Page 44 of Dark Succession (The O’Malleys #1)

“You’re worse than Teague is with playing the martyr.” Carrigan sighed. “No wonder he’s head over heels in love with you.”

She’d known he cared. Of course she’d known he cared. He wouldn’t have acted the way he had, or touched her with such tenderness, if he didn’t care on one level. But that didn’t matter now. “Even if he did before, he won’t now. Not when Devlin was killed because of a war I started.”

“You didn’t kill my brother.”

“I might as well have. They were out for vengeance for Brendan’s death.”

Carrigan rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin on her hands.

“I can’t say I’m sorry to hear that you’re the one who put that monster into the ground.

My father was considering selling me off to him before your engagement was announced.

I would have put a bullet in his brain before I walked down the aisle, too. ”

“It wasn’t like that.” She wouldn’t have done it if she had any other choice.

“Who cares? It’s done and the world is a better place for it. Teague knows that, same as I do.”

“But—”

“Boston has been a powder keg waiting to be lit for years. With the patriarchs getting older and the heirs a few short years from taking over, there’s a flux coming. That scares people. If you weren’t the match that set it off, someone else would have been.”

“That’s easy for you to say when I’m the one who set it off.”

Carrigan sighed. “How about I put this another way? Do you think for a second that my father, proud asshole that he is, would sit back and let your family and the Hallorans create an alliance through marriage?”

She hadn’t really thought about anything beyond her panic at the thought of being married to a man known for his mistreatment of helpless women.

Callie sank onto the chair and actually thought about it.

By all accounts—and she’d seen nothing to disprove it in her direct interactions with the man—Seamus O’Malley was just as prideful and violent as Victor Halloran.

Judging by how Halloran was reacting to her and Teague’s marriage, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that Seamus would have done something similar. “We can’t know that for sure.”

“Sure we can. I’m an expert on my father.

The insult alone would have him out for blood, and the possibility that your two families would crush ours in the middle?

Yeah, he’d come gunning for both of you—and he’d strike first, before you had a chance to.

” Carrigan rolled on her back. “Or, take it a step further. Maybe if your father had refused the marriage offer, that would have made Victor Halloran declare war all on his own.”

“But—”

“Really, there’s more than enough blame to go around. No matter which way you swing it, this started before you pulled the trigger. If Brendan’s death hadn’t been enough to start a war, then something else would have happened and that would have been an inciting incident.”

Callie opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. The more she thought about it, the more Carrigan’s argument solidified in her mind. She tried to come up with a scenario that didn’t end in war… and came up short. She frowned. “You’re wasted as a pawn in marriage.”

Carrigan laughed. “Try telling that to my father.”

It was a crying shame for such a calculating mind to be relegated to such an archaic role. Callie might have agreed to an arranged marriage, but it had ultimately been her choice. Carrigan didn’t even have that. “I’m sorry.”

“You have a nasty habit of apologizing for things that you have no control of.”

“That doesn’t make me any less sorry. You deserve better than that.

” She didn’t have to like the woman to recognize that.

But it put Carrigan’s actions in a completely new light.

Callie compared herself to a caged bird when she was feeling melodramatic, but she had a lot of freedom.

And, one day, she would run the Sheridan empire.

Carrigan truly was caged. If her father was really forcing her to marry a man of his choice—and Callie had no reason to believe otherwise—then she couldn’t blame the woman for escaping every chance she got.

Speaking of… “Where did you go the other night? I mean, I assume something went wrong because you ended up here.” She motioned to the room they were currently locked in.

“I went out for a bit of air, and that jackass James grabbed me.”

Callie started to ask about the man the bartender had seen her with, but changed her mind at the last minute. Carrigan was entitled to her secrets. She glanced at the window. “I think it’s dark enough.”

“Thank God.” She stood and walked to the door. “Just give me a minute to change and I’ll have us out of here.”

She pressed her ear to the door as Carrigan changed into the sweats—she had to roll them four times and knot the drawstring to keep them from falling off—and crouched next to the keyhole, holding her breath.

If they were found out now, there was nothing stopping James or whoever caught them from killing them on the spot.

They’d been promised death, after all. There was nothing but silence on the other side of the door.

She closed her eyes, listening harder. Was that a rustle? Was there someone standing right on the other side, listening just as hard as she was, knowing exactly what the soft clicks of Carrigan’s tools in the lock meant?

This is the only way. You die now, or you die how the Hallorans choose.

When she looked at it like that, there wasn’t really any choice at all. She couldn’t just sit here and wait for the ax to fall, proverbial or otherwise. Now was the time for action.

“Got it.” Carrigan’s words were barely more than a whisper.

“Just a second.” Callie padded over to grab the lamp. It was unwieldy, but any weapon was better than no weapon at this point.

Carrigan nodded. She took the other lamp and then cracked open the door.

They waited, but no one burst into the room and no sound of alarm went up.

Apparently James was confident in his people’s ability to keep them contained in the house without a guard.

Well, he was about to be proven wrong. Callie slipped into the hallway, followed by Carrigan, padding on bare feet.

She would have liked to get the other woman a pair of shoes that weren’t heels, but James’s were almost comically too large. So bare feet it was.

