Page 12 of The Irish Arrangement

“My, my, my daughter,” Shane admitted, leaning back as I pulled him close.

I gritted my teeth. “Your daughter?” Right then, Saoirse entered the empty church from a side door. She wasn’t wearing a white gown. She didn’t look like a bride.

“What the fuck is going on? Are you trying to renege?” I shook him, straining with the urge to kill him.

“No!” He gripped my hands, trying to pull my fingers free. Stinking of nervous sweat, he panted and cringed at my tight hold on his shirt cinching at his neck.

“Where’d she go?” Saoirse whined, stomping her foot. “Daddy! You said she’d marry him because she’s your oldest.”

“Cara is my daughter,” Shane said. “My first daughter. With Nora Gallagher. She was my girlfriend before I married Keira.”

Keeping Shane right where he was, I turned to Ian. “Do you know anything about this?”

He shook his head, just as mad as I was.

“If you let me…” Shane fought to get free, reaching not to remove my hand from his shirt but to reach inside his jacket. “I worried you might not believe me. But I have…”

I released him, pushing him back with a shove. He staggered and held up a paper. After I snatched it and read it over, I gave it to Ian to see.

Cara Gallagher, daughter of Nora Gallagher and Shane Murray. The fucker had a backup daughter, and he expected me to marry her instead of the whiny bitch behind him.

Dad only needed me to marry someone from another reputable family. I wouldn’t call Shane Murray anything but a spineless idiot, but he was from an Irish Mob Family. And his first daughter seemed to have more of a backbone than he did.

“I’m not going to marry him,” Saoirse whined, pouting from the side of the empty pew.

I narrowed my eyes at her, wishing she’d shut up already. “No, you’re fucking not.” If I had a choice, I’d go for the redhead with vivid green eyes. A woman who’d try to stand up to me and go against orders. Someone with fire.

Keira rushed back into the church, out of breath and furious. She flapped her arm up and let it fall to her side. “I can’t find her! She just took off and—” Scowling at her husband, she shook her head in warning. “You go chase her down and demand that she see this through. I will not let this monster marry Saoirse.”

If this weren’t my wedding day, I would’ve killed her for that insult. I was sick of her attitude, and I saw that her daughter would be a replica.

No. I wanted the woman who looked at me like she dared me to consider her my bride. It’d be entertaining, at least, to bend her to my will.

“Keep him there,” I told Ian, pointing at the priest. “She couldn’t have run far.”

I strode out of the church, ignoring the heavy front doors and instead going toward the small courtyard toward the side. Keira must not have looked very hard, or Cara hid, because I found my future wife.

Her ass in the air. Her slender arms reaching up. Strong fingers gripping bricks on the wall.

“Going somewhere?” I growled as she tried to escape.

She turned her head, not stopping her climb, and glowered at me. “Leave me alone.”

Not a chance in hell I’ll do that.

I stalked closer, admiring her curvy yet toned body. She wasn’t frumpy with fat, nor was she skinny with no substance. Graceful and athletic.

“Get down.”

“I don’t take orders from you.”

I gritted my teeth, annoyed and excited that she’d be so dumb as to push back. “Think again, wife.”

“I’m not your wife.” She growled, trying to reach for a higher rock. “And I won’t be your anything—” She fell, dropping into my arms. I held her soft weight snugly in my arms, but she was wild to be free of me. Her elbow jabbed into my neck, and with the many layers of her billowing dress, the satiny fabric made her too slippery to hold on to.

She broke away, backing to the stone wall. Limping but not caving to any injury she might have gotten from that fall, she glared at me, unafraid to look me in the eye with that heated sass. Huffing a breath up to clear her red hair from her face, she backpedaled until I had her cornered against the wall.

Up close, she was gorgeous. Mad and riled up. Her freckled cheeks blushed while her parted lips let in shallow inhales. Her tits practically spilled out of her dress, plump and begging for my touch. But that gaze, so furious and determined…

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