The Past is NOT Repeating Itself
Chapter three
WRAITH
áine has been silent since the mistress comment and I don't like it.
Most people piss me off when they don't stop talking, but I like her voice.
I like how her little nose crinkles up when she's angry or confused.
I like how she tries to hide her emotions but her expressive blue eyes won't let her, that thin circle of brown in the center growing and shrinking as her pupils shrink and dilate.
What I don't like? Is her assumption that I would expect her to give me sex in exchange for my help.
Okay, so I'm not a do gooder. I don't volunteer down at the soup kitchen, but donate enough to be on St. Cecilia's guest list for their annual fundraiser.
I don't go. My boss's boss does though. Wouldn't Brogan Shaughnessy be surprised to see one of his mob captains at one of those things?
Mick wouldn't. He knows his people.
Anyway, so what if I've never supported another human being besides myself?
After mom died, there was no one I wanted to.
Until this woman, whose situation reminds me so much of my mom's.
She has three kids, not one, but they're all as vulnerable as I was to a syndicate that has passed judgment on their mom and them by proxy.
It pisses me off that this is happening in the Shaughnessy Mob, but it's different from how the Albanian Boys treated my mom and me.
First, there are kids like Fitz in the mob. He took those boys down just like his dad taught him to. No one ever stood up for me or my mom in Besnik's gang.
Second, in the mob, there are consequences for what those boys tried to do to áine's daughter. The John who killed my mom during the rough sex he paid for didn't even get a slap on the wrist from the Albanian Boys.
I joined the Army to learn how to kill without getting offed myself. Once I did, I spent my leave tracking that bastard down and dispensing my own justice. A life for a life.
She died afraid and in pain. He died terrified and in agony. He begged for his life and I cut out his tongue so I didn't have to listen to his whining.
I'm glad Fitz sent two of the boys to urgent care, but it's not enough. Not for the trauma those little pissants caused Sadie.
One thing I know for certain: Mick Fitzgerald won't leave it there. He won't exact justice out of an emotional need to protect a woman and her children. He's not wired that way.
But my boss has a definite sense of right and wrong. Murder isn't wrong if it's justified, but breaking the code we all swear to uphold is always wrong.
I stop at the gate when we reach the Shaughnessy Estate and roll down my window, while putting my hand out to áine. "Driver's license."
"What for?" she asks, her tone unfriendly.
"To I.D. you." Isn't that obvious?
"Why do I need to be identified?"
The mobile gate guard leans down and speaks through my open window. "We need to verify you are áine Gallagher before we can open the gates, ma'am."
I resist the urge to throw my elbow out and crush the guy's trachea with it. He doesn't need to talk to her. And he shouldn't be leaning this far down, his damn head practically inside the SUV. It's a security risk.
The smile is unnecessary too.
What does he think he is? A customer service rep?
"Was that so hard to say?" she snarks at me. "What would you have done if I didn't bring picture I.D. with me? You didn't bother to tell me I'd need it."
I would have texted Mick. My boss would have taken my word on the identification and given the order to open the gate. Next time, that's what I'm doing.
"You brought your purse." Don't most women carry I.D. in their purses?
"Yes, well…that was my idea, not yours," she says snarkily.
The damn guard is still standing outside my window looking into the SUV at áine.
She tries to hand him her license across me.
My hand snaps up and I pluck it from her fingers before passing it onto the guard with a look that tells him how much I don't appreciate him speaking with or looking at my passenger.
He takes a picture of the license and hands it back to me quickly before making a hand gesture to the guard in the gate house to let us in.
I hand the license back to áine before taking the vehicle out of park. Guests unaccompanied by someone with security clearance at my level have to turn off their cars while their I.D. is being verified.
"What was that all about? Are you offended I tried to reach across you and invaded your personal space?" This woman tries to come off as meek and mild, but she's a spitfire.
That reminds me of my mom too. Before my stepfather got out of prison. Mom's inner fire was doused by the time she died though.
No one is dousing áine's on my watch.
And why exactly is it your watch?
I've got no answer to that question except, it just is.
áine fidgets with the top button on her blouse, her eyes darting around after one of the interior guards opens the door for us and lets us into the big-assed entry hall.
