AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Me,” she said. “I walked in with him. No one asked you to join us. The world knows, Dad. Why shouldn’t the man I love support me on this difficult day? Didn’t you always say I should be with a strong man? What was it you said I needed?” Her eyes went to their top corners as she searched her recollection. “A real man. Someone with a… clear head? Smarts? Bold?” A fake smile spread across her lips. “Full marks. My guy hits all those markers and then some. Toss another couple at me, I bet he’ll pass those too.”
“L… love?” he said and shook his head. Trust him to have only heard part of her statement. “This is—it’s an insult to everything my father died for.”
“What did he die for, Dad? If you know, if you’re so sure, tell me. What did Grandpapa die for?”
“It wasn’t for this. It wasn’t for an abuse of your position in—”
In the same moment he stopped speaking, fingertips trailed down her upper arm. No need to check who could make her shiver like that. She swayed back, resting her weight on his body.
“Go relax, Macushla.” Twisting to peek up at him, his cool gaze remained on her father. “I’ve got this. Strat.”
Her friend put an arm around her, and she went with his guidance. If Conn wanted to speak to her father, there was no reason to stop him. Maybe he’d have more luck. She’d been trying for a couple of decades and hadn’t yet broken through to him.
“I can’t even look.” Her elbows landed on the bar as Strat reached over to signal the bartender. “Is it carnage?”
“Something stiff and Irish,” Strat said, ordering drinks.
She blew out a laugh. “Maybe if we were alone. But in front of all these people…”
Strat rubbed her back. “They have to face off sometime. Better in a room of people where they should keep their pistols in their holsters. You must’ve known this would happen.”
“I haven’t had time to… It didn’t occur to me that this would ever happen.”
“Are you sorry it did?”
Turning her gaze up to him, she didn’t have to think twice. “I don’t know how I ever lived without him, Strat.”
His scrutiny narrowed like he really wanted to look into her. “How much faith do you have in him? How much do you trust him?”
“Completely.”
“Family comes first. His family.”
“Yes, and I will never ask him to act in any way that could hurt the family. They’re my family too. They’re your family. We’re family.” She took his hand. “Are you sorry? Outing us to them? If you want to walk away—”
“I never would,” he said, swiping his thumb across her cheek. “Not sure I’d trust you to play nice with anyone else.”
“True. You already know my secrets. No chance I’m opening up to anyone else.”
“Do you tell McDade your secrets?”
She straightened when the bartender put two glasses down. “Some of them.” She raised her glass to his. “Sláinte.”
They both drank. Strat sipped, she tossed hers back in one and discarded the empty glass on the bar.
“No prizes for guessing what you withheld. If you want to be part of the family, he has to know everything. That’s the price of admission. Your business becomes his. Everything. Especially something that could come back to bite you on the ass.”
“It will not come back to—”
“The history of people being bitten on the ass by secrets they’ve said won’t be found out doesn’t land in your favor, Scamp. The truth will get out eventually; it always does.”
“You’ve told me that before.”
“Apparently, you weren’t listening. Trust me, Scamp. I can keep you safe from street scum and traitorous assassins. The guy in your bed?” His head shook. “I can’t keep you safe from that.”
Their gazes locked, but the assessment only lasted a few seconds. Strat nodded behind her and she turned to Connel directing her father through people and past tables toward them.
“Everything okay?” she asked, not convinced by their expressions that the matter was closed.
