I groan inwardly.
I am not looking forward to this conversation.
And bloody hell, Keenan isn’t alone.
Jesus.
I open the door to Keenan and Cormac with a sigh. Nolan likely would’ve come as well, but he’s on his honeymoon. Cormac looks at my sodden clothing but doesn’t say a word. They sit around Megan’s decidedly feminine living room, decorated in whites and pinks and grays. Cormac dwarfs a little loveseat, and Keenan sits by the fireplace.
And she thought she was in trouble with me.
“Carson, you alright?” Cormac asks. His heavy brows draw together over his green eyes, his frown still noticeable despite his heavy beard. He glances over my clothes.
“Aye,” I tell him with a sigh. Keenan’s the only one who knows my errand to Stone City, so I have to be careful what I say. “Got caught in the rain.”
“Did you, now?” Cormac asks.
“Aye.”
“Where’s Megan?” Keenan asks.
I jerk my thumb behind me. “Shower.”
“I see.”
I’m glad Nolan’s away. He’s the closest with Megan. They were born the same year, went through the stages of life at the same time. If he suspected there’s anything going on between me and Megan, he’d want to know, and he’d want to fucking warn me.
Or kill me.
One or the other.
We’re like brothers, but she’s his flesh and blood.
Megan chooses that precise time to exit her bedroom door. Poor girl likely didn’t know she’d come out to the leaders of the McCarthy Clan arranged around her living room. She’s wearing a light purple dress with a low, deep vee in the front, and strappy little sandals. The dress accentuates every curve, from the fullness of her breasts to her gorgeous thighs. I want to kiss my way down her temple to her pinky toe, until she’s moaning and wet.
She takes one look at the men assembled in her living room, squeaks like a mouse in a trap, and brings her hand to her mouth. She steps back as if to retreat to her room, but Keenan’s sharp voice arrests her.
“In here, Megan,” he says sternly, his arms crossed on his chest.
As the eldest, the one with the most authority, all obey him.
With a sigh, she comes back in. She looks around the room, from Cormac’s serious face to Keenan’s, completely devoid of any sympathy, then looks at me. Finally, she crosses the room and sits at one of the dining chairs.
“Y’alright, lass?” Cormac asks softly.
She swallows and nods, meeting his eyes.
“Almost forgot, Carson,” Keenan says, holding up a sack. “Got you some dry clothes.”
“Aye, thank you.” He tosses the bag to me, but I don’t move to get up. “I’ll get changed,” I tell her. “And you can begin by telling them all why you were at Stone City.”
I go to her room and open the door but leave it ajar. I want to hear every word.
She begins by mumbling, but I yell from her bedroom. “Louder. I want to hear every word.”
She raises her voice so loudly you’d think she was sportscasting for a stadium of deaf people. I grit my teeth. Keenan says something to her, and her voice modulates a bit.
I dress quickly then rejoin them. “And I didn’t mean anything by it,” she says. “I really just wanted to go and visit the old haunts Eve and I used to visit is all.”
But I’m not buying it. That isn’t her reason. Did she see something when she came to my flat that made her suspicious of me?
“Did you have a guard with you?” Keenan asks, his green eyes piercing hers.
Here we go.
She shifts and looks away. “No.”
“Why not?” Cormac asks. His usual placid face is drawn and stern. Neither of them are happy with her. I’d feel bad for her, if I didn’t think she deserved every bit of this. If I wasn’t afraid for her safety myself.
“Because I don’t like going about with the guard, Cormac,” she says. “For Christ’s sake, I’m a grown woman.”
Cormac shakes his head. “As is Aileen. And Sheena. And Caitlin. And mam. Every damn one of them, fully grown women, capable and intelligent. Not a one of them leaves this property without the guard.”
Her brows draw together, and she frowns, her full lips drawn downward into a pout. Christ, I want to kiss those pouty lips and make her mine.
“And they let you,” Keenan says. “Did you see anyone else?”
“Wellll,” she says. She bites her lip and twists a strand of her curly locks between her fingers. “I may have seen Lachlan.”
“Did he try to stop you?” Keenan asks, his eyes dangerously dark and stern. Keenan knows he did, because he got a text from Lachlan himself, but it seems he wants the truth straight from Megan. Her side of the story, as it were.
She nods with a sigh. “Well, aye, yeah,” she says. “But I… well, I left when he went into the house for his keys.”