Chapter 36
Old Friends
Mason
Two years later …
“Everything all right? You hanging in there?” Da asks on the other end of the phone.
“I’m doing fine,” I lie.
Boston sucks, but I guess I should be happy I’m still in America at least. Lorcan didn’t get so lucky. After Da made a deal with Abato, Lorcan had to fake his death and go to Ireland with Da.
None of us are welcome back in New York. Emilio Gallo made sure of that. We’re lucky we made it out with our lives.
Da has been disgraced because of our fuckups. Lorcan and I shit the bed big time. The only reason our territory wasn’t stripped from us is because of Abato’s deal with Da.
I still don’t know the details. Da said we would give it some time, and we’d be back, but then the boss back home got involved and our cousin Darragh was sent to take over. That was about two years ago, after everything went to shit.
It seems whatever deal they made fell apart after Abato found Juliana dead in a hotel from an overdose. A hotel owned by Emilio Gallo. I don’t believe there were any coincidences there.
Now I don’t know where any of that leaves us and I can’t ask Da because he loses his shit every time I mention it. I’ve been biding my time here with a small-time crew.
I went from running my own shit to being an errand boy overnight. I can’t even tell anyone who I am. The Sullivan name has become shit far beyond New York.
It makes me sick when the guys start talking shit about us. I took pleasure when the boss needed someone to off Maxton. I volunteered right away. He talked the most shit all the time.
“You hold your head up, you hear me? I’m going to make this right if it’s the last thing I do. This is my fucking karma for what I did to Jack. You boys don’t deserve this,” he says, almost like he’s speaking to himself.
“Jack Raven? As in Oni’s father?”
“Aye.”
“What are you talking about, Da?”
“Forget I said anything. I should have kept you out of her life. I knew her being around was going to come back to bite me.”
“What does Oni have to do with any of this?”
“Your little friend works for Gallo now. She’s the one who killed Christopher on your brother’s dummy mission.” He pauses and snorts.
“She’s engaged to Rico. The two run New York together. They’ll be getting married in a month.
“That’s what she has to do with it. She’s sleeping with the fucking enemies. Just like her father, she is.
“They love those fucking Italian pieces of shit. That’s why I had him killed. No matter what Emilio did, he wouldn’t go against them. Not even when the motherfucker tried to take his woman,” Da bites out.
I pause. Oni is engaged to Rico Gallo? How the fuck did that happen?
She said she didn’t want someone like me. She couldn’t date someone in the life. Her mother wouldn’t allow it.
Well, Rico Gallo and I are cut from the same shit. I used to hold the same position in my family. How the fuck did she even get involved with him?
I close my eyes and groan. This is all my fault. That fucking TrackHawk.
“Your brother has been asking after ya. Make sure ya give him a call.”
“Thanks, Da. I will.”
“Be safe, son. We’ll be back if it’s the last thing I do. I have a plan. It might take some time, but I have a plan, I do.”
“I’ll be waiting, Da.”