Shattered Hearts (Irish Kings #1)

6. Riley

Chapter 6

Riley

Shock stuns my mouth into falling open, allowing Finn to deepen the kiss. The unexpected potency of the sensation dizzies me.

I’m powerless to resist.

The world falls away as my arms fold tighter around his neck, and his hands return to my waist, pulling me flush against him.

His beard scratches my face, every scrape sparking electricity along my skin. Finn runs his tongue along my bottom lip, igniting a flame that just might burn me alive.

It would be one hell of a way to go.

Through the paper-thin silk of this dress, his tight, muscular thighs press against me, and his harsh breaths echo in my own chest.

This kiss is different from the brief one we shared at the altar. That one was…an exploration. But this? This feels like him laying claim.

Which can’t be true. He’s engaged to my sister. My missing sister.

The alarms going off inside me get louder, but I don’t fully snap out of it until the growing bulge near my waist jolts me out of my haze.

I tear my lips away from his.

Mouths ajar, both of us panting, we stare hard at each other. Lust and anger burn me up, razing my insides from top to bottom.

I know I don’t deserve the Sister of the Year award. Hell, neither does Harper. But the five percent of me that’s still a caring, overprotective sister cannot believe Finn just did that. He could’ve faked it. Could’ve given me a quick peck. Could’ve kissed my cheek.

Why the hell did he kiss me like that ?

Maybe I’m a little out of my element at this wedding, but I do know clinking silverware against a champagne glass doesn’t mean give your sister-in-law-to-be a tonsillectomy with your tongue . Finn’s many things, but I never imagined he was the kind of jackass who would fool around with his bride’s sister, regardless of the circumstances. Even worse, I let him.

And enjoyed every last second of it.

“All right, lovebirds.” Rory’s face splits into a shit-eating grin as he speaks into the microphone. “Save some for the honeymoon.”

Cheeks heating, I release Finn at once, though his body’s on a ten-second delay. His grip on my waist lessens like he’s tentative, almost as if he doesn’t want to let me go.

Then he releases me and walks away.

The chaos Finn unleashed inside me remains, even after he’s removed himself from the dance floor, leaving me in his wake, hot, bothered, disturbed, and alone.

But I made it. I got through the wedding, the dance, and not one but two freaking life-altering kisses. Now I just have to?—

“Next, the bride would like to share a dance with her father.” Rory’s announcement jerks me back to the present.

Masking my absolute disgust requires Herculean effort.

I can’t even remember hugging my father once in the last twenty-three years.

Everything in me wants to back away as he approaches with that calculating look on his face I know all too well, as if thinking up all the ways he could put my half-dressed body to use.

When he steps into my personal space, the two little words he utters twist my stomach. “Smile pretty.”

Then, he opens his hand to me. Music strikes up around us, but I don’t accept his hand. I’m too horrified by the song Harper picked.

You Raise Me Up? More like You Beat Me Down .

When my father realizes I have no intention of doing this with him, he seizes my hand and squeezes tighter when I attempt to snatch it away. He drops his other giant, meaty paw onto my hip and yanks us in a circle.

I want to throw up. Want to antagonize him and show him I’m not as weak as I once was.

More than anything, I just want this dance to be over.

“You seem…comfortable in your sister’s place.”

I don’t bother to respond.

“It’s a good thing too.” He crowds me with his body, oppressing me with his sheer size. “Because you’re going to continue playing Finn’s happy little wifey until we find her. Wherever and whenever needed, you’re going to fill in. You’ll move back into the mansion for the time being.”

My fingers constrict inside his fist, anxious to rip his throat out. “Over my dead body . ” If looks could kill, I swear I’d glare at the bastard until he was a smoldering pile of ash on the floor. “I agreed to today and today only. After that, you’re on your own.”

“Is that how you show respect to your father?” He tsks in my ear. “What if I sent you a little wedding present and cut up those neighbors you love so much? Old Chinese couple and their grandkid…”

Fuck.

My stomach plummets. Just when I think when I think he can’t stoop any lower, he outdoes himself. Before this moment, I’d never considered patricide, but right now I could happily murder him for threatening the Zhangs. Their beautiful, innocent faces flash in my mind.

Thomas Brennan shows me that condescending little grin again. I’ve never wanted to knock the smile off someone’s face so badly.

Despite his jeering face, my father’s not joking. He’d think nothing of killing the Zhangs.

And that’s not a risk I’m willing to take.

“Fine. I’ll do it.” Cold fury laces my voice, and it’s an effort to keep what I can only hope is a pleasant expression plastered on my face. “Promise me you won’t harm the Zhangs, and I’ll keep up this farce until Harper comes back.”

“Wonderful. We have a deal.” He kisses my cheek as the song comes to an end. “I knew I could count on you.”

“May I cut in?” Shane Gallagher’s warm voice interrupts our bargaining.

My father nods and smiles, releasing me without a word and stepping aside. I watch him stalk off the dance floor, exhaling the breath trapped in my throat.

Harper’s awful selection for the father-daughter dance flows into a different track, and I relax just enough to remove my battle armor. The difference between the leader of the Kings and my father is night and day.

Shane Gallagher is an intimidating man, and just as capable of violence as the rest of mob. But while power and strength radiate from him, he never exudes the tendencies toward casual cruelty and selfishness that are part of Thomas Brennan’s innate personality.

Even now, Shane’s grip is gentle as he lifts my throbbing hand and draws me into a slow dance.

“Thank you,” I breathe.

“That’s what I was going to say to you.”

My eyes snap to the green-eyed gaze of Finn’s father. “Did I say that out loud?”

