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Ewen spoke up. ‘I’ve a mind to kill the fucker.’
A loud babble of agreement rang out throughout the space until Logan once more raise his hand.
‘We will hear their demands, and then we will let him go with our response. We don’t need anyone doing anything rash,’ he said, glancing at me, ‘while they have Mac.’
I pressed myself more firmly back against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest.
Before long, the door opened and Jack nodded at Logan before letting a man walk through the door and into the room. He must have been absolutely shitting his pants. Dozens of eyes turned his way, and the atmosphere took on an even thicker, more insidious vibe. To his credit, he squared his shoulders and stepped up to the long table where my brothers and their closest men sat.
‘Griff,’ Logan said, almost spitting the word at him.
‘Logan,’ Griff responded with one of those stiff nods that guys who don’t want to touch each other seem to do.
‘Every man in this room wants to have your balls off and ram them down your throat, so I’d get to the point. Fast.’ Ewen’s hand fisted on the table as he spoke.
Griff held up his hands. ‘Don’t shoot the messenger, guys. I don’t want to be here any more than you guys want me to be here.’
He visibly swallowed before proceeding. ‘After last night’s get together, Harold has decided he wishes to expedite his courtship with Maeve.’
Numerous faces turned my way as a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm me. It was supposed to be a decoy. To buy us time. I didn’t want to marry a lecherous pig old enough to be my grandfather, who’d already cost me half of my family.
‘She won’t marry Harold. Not now, not ever. I am not my father and I won’t allow it.’ Logan pushed back his chair and stood, his hands resting on the polished table as he glared at Griff.
‘Harold feared you may say as much, and he agrees that, though lovely, Maeve is a little young even for his tastes. So he has offered an alternative. If Maeve would prefer, she can marry his son Cameron. One way or another, he intends on having the McGowan bride, and the ties to your family, that your father promised him.’ Griff’s voice shook a little at the end as he watched my brothers’ faces darken more with each word.
‘No,’ Logan and Ewen said in unison.
‘He thought you may say that. So he had me bring you a gift.’ Griff reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and took out a small Tupperware tub. He slid it toward Logan. Logan lifted the lid and paled. I inched closer until I saw the tip of a finger resting inside on a bed of quickly melting ice.
Ewen was on his feet with a gun pointed at Griff’s head as I steadied myself on the edge of the table. It was the top of Mac’s pinky finger and I fought back the surge of vomit which tried to make its way into my mouth.
Griff held his ground, despite the barrel of Ewen’s gun being metres away.
‘If you agree quickly, the finger will be reattached. If you do not, there are plenty more which can join it.’
I looked desperately at Logan. His jaw twitched as he looked from Ewen’s gun to Griff and then down to the finger between them. On his word, Ewen would blow Griff’s brains out, but Logan knew he was only the messenger. Time was clearly no longer on our side.
Marrying Cameron and being part of the Thompson family wasn’t what I wanted. While they had a lot of power and connections, rumours had it they flouted the rules we kept between the organisations. They were double-crossing, downright awful human beings. Being shackled to either of them made me want to wretch, but undoubtedly Cameron was the lesser of two evils. Largely because of his utter disinterest in me. He’d want the match no more than I would. Not only that, but I could use my position in his home as leverage to take the whole Thompson syndicate to its knees. I’d finally get revenge for Mum and Malcolm’s death. I’d still be under a patriarch, but one who I had no problem not listening to.
Ewen’s finger twitched against the trigger and I couldn’t hold back anymore.
I stepped forward and put my hand over Ewen’s gun, slowly lowering.
‘I’ll do it. I’ll marry Cameron.’
‘No.’ Logan’s eyes were wild.
‘It’s the only way.’
‘We just need time...’ he said, his voice softening as I turned to face him. ‘I can’t let them have you. They’ve taken enough.’
‘You’ll lose someone either way. At least this way we both live.’
Logan leaned in closer to me, dropping his voice low. ‘You cannot trust them Maeve, you may not have to marry Harold, but he’ll use you to get to us.’
‘Not if I use them first. Mac would do it for me. I’d never live with myself if they killed him and I could have saved him. It’s the only way,’ I whispered back to him.
‘You’ll be in danger. Every moment of every day.’
