“I can see why you’d think that,” he says. “But the truth is, it’s the only way.”
“The only way to what? Keep your nose clean?”
My mother would’ve backhanded me for mouthing off to a man of the cloth, but for Christ’s sake I have no patience. Not when it comes to Eve’s death. Not when I have to plan vengeance, fucking alone.
“No, Carson. To maintain the peace of Ballyhock. What you boys do is on your own terms, and you know that. I don’t interfere. I don’t agree with everything you do, but I give you space to act how you think you should.”
Of course he does. He couldn’t control us if he tried. “But if I get too involved, I fail to be neutral. And I can’t do that.”
“But you’re a McCarthy. How can you be neutral? By birth you’ve already defied neutrality. You’re the brother of Seamus McCarthy.”
His jaw tightens, and for the briefest of moments, his eyes grow hard. “Because I serve both my family and God. And no, I haven’t given you enough information to simply anger you. I came to you because I know Eve’s death was no accident. I want justice for her, and for you. But going to Keenan brings war to Ballyhock.”
Always avoiding war. Always looking for a peaceable solution when none fucking exists.
I sigh. I know there’s no moving him, and there’s no point in needling him if it gets me nowhere.
“Can you at least tell me everything you know?”
Dread suffuses me at the thought of facing any of this without the backing of my brothers, or worse, having to deceive them.
“I will,” he says. “You have my word.”
I’ve never fed the flames of revenge. I’ve never sought justice for the life of someone I loved. I’ve never plotted to betray the men whose lives I’ve vowed to defend.
But tonight… tonight, everything’s changed.Chapter 2Megan“Honest to God, Megan, I understand what you’re saying.” Aileen McCarthy, wife to my cousin Cormac, has had so much to drink her eyes are unfocused, and she’s having trouble standing. Her long blonde hair’s in a messy blob on top of her head, swinging precariously when she takes another drink. She holds her glass out to me, and instead of filling it, I take it from her and put it in the sink.
She frowns. “Hey!”
“Hey yourself,” I tell her. “If we send you home drunk off your arse, that behemoth of a husband of yours will come out swinging, and I’m not in the mood for wrestling cavemen this week.”
Her husband Cormac, one of my cousins, is overprotective to a fault. He doesn’t want to see her harmed, even if she brought it on herself.
“Go on,” I tell her, trying to change the subject. “You were saying you understood me.”
I flop back on my couch and lean against Caitlin. Wife to Keenan, she’s the one I’ve known the longest, and we’ve grown to be close over the years. Caitlin had one glass of wine and has had nothing but sparkling water with lemon ever since.
“Aye,” Aileen says. She plops on the floor and tucks her legs under herself. “I mean, a woman has needs,” she says. “And sex is one of them.”
Sheena snorts. The redhead betrothed to my cousin Nolan, she’s snarkier than Aileen and Caitlin, and pulls no punches. She’s sitting on a high stool by the kitchen bar, the sash she wore all night now limp and dangling from her like a deflated balloon.
Bride to Be, it reads in glittering gold letters.
“You girls talk as if you don’t get it on the regular day and night with those men of yours,” Sheena says. “But I know the McCarthy men. And there ain’t a one of them that doesn’t have the libido of a testosterone-infused caveman.”
I cringe. “Right, then, not sure I want to talk in too much detail about this. Those men you’re fucking are my cousins.”
The girls only laugh. Caitlin flushes a bit, but Aileen’s clearly had too much to drink.
“Come off it, Megan,” she says with a grin. “You were the one that brought it up.”
“Aye,” I said. “A decision I’ve come to regret.”
The girls laugh, and we pour another round. We’ve gone to the pubs, watched a play at the theater, eaten more junk food than we have in a decade, and toasted Sheena and Nolan’s imminent wedding with glee. They’ve been with each other now for two years. Sheena swore off marriage, insisting it wasn’t for the likes of her, even after she and Nolan became legal guardians of Sheena’s younger siblings. But Nolan somehow managed to convince her.
They’ve chosen a simple ceremony, just the Clan members and their families. Sheena has no relatives alive anymore, and all her friends are sitting right here in this room.
“Now, now, Megan,” Caitlin says with a coy smile. “It’s well and good to talk about a woman’s needs. After all, if you don’t know exactly what it is you need, how can you ask for it?”