“She’s loaded,” Eoghan drawled from over my shoulder.
That he was impressed was a given. And Finn was too as his eyes scanned over her bank account.
“Jesus,” he muttered out of the blue. “Is that how much academies cost?”
“You’d better get Jacob onto a shortlist. I’d hate for him not to be among Manhattan’s elite as he grows up,” I mocked.
“Wenever were,” Aidan pointed out.
“Dragged up,” Eoghan joked wryly, even though we’d all gone to Catholic private schools.
Mostly because no way would Da have gotten away with dragging us out of classes the way he had if he didn’t have the diocese in his pocket. We’d spent more time out of school with truancy marks on our records once we entered our teen years and became more acquainted with the life.
Even as I thought about that shit, I wondered if Declan knew what Seamus was coming into.
He was a teenager. Ripe for introduction into our world. Did Declan accept that Da was going to be introducing him into the way of things? Was he happy about that?
I wasn’t sure if I would be.
There were things we’d all done that I wouldn’t wish on any nephew of mine.
Of course, it wasn’t my place…
I cut Finn a look, wondering how he felt. He was clearly thinking of sending Jacob to a private school, so did that mean he didn’t want his kid to be in the life too?
Pursing my lips at the thought, I decided now wasn’t the time for thinking crap like that, and I grumbled, “What else am I looking for? You wanna know how much she spends at Whole Foods?”
Brennan grunted. “No, I just wanted to make sure she was clean.”
“Far as I can see she is. All her money is legitimate—from banks that are based in the U.S. So not even any money laundering is really going down either, because the quantities are all high, and they’d be flagged by the IRS.
“She’s got herself a good business going on. Jesus, they said crime pays. I never knew art was just as beneficial.”
“Why the fuck is she a teacher at a college then?” Aidan rumbled.
I shot him a look. “Maybe it fulfills her?”
He frowned at that, but I got it. Looking for shit that fulfilled us was something that had been whooped out of us as kids.
Dreams and goals were for other people.
We had to work for the family, we had to make the O’Donnellys the most feared clan in the city, and we had to make sure that the Five Points were around for the next generation.
I figured it said a lot about us that we were all in our mid-thirties to early forties and we’d only just started popping out kids. Well, Finn had. Eoghan was the youngest, and his marriage hadn’t exactly been his choice, had it? He’d have stayed single if he could, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t have kids for a long time because Inessa was practically still jailbait.
“Plus, I’ve been looking into her movements too,” I reasoned slowly. “She traveled a lot while Seamus was young—” Christ, it was hard to believe there was a kid in the family now. “Then, when he turned eleven, she started slowing down.”
“That’s when kids start middle school, isn’t it?” Finn asked, his brow puckered.
“So long since you were even in school it’s a wonder you can remember,” I remarked dryly, laughing when he shoved my arm, but his lips were definitely twitching.
“Seems like she was putting down roots for his benefit,” I confirmed.
“With that school, a change of pace, and the look of her house, I don’t think any of us can deny that she’s done right by the kid,” Brennan observed.
I cast him a look. “When Da asks, I’ll make sure he knows.”
“He’s going to be an issue,” Finn concurred.