Consequences
Chapter nineteen
WRAITH
The guard who opens the front door of the mansion tells me to go straight up to Brogan Shaughnessy's office.
When I get there, I find the four fathers of the boys involved in the attack on Sadie sitting in chairs arranged to face the Shaughnessy Mob Boss's desk. Duffy, O'Grady, Casey and of course, Kenneth Shaughnessy.
Another chair sits vacant at the side of the desk, facing the men, while Mick fills the executive chair behind it.
Him sitting in Brogan's spot sends an unmistakable message. Mick is underboss, and in Brogan's absence, he is in charge. His word is law.
The fact my chair faces them where it does, sends another message. Mick and I are aligned against them, and he considers me to outrank the other men.
The ugly scowl on Kenneth's face says he knows it too.
"Did you really give permission for one of your soldiers to date a traitor's widow?" he sneers his opening salvo.
"Yes." Mick doesn't elaborate.
O'Grady scowls at me and then Mick. "What the fuck, underboss?"
"Are you questioning my decision?" Mick's tone is flat and all the more chilling for it.
When he lets his inner sociopath out to play, it can be damn creepy.
"I am," O'Grady agrees without hesitation. "What kind of message do you think that gives our made men?"
O'Grady is one of Kenneth's captains and will be one of the men I inherit when Kenneth is demoted. Oh, joy.
I've had bad soldiers under my command before. Sometimes, it was the fault of their training. I could fix that. But when it was simply a lack of intelligence, character, or common sense? No amount of training can make up for those two flaws.
Considering the fact that O'Grady used both of his children to further Kenneth's agenda, I'm taking it as read that his problem is a lack of character rather than training.
"The message is that I approve of my captain dating and eventually marrying a woman who is not responsible for the mistakes of her dead husband."
"He can't marry her!" Kenneth shouts. "A traitor's bitch of a widow has no place in our mob."
I'm on the older man before anyone else has a chance to speak. Grabbing him by the back of his neck, I yank him up and over the back of his chair before throwing him from me.
He lands with a loud thump and harsh curse against the drinks credenza. Crystal knocks together, clinking loudly; the whiskey and other spirits in the decanters slosh, but nothing breaks.
Not even Kenneth. Intentional on my part, but still unsatisfying.
"Call my woman a bitch again and I will cut out your tongue and give it as a treat to Fitz's dog." Miles will eat anything.
Even the tongue of a traitorous bastard like Kenneth Shaughnessy.
Face beet red from exertion or anger, probably both, he stumbles to his feet and points a finger at me while facing Mick. "Are you going to let him get away with attacking one of your father-in-law's lieutenants?"
"You work primarily for Brogan, but make no mistake, every soldier in this bleedin' syndicate belongs to me. My father-in-law is the only man that outranks me." He says the last bit on purpose.
McLaren briefed me on what was said at the restaurant and I briefed Mick.
"And I outrank him." Kenneth's indignation does not mask his fury at the reminder he is subject to Mick's authority.
"Things change," Mick replies as I return to my seat.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Kenneth demands.
"Family matters are not governed by mob hierarchy," Mick goes on, ignoring Kenneth's question. "Now, sit the fuck down."
Kenneth straightens his suit jacket and sits, glaring at me the whole time.
"If the men need another message about how I handle actual traitors, I can give them one." Mick's disturbingly empty gaze meets that of each of the men sitting across from him.
"There are no traitors to punish," Kenneth says with more belligerence than honesty.
Because if he's not a traitor, I don't know the meaning of the word. And like Neeve's class and teacher learned this afternoon, my vocabulary skills are just fine.
O'Grady scowls, but beads of sweat form at Casey's temple and Duffy tugs at his shirt collar, loosening his tie.
They know the shit they're spreading is disloyal to their underboss and they're starting to worry about how he's going to react when he finds out.
Too bad for these assholes that Mick already knows.
Mick tilts his head, neither agreeing, nor denying with Kenneth's claim. "Right now, there are four would be rapists to deal with."
"My son's no rapist!" O'Grady bellows. "It's not his fault if that traitor's whore daughter led him and the other boys on and then cried Wolf when Fitz came into the locker room."
I'm not as kind to O'Grady as I was to Kenneth. He had his warning and he chose to ignore it. When I return to my chair, O'Grady's out cold on the floor with a broken nose. I would have broken his jaw, but that would have delayed the meeting.
"What the fuck, underboss? Are you going to just sit back and watch while your psycho killer loses his temper and attacks his betters?" Duffy demands.
