debt owed, but one look at Cashel Kelly and I knew it would never be enough. He would never be satisfied until Scott Stone cried tears of blood. I knew it was the same for Scott Stone.
It didn’t hit me until that moment how insanely dangerous this situation was. Both men’s hate and anger were like two open graves. The game was a race to see who was going to fall into one first at the other’s hand.
“Kee.”
It took a moment for me to realize that Harrison was talking to me. I was out of sorts lately.
Cash turned us around, and my entire family stood facing us.
“You have something to tell your Mam and Da?” My mother glanced down at my hand before she met my eyes and quirked a severe eyebrow up.
“We’re getting married,” Cash said.
A few seconds later, Scott’s door slammed. Tires screeched as he tore away from the curb, leaving behind the scent of burning rubber and smoke.
And that... sealed everything.
12
Keely
M y understudy hated me. All throughout practice she made snide little remarks underneath her breath. She only got this part because of her boyfriend— or whoever he is to her. She can’t even sing. She can’t even act.
Although I knew she was being a bitch because her uncle couldn’t secure this role for her, her last comment was the truth. Well, for that particular day.
I couldn’t focus enough to get inside of my character’s head. My attention was on the marauder.
It had been three days since we kissed in the kitchen. Three days since he gave me the massive engagement ring on my finger. Even though I should’ve been focusing on Scott, and what I had done to him, all I could think about was my impending wedding and that kiss.
That kiss.
I loathed it.
I loved it.
It chilled me to my bone.
It heated my blood and made my stomach flutter, like my heart was a bird and it had eloped with all common sense, leaving behind loose feathers that swirled every time I thought of him.
That kiss.
I wanted to reject it.
I wanted to keep it for as long as I lived.
Because that kiss? It had blinded me. I’d never kissed a man and had the entire world fade away, and inside of the darkness, it was only him and I. No one else seemed to exist. And no matter what that lying bastard had to say about it or not, he was moved by it, too.
I felt it. How he had felt. In that moment, we were connected, and whatever seemed to move through him, moved through me, like a strike of lightning.
What a bunch of bullshit!
He was doing exactly what he set out to do—steal my heart! And I was letting him. Letting him. I was probably the easiest heist he’d ever had.
I was the date who didn’t make the man work for the kiss, basically.
That wasn’t me. At all. I controlled who I gave my heart to. No one else, least of all him.
“Damn straight!” I shouted.
The stage grew exceptionally quiet. All eyes were on me.
“I was moved by that last line.” I started clapping, and because no one else wanted to seem rude, so did everyone else. My onstage sister had been defending my character, stating that no man would own me—not without shedding blood first.
That impulsive shout went to prove how much strain I was under, though. I was about to snap. I needed to get a grip on my control. I refused to allow Kelly to have it all—no fucking way. I was marrying him. At his order. The least, the very least, he could do was work with me on a few points that meant something to me.
I made mental notes of all the things I wanted to discuss with him on the way to my dressing room. I was done for the day, anyway. I wasn’t doing my character any favors, and shouting out thoughts that refused to quiet wasn’t doing my castmates any favors either.
This entire situation was why I’d made a rule for myself years ago. Never marry someone you instantly fall for. Those relationships, the chaotic ones, were supposed to burn at a maddening speed, leaving me heart-wrecked but wiser. It was the kind of situation that was supposed to teach me all of the what-not-to-dos in love.
Scott Stone was not that kind of man. He was the kind of man you married.
I had surface feelings for him, no doubt about it, but over the years, I