Twenty-Nine
Aidan Jr.
When Da strolled in,his brow furrowed, his eyes loaded with the wildness that overtook him when he was involved in wet work, I threw him a towel.
“What’s so important that you disturbed me?” he growled, wiping his bloody hands on the fabric as I leaned back in my seat.
Ever since we’d learned the extent of the holes in our organization, we’d been getting deeper down the rabbit hole as we struggled to find out who we could trust.
And who we couldn’t.
The poor bastard at the end of my father’s wrath tonight was Jerry, an old Five Pointer who’d been close to retirement. All he’d had to do was drive Aela, my brother’s woman, and their kid around the city. Nothing more, nothing less. But he’d turned traitor.
With George dead, and Liamhalfdead in the ICU, we knew it was Jerry who’d given the Italians Aela and Shay’s location, and now my father was currently squeezing details out of him like juice from a lemon.
“I called this meeting tonight because it’s time we discussed the next steps we’re going to take.”
Da frowned as he peered around the council room. It was inside a safe room, the air controlled, the sound proofed. It was like being in an iron lung. I fucking hated it, even if I understood the necessity.
The urge for an Oxycontin was like a mosquito bite I needed to scratch. This was just the start too. It’d work its way up to chickenpox that would make skinning myself just to alleviate the inflammation a wonderful prospect.
At the moment, it was manageable
Barely.
“Where are Tony, Mark, and Paul?” he grumbled, referring to the men he considered his advisors. “They should be here for this.”
“How do we know they haven’t gotten to them too?”
“We don’t even know whotheyare,” Da snapped.
“Yeah, so while shit’s up in the air, we need to keep things nice and tight, don’t we, Da?” Eoghan pointed out, and because, for some weird fucking reason, our father always listened to his youngest before he listened to his goddamn eldest, Da simmered down.
The council room was simple, chairs and a table, not much else. But there was a very fine drinks tray, and uncaring that his fingers were stained with Jerry’s blood, he strolled over to it, lifted the bottle, and poured himself a shot.
His hackles were up, even though Eoghan had calmed him down. I knew why too.
We prided ourselves on loyalty.
We weren’t a brotherhood, but a family.
Da looked after people. They did right by us, we did right by them.
They didn’t, we ended them.
But to learn that someone,some-fucking-how, had managed to get to my da’s grandson had tipped him over the edge. Jerry wasn’t going to last much longer than a night, and that was without Declan getting his hands on him.
By rights, Dec should be the one doling out the punishment, but where Da was concerned, and when he had that look in his eye, you never said no to him.
I didn’t even think Ma did in those circumstances, and she had more control over him than any of us.
“What the fuck is going on?” he rumbled. “Got men turning tail who’ve been like family to us. Men getting killed who’re loyal. I don’t like it.” He took a deep sip. “I don’t like it at all.”
Declan cleared his throat, and I knew he was nervous. We’d all decided that there was no need for any light to be shone on the fact that Caroline Dunbar had been blackmailing Dec for years. We were focusing on shit that needed attention, not old news.
Sure, that old news was incendiary, but we didn’t need to split Da’s attention. Killing Dec for past indiscretions when he’d been nothing but a kid wasn’t going to get us anywhere.
“Caroline Dunbar’s been a thorn in our side since Jimmy D died. It fits that she’d try to get us to betray one another.”