Page 51 of Queen Crow
I sigh and put down the spoon, glancing around to make sure no one else is here to eavesdrop on this moment. I’d rather have it later in my room but now's the time.
“He wants to marry me. He wants to be my husband, which I know is a big deal, and I told him I’d have to speak to you. I wasn’t just going to agree without… without your input.”
He nods slowly and looks out at the dining room, the table still wet with the bleach from his scrubbing. I have no idea what he’s thinking and that kills me.
“If that’s what you want, then do it, Queenie. Marriage isn’t a deal breaker for me, as long as you’re still mine at the end of it.”
My heart stutters in my chest. “How can you say that? How can that just be okay with you? I feel like a monster just for suggesting it.”
He shrugs and leans against the countertop, crossing his arms over his chest and raising his eyebrow at me. “My Dad owned my Mom. I’m never going to treat you like that. If you love him and want to marry him, then do it.”
“I can’t believe how calm you are about this.”
His grin is full of the O’Cronin charm, dirty and with an edge to it. “If he gets to call you his wife, then the first baby is mine. Those are my terms.”
Jesus fucking Christ. “So this has become a negotiation? You’re bartering for my womb right now.”
He chuckles under his breath, like this isn’t an incredibly offensive and childish conversation we’re having, and I try my best not to stomp my foot like a child about it.
“Queenie, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you happy… and to keep you. If he wants to make demands, then I’ll happily meet him in the middle. This is the middle—he’ll either come to the party or miss the fuck out.”
I’m still a little insulted. “I’m not marrying him right now and I’m certainly not having anyone’s babies in the next ten years either. I have plans that don’t involve being swollen and miserable.”
He shrugs in that easy way of his. “I’m just letting you know that it’ll be an O’Cronin growing in there the first time around. He doesn’t get fucking everything just because he’s the Crow.”
This is how I imagine the rest of my life will go, these negotiations and little wars waged with each other… and I don’t hate it.
It’s exactly what I need and I love them both for it.
Chapter Seventeen
I ride down to the docks of Mounts Bay to the Twelve meeting in the Escalade with Lips and the guys, all together again just like old times. I get the front seat and Harley drives, still furious with Blaise over the incident that has the bus looking like a mess in my driveway. I don’t comment on it, mostly because I’m sure some part of the story will infuriate me at how stupid they’ve acted.
Lips is silent in the back, her phone in her hand and her teeth gnawing at her bottom lip. Morrison is watching her closely, his arm around her shoulders as he leans in to kiss her shoulder and murmur quietly in her ear. Ash is surly looking, his hand tracing patterns on her thigh as he stares out into the city with a scowl on his face, deep in thought.
The Graves issue isn’t going to just disappear and if we’re not careful, it could take over our lives.
Harley directs the car down to the same parking lot that we’d parked at for the lingerie party, squeezing the car in between the Rolls Royce and the Impala there.
We step out of the car together, looking like a very wealthy gang of deviants and playboys, and isn’t that just the most appropriate thing? Aodhan steps around the Impala to hold out a hand for me, tucking me into his side as he shakes Harley’s hand.
Harley smirks at him and then it drops away as he groans and mutters, “What the fuck is he doing down here? I thought we agreed to go to this shit without bringing anyone else in?”
I glance around and find Jack’s younger brother Cian leaning against the car. He’s not much younger than me, only about six months between him and Harley, but I know that Harley and Aodhan have worked hard to keep the other O’Cronins away from anything Twelve and gang related.
“He’s here to find Patrick, who heard there was a party happening tonight and mysteriously disappeared. He’s a fucking shit and he’s going to end up dead if we can’t get him outta this rebellious phase of his,” Aodhan grumbles, and then there’s a shout from behind us.
We all turn to find Atticus and Luca walking out of the huge warehouse, ten of their men with them, and one of them holding a very drunk and raging Patrick.
“For fuck’s sake,” Aodhan snarls, and lets me go to stalk over.
Harley takes off after him, the family ties between them are getting stronger the more time they spend together. Harley might have happily left the running of the O’Cronin family to his cousin, but now that he’s had the chance to know his cousins, he’s not just going to abandon them.
I’m waiting for Atticus to say something particularly asshole-ish to Aodhan about his cousin but he doesn’t, they only have a few quiet words shared between them before Atticus waves at the man holding Patrick to hand him over.
Aodhan gets one hand under Patrick’s arm and yanks him over to the Impala, snarling at him with a slew of threats and cussing that has Ash and Morrison snickering at the scene, as Cian opens the door and helps shove his little brother in. Aodhan slams the door after him and then hands the keys over to Cian and snaps, “Take him home, and if there is so much as a speck of dirt on this car when I get back, I’m throwing you both off of the docks with weights for fucking shoes. Leave.Go.”
Cian is a little less jolly than his brother, his face a little pale as he glances around at all of the underground crime lords and members of the now- fabled Family standing there watching him ferry his drunk brother home.