Cathal #4
It was Burke and Cain who stepped forward to get him. I guess they were tired of standing there. I didn’t mind their inclusion. It took mere moments. Lalonde rubbed his wrists as he stared at us.
“You know what we want to know. You’ve seen barely anything of what we’re willing to do to get the answers. I doubt any of you believe you’re walking free. So the real question is: are you going to give us what we want easily or not?” Darragh asked coldly.
“Before you answer, I’d like to introduce myself and my friend here,” Alistair said, gesturing to Hollis.
“You strike me as a guy who has been around in the business. You know who is who. And I like everyone to go into things knowing all the facts. I didn’t mention it to those two because, well, they wouldn’t know anything about us. But I think you would,” Alistair added.
“I know who you are. You married into the O’Sheeran family. You married the one they call Aisling. As for him, no clue. You don’t mean shit to me,” Lalonde said, shrugging.
“I wasn’t referring to my marriage to Aisling.
However, that would be enough for us to end up together like this.
Your boss and the men you command endangered my wife, daughter, and my extended family.
However, I’m referring to my professional capacity.
The one where I’m tasked with ensuring those who hurt others in certain ways, such as killing innocent people, rapists, and more, receive the reckoning they have coming,” Alistair supplied.
“Oh yeah, and just how do you do that as a job?” Lalonde asked sarcastically.
“By leading a unique and, dare I say, feared group of men and women.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. Who is the group that I should know of and fear?” Lalonde sneered.
Alistair and Hollis moved closer, then quietly, but loud enough to be heard in the still room, Alistair answered.
“I’m the leader of the Hounds of Justice, and Hollis is my right-hand man.
You and your employers have been brought to our attention, and there’s no way we’ll ignore it.
You aren’t walking away. And if I have to carve the truth out of you an inch at a time.
If I have to remove appendages to get the truth, I will.
He will. Every person in this room will.
Don’t mistake the O’Sheeran image as playboys for them being weak.
They’re not. Who do you think created the Hounds? Darragh O’Sheeran is our boss.”
The Methot brothers clearly were confused and had never heard of the Hounds of Justice.
The way Michel Lalonde sat there, unmoving, with the color draining from his face and his expression turning from sneering to terrified, told us he had heard of the Hounds, and they scared the shit out of him.
The silence stretched for a good twenty seconds or more before Darragh broke it.
“Good. I see you now recognize who you’re dealing with. And if you doubt Alistair’s words, well, he’ll show you.” My cousin’s voice was flat and menacing. No one could doubt he meant it and that he himself would get his hands bloody.
“You’re…” Lalonde paused and swallowed before trying again. “You’re the Hounds?”
“Yes,” was all Alistair said back.
Whatever Lalonde saw in my brother-in-law’s eyes or expression or the rest of our expressions, it convinced him. His body sagged. He cast his furious gaze over at his bosses.
“You had to go after not just a Mafia family but also the fucking biggest Irish Mafia family in the goddamn USA. As if that weren’t enough, you put us in the sights of the Hounds of Justice. You’ve killed everyone, you fucking idiots!” he shouted at them.
Lotario flinched. Primo glared back and spat at him. “Who the hell are the Hounds of Justice?”
“Who are the Hounds? If you were as connected and badass as you pretend to be, you’d know.
No one in the kind of illegal shit you’re into hasn’t heard of them.
If you haven’t, then you’re no more than a surface player.
They are the boogeymen of the underworld.
If you’re into heinous acts, you’d better pray they don’t find out because if they do, you’re dead. ”
“We’re not doing anything heinous,” Lotario whined.
“Yes, we did! We attacked a compound filled with women and kids! Christ, why did I do it?” Lalonde muttered.
“I guess they paid you enough,” I murmured.
“Not enough for this. Listen, I know I’m dead.
We all are. If I tell you everything I know that they haven’t, will you end me mercifully?
I don’t want to feel it coming. I might not deserve it, but that’s my request. I should’ve walked once they came up with the stupid idea to go after Bragan’s daughter,” the Methots’ man grumbled the last sentence.
“We’ll decide that once you tell us everything,” Darragh informed him.
“Okay, I’m ready to tell you,” Lalonde said.
“What the hell is wrong with you two? You keep telling them everything,” Primo snapped.
He was still trying to withhold shit, even though his business and life were over, and so was his brother’s. The only ones who might escape were their mom, if we found she truly had no hand in anything, and the remote family outside the two cousins who were in it with them.
An hour later, we had everything Lalonde knew, including verification of what Lotario spilled and the few things that slipped out when Primo argued with his brother.
Based on that, after a quick remote conversation with Cody, we felt we had more than enough to dismantle everything.
We’d make a move against the two cousins who hadn’t been caught up in our two moves and the two border guards.
The Hounds would dismantle and eliminate the associates.
It was their area of expertise. For us, life would return to normal as soon as the last threats were addressed.
I felt let down, which was terrible to say. It made me wonder if I was a vengeful monster. I hoped I wasn’t. The ending of the three of them was anticlimactic. Hollis snapped Lalonde's neck. Lotario was sobbing and begging when he was shot between the eyes.
As for Primo, he was still trying to act strong, but he also kept spewing shit about the Bragan family deserving what they got, even if Faolán hadn’t been the one allegedly to betray his dad.
His death was a bit more prolonged. Murdoch slit his throat for his boss.
And Faolán stood there watching him choke on his blood.
As he died, my father-in-law told him one thing.
“That’s for daring to endanger my daughter. She is everything to me.”
I echoed the sentiment in my head. Bronagh was my everything as well.
It was a tired bunch who eventually made their way back home.
We left in separate trucks, staggered to coincide with others coming and going.
No one knew that a couple held us and another the three bodies.
I wanted a shower, to kiss my wife, get some sleep, and then continue my honeymoon. Maybe not in that order.