Fergus relights the tip of his cigar. “Leave your wife a widow and your unborn child without a father?”

Lachlan’s head looks ready to explode, but he doesn’t answer.

“And what about you, Doc?” Fergus taunts Darragh. “You got two wee-ones now. You and your brother have Bratva wives. They’ll be remarried by my old friend Alexei Koslov. Do you want that, Shea-Lynne? Two of your brothers dead and their wives married to Bratva pigs?”

Jaysus Christ. Talk about fucking unfair.

“You’ll let us be killed?” Lachlan sneers.

“She’s my property,” Fergus taunts his son. “And you know it.”

“She’s no one’s property,” Darragh barks.

“Give her to me and your precious brother is freed. The charges dismissed,” Faolan chides Darragh with a sinister smirk. “If he’s found guilty, it will be a matter for the Irish government, and he could be sent to a different prison where the O’Rourkes don’t call the shots.”

“As you can all see, I have a considerable amount of leverage.” Fergus stands shoulder to shoulder with Faolan. “Did you not see the mansion he lives in, lass?”

“I don’t care about that!” Shea says, loosening herself from Lachlan.

Smart. If she looks weak, they’ll think she can be taken quietly. She’s not going anywhere.

But I’m keeping my emotions close to the vest. Acting like this all means nothing to me. All while I’m ready to fucking detonate.

“Of course, you don’t care about money,” Fergus snaps. “You grew up spoiled, getting everything you’ve ever wanted. That’s my fault. These may be aging eyes, but I’m not blind. You’re a beautiful woman, Shea. And you deserve a strapping man. It’s not like I’m arranging for you to marry a hideous monster. Do you not think Faolan is attractive?”

“Da, this is insane,” Darragh says, not letting her answer that.

“Here’s what’s going to happen.” Lachlan does something I wasn’t expecting. He pulls his gun.

Fucking fuck, I do the same. “I work for Lachlan.” I point my piece right at Faolan’s chest, the temptation to kill him makes me ache all over. “I suggest you listen to my boss, Malone. He’s strong enough to tear your arms and legs off your body. I’ve seen him do it.”

Torture. An outcome for Malone I’d prefer.

“You, sir...” Lachlan gives Malone his signature death stare that has made grown men, killers , in his black site cry like hungry infants. “...are going to walk out of here. I don’t know what my father promised you, but we run his empire in New York and Shea-Lynne is part of our world. She’s also already promised to Nico Scava in Las Vegas.”

Shea gasps. The alarm on her face is a chink in our armor. Our eyes connect, and I can’t hide the surprise. I’m too raw, focusing my emotions on not getting fucking shot. But my face says it all. I knew, and I didn’t tell her.

A betrayal that might make me lose her.

“What the hell is this?” Malone fixes his anger on Fergus, whether it’s real or some kind of negotiating plot, I don’t know.

“Warden, I’d like to talk to my father alone.” Lachlan steps in front of Shea. “He came to you thinking you were his only option. We will take care of what my father needs. Da, tell him the deal is off.” Lachlan waves his gun. “We’ll get Kieran on the phone. Then Ewan Quinlan. There are men right here in Waterford who can work for you, Da. Our people .”

Playing his cards beautifully, Faolan puts up his hands. “I thought I was talking to the boss.”

“ I am the boss around here! ” Fergus barks.

“I’ll take my leave.” Faolan cuts his gaze to me.

“I’ll walk him out,” I say, keeping my gun trained on him. “Darragh, take his weapon.”

Keeping one hand raised, Faolan opens his coat. “I’ve got plenty more at home. Keep it as a souvenir.”

“Any in your car?” I ask when we get to the front door.

“Take a ride with me and find out,” he offers sarcastically.

“And end up like Ian?” I push my face into his, my gun in his stomach.

Malone smirks. “Go on, pull the trigger. You know you wanna. ”

“Get your arse off this property and over the border. This isn’t Dunbar. Lachlan is calling allies right now.”

“That’s him.” Malone continues to play it cool. “What about you? Are you an ally? Do you think screwing their one and only sister will make you one of them?”

“I said leave.”

“Come work for me, Quinlan,” Faolan whispers.

I hide my inward chuckle at the hand he just gave up. Offering me a job suggests he knows I’m the one to watch. If I take him out, Shea is free. I assume Malone doesn’t want to die.

“I have a job, thank you very much.”

“Don’t listen to that crazy man in there. I’m the one with the most leverage in this situation,” he says in a voice that rattles my nerves.

“How?” I ask because I know he’ll tell me.

“Those nurses taking care of Mrs. O’Rourke? They work for my prison.” He stands aside and sure enough, there they go into his car. And he’ll keep them if we don’t hand over Shea. “They know exactly what’s wrong with her.”

They’re also witnesses, and now I can’t kill him. Even if I pay them off, or blind them first so they can’t talk. Waterford has a sophisticated forensics team. I won’t get away with pulling the trigger right here right now. I need time to come up with a better, safer plan.

“Darragh will take care of his mother,” I say, wondering what the hell he means, exactly what’s wrong with her.

“I’ll be back for Shea tomorrow.” His glower doesn’t scare me. Not anymore. “You can take one more night to fill her with your seed. I can’t wait to tie her down and lick it out of her cunt.”

Faolan gets in his car and drives off.

My brain scrambles for a way out of this when I hear gunshots ring out from inside the house. Holding my piece in front of me, I rush back inside the house .

Just when I think this situation can’t get more fucked, I find Fergus O’Rourke on the living room floor with his head blown off.