No, it wouldn’t take much at all. And if he were with the Sheridans, he wouldn’t be here, so there was something to be said for that as well. The further he got from his father’s grasp, the easier it would be to slip free when the time came.
Slip free? The pipe dream of a child. He knew better by now…but that didn’t stop the tiny flare of hope inside him. It was a mistake not to crush it—if he didn’t now, then someone else would, and it would hurt more that way. Reality had a nasty way of intruding on pipe dreams, and the reality was that marrying into the Sheridan family wasn’t likely to give him an out. It would entangle him further in the type of life he wanted to escape. They may have a different last name and territory, but the type of beast was identical to the O’Malleys.
But if there was a chance to be free—truly free—wouldn’t he be a fool not to take it?
He picked up the book his brother had knocked to the floor, and carefully marked his page before closing it. He couldn’t leave Carrigan behind. Hell, he’d be a selfish prick to leave any of his sisters behind. And his youngest brother, Devlin, was the least suited of all of them for this life. The thought of hauling three women and Devlin into hiding with him…Teague shuddered. It was impossible. He couldn’t run without them, and he couldn’t run with them.
So what the fuck was he going to do?
He laughed, the sound harsh from his throat. He was going to do exactly what he was told, like a good little piece-of-shit son. He was going to marry the Sheridan woman.
Chapter Two
Callie followed her father into the reception hall, barely keeping her questions in check. All day, he’d acted as if nothing was wrong, and now he’d dragged her here even though she knew she wasn’t marrying Brendan any longer. She pressed a hand to her stomach, silently commanding it to stop churning. She hadn’t been able to keep anything down today, and four scalding showers weren’t enough to wash away what she’d done.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to bring the Sheridan empire, such as it was, into the future. They had enough clean money for legitimate investments now to be on the up-and-up, and she had fully intended to be the one to make the transition.
Now?
She looked at her hands, pale and clean despite the blood she was sure she could feel drenching them. Now, she was no better than her father and all the men who’d come before her.
She could almost hear Ronan in her head, as if he stood right next to her. Jump the back fence and meet me in the park. We can be at the airport before they even know we’re gone. An old joke of theirs—all the various ways they’d slip away from their protection detail and flee for another country. He’d stopped playing when he hit eighteen and graduated high school, but she’d never stopped her side of things.
I miss you so much, big brother. If you were here, none of this would have happened. Why, oh why, didn’t you call a cab that night?
She rubbed the old ache in her chest and allowed herself to really consider running for three seconds before she discarded the idea. Papa wouldn’t be alive forever—not when he’d aged decades in a matter of months after her brother died. Between his blood pressure skyrocketing and the doctor’s dire warnings about lifestyle choices and his heart’s ability to cope, he needed her.
If she left now, she might be able to live what passed for a normal life, but it was a selfish dream. When her father passed…God, that hurt to even think about…his generals would rise up in a battle for power that would hurt the very people they were supposed to protect. Oh, they might not see it that way, but Callie did. Without her here to fight for them to become a legitimate business, things would continue to stay the same way they’d always been.
And that was unacceptable.
She stopped just inside the massive room where they were supposed to have the party to announce her engagement, frowning. It was full to the brim with people. She recognized enough familiar faces to know that half of them were hers, but…
Those weren’t Halloran men.
Papa approached, an older man next to him. She looked