Chapter 7
Rory
My stomach starts to growl as Wren walks into the dining room carrying warm, buttered, homemade bread on a cutting board, followed by Connor who has a big pot that’s steaming like a witch’s cauldron in his hands.
He sets it between Declan and me while Wren takes her place by her husband and begins to ladle the hearty Irish stew into bowls. Handing one to Declan, he glances to the empty chair across from my mother. “Where’s Kat?”
I look up, and speak of the devil, she’s walking towards us. “She’s coming,” I say, while reaching for a slice of the bread. I’m rewarded with a rap on my knuckles with a soup spoon from my mother.
I drop it as my mother spits out, “Have you no manners? I know you do, because I taught you them! ”
I watch as Kat takes her seat in silence as I rub my hand and say nothing in response. I don’t have to because Declan does.
“Mrs. Hennessy. I hope you’re comfortable in your suite?” He says with a tight smile.
Of course she would be. Coming from our tiny two-bedroom rental, the spacious suite she now has to herself and her mutt, must seem like she won the lottery.
“Please, call me Iris,” she beams. “And yes! It’s quite lovely.”
I knew from the look on his face, she wouldn’t be smiling for much longer.
Declan nods. “Good. If you want to stay and enjoy everything the estate has to offer, I suggest you start showing my right-hand man and future Captain of the family some respect.”
Under normal circumstances, I would be pissed that another man talked to my mother that way. Yeah, she hates me, but she is still my mother. But not Declan. Not only is he my boss, but he’s also my best friend and has always treated me like a brother.
Connor went to fill her bowl, but Declan stopped him. “Connor, we are about to conduct some business while we eat. Fill Iris’ bowl in the kitchen, will you? ”
“Absolutely!” Pot in hand, he turned and started towards the kitchen. “C’mon Iris, let's go chow down in there while we watch Wheel of Fortune.”
My mother got up in a huff. Something she would need to learn to curb was her attitude. I always gave in to her just to keep the peace. But those days are gone.
After they left, I took the piece of bread I’d dropped and started dunking it into my stew as Wren stood and picked up her bowl.
“Where are you going?” Declan asked.
I watched their exchange like a tennis match while I filled my face and was mildly surprised when Wren said, “To watch Wheel of Fortune,” she laughed, kissing him on the top of his head. She snagged a piece of bread from the cutting board and laid it atop her stew. “You three need to talk about the family business, so I’m outta here. Kat, take my spot.”
Declan took hold of her hand as Kat placed her bowl in Wren’s spot and slid over to sit in the chair.
“But you are family,” he said.
She gave a quick nod. “Yup, thanks to you. But I want nothing to do with the business.” And with that, she left the room to join the others in the kitchen .
Declan wiped his hand over his jaw and stared off into space. I knew that look. He was thinking. He shook himself and without a word, started to dig into his food. He looked at his sister. “Eat Kat, we’ll talk after.”
He shot me a guilty look before dropping his gaze to his food, and I wanted to smack him because he was up to something, and he hadn’t filled me in first.
I looked across the table at Kat. She was concentrating on her food, sitting there eating quietly. Now that I think about it, she hadn’t said a word since coming into the room. Did she know what was up?
Suddenly my appetite was gone. I pushed my bowl away and leaned back in my chair, staring daggers her way, hoping she would at least look to see me glowering at her. Maybe then she would leave and go back home.
Conner came back into the dining room, carrying his stew pot and looked at my half-eaten bowl.
“Are you sick or something?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Nah, I grabbed a burger in town.” It was a lie of course, but he needn’t know that.
He accepted that with a nod. “Kat, would you like some more?”
“Oh. No thank you.” She looked up at him and smiled. “It’s delicious, but I’m having a hard time finishing what I have, it’s so filling.”
Conner pursed his lips. “Right. Declan, do you want more?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“You know, you guys don’t have to lie. I know it sucks,” he said, dropping the ladle into the pot.
“Oh no!” Kat laid her spoon on the plate under her bowl. “Truly it’s the best stew I’ve ever had, Connor. My stomach has just been in a knot since meeting my father.”
Declan took that as an opening. “If you two are done eating, let’s head to the library to discuss this.”
Kat
I don’t want to discuss anything, I want to pack my shit and leave, but the glint in Rory’s eyes when Declan said that, had me staying against my better judgment. And now, I’m following them down the hall to the library.
Declan stops outside a set of double doors and slides them open. I step into the room and glance around. A desk sits in front of a windowed alcove, with two chairs facing it. Along one wall is a fireplace with a sofa and two-wingback chairs gathered around it and the other walls in the room house built-in bookshelves. My eyes are drawn to a golden horse the size of a Shetland pony, and I wonder if it’s real gold.
“Rumor has it that it is,” Declan said.
I spin around to look at him, wondering how he could possibly know what I was thinking. “What?” I ask as he sits in the chair behind the desk.
“The horse. I was always told it was solid gold.” He motions for me to take the chair beside the one that Rory is sitting in, a glass of amber liquid already in his hand.
