Page 7 of On The Rocks

I turned straight to Patrick. “I don’t have the money to give you. I’ve some savings, and I’m sure my brothers do, too, but not enough to make a dent in what we owe.”

Paddy’s blue eyes bored into mine. “We’ll work something out.”

Relief washed away the rising panic in my chest. “Really?”

“We’re family,” he told me softly. “Like your da said, I have a proposition for you.”

A wave of dread crashed into me.

Patrick’s proposition could range from asking me to mule enough cocaine to sink a small country to whacking a politician. I wouldn’t put anything past him, and it wasn’t because he was untrustworthy or a liar. It was because he was the head of the Irish Mob and ruthless. Every deal he made was to benefit himself, and I didn’t believe for one second he felt any loyalty toward me or my business.

I wasn’t the most upstanding citizen in the world. When assholes got rowdy in my bar, I wouldn’t think twice about taking them outside and showing them the error of their ways. I got scrappy when I needed to, but I wasn’t a killer or a drug mule.

Nonetheless, it seemed I owed Paddy Doyle a small fortune. If he was going to be amiable in helping me out, I had to at least show him the respect of listening. I didn’t have upward of a quarter of a fucking million dollars, so if he was in a generous mood and wanted to throw me a lifeline, I didn’t have any choice but to take it.

My eyes drifted to Kennedy. “Could you give us a minute, please?”

Her face remained impassive, but I caught her eyes narrowing slightly. “That’s not advisable, Callum. You may need legal counsel.”

“If I do, I’ll discuss it with you after,” I assured her.

Her mouth tightened slightly, but she jerked her chin in assent, even though I knew that underneath her calm exterior she was probably worried sick. Slowly, she rose, gave Paddy a courteous nod, and left the room.

Patrick loosened his tie and slumped back in his seat. “Your aul fella would’ve loved this turnout. Lorcan enjoyed a goodwake. He was the first one to pour the Guinness and celebrate life. I got closer to him in his last months, Cal. Gonna miss him.”

My mouth hitched at a distant memory of Da laughing from behind the bar while winding my ass up for one of my many infractions back when I was a dumb kid. It was crazy how he’d left Ma and me in this position; it hadn’t sunk in, and it probably wouldn’t for days.

“He asked me to throw you a bone,” Paddy continued. “The loan was and still is interest-free. I can’t write it off, you know that. I want to, I loved yourathair,but my organization wouldn’t allow it. My cash flow is tied up in business. I can give you time to pay it, even wipe fifty grand off it for ya, but there’s one condition.”

I swallowed so hard that my Adam’s apple bobbed. It didn’t take the asshole long to get down to the brass tacks of the matter. “And what’s that?”

“Maeve,” he murmured.

My forehead creased questioningly. “What about Maeve?”

Paddy’s eyes rested on mine and held. “She needs a husband.”

“What’s that gotta do with...?” My voice trailed off as his meaning washed over me, and my jaw dropped.

“The fifty-thousand’s her dowry,” Paddy explained. “I’ll take it straight off what Lorcan borrowed. And I’ll give you twelve months to pay the loan back.” He leaned forward, placing an arm on the desk. “Lorcan told me more than once that you needed to settle down and have kids. Maeve’s twenty-eight, and the same applies. She’s always got her head in a book, and she doesn’t go out except to seminars and lectures about old bones and artifacts. It’s time for my girl to get her head outta the clouds and start living her life.”

I opened my mouth and closed it again, speechless.

What the fuck was he playing at? He couldn’t blackmail me into marrying his daughter. I’d met Maeve on a few occasions, more so when we were younger, and out of all the women God put on the Earth, she was the one I’d be least likely to wed.

I liked my girls with tits, ass, and sass. Getting to know them wasn’t on the cards because I never wanted to go that deep. I wasn’t a relationship kinda man, so marriage was never in my sights. I had fuck buddies, and I never deviated when I spent time with a particular girl. I liked one woman at a time in my bed, and when it fizzled, or somebody else caught my eye, I moved on, but always with care.

Maeve was shy and quiet as a church mouse. She was the daughter of Paddy’s second in command, who was killed protecting him from an assassination attempt years before. Her mother was dead, too, so Paddy and his wife adopted her out of a sense of loyalty and appreciation for what her da Grady did.

The last I heard of Maeve, she was doing her Masters in archeology at Yale. She was hella smart, and that was great, but not for me. She could’ve been a lovely girl, but she’d never been on my radar ‘cause the nerdy type never appealed, and if Maeve was one thing, it was nerdy.

I cast my mind back to the last time I saw her.

It was a year ago at Paddy’s wife’s birthday party in New York. Maeve sat in a corner all night, looking as if she’d kill to be anywhere but there. Da tried to make me ask her to dance, but I told him I’d probably scare the girl half to death, seeing as she already looked terrified. Her hair was a bright ginger red and frizzy. I’d never seen skin so pale, which wasn’t helped by the dowdy clothes she wore or her unattractive, black-rimmed glasses with lenses so thick her eyes looked comically huge behind them.

She reminded me of a younger version of that teacher, Professor Trelawney, from theHarry Potterfilms. Not a woman I’d even stick my dick in, let alone marry.

My dismay intensified. “I’m not in the life. Wouldn’t it be better to marry her off to a son of one of your men or maybe a business acquaintance?”

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