Page 4 of Creatures in the Night

“Is Keavy still freaking out over being pregnant?” I asked as I walked into Declan’s office, already heading towards the bar to fix myself a drink.

Declan’s wife found out that she was pregnant a couple of weeks ago, and where most women found the news incredible and exciting, Keavy was flipping out about it. She was pissed that Declan’s swimmers had found their way around her birth control, and having grown up without a mother, she was constantly doubting her future motherly abilities.

“She’s calming down,” he answered as he leaned back in his chair. “I think she’ll be okay by the time the baby gets here.”

“Imma sure she will be,” I drawled out.

Declan flipped me off before saying, “If worse comes to worse, she can take over the organization, and I’ll be the stay-at-home-parent.”

The funny thing about that was that it could be done. While Keavy didn’t kill for sport, she had no problem putting a bullet between someone’s eyes, and she was a damn good shot to boot. The woman was as deadly as she was beautiful, and we all knew it.

“Well, we all know that she could do it,” I said as I poured myself my favorite Irish whiskey.

Declan let me finish making my drink before he asked, “Do you know why I called you here?”

“Another possible Klive spotting?” I asked before taking a savoring sip of the amber liquid.

My cousin shook his head. “I wanted to talk about our bet.”

“Oh, fer feck’s sake,” I grumbled. “Seriously?”

The sonofabitch grinned as he said, “I wanted you to know that I’m not going to hold you to it.”

Ignoring him, I went to go sit at the table on the left side of the room. Once I was seated, I shook my head, letting out a heavy sigh. “You know that I’m not going to go back on my word, Declan.”

“Is your pride worth marrying some trollop that you’ll be stuck with for the rest of your life?” he asked, speaking like a man in love.

“No,” I answered truthfully. “But my integrity is.”

“Noah-”

“Look, we made a bet, and I have every intention of honoring it,” I said, cutting him off. “This isn’t up for debate.”

Declan eyed me for a bit before he pulled open one of the desk drawers, then tossed a manilla envelope my way. Luckily, I caught it without spilling my drink, or else I would have been pissed at the lad for ruining my suit.

“What’s this?”

“Considering that I’ve known you since we were in diapers, I knew that you were going to insist on honoring that stupid bet, so I took to the liberty of choosing you a bride.”

My blue eyes shot a look his way. “Come again?”

“If I leave it up to you, you’ll pick some blonde stripper with no sense or understanding of loyalty,” he went on, not necessarily wrong. “You couldn’t care less about getting married, so you really don’t care who’ll be walking down the aisle towards you as long as it honors your word and gets your mam off your back. Well, I can’t allow that, and you know it.”

“’Fraid da she might turn out ta be a Russian spy, laddie?” I deadpanned.

Declan leaned forward in his chair. “Oh, I can handle her being a Russian spy,” he said. “What I won’t allow her to be is some gold-digging imbecile that’ll be privy to too many family secrets. I’ll take an intelligent double-crossing spy over a clueless nincompoop any day.”

“Careful,” I drawled out. “Das my future wife yer takin’ about.”

Declan just shot me a look before leaning back in his chair. “Her name is Shea Burke, she’s thirty-three, five-foot-two, has auburn hair and brown eyes, and works as a nurse at Donza Medical. She’s an only child, lives on Parkway, owns no pets, and works the day shift.”

“Because ye could’na find me a blonde, lad?” I asked as I opened the folder, her picture the first thing to pop out at me. Yeah, she was beautiful, but it wasn’t a secret that I preferred blondes if I had a choice. If I didn’t, then it didn’t matter. I loved pussy, and I didn’t overly care what the package around it looked like as long as there was no wedding ring involved.

Ignoring me, Declan went on with his recap of the unknown woman. “Her parents are Patrick and Bronaugh Burke, and that should tell you all that you need to know about where this is going.”

Forgetting about the dossier on Shea Burke, I looked back over at my cousin. “Burke Pawn?”

Declan nodded. “The one and only.”

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