I watch as Rory reaches for a bottle of Cognac, and my eyes just about pop out of my head when I read the label. I snatch the bottle from his hand and stare at it in awe. Thought to be the oldest cognac, with only three known to exist in the world, and I’m holding one of them, Gautier Cognac 1762. “Where did you get this?” I ask in a hushed whisper as I rub my thumb over the two hundred- and sixty-two-year-old label.
“Who cares,” Rory says, taking the bottle back. He splashes some into two glasses and caps the bottle and sets it down on the desk.
The bottle alone had to be worth a pretty penny, but the cognac inside was priceless. Livid, I cross my legs and fold my arms over my chest. “I care! That bottle should never have been opened. Do you have any idea what it even is? Probably not, because you’re an idiot.”
He sat back in his chair with a grin on his face, and all I want to do is reach over and smack the shit out of him.
“Kat,”— Declan pushes a glass towards me — “the booze was drunk a long time ago. I just refill it because I know what the significance of that bottle is. Now, drink up, you’re going to need it.”
Feeling like a fool, I pick up the glass and toss it back. Its warmth spreads down my throat to the pit of my stomach as I gasp.
“Jesus, woman, you’re supposed to sip it!” Rory says, reaching for the bottle again. He splashes more into my glass, and I have to wonder if he’s planning on me getting drunk just so I can’t remember a damn thing about our meeting.
“Yeah, whatever,” I mumble, but this time I just hold my glass in my hand.
He squints at me then looks at Declan. “Can we get on with this or what?”
Declan heaves a sigh. “Yeah.” Looking directly at me he continues. “How do I put this… The ‘family’ encompasses many men, each one with a job to do. Some dabble in cars, importing and exporting and some deal in firearms, nightclubs, strip joints and money handling.”
“Declan for fuck’s sake, why are you pussy footing around her?” Rory says before turning in his chair to look at me. “The family is organized crime, and Declan here is stepping down as Captain until either I or you replace him. Do you want to? No? Good. Come on, I’ll help you pack so you can be on your way back to Alaska.” He stands up and stares down at me.
Declan wipes a hand over his forehead then drags it along his face to his chin. “Sit down Rory and for Christ’s sake, she’s from Nevada! Kat has the MacGallan blood running through her veins. It’s up to her if she wants to take over as Captain, but it’s a hell of a messy job for her to get there. She needs to learn to run the business proficiently. She can’t, nor will she, just take over.” He looked pointedly at Rory. “We have already discussed this.”
“She can’t take over at all. Ever,” he said, flopping into his chair. “I forbid it.”
Leaning forward, I looked between the two men. “You know, I am here! I don’t—”
I stopped right there from telling both of them they could shove the Captain’s job up their asses, because just then Rory’s words registered in my head .
He forbids it?! Oh, hell no.
I looked Declan straight in the face. “I’ll do it.”
Rory swore, and Declan said, “Are you sure?”
I didn’t know what the hell I was getting myself into, but if there was one thing in my life that I had to learn the hard way, was that no man was ever telling me what I could and couldn’t do.
I nod. “Absolutely. Sign me up.”
Declan threw his hands up in the air. “Okay. You will start tomorrow going around to the establishments that we own or protect.”
I risked a side glance at Rory as I was sure he was fuming, but he wasn’t. The fool was sitting there with a wide grin on his face.
“After that, you will be getting into the more, shall I say, unsavory aspects of the business.” Declan said, and that got my interest piqued.
“What kind of aspects?”
“Prostitution, and human smuggling,” Rory piped in.
Great, all the things I didn’t want to get involved in.
Declan glared at him. “Ones that I had planned on eliminating had I stayed on long enough as Captain. But as such by me announcing that I am stepping down, I can no longer make that decision and can only hope that whoever takes over will do so.”
I smacked my knee. “Well, I definitely will be eliminating those… professions once I’m Captain.”
Rory laughed. “You can’t just stop dealing with them, not when you’re partnered up with people that are worse than Satan.”
I think he was trying to scare me, make me want to back out on my decision but that wasn’t going to happen. “I look forward to negotiating with them.”
His smile faltered but only for a moment. He was handsome when he smiled. If I were being honest with myself, he was handsome even when he didn’t.
Suddenly tired, I stifled a yawn. “Will there be someone going with me?”
Rory made a snort of derision. Stupid question I know, but I just wanted this meeting to be done so that I could crawl between my bedsheets.
Declan nodded. “Of course I wouldn’t send anyone alone. Meet him in the kitchen in the morning at 8 am.”
I felt like I was pulling teeth at this point trying to get any information out of Declan. “Great. Does he have a name?” I asked, glancing at Rory again. He was still sitting there staring at me with that stupid grin on his face. I don’t know if he thought he was being intimidating or what. But I stared right back at him, and I was so glad I wouldn’t be seeing it for much longer.
“Yeah,” Declan said. “You’re looking at him.”
Rory’s grin faltered. “Wha…” He looked at Declan, then at me, and did a double take back at Declan and asked, “What the hell did you just say?”
“You heard me. You’re the only man that I trust, even though you two hate each other.”
That was it, I stood up, said my goodnights and walked out of the room laughing to myself as Rory sat there sputtering.