Page 11 of Stolen Rival (The Stolen #1)

PATRICK

Every drop of blood drains from the face of the redhead sitting beside me. Her mouth opens and closes, but nothing comes out.

“What’s the matter, mo mhuirnín ? Cat got your tongue?”

“You… I… you can’t.” Breaths saw in and out of her chest, a sure sign she’s verging on a panic attack. She clutches her shirt in a tight fist, knuckles white.

“I can’t what? Know about the brother your father kept hidden for eighteen years?

” I laugh. “Sweet, innocent Sorcha McCarthy. Protected, or rather over-protected, by her family. They really should have prepared you for the realities of life. It must be a rude awakening to realize you’re powerless, rudderless.

” My smile is cruel. I know that without even looking in a mirror.

“All alone. Except for Cathal, that is.”

Her spine elongates, shoulders pressing into the soft leather seat. “If you hurt him, I’ll kill you.”

I reach out a hand and tuck a stray curl behind her ear. She jerks away from me, as if my touch burns her. Threading my fingers into her hair, I gently tug her head to one side, exposing her pale neck, a rapid pulse hammering in her throat.

“What happens to him depends on you, mo mhuirnín .”

“Wh-what does that mean?”

I release her, giving my attention to the blur of hedgerows out the window.

It’s pleasing me to keep her on edge. Why give her all the answers so easily?

Let her sweat. Let her fucking worry. Her family almost ruined everything.

Plans that were months in the making. Just because she appears to be an innocent bystander doesn’t mean she gets a free pass.

She’s still a McCarthy. And that means she’s the enemy.

An enemy who will soon be in my bed. In my life. For as long as my cousin lives, that is. As soon as I’ve secured the American business, and he’s in the ground, then I’ll get rid of her. I haven’t yet decided whether that will be with a bullet to her brain, or a divorce.

Either way, our enforced arrangement isn’t going to last. Niamh was different.

She’d have been a terrific wife, a great mother.

She was shy, introverted, a woman who knew her place in the hierarchy we inhabit.

That’s not to say women aren’t in positions of power.

In my organization, they are. But Niamh was a gentle soul.

She didn’t have the constitution necessary to rise within the ranks. That’s why she was perfect for me.

But this spitfire, she’s built for more. If we’d encountered one another in a different life, she’d have made a great partner. An equal.

Except I don’t need a fucking equal. I need a stooge. Someone who will play the part I write for them and remember that ad-libbing brings consequences.

Time is short. My cousin will have heard about Niamh’s untimely death by now, and he’ll want to know what I plan to do about it.

I can avoid his calls for a week, maybe two, but after that, I need to present plan B.

And plan B needs to know her place, namely, mouth shut unless she’s talking from the script I’ve given her.

Considering the malevolent expression on the face of the woman sitting beside me, it’s going to take coercion to bring her to heel.

Which is the entire reason we’re on our way to Brannock House.

Truly, I couldn’t have planned this better. If she didn’t have this Achilles heel, there’s not a chance this side of hell she’d have come around. No, this wildcat would have fought me all the way.

Now… I hold all the cards, and I know exactly how to play them.

“I said, what does that mean?”

I twist my head slowly. “I heard you the first time.”

“Then answer me.”

One corner of my mouth lifts. “It’s endearing how you think you have any power in this situation. Let me make it clear. You don’t.”

“I mean it, Mahoney. If you hurt a single hair on my brother’s head, I will put you in the ground.”

My sinister smirk has her shrinking back in her seat.

“And pray tell, how would you do that exactly? Hmm? You’re a slip of a girl whose neck I could snap like that.

” I click my fingers in front of her face, and she shrinks away from me.

“Don’t use threats you’re not prepared to carry out. You might give me one too many ideas.”

Her lips flatten, and her eyes fill with ferocious intent. As I turn away, my lips lift again. I’m starting to think this might be more fun than I’d originally thought.

“All you have to do is play the dutiful fiancée, walk down the aisle when I decide it’s time, say the words to the nice priest, and I guarantee your brother’s safety.

Choose otherwise and, well…” I hitch a shoulder, the threat not needing to be said, but I say it anyway.

“And the two of you will be the ones in the ground.”

Her hands tremble at my threat. She clasps them together, pressing them into her lap. For the rest of the journey, she remains silent. As the car pulls into a visitor’s space at the care home her brother has spent his entire life in, I unclip my seat belt and shift to face her.

“A piece of friendly advice. If you make any trouble, you will live to regret it.”

For a second, her eyes shimmer with tears, but she blinks them away. “Why have you even brought me here?”

“Don’t you want to see your brother?”

“Of course, I want to see him. But not like this. Not with you breathing down my neck and pressing a gun to my head.”