I want her to undo that button and all the ones below it so I can see the big tits mashed into an amorphous shape under the black cotton.
Why the hell is she wearing long sleeves on a day that's supposed to reach the low eighties? It's not quite summer, but the weather doesn't know it.
"They're in the sunroom," the guard tells me. Then he fucking smiles at áine. "Miz Fitzgerald said to go in when you got here."
Putting my hand on her back, I shift my body so I block his view of her. "Come on."
Kara and Mick are sitting on a couch together, talking in low voices while the kids and Fiona are playing some card game at the table.
As soon as Sadie sees us, she jumps up and hot foots it to her mom, hugging her and dislodging my hand at áine's back. "It's okay, mom. Nothing happened."
I'd like to know this kid's definition of nothing because it sure as hell isn't the same as mine. Taking a step back, I give them room for their hug, but that's as far as I'm going.
Kara comes over and introduces herself. The women agree to call each other by their first names in that way they do, implying some kind of friendship when they're actually strangers.
áine doesn't acknowledge Mick verbally but she nods at him, a fine tremor in her hands before she clasps them in front of herself.
"The boss isn't going to eat you," I tell her with exasperation.
She gives me the stink eye and criticizes me for saying something like that in front of her kid. Why shouldn't I? Won't it make the girl less nervous to know Mick's not a cannibal?
"Don't worry, mom. Mr. Fitzgerald isn't like Mr. Shaughnessy," Sadie assures áine. "He's nice."
That's not a word I would ever apply to my boss, but to each their own. áine doesn't look reassured by her daughter's claim.
Fitz stands up from the table and comes to stand near Sadie. "My da will take care of it," he promises áine.
I look to my boss to see how he's taking his offspring making that kind of vow on his behalf. But like usual, his expression isn't giving anything away.
"Thank you for bringing áine, Wraith," Kara says, clearly intending for me to leave. "Let's all sit down."
áine spins, tipping her head back so she can scowl up at me. "You said your name is Kieran."
I'm enjoying the way her choler is putting pink in her cheeks and thickening that pretty circle of brown in the center of the blue as her pupils shrink, so I don't answer.
"His name is Kieran, but his nickname is Wraith," Kara explains unnecessarily.
áine is smart. She would have figured it out. But she's smiling at Kara in gratitude.
Huh.
áine moves closer and peers up at me. "I don't see it. You're hardly as insubstantial as a ghost."
Does she want an explanation for this too? If she does, I'll be the one to give it to her.
It's not such an obvious one anyway. "But I can move as quietly as one when I need to."
"Oh." áine bites her lip and her cheeks are pink again, but I don't think she's mad at me for telling her.
Her gaze snags on Mick again and áine's back to looking nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
I put my hand on her shoulder and guide her to the couch where Mick and Kara had been sitting.
I push áine to sit on the center cushion and I settle myself beside her, leaving the other side for her daughter.
Both of them are going to need the comfort of physical closeness for this. My gran always said that being near the ones you loved made even the worst day better.
The boss and his wife take two armchairs, Mick giving me a narrow-eyed glare when he doesn't get to sit beside Kara like he was doing.
Fitz and Fiona bring over chairs from the table and sit down too.
áine takes a deep breath and lets it out, like she's trying to center herself before taking a kill shot. "I know there was some kind of fight at school today and Kenny Jr. got taken to the hospital afterward, but the school didn't call me or your gran to tell us you'd been involved."
Fitz leans forward in his chair. "She wasn't part of the fight. That was me and four other boys."
"Four? What happened?" áine sounds like she might faint.
I move a little closer to her in case she leans my way when she does.
"You know the boys who have been bullying me?" Sadie's not doing a lot better than her mom.
"I tried talking to their parents, but…" áine lets her voice trail off.
And I finish for her, because I know the end to this story. "They didn't listen."
"Why would they? I'm the wife of a traitor and Sadie is the daughter of one."
Mick stiffens infinitesimally. "You knew about your husband's activities?"
áine shifts even closer to me and I don't mind at all. "Knew while they were happening? No. Know now? Yes, as you made certain I did."