Mick's jaw clenches. "Wraith didn't lose his temper. I don't like the chances of any of you gobshites if he does."
The boss is getting as sick of dealing with these asswipes as I am.
"I warned you all about insulting my family." I lean back negligently in my chair. "And the underboss is right. If I lose my shit, none of you are walking out of here."
I don't say alive, because I might let them live. But there will be broken bones. There will be blood.
"She's not your family," Casey points out like he's trying to be reasonable. "You aren't married to her mom yet."
I pull out my knife and toss it upward, catching it on the way down. "My woman." Toss. Catch. "My kids." Toss. Catch. "My family."
"What da fud? You brode my doze," O'Grady whines, groggily trying to sit up.
Gripping the tip of my knife between my thumb and forefinger, I flick my wrist and a second later, it embeds itself on the floor half an inch from O'Grady's thigh.
He jerks, spraying blood from his broken nose.
"I could have shoved your nasal bone up into your brain." He could be dead. He's not.
It's the only mercy he'll receive from me.
I get up and retrieve my knife before grabbing O'Grady's arm and hauling him to his feet. Look at me being helpful.
"You going to risk me cutting your tongue out?" I ask conversationally.
He shakes his head rapidly and then moans.
"Here." Mick tosses a bar towel toward O'Grady. "Clean yourself up."
I snatch it from the air when it's clear the older man isn't going to catch it and shove it at him. I might be a little overzealous with my shove because he stumbles back into Kenneth's chair.
"Fuck," Kenneth grumbles. "Sit down before you fall down."
Sliding my knife back into its sheath, I shift to lean against the front of Brogan's desk. I've been up twice already and Mick hasn't even laid out the repercussions for the boys and their families. No point sitting down again.
"Are you denying your sons attempted to rape Wraith's daughter?" Mick asks Kenneth and his cronies.
No one speaks.
Accusing the daughter of a dead traitor of lying is materially different than accusing my daughter. Troy's not here to speak up for Sadie and if he was still alive, no one would listen.
I'm Mick's psycho killer and I've already proven I'll retaliate against any insult against my new family.
"They wouldn't have raped her," Casey assures us, wiping at the nervous sweat on his brow with a handkerchief.
"Is that what he told you?" Mick asks the other man.
Casey nods vehemently. "They were playing around. They weren't going to do anything to really hurt her."
"Which is it?" Mick asks. "Did she lead them on, and they went into that locker room planning to fuck her, or were they bullying her with no intention of actually raping her?"
Casey's skin takes on a sallow tone. "That's not what I meant, I—"
"Stop." Mick says in an even tone, his hand raised, palm out. "Wraith is already bulling for a fight. If you want to see him bleedin' ragin' keep talking shite."
He's not wrong. "Your sons put their hands on my daughter." Reiterating my familial claim on Sadie, I push away from the desk and loom over the seated men. "They terrified her." My hands fist at my sides. "They hurt her."
"They didn't know you were claiming her as family," Duffy says gruffly.
I grab Duffy by the lapels of his custom tailored suit jacket and yank him up from his chair, so my face is only inches from his ugly mug. "You think that matters?"
"They weren't going to hurt her," he chokes out, trying to squirm from my hold.
I knee him in the groin. "They did hurt her."
Duffy howls, grabbing his junk.
"Did that hurt?"
"Yes, you psycho," he gasps out as he drops to his knees on the carpet.
"But I could have shoved my knife up your ass instead. Why are you whining when I only kneed you in the nutsack?"
"You've got a talent for object lessons," Mick praises as I lean back against the desk again. "Does anyone else need a demonstration of the concept that not raping an innocent young woman does not in fact negate the other damage done to her in the attempt?"
"I'm saying, my boy was never going to rape that b…the girl," Kenneth quickly changes what he was going to call Sadie.
He must want to keep his tongue.
"She leb theb ob," O'Grady claims again, his words easy to understand despite the impediment caused by his broken nose.
"That's not what Fitz says." Mick drums a tattoo on the desktop with his fingers. "Are you calling my son a liar?"
Kenneth visibly swallows. "He misunderstood what he walked in on."
"Let's find out, shall we?" Mick texts something on his phone.
Less than a minute later the door to the office opens and Kara walks in, Fitz right behind her, then Brice, followed by the four boys who attacked Sadie, each one accompanied by a guard.
Even Brogan's oversized office is starting to feel crowded.