She silently counted the doors as they moved past them. One. Two. Still, no one in the hallway but them. Three. She pointed to the third door. Carrigan tried the handle and it opened with only the slightest creak.

Footsteps in the hallway behind them had them both spinning around.

James stood at the top of the stairs, his eyes narrowed.

Callie tensed, waiting for the moment he’d sound the alarm.

Even with two of them against one of him, she doubted they’d win in a fight.

He walked to them slowly, his gaze flickering over her and landing on Carrigan.

She raised her chin. “Come to drag us back to our cage?”

“No.” He snagged the back of her neck and dragged her against him.

The kiss was quick and brutal and left Callie feeling like the worst kind of voyeur.

James stepped back, easily evading Carrigan’s left hook.

“You and me, lovely, we’re not fucking finished.

Not by a long shot.” Then he turned around and walked away .

Callie stared after him, unable to believe what just happened. “Did he just—”

“I’m going to kill him.”

She grabbed Carrigan’s arm. “Let’s go. I don’t want him to suddenly change his mind.” Though the look on his face made her think he wouldn’t. Obviously things between him and Carrigan were significantly more complicated than the woman had let on.

After a slight hesitation, she nodded and let Callie lead her through the door.

The room wasn’t a bedroom. It looked sort of like a study, but the shelves were mostly empty, and the few pieces of furniture all had a light coating of dust across them.

She moved immediately to the window and pushed it open.

“It’s only a short drop to the garage roof.

” When no one answered, she turned to find Carrigan holding a book, frowning at it. “What?”

“Nothing.” She shut the book. “I’m bringing this with me.”

It would make it more difficult to maneuver with her carrying something, but Callie didn’t point that out.

Whatever that book was, the other woman thought it important enough to set her lamp aside and tuck it against her chest. She motioned to the window.

“The coast looks clear, but there’s no way to know what we’re walking into. ”

“Anything’s better than staying here.”

“Then let’s not waste any more time.” Callie sat on the windowsill and shifted one of her legs outside.

She waited for one breathless moment, but only the distant caw of a crow answered her.

So far, so good. She set her lamp on the floor, climbed the rest of the way out, and dropped the few feet onto the garage roof .

Instantly, she crouched down, trying to minimize the chance of someone seeing a human-shaped shadow where it shouldn’t be.

The yard below her was as empty as the street beyond it, but she couldn’t afford to assume that the Hallorans had no guards set up.

He’d be a fool to assume there wasn’t the potential for attack. No, they were there. Somewhere.

Carrigan joined her on the roof with a light thud.

She looked to Callie, obviously willing to follow her lead.

It felt strange after the woman had basically ripped her a new one on two different occasions, but she didn’t hesitate to shuffle along the roofline, keeping as low as she could.

The pitch was steep, but the newish roof gave them plenty of traction.

She aimed for the part of the slant closest to the ground—and furthest away from the bright floodlights positioned strategically around the back.

They’d have to brave those to get to the street, and even then it was a long ten blocks to territory that wasn’t owned by the Hallorans—not including skirting the warehouses surrounding the highway.

One step at a time.

“You hear about the entertainment the boss has scheduled for tomorrow?”

She froze on the edge of the roof, tucked up against the body of the house. God, how hadn’t she noticed the man standing down in the shadows, the bright red spot of his cigarette burning in the darkness? A second ember rose. A second man. Damn it .

“Pretty girls. Almost a shame.”

The first man laughed, the harsh hack of a longtime smoker. “Only a shame if he doesn’t share.” He kept laughing, joined by the other speaker .

Callie looked over at Carrigan, but she couldn’t see anything beyond the pale shape of the woman’s face.

Did she feel as sick as Callie did hearing that?

Because, right now, she was torn between the urge to descend on these two monsters like an avenging Valkyrie, and the need to expel the meager contents of her stomach.

She managed to resist both impulses.

They needed to get out of here alive. That meant not attacking anyone unless there was no other choice. And throwing up was for the weak. If she got out of this, there would be plenty of time to be sick. Right now, she had to hold it together.

So she waited and tried very hard not to listen to all the things Halloran had planned to do to them. It was cold comfort to know that Brendan—and apparently Ricky—came by his monstrous side honestly. Sins of the father and whatnot.

Eventually the men finished their smoke break and wandered off.

Callie counted to one hundred mentally before she moved.

She touched Carrigan’s arm and motioned to the same nook the men had stood in.

Then she slid down the side off the roof and lowered herself to drop to the ground.

She moved to the side as Carrigan followed her, once again scanning for someone who might catch them.

Once the other woman stood, she leaned in.

“I think we can get to the street around this corner. The lights are pretty bright, but there are trees that we can use as cover.”

“Works for me.”

Callie sidled along the edge of the house, took a deep breath, and leaned out a little to look around the corner.

Nothing. She glanced back to nod the all clear.

Her heart tried to pound its way out of her chest as she took that first step into the yard.

Even though they’d been at risk before, she felt significantly more vulnerable without a wall at her back. Another step.

When no one shouted at her to stop, she picked up her pace, aiming for the closest tree. She was almost there when a dark shape stepped into her path and a hand slammed down on her mouth, cutting off her scream.