“A metaphorical gun, mo mhuirnín. It’s when you don’t do as I say that I’ll use the real gun to persuade you.” I pat the side of my chest where my holstered weapon lies. “Shall we go? I’m eager to meet my future brother-in-law.”

She makes a frustrated sound, and I’m pretty sure mutters bastard under her breath, then alights from the car without any fuss. I join her, grabbing hold of her hand as she begins to march off.

“Come now, fiancée. We’re supposed to be in love.”

She stops, smiles up at me with a saccharine grin, then lifts my hand to her lips, her eyes locked on mine. The air I’d been in the process of expelling gets stuck in my throat as her lips brush over my forefinger in a barely there kiss—right before her teeth sink in deep.

“Fuuuuccckkk!” I snatch my hand away, blood spurting from the wound. She grins at me, teeth red with my blood.

“Serves you fucking right, you blackmailing arsehole. ” She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, then stomps toward the entrance.

My driver holds out a bunch of tissues. Glowering, I snatch them from him, wrap them around my finger, and thank Christ my tetanus injections are up to date. I follow my betrothed into the building, and by the time the door clicks shut behind me, she’s already halfway up the first set of stairs.

Muttering curses under my breath, I take off after her. The reception staff don’t even attempt to stop me, probably terrified by my murderous expression. When I reach her brother’s room, she’s already inside.

Drawing in a deep breath, I push open the door.

She’s by the window, crouching beside a wheelchair where her brother sits.

The expression on her face is one of genuine adoration and love.

Something pulls tight in my chest as she brushes a lock of hair off his forehead.

She shows no signs of even being aware I’m there as she talks in low tones I have to strain to hear.

“Hey, buddy. I’m sorry I haven’t been by for a few days.”

As expected, there’s no response from him, but that doesn’t stop her from carrying on.

“It’s lovely outside today. Do you want to go out into the gardens? We could feed the ducks. You love the ducks, don’t you, Cathal?” She dashes at her cheek. I think it’s a tear, although I can’t be sure from this angle.

Rising to her feet, she moves behind his wheelchair and grips the handles. After deactivating the foot brake, she pushes him toward me without even acknowledging I’m standing in the doorway. I move to let her pass, then follow her down a tiled hallway that leads to the back of the facility .

Outside, extensive lawns are surrounded by thick shrubbery, towering trees, and colorful spring flowers. In the center is a large lake where, sure enough, mallards bob in the water, occasionally ducking their heads, their webbed feet waggling in the air.

Sorcha smooths a hand over her brother’s head, the tender movement yanking on that fucking uncomfortable feeling in my chest again.

It isn’t guilt, or remorse. I’m incapable of either.

It’s… envy, maybe. My parents, God rest their souls, weren’t the most expressive of people, and Liam and Darragh would mock me until the end of time if I suggested even a group hug.

But there’s something about the way she acts around him that, unfortunately for me, has taught me one thing.

There’s no fucking way on this planet I could hurt this kid, despite what I said to my brothers about him not being a kid.

He’s exactly that, a child in an adult’s body, and he both needs and deserves protection.

The truth doesn’t matter though. All I have to do is make sure Sorcha believes I might hurt him to have her right where I want her.

“—inside and get some duck food?”

I rake a hand through my hair, frowning. “What?”

A muscle flickers along her jaw and she almost rolls her eyes, then appears to think better of it. “Duck food. There’s a machine just inside the back door. One euro for a little bag of seeds. You have a euro, don’t you?”

She’s mocking me, but I’ll let it slide for now. “Yes, I have a fucking euro.”

“Just a euro will do. I don’t like cussing around my brother.”

Muttering all manner of curses under my breath, I pivot and return to the facility like some kind of fucking lapdog. Once we’re out of here, I’ll need to reassert my authority over Little Miss Bossy Knickers.

Pushing two euros into the coin slot, I wait for the packets of seeds to drop. Fishing them out of the tray at the bottom of the machine, I return to the lake.

“Here.”

“Thanks.” Her fingers skim my palm as she swipes them from my hand. A faint tremor of pleasure skips up my spine. Attraction isn’t necessary for me to wed, but it sure fucking helps make the medicine go down a little easier. Although with the hellion redhead, it’s probably more like poison.

“I’ll leave you to it and wait in the car.”

Ignoring me, she rips open a packet of seeds and places a few in her brother’s hand, then helps him to throw them.

I turn away, that fucking pressure on my chest a granite boulder. Rubbing it, I shake my head, and almost as surprising to me as it would be to anyone else watching me right now, I smile.

Now that she believes she knows what’s at stake, it’s time to test if my fiancée can behave herself in front of others—and put a few McCarthy captains in their place.