Shane breaks into open laughter, the sound light and hearty. Self-consciousness prickles at my skin.

I don’t know how to react. At all.

If I’m being honest, I can’t hide my surprise. The enigmatic Shane Gallagher boasts unmatched strategic prowess, like a chess master on steroids. Finn inherited his striking jawline, and despite the difference in color, his deep-set eyes. I can’t process that this is happening right now, let alone the kindness in his face.

“I want to thank you.”

“Me?” I’m floored. What can I—or my sister—have ever possibly done that’s worth Shane’s gratitude? “What for?”

“For marrying my son.”

I gulp. “You mean filling in for my sister?”

He studies my face for several long moments before a tiny, secretive smile lifts his lips. “Sure. Let’s go with that.”

What? My brow furrows, but he begins talking again before I can ask for clarification.

“My wife, Kath…she loved the theater. From Broadway to the West End and back again, she adored everything about going to shows. She kept every single playbill she ever got. Before we met, she used to wait in back alleys with the other die-hards for the chance to get them signed.”

I listen, resting my weary mind in the safety of this otherworldly moment.

“When my sons were young, she used to insist on family outings to the theater, as often as she could.”

Sons as in, more than one? Meaning Finn has a brother? How is it possible that I don’t know about this?

My brain conjures an image of Finn’s equally devastating brother before I can stop it and…god.

I force my brain to shut down the fantasy machine and keep listening.

“But I was too busy most of the time. This was during a turbulent period in the Kings’ history, and there was much that required my attention…” Shane leads us into another rotation, and as we spin, I catch a glimpse of Finn by the bar, his oldest friends loitering around him.

His brooding gaze fixes on me dancing with his father. My heart slams against my ribs when our eyes meet across the distance.

“She wanted us all to see Peter Pan , which had just opened. It was her favorite book when she was young, and the boys were wild for it when they were small…” Shane recalls with a fond lilt in his voice. “But the week we were scheduled to go to the show, Finn lost his temper on the playground and hit one of his classmates. He was a real hothead back then.”

A hothead? Finn? Maybe it’s because I’ve never seen him lose his cool, but it’s difficult for me to picture him as an angry little kid. If anything, he’s always seemed aloof and self-contained.

Today, in fact, is the only day where I’ve seen even a slight hint of a crack in that mask he always wears. His anger at me in the limo ride over here…his expression when I pulled our hungry lips apart…

I force the memory of that insane kiss away before lust overtakes me for the second time today.

“Well, what could we do? We didn’t want to reward bad behavior, so we agreed Finn would stay home. I was up to my ears work-wise, so I stayed back with him, and Kath and Oran went to the show.”

Oran Gallagher? Never heard his name spoken before now.

“I never found out if they enjoyed the show or not because they never came home.”

My heart careens through my chest. I draw back to meet Shane’s eyes, which swim with untamed emotion. “What do you mean?”

We stop moving to the music, and Shane takes both of my hands in his. “Finn doesn’t like to talk about the past. But…that night, Kath and Oran died on their way home from the show. The weather was terrible, and their cab driver lost control on a patch of black ice.”

My throat swells. I cannot breathe. I cannot say a single word.

“You can’t have been more than a baby back then.” He gives me a smile meant to ease my hurting heart, but the comfort doesn’t work. “Finn and I lost everything that night. He lost his mother and his best friend, and I lost the love of my life and my youngest son.”

Nothing could have prepared me for having my heartstrings twisted around Shane’s fingers.

“There’s no hope for me,” he admits, dropping his eyes to our hands, melded together between us. “Kathleen was and is the only woman I’ll ever love, but I always hoped Finn would start a family one day and find some way to be happy. And he got close once…” Shane’s expression darkens like storm clouds in the sky. “In the end, he followed in my footsteps and had to learn the pain of burying his love.”

A throbbing ache fills my chest, and my eyes burn.

“That broke him,” Shane continues.

Those three words act as a punch to the gut.

I’ll never forget seeing Finn a few days after his wife died, more crushed than I knew a person could be.

“He’s been downtrodden and ashamed, blaming himself, haunting his own life like a ghost…” Shane shakes his head, pained. “When I saw the opportunity for a fresh start for him, I jumped at the chance. I hoped a girl like you might teach Finn how to smile again.”

My heart twists. “You mean a girl like Harper,” I mumble.

He ignores my reply as the song around us begins to fade to a close. Instead of a new one drifting into the dying silence of the former, only quiet comes out of the speakers.

“Promise me,” Shane urges.

The full force of today steamrolls me at once.

The jumbled ball of yarn that is my mind comes undone, the threads unwinding from one another. I see it now . The puzzle I’ve been trying to solve in my mind since I saw through my father’s bullshit…the pieces are coming together.

The shipment. Harper and Finn’s engagement. My dad needing me to fill in. Dancing with Shane clarified things.

And the picture forming in my mind tells me I should run.

Right now. Book it the hell out of here, while I still can.

The fact that I escaped this family once was a total fluke. I feel in my bones that I won’t be so lucky a second time.

I never want to be used again. And still, a crazy voice inside me dares to ask, but what if I let myself be used for the sake of a guy like Finn ?

I need psychiatric attention. Because despite my better judgment, despite the fact that Finn is Harper’s betrothed and not mine, my heart has been stirred into the mix. I hurt not only for Finn but for Shane as well and want to do what I can to reassure him.

That’s why when I open my mouth, a promise tumbles out.

“I’ll be good to him,” I find myself saying. “I’ll love him extra, for all the people who aren’t here. All the people who can’t.”

The scariest part is that I’m not sure I’m acting.