Page 126 of Vengeful Union

I throw up a little wave, and Declan waves back, but Gray just looks at me with cool eyes.

“Gray,” Lara growls, pinching his upper arm, and he yelps, jerking away from her.

“Hi,” he finally says in a low tone.

“It's nice to meet you, son,” Patrick says warmly, and he walks up to me and envelops me in a bear hug that I’m definitely not expecting.

I chuckle and clap him on the back before he pulls away.

“Now, I know we need to talk business,” Patrick says. “But I’m as hungry as a bear. Why don’t we all go out for dinner?”

Lara looks at him warily. “Are you sure you’re up for it, Da?”

“I’m right as rain,a’stor.Ask your brothers.”

Gray nods, stepping forward. “Doc gave him the okay.”

Lara softens and then loops her arm through Patrick’s.

“Then let’s go. I'm so ready to get out of this house.”

Patrick chuckles, and Lara and I get into a car while the Burkes get into theirs.

Declan and Bree have brought their car, and Gray and Patrick have ridden together.

Lara looks over at me when I start the car.

“Are you okay with this?”

“With what? Going to dinner with your family?”

“All of it." She waves her hand to gesture ‘everything.’ “My family isn’t just taking us to dinner, they’re… taking over. And if you want to talk about it?—”

“I don’t.”

She looks at me, frowning slightly, and I cup her face in one hand and kiss her softly.

“I don’t care about all of this, honey. I haven’t in years.” I take a deep breath. “Honestly, my father hasn’t been a part of my life for so long, he was not in it anymore long before he was actually gone, and I’m just glad to have it all off my shoulders. I neverwanted to be an heir. I didn’t want things to end up the way they did, but at least everything is really over.”

She takes my hand, holding it in her lap as we drive out of the estate, following Patrick’s car to a nearby restaurant. Lara blinks when we pull into the parking lot.

“This is Natalia’s.”

I look at her blankly. “Yeah?”

“This is where my father was shot.”

She nearly bolts out of the car, rushing to her father as he gets out of the driver’s side.

“It’sokay, Lara. I've talked to the owners, everything is all right. Besides...” He glances over at me. “We have nothing to fear from a Murphy anymore, do we?”

I shake my head. “Nothing at all.”

Lara sticks by his side as we head into the restaurant.

Once we’re seated and have a bottle of wine on the table that Bree is glaring at as if it offended her personally, Patrick puts his hands together, looking at me curiously.

“Bree says you want no part of this.”

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