Catch Him

by Doyle, S

  “Yes,” she said softly, because she knew in her heart this was the only time she was ever going to accept a proposal. “I will marry Declan Gallagher and David Whitmore, both.”

  He sprang to his feet. “Excellent. Now chop, chop. The judge is waiting. And I hope you understand… no photographer. But I did bring in cake and champagne.”

  “That works.”

  Twenty minutes later and there was a knock on the door. “I need another minute!”

  She really didn’t. She’d done her makeup, the dress was on, the shoes were on. She just had a hard time standing in front of the full-length mirror and realizing she was looking at herself.

  Sinead O’Hara, former Mill Valley cop turned princess. How had this happened?

  Declan, she thought. Declan had happened to her.

  The door opened and she could see the top of her father’s head. “Are you decent?”

  “Yeah, come in, Dad.”

  He turned the corner, saw her and suddenly froze. “You look just like her,” he said, his voice cracking. “She would have wanted to see you. She would have wanted to have seen how beautiful you are.”

  Sinead could feel the emotion back up on her. “Don’t make me cry, Dad. It will ruin my mascara and Dec’s already agitated it’s taking this long. He keeps texting me to hurry.”

  Her father walked over to her. He also had a jewelry box in his hand. A long flat rectangle. When he opened it she saw her mother’s charm bracelet. A delicate thing, with a baby carriage charm, for her, and a little silver gun, for her dad—which Sinead always thought was weird but her mother thought was hysterical. A bird, because they were always her favorite animals. A heart. Which was what she felt for her family.

  That was it. Just those four because she died before her father could add to it. For such a hardass, Declan was right. Her father did have a soft underbelly to him. Always had when it came to her mom.

  The heck with mascara, she thought even as tears welled in her eyes.

  “She would have wanted you to wear this,” he said gruffly. “I always meant to give it to you… I just had a hard time of letting go of it. But it’s yours now.”

  Sinead took the bracelet out of the box and put it around her wrist. “I’ll never take it off.”

  He nodded, seemingly satisfied.

  “You’re going marry the cocksucker?”

  “Yeah. He turned out to be alright. So no more hitting him in the chops, okay?”

  “Love tap,” her father muttered.

  Since they had reached a pretty good place in their relationship, Sinead didn’t push it.

  “You want to walk me down the aisle or whatever he’s got set up?”

  “That’s why I’m here. This is some place. At least you’re marrying up. My father always told me it’s just as easy to love a rich girl as it is a poor girl.”

  Sinead didn’t mention that this place was just a sliver of the empire Declan controlled. She also didn’t mention she and Dec had talked about finding her dad a security job in one of his holdings. Something nice and legit.

  But that was a fight for a later date. Now it was time to get hitched.

  * * *

  Dec looked around the room and raised a glass, tapping a spoon gently. “Everyone, a toast to my lovely bride.”

  Cheers were offered and everyone lifted their glasses in salute.

  “I thought you wanted to call me your wife,” Sinead reminded him.

  He lowered his voice. “I can’t call you my wife until I’ve consummated the marriage. For now you’re my bride.”

  “Are you for real?”

  Yes, he thought. He was real. His very real self that only she allowed him to be.

  “There is only one question that remains.”

  “And that is?”

  “Do you want to make love or get fucked on your wedding night?”

  His bride smiled with a little glimmer in her eye. “Both.”

  “There is my clever girl.”

  Hope you enjoyed Catch Him! If you have the time reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are always appreciated.

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  Or check out my website for more books by Stephanie Doyle

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  And if you’re interested in other Shady Oaks romances check out Julie Kriss’s newest release. Bad Billionaire.

  Excerpt from The Bad Assassin

  Zeke

  The End of the World…

  Hope’s Point, Alaska

  Fuck no. Like hell to the fuck no.

  Zeke watched the scene play out in front of him and he wasn’t going to bite. Not even a little bit.

  “Come on, honey… I bought you a beer.”

  The bar was the typical crowd on a Tuesday night in Hope’s Point, Alaska. Which meant seven regulars. All men. One bartender. Also a man. And him.

  Tonight, however, there was a special guest.

  There was also one stupid-ass scientist. A woman. She was easy to spot, as she was the only person in the bar who didn’t have a full beard.