Why does she keep talking like Mick's the one who scared her and treated her like she's less because of what her husband did? Mick's too much of an unemotional pragmatist to blame the wife for the actions of the husband.
"Explain," my boss orders.
"Do you order so many women terrorized, you can't remember sending Kenneth Shaughnessy to do it to me?" áine's hand flies to her mouth and she gives Sadie a guilty look.
"Don't worry mom, I know Mr. Shaughnessy is mean. He says stuff to me too."
"What kind of stuff?" Fitz asks, the mob leader he will be one day showing through.
"That my dad was a traitor. That my mom's lucky to have a job working for him and I'm lucky he got me into our school because they didn't want a traitor's daughter mixing with the good kids."
"You are one of the good kids. You're the best kind of kid!" áine is trembling again, but it's not with nerves this time.
It's with anger.
"How exactly did Kenneth terrorize you?" Mick asks.
áine take a second to think before answering. "He told me what happened after you found out about what Troy did."
That emphasis on the you when she's talking to the boss? She knows Mick killed her husband. Does she know he tortured him too?
For most people, the threat of death is enough to be considered terrorizing.
"What do you mean, mom? Daddy died before the mob found out what he did," áine's daughter says tremulously.
I can see áine telling her daughter that to protect her feelings. I don't see her telling Sadie that Troy was a traitor. But I have no trouble seeing Kenny Jr. doing it.
"That's right, honey. But after Mr. Fitzgerald learned about what Troy did, he wanted to make sure I was made aware too." áine turns to look up at me, her eyes filled with pleading, like I can fix whatever is troubling her. "My daughter doesn't need to hear any more of this."
I can fix this and I like knowing that.
There's a lot I like about this woman.
I agree with her and then turn my gaze to Mick. "Boss."
"We'll talk more later." I knew he'd understand what I wanted.
The boss is a smart man.
Kara lets out a long breath, her too compassionate gaze going around the room, taking everybody in. "Let's focus on what happened today, right now."
"I didn't tell you, but they started saying nasty stuff to me," Sadie admits to her mom, wearing embarrassment like another layer of clothing. "Sex stuff."
áine leaps to her feet looking at Mick like she wants to kill him. Which is not the kind of thing the boss tolerates.
áine doesn't seem to care, her hand out in demand to Sadie. "Come on. We have to go."
"Mom?" Sadie's on the verge of tears.
"We're not safe here," áine says like she believes that nonsense one hundred percent. "We have to go."
Fitz stands up and takes a spot right next to where Sadie's sitting on the couch. "But she is safe here, Mrs. Gallagher. My da won't let anything happen to any of you."
That kid is going to have to learn not to make promises on his dad's behalf, even if they're something he knows Mick will do.
"He already did." There's pain twisting áine's pretty face.
And I hate it.
"But Fitz stood up for me!" Sadie's hero worship is as obvious as her mom's agitation. "He stopped them."
"Thank you, Fitz. We have to go." áine's crying now and I want to hit something.
Preferably Kenneth Shaughnessy.
It wouldn't even have to be a killing blow to be satisfying. At least not the first one.
Unable to stay where I am a second longer, I stand up and cup áine's delicate shoulders. "No running. I will keep you and your daughters safe."
"You can't promise that."
"I can."
"But—"
"What happened today will never happen again," I vow.
"You understand what you are promising, Wraith?" the boss asks. "The only way you can keep that promise?"
Yeah. I understand. "I know."
"You have my approval."
At Mick's words, some of the tension drains from my body. He accepts my claim on áine and the girls that will become my daughters.
I didn't plan to have a family anytime soon, if ever, but there's no way I'm letting this beautiful, courageous woman – so like my mom before my stepfather broke her – be destroyed by Kenneth-fucking-Shaughnessy.
"It'll have to be quick." Mick warns me.
I don't know what the rush is, but the idea of making áine my wife ASAP feels right to me. "We'll get the license tomorrow morning. The wedding can happen the day after."
áine's face goes slack with shock. "Wedding?"
"Who's getting married?" Sadie asks.
"Your mom and Wraith…uh, Kieran." Fitz grins at Sadie. "You're staying in New York."