Page 149 of The Catalyst

“If you wish, Miss Mercer. Do we have a deal?”

“Yes,” I mutter before my gaze moves to Martin, who pleads with me not to go through with this. “We have a deal.”

* * *

Martin guidesme into the same room he had taken me to the last time I was in this house and as soon as the door is closed, he turns to me, his face a mixture of so many emotions I can’t fully decipher them. Definitely anger and shame though.

“I’m sorry,” I frown. “I know you told me to stay away here and keep my head down, but I couldn’t. I had to do something.”

Martin pulls me into his arms and runs his fingers through my hair as I cling to him. This is one of the things I missed the most–being in his arms.

“I know, baby,” he whispers against the top of my head. “This is a bad situation all around.”

“Yeah.” I dig my fingers into his shirt, clinging to him with all the strength in me. I don’t want to let him go, not now, not ever. “I went to see Nigel. He’s in bad shape. Your father already has people trying to hurt him. He’s going to die in there.”

“Fuck,” Martin groans as I look up into those beautiful eyes. “I know. This isn’t right. I know he needs to be out of the picture, but…”

“Not like this. If he has to die, it should be for an actual horror he did. I know he hit you…”

“It’s not enough to warrant a death sentence. I get it, little rabbit. It sucks, but I know you need to do this. The only good part of this is you’ll actually get away from Nigel, but I’m not sure spending any time with this family will be much better.”

A small smile pulls across my lips. He’s always looking out for me and yet I’m keeping two big secrets from him, but I can’t tell him about the baby, not yet. Not until I can rule out and narrow down the possible baby daddies. Once I get to a doctor, they can tell me how far along I am and that will exclude at least one of the three.

But, what about what happened with Casey? Would there be a similar reaction to my pregnancy?

Wouldn’t it also fix some things? If it came out that I’m having Martin’s baby, maybe Nolan would reconsider the groom he picked and have me marry Martin instead? Either that or he would make me pretend the baby is Michael’s.

There’s one other possible reaction, which scares the fuck out of me.

“You’re a part of this family and I rather like spending time with you,” I admit. That’s one positive. There couldn’t ever be a negative to being around Martin. The rest of his family is debatable.

He presses his forehead to mine with a long breath leaving his lips and I almost break from how much I needed this, just a moment with him without any prying eyes.

“You can’t trust anything he says. Unless you get it in writing and have some financial or business ramifications attached. He’ll do whatever he can to get away with as much as possible. Hit him where it hurts and make him fucking bleed, little rabbit.”

I smirk from his dark words. “You know me so well.”

“I also know him and, if he hurts you, I can’t guarantee I won’t kill him with my bare hands.” He presses a soft kiss to my lips, his breath ghosting over my face. “And, don’t let him weaponize you as much as you can. I promise, he will try to use you as a weapon against anyone he can, including me.” He sighs as he gives me another kiss, this one more powerful than the last. “He isn’t making you marry my brother to punish O’Reilly. He’s doing it to punish me, to make me watch you and not be able to have you. This is what he does. He uses people to hurt his enemies and make no mistake, that’s exactly how he sees me.”

He sees his son as the enemy. Why?

Martin is a good man, but his father is the opposite of that. I could sense it the second we were in a room together.

Only God knows how Martin turned out the way he did while being raised by that vile creature.

“Why would he use me to punish you?”

He frowns. “He knows I’m protective of you and he has a few reasons to choose from. I’m the one who refused the arranged marriage between us and let’s just say he was mighty pissed about that. Then, there’s Casey and me disappearing for a week and the accident. Take your pick.”

In other words, I’m the reason for every single thing that Nolan has to be mad at Martin about. It’s all my fault.

“I’m so sorry.” My face twists with guilt as he pushes my hair out of my face.

“God, don’t cry, baby.” He pulls me back into his chest as I return to clinging to his body.

Tears fill my eyes. “If I thought for a second that he would take out us staying in Hempstead on you, I–”

“Hey,” he whispers as he tilts my chin up, the tears falling down my cheeks. “None of this is your fault, okay? You can’t blame yourself for his crap. I told you that you never know what is going to piss him off. This is exactly what he wants. Don’t give it to him, baby. Promise me that. Promise me you won’t let him poison your mind against yourself. You’re good, Beth. Don’t let him make you think you’re anything but that. You’re a fucking saint. I can’t think of anyone else who would willingly sign their life away to protect the person who hurt them. That makes you ten times better than my father could ever be.”

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