Page 41 of Dust to Dust

“Sarah just called to check on you.”

“Seriously? Why would she be worried?”

“Because you were with me.” I waggled my brows. “The monster.”

“The asshole,” she corrected with a teasing smile.

A deep chuckle rumbled through my chest. “Right.”

At that moment, my office door whipped open, and Shane stepped inside with one of the doctors on our payroll. “I’d like to go a whole week without having to patch up someone from your clan,” Dr. Feeny remarked with his usual sour expression.

“Mine isn’t as bad as what Callum just put you through.”

Isla glanced between me and Dr. Feeny. “Well, I better go and cash out.”

“Thank you for bringing those files and helping clean me up,” I said.

“You’re welcome. Please get some rest and take care of yourself.”

“I’ll try.”

Smiling, she replied, “You better.”

For a moment, I thought she might give me a kiss goodbye. Instead, she hurried past Shane and Dr. Feeny and out the door. When I saw their questioning expressions, I rolled my eyes. “Don’t fucking ask.

Chapter Nine: Quinn

“Come on, Quinn, say yes,” Caterina pleaded.

As I stared across my desk at my very persuasive sister-in-law, I shook my head with a chuckle. “Now I know why Callum never stands a chance when it comes to you.”

A smirk curved across her lips. “What can I say? It’s a gift that I can charm each and every one of the Kavanaugh men.”

Dare snorted in the chair next to her. “Aye, you sure as hell do, especially since Quinn and I don’t reap the same benefits as Callum.”

Caterina shrieked in horror at his innuendo before playfully smacking his arm. “Dare, I can’t believe you said that.”

He grinned at her. “After eight months of being blessed with my presence, it’s an honor that I can still shock you.”

“Since I like your handsome face as it is, I’ll refrain from telling Callum of your remark,” she huffed.

I barked a laugh. “Watch out, boyo. She’s going to snitch on you.”

Dare held his hands up. “You’re the one denying Callum’s pregnant wife her heart’s desire.”

After rolling my eyes at Dare, I focused on Caterina. “Is my eejit brother correct about this mission you want to do?”

When she bobbed her dark head eagerly, I groaned. “Speaking of Callum, how can he possibly be on board with this? Especially when you made him give up his stake in Alainn.”

“Because he sees it as a way for me to make peace with darker aspects of this family. Considering my background, it gives me a way to merge my past and present,” she replied.

I flicked my gaze over to Dare who shrugged. With our line of work, it was hard to shock us, but when Caterina had appeared at my office door with a proposition involving the club, I was fucking floored.

Since her marriage to Callum, Caterina had insisted on continuing some aspects of her former life as a novice nun. In between nursing school and the social duties of being Callum’s wife, she served others. Some days it was in the soup kitchen at our church and others it was the women’s shelter.

But her proposed idea was a doozy. After coming across a post on social media, she learned about some clubs having House Mothers. It was a term given to a woman who not only cooked every night for the dancers, but she also counseled and encouraged them.

We currently employed two women who helped with the music, costumes, and makeup. They cued the girls on stage and set up their private dances. Caterina wanted no part in that, so it wasn’t like we would have to lay off anyone.

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