this reddish-gold hair and stared at Grayson. He held Sabine, kept her tucked against him.
Pregnant or not, she was his.
“Siobhan’s grown up. She loves the bloke, trust me. I’m sure she’ll marry him. She’s just tired of ye telling her what to do, Ewan,” Shane laid down the last gauntlet.
Love?
Did Sabine love him, too?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sabine
How Sabine was still standing she didn’t know. That showdown could have gone very differently. Gray owed her nothing. He could have dismissed her. Even if there were a baby, he could have shrugged it off. That would have shocked her, though. In her gut, she knew Gray wanted her, or she never would have taken that chance.
She gambled everything, her parents’ love, her brothers’ respect, all to get the freedom she’d been clawing at from the bottom of a well for three years. Screaming, with no one to hear her. Gray heard her.
Now it was done.
Over.
That meant a new beginning for her.
With Gray, hopefully. If he’d been serious about anything he’d just said.
“So how are ye?” she asked, trying to lighten the mood.
“How am I? I’m nuts. Where have you been? I’ve been calling you.”
“Ewan took her phone,” Shane answered for her, coming back into their circle.
Gray look enraged, but exhaled. “I won’t tell you or your brothers how to operate, Shane. Everyone’s world has its own nuances. But when it comes to her...Sabine...” He gripped Sabine’s jacket and pulled her next to him again. “You’re gonna get an earful. If she wants to be with me...” He looked down at her. “Do you want to be with me? Or did you just use me to get out of marrying Kieran?”
“Both,” she said with a hard swallow. “But they’re tied together. I couldn’t have ye, unless I gave Kieran a legitimate reason to break his promise to Ewan.”
Gray’s lips flattened out. “I guess.”
It was like it hit them at the same time, he was holding her and her hands were on his waist. His eyes looked grayer now, fitting.
She caught her brothers leaving, and a feeling of emptiness spread through her. “Give me a sec,” she said, pushing past Shane.
“Ewan,” she called out to her brother.
Everything changed when Norah died three years ago. Ewan was the light of Sabine’s life, her hero at one time, and she wanted to get back to being just his sister and not a chess piece.
He turned around and she dove in his arms. She was a force, and it knocked him back. “Lass, ye grew some muscles in Los Angeles.”
“Ye dun’t grow muscles.” She didn’t want to be afraid of him. She wanted her sweet big brother back.
He took a good look at her. Even though she’d been home for two weeks and he’d been in and out of the house. It was like, he couldn’t face her, giving her away to a man she didn’t love. A man he knew didn’t love Sabine. “Ye look good, lass.”
“I didn’t look good an hour ago when ye pulled me into yer car?”
“No.” He glanced around, but abruptly stopped, spotting Gray swaggering toward them. “Now, ye look happy. Are ye in love?”
She smiled. “I am.” She almost confessed she wasn’t pregnant. But they’d made her play hardball. “Can ye just once call me Sabine?”
The heat of Gray slid across her back before his hand did.
Ewan exhaled sharply and reached out to Gray. “Ye take care of Sabine, lad.”
“I will.” Gray gripped Ewan’s hand, then pulled her back against his hip. “And she’ll take care of me.”
“I’ll make arrangements for her dowry to be transferred to ye.”
“I don’t need payment to keep her.” Gray’s voice was firm. “Put that money back in your business.”
“The lad drives a hard bargain.”
“I ain’t no bargain.” She hugged her brother again and saw the relief creeping into his smile.
Now Ewan and her brothers could move on and worry about their own love lives.
After kissing both Griffin and Connor goodbye, Shane hung back watching them go. He and Sabine had an unbreakable bond, but Shane looked lost without their brothers.
“Go, Shane. Ewan needs ye. Ye dun’t have to stay here for me.”
Shane looked around and rocked on his heels. “This place is nice. I wouldn’t mind securing one building for a change.”
Could she have gotten everything she’d ever wanted? Her freedom and to work with Shane. And live in New York?
And even...love?
She pulled her brother in for a hug, feeling Gray’s hand still holding hers. He hadn’t let go.