The Shamrock (3 page)

The brief flash of fear across her pretty face almost made him smile. Almost. She had every reason to look at him that way. He just wouldn’t let her in on the small tidbit yet.

“Well, I’ll just be going,” Pops said, making his way out the door and past them.

“Traitor!” Sirai yelled.

“Jailbird!” Pops yelled back.

Sirai’s eye twitched and Ardan
did
smile.

“Ah, the lovely little jinx. What would you prefer? An interview about any possible girl-
-
on-girl encounters you had—while in the joint—
now
or later? Either one works for me. The way I see it, if you do it later, I can have everything I need set up on time and in position,” Braedan said.

“Shut up, Braedan,” Sirai and Ardan said simultaneously.

His younger brother rolled his eyes. “I get to have no fun around here.” Losing interest in their staring contest, he turned around and marched off.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” Sirai backed up, spreading her arms wide. “I have it coming.”

His brows lifted. “What’re you talking about?” He’d give her the rope, then watch her swing.

“Oh, don’t give me that, O’Reilly! I stole your truck!”

He shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s not like you took off for Mexico. You came here. I can accept the fact that I was being a dick earlier, so you were well within your rights to get pissed off. Now, do you want a ride home or are you gonna call Candice?”

She froze, stared at him with absolute distrust. “What’re you up to?”

Ardan blinked as innocently as possible. “Nothing, and if I am, I give you free rein to kick me in the balls. Now, are you coming or what? I’m tired and I have to open tomorrow.”

“Anything slightly funny, Irishman and your balls won’t be all you have to worry about.” Sirai made her way past him.

Ardan just grinned evilly. Oh, he had
plenty
of funny things in mind.

Sirai was on edge. Ardan hadn’t said anything to her in the last twenty minutes on the way to her place. Not a word. There was just a complete gap of silence that made her very, very nervous. Ardan was a yeller. She was used to it. So why wasn’t he yelling? And why did she still have the use of her ass as a comfortable cushion? Her hand gripped the handle on the passenger door as he pulled up behind her own car in her driveway, and before he could say a word she was out and sprinting for the safety of her home.

She felt extremely silly when she didn’t hear any following footsteps. Turning slowly, she looked back and saw that Ardan hadn’t even moved to get out of his truck. He just rolled down the window and stared at her. “See you at work in the morning.”

And then he was backing out of her driveway while she stood there staring after him, wondering exactly what the hell had happened.

C
HAPTER
T
HREE

Sirai swung her front door open then blinked at the woman standing on the other side. “Why the hell are you wearing football protective gear?”

Candice Oliver blinked back, her large grey eyes going from Sirai to the doorway. “Because the last time I stepped across the threshold of doom, I couldn’t remember my own name for a week.”

“And yet you insist on having movie night
here
instead of your place,” Sirai stated drolly, stepping to the side.

Candy took a moment, spun around three times in a circle, marked a cross over her chest with her index finger, and then kissed the rosary hanging from her neck before answering, “And have you potentially burn down my house...again? I don’t think so.”

Sirai rolled her eyes. “It was one time and it was a small kitchen fire.”

“That the city of Miami had to put out.”

“Because you overreacted and called them.”

“I almost lost my eyebrows! I think that’s more than enough reason to call in professionals.”

“Are you coming in or not? I wanna get to Jason Mamoa as soon as possible and you’re ruining that.”

Candy looked up at the doorway again then around the family room. Carefully, she stepped across the threshold and took off the helmet and shoulder pads. “First sign of being maimed and I’m putting this back on.”

Plopping down on the couch, Sirai snatched up the remote and turned on a movie. “I swear I’ll call Braedan to give me poison ivy so I can slip it into your thong drawer.”

Candy smirked. “You could if I trusted you anywhere near my house.”

Sirai just flipped her the bird, even though she was grinning. “Bitch.”

“And an amazing one at that.” She got a bag of chips. “Here’s a question. It’s Saturday night and instead of being with a certain Irishman, you’re gonna be staring at Jason’s naked ass with me. Why is that?”

“Well, I don’t think staring at Jason’s ass should be taken as some sort of bad alternative. Honestly, if somebody made me choose…”

“Just answer the question and stop stalling.”

Sirai shrugged. “We can’t stand each other so…”

Candy shook her head. “That’s called sexual tension, my friend. What I don’t get is why you don’t act on it?”

“Maybe because that same Irishman has been virtually ignoring my presence all week.”

“Wait…what? No fights? No threats of leaving you on the outskirts of an Arabian desert? No random wedgies?”

“We said we wouldn’t mention the wedgie incident.”

“No,” Candy shook her head. “
You
said we wouldn’t mention the wedgie incident. I never agreed.”

“Yeah well, none of those have happened. As a matter of fact, Ardan has been…polite,” Sirai grumbled.

Candice froze, tried to speak but nothing came out, finally she set back and shrugged. “I got nothing.”

“Me either.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“Plan? What plan?”

“Well, it’s obvious from the way you’re sitting over there and pouting, you want things to go back to normal, so what’s your plan?”

Sirai frowned. “I don’t have one.”

“Wait, wait, wait,
you
don’t have a plan? The same chick that when we didn’t have a ride to after-prom, pulled up curbside in an ice cream truck with the words, ‘No time to explain. Just get in’ pouring outta her mouth before I could even ask what was going on? You’re telling me
she
doesn’t have a plan?”

No, she didn’t because she knew Ardan was up to something. He was being just too damn nice. His questions were actual questions without the sarcasm attached. When he requested something, it really was a request and not a demand. And every time he looked at her there was something very calculating about his gaze. All of this made Sirai very,
very
irritable and very,
very
paranoid.

She reached for her phone. “For now, my only plan is to order a pizza and enjoy Jason’s ass.”

Candy rolled her eyes. “You know what you
need
to be calling in instead of pizza?”

“No,” Sirai sighed as she dialed. “What?”

“An order of dick, extra large, lots of meat.”

And with that, Sirai pushed her best friend off the couch even though she felt like she was about to choke on something vital for laughing so hard.

“So what you’re saying is, you have every intention of paying her back for her small larceny urge that she fulfilled, yet you’re waiting it out?”

Ardan looked up from wiping down the bar. “Precisely.”

Braedan sat on a stool across from him. “Why?”

He stopped. “What?”

“Why not just get it over with? I mean, what’s the point in waiting it out if you’re gonna do it anyway?”

Placing the rag down, Ardan leaned on his elbows and grinned. “Because paranoia drives people to do very strange yet entertaining things, little brother.”

Finally catching on, Braedan grinned back. “Ah, you want her on edge so she doesn’t know when it’s coming; just that it is.”

“Take notes, maybe it’ll help you finally get a shot at Candice.”

“I
have
a shot at Candice and if she’d stop with this stupid prank vendetta then I could actually take said shot.”

Ardan shook his head. “And this is exactly why last April Fool’s when you suggested the idea of strapping her into a chair and forcing her to watch a marathon of ‘Homeboys in Outer Space’ I told you it was a bad idea. Nothing good can come from that type of inhuman torture. Therefore you are still living with the consequences.” He raised a brow. “Speaking of which, that wouldn’t happen to be why your skin looks kinda orange this week, would it?”

His brother held up a hand. “Don’t ask.”