  She pushed against the arm that was snaking around her waist, trying to drag her off the stool. “I thought you were being friendly,” she said. “I didn’t think I was going to have put out for a freaking beer.”

  Zeke closed his eyes and shook his head. Fuck no.

  Her accent was New York. Brooklyn, maybe Queens. She was about as far away from home as she could get in the small, tiny town in the northeast, nearly unpopulated, part of the state.

  Men who came to Hope’s Point came for one of three reasons.

  They hated people: two of the male regulars and the bartender. They worked on the oil rig just offshore and were on a night’s leave: five of the regulars.

  Or they were hiding. Him.

  Women didn’t come to Hope’s Point. The name of the town, while sounding friendly and welcoming, was in fact neither.

  There was no hope in Hope’s Point. Not for this woman.

  This woman was about to be raped. Certainly by Gus, maybe by all five of the rig guys who hadn’t seen a woman under the age of sixty-two, the bartender’s mother, in months.

  They probably would have raped her if she hadn’t said yes to letting Gus buy her a beer. The fact she had, only made Gus think he had her consent to do it.

  “Let go of me, asshole.”

  Gus had succeeded in pulling her off the stool so that she was standing, while he was towering over her. All six feet four inches and three hundred pounds of him.

  No, the petite blonde with the blue eyes and foul language had no shot.

  “Come on babe, let’s get outta here.”

  “Meathead, check it. I’m not going anywhere with you. Didn’t you hear me before? I’m a scientist. I’m here to do serious work and I’m not looking for a date. Get me?”

  It was strange, because he couldn’t remember the last time it had happened, but Zeke could actually feel his lips twitching. Was he smiling? Was he seriously smiling because this tiny blond puff thought she was going to prevent her rape at the hands of Gus by referring to herself as a serious scientist?

  That’s when Gus’s playful expression stopped. When he must have decided he was tired of playing with the fish on the line and was ready to reel it in and eat it.

  “Bitch, we can do this in my truck or we can do it on that table over there, I don’t give a fuck. But we’re doin’ it.”

  Zeke watched her eyes get wider. Finally she was starting to understand. She was no longer in a civilized place. Clearly, she still had faith in her fellow man though, as she pointed to the others in the bar.

  “Seriously, you’re just going to rape me in front of one, two, three… nine witnesses?”

  “Not rape. Bought you a drink. Fact sister, no one here cares what another guy does. Do we?”

  The two locals deliberately turned their bo
dies back to the bar. Their eyes focused on the pints in front of them. The bartender left to go to a back room, which at one point was rumored to be a kitchen, but Zeke had never seen any food come out of there. Wafts of pot smoke yes, but no food.

  The four guys from the rig—the ones ostensibly who were with Gus, as they had all come in together—crossed their arms over their chests in unanimity.

  “Might be fun to watch,” Mike, the shorter beefy guy suggested.

  “Yeah. Let’s watch.” Paul, a thin wiry guy who could have been fifty or a hundred and fifty, snickered. “Do her on the table.”

  That’s when he saw it happen. When it finally registered she was a woman alone in a bar at the end of civilization and these guys seriously did not give a fuck what another guy chose to do with his dick. Whether the woman was willing or not.

  She took a quick step back and reached for the pocket of her jacket. “I didn’t want to have to do this…” She pulled out a small silver .357 Magnum and pointed it at Gus. Her hand was shaking. “Now I’m just going to get out of here and pretend this never happened. Cool?”

  It happened in a second. Gus took one step forward and she didn’t step back far enough. The gun was out of her hand and in his, and then he was pointing it at her.

  “Yeah, we’re cool. The table it is, boys. Looks like you’re going to get a show.”

  They started to move in on her, and Zeke thought it was how hyenas must move in the wild. Hungry, mean… a single nasty pack.

  “Please don’t do this.” Her whole body was shaking. “You have sisters, you have a mother… Please don’t do this.”

  “What makes you think I didn’t fuck them too?” Gus chortled.

  Zeke sighed because he felt it in his gut. He wasn’t going to be able to watch this happen. He wasn’t some damn hero, but he’d be damned if he was going to let the scientist get gang raped by Gus and his cronies.

  If only because she had almost made him smile.

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