Chapter 7

Noah~

T he plan had been to just familiarize myself with Donza Medical to determine the risk level if Shea insisted on still working, but when I noticed her standing outside the building, taking a moment to herself, the plan had immediately changed to me pulling my car into an empty parking spot to observe her some.

When it came to Shea Burke, that phrase of pictures not doing somebody justice was spot on. Though the picture that Declan had procured had gone a long way to showcase how beautiful she was, that was nothing compared to seeing her in the flesh. While gorgeous faces with stunning bodies were common in my line of work, that's not what Shea was. She was captivating without the makeup, stylish hairdo, or fancy clothing.

As I'd sat in the car observing her, her auburn hair had been thrown up in a ponytail, and my guess was that it fell to the middle of her back when down. She had no bangs to distract from her facial features, and I already knew that she had dark chocolate eyes from her picture and that she looked a lot younger than her thirty-three years. She also had a beauty mark on the apple of her left cheek, and she had appeared to be fresh-faced in the picture.

As for the rest of her, though her scrubs looked to be her size, they still hid a lot. However, it was easy to see that she was petite in stature, reaching about five-foot-two, and it was also clear that she was petite everywhere, no surgeries in sight. While Shea Burke wasn't what I was used to, there was still no denying how lovely the lass was.

There was also no denying how weighed down her body appeared, but that wasn't exactly a surprise now that she was aware of what her future held. She'd probably been losing sleep every night with trying to figure a way out of this, but there was none. I'd given my word, and I'd never let anyone make a liar out of me, including her.

Nonetheless, things had taken a turn when I'd seen a man that'd been wearing the same style of scrubs approach her, acting way too familiar for two people that were just supposed to be co-workers. I'd sat in the car and watched how he had pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, had laughed with her, then had wrapped his arm around her shoulders to escort her back inside. Before now, it hadn't ever occurred to me that she might be involved with someone else, not that it mattered, but still. It was one thing for an arranged marriage to include two single people, but to have one or both in another relationship could complicate things later down the line.

This was also the first time that I'd ever experienced any feelings of jealousy, and I didn't particularly like it. I also had no idea where it was even coming from. I'd never met the woman, so I had nothing invested in her, but seeing another man acting so familiar with the woman that was to be my wife had me feeling rather bothered. How was I expected to allow her to continue working here if she was fucking one of her co-workers? Granted, I could always make him disappear, but I didn't usually kill people if the necessity wasn't related to work.

At any rate, after Shea and her male friend had gone back inside, I had texted Kevin since I didn't have her folder with me, and he'd been able to tell me the license plate number of her car, and because employees parked in a different section of the hospital than patients, I'd been able to find a parking spot next to her car, deciding to finally introduce myself. I had also asked Kevn about her work schedule, so when he'd told me that she got off at six, it'd felt like kismet.

So, now I was leaning against my car, my eyes taking in everything about the hospital layout, and I knew that I was going to have to get some more specifics about the place before I allowed her to continue working here. Her only saving grace at the moment was that she worked days; if she had worked nights, then that would have been the end of her career as a nurse.

Sounds of voices and laughter had me turning my head, and I watched quite a few people file out of the side doors on this end of the hospital, and Shea and her male friend were two of those people. However, once they reached the first row of cars, they went their separate ways, and I made a mental note to find out as much as I could about her co-worker. In fact, since she was going to be my wife, I was going to need Kevin to do a background check on everyone that worked with her. Yeah, that was a shitload of work, but the kid could handle it.

I waited patiently as my fiancé fished around in her purse for her keys, and I didn't like how she wasn't taking any care with her surroundings. She was ignoring everything around her as she worried about finding her keys, and I knew that we were going to have to have a serious talk about safety and about taking responsibility for herself more seriously.

Shea was already at the trunk of her car when she finally found her keys, and when she looked up, her feet refused to move when she noticed me leaning up against the car that was parked next to hers. At first, she looked shocked, but then her shoulders subtly relaxed when I didn't immediately rush forward to attack her.

Deciding to cut to the chase, I asked, "Do you know who I am, lass?"

"No," she answered as she shook her head, her voice firm, but her back stiffening again.

"That's probably a good thing," I smirked. "It means that you lead a safe life."

Shea let out a huge sigh before asking, "You're Noah Murphy, aren't you?"

I inclined my head a bit. "At yer service, lassie."

Her russet-colored eyes glanced around the parking lot, but no one was hanging back to see what was going on. After a twelve-hour shift, all that any of these people wanted to do was get home, and I couldn't blame them. They only had a couple of hours before they had to be in bed to do this all over again in the morning.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she stepped closer, rounding the trunk to stand next to her car, showing me just how petite she really was.

"There's no' much ta ye, is there?" I drawled out as my eyes raked her up and down.

The woman lifted her chin, and if she had any insecurities about herself, she sure as fuck wasn't going to share them with me. "No, there isn't," she agreed. "In fact, this is about as good as it gets, Mr. Murphy." I watched as she threw her arms out to her sides, modeling her wrinkled scrubs. "This is me, and on my days off, if I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I might throw on a clean shirt and a pair of yoga pants to run errands in."

"Ere ye tryin' ta run me off, lass?" I quipped.

"Just being honest," she replied frostily.

Getting serious, I asked, "What all have your parents told you?"

She let out another sigh before answering, "Nothing much. Just that they're into The O'Brien for over two-million dollars, and that a deal was struck with me being the payoff."

"And you agreed, why?"

"Because as irresponsible as my parents were for ever getting involved with your family, they're still my parents, and I love them," she answered candidly. "I'm not going to allow them to suffer if I have the power to stop it."

"So, you're doing this to protect your parents," I summarized.

"What other reason could there be?" she countered. "Do you honestly believe that any woman would want to marry a perfect stranger?"

"If the price is right, you'd be surprised at what a woman is willing to do, lass," I replied.

"You mean like a two-million-dollar price tag?" she shot back.

I stepped to her, and she wisely stepped back until her car stopped her. I was six-foot-three, so I really did dwarf the woman, and it'd be nothing to snap her neck in two. Seriously, I could probably wrap my hands around her waist and have my fingers touch. She was small up top and had a tapered waist, but her hips flared out beautifully, her ass also a healthy handful. Shea Burke really was a lovely creature, even with her Bambi-eyes glaring up at me right now.

"I need you to listen to me, Shea," I told her. "The patience that I'm exhibiting is because I understand your need to process what all is happening, and I'm willing to give you some time to wrap your mind around what all this means. However, I want to be clear that I will not allow insolence from you. Do not ever make the mistake of believing that you have a say in this marriage. Do not ever make the mistake of believing that you have the power to sway me or that you make the decisions."

Fire flashed in her eyes as she asked, "Why are you doing this, Mr. Murphy? It makes perfect sense why I agreed to this…this insanity, but why would you? Most of the women in this state would love to marry you, so why not pick someone that would be eager to abide by all your rules?"

"You're a convenient means to an end, lass," I answered honestly. "It's not that complicated."

Not surprised by my answer, she asked, "What does Declan O'Brien want with my parents?"

"You're conveniently forgetting that it was your parents that first approached Declan," I reminded her. "If you want to paint us as the villains in this story, you're more than welcomed to, but the truth paints a very different picture."

Ignoring that, she said, "You still haven't told me what you're doing here, Mr. Murphy."

"I thought it was time to finally meet my fiancé, Ms. Burke," I smirked.