6. Safety Comes at a Cost #2
"Why can't we just leave New York?" áine asks with renewed desperation. I guess she doesn't like hearing more about mob justice. "I promise I won't say anything."
"If you leave, there is nothing to stop Kenneth from following you," my wife explains with an empathy I don't understand but admire all the same.
Because it's part of her. Everything about her is perfect.
"If you stay and don't marry Wraith, Kenneth will continue to try to coerce you into sex. Can you be sure you won't give in to it?" I ask.
áine's only answer is a glare. Does she think the question was rhetorical?
It wasn't, but my wife speaks up before I can press the other woman for a reply. "He and his son both know the consequences of rape, but Kenny Jr. still attacked Sadie today with his friends. Because Kenneth Shaughnessy believes he and his family are untouchable."
"Or not," Wraith says thoughtfully.
I ponder what he means and I probably wouldn't get it if I weren't married to Kara, but I think like she would and it comes to me. Again, not bad strategy, but not good enough.
"Why or not?" áine asks Wraith.
But my soldier is a man of few words and it's Kara that explains. "It's possible that Kenneth egged his son on in order to trigger mob justice."
"He wants Kenny Jr. killed?" áine guesses, making no effort to disguise the horror she feels at the idea.
"No, but he wants Mick to invoke the punishment so he can go to my father with a complaint and stir up more trouble among the other lieutenants and their captains."
"Because even mobsters balk at killing a child?" áine asks without sarcasm.
Assuming that's not a rhetorical question either, I reply, "Aye."
"But you wouldn't?"
"Mick would look for other alternatives first." There's no doubt in my wife's voice.
"Aye, because I have a conscience." It's her and she knows it. Kara is the only moral compass I'll ever have.
"But Shaughnessy doesn't know that," Wraith offers, surprising me with his loquacity.
Kara nods. "What he does know is that my father would never sanction the death of a child as punishment."
"You're saying what happened to my daughter was part of some plan Kenneth Shaughnessy has concocted to undermine your husband's position in the mob? Those boys could have raped her!"
"Doubtful. Seeing what happened today in light of what we believe Kenneth's plans to be, those boys meant for Fitz to find them. What they didn't count on was the strength of my son's reaction or their inability to defend themselves against it." There's pride for our son in Kara's tone.
"What they did was traumatizing enough. She'll need counseling." It helped my wife, my sister-in-law and my son.
I'm a fan even if I'd never waste five minutes talking to a shrink.
"She'll get it," Wraith promises.
I nod in acknowledgment.
For some reason, áine's not happy though. She yanks her hand away from Wraith's and takes a defensive pose next to him on the couch. "That's for me to say."
"You don't want her to go to counseling?" Wraith asks. "I'll pay for it."
Oh. Maybe that's what's got her riled. She and her family have been living on a maid's wages since her husband's death.
He left them provided for if she sold the house, which she did, and lived frugally, which she no doubt does. But other than the college funds for her girls, áine has no savings to speak of and Kenneth is a miserly employer.
I don't have to get a current financial report for áine to know that, but I texted Fiona to run a financial background check on áine from the car on the way here earlier.
"Of course I want her to go and I'll make sure she does, but that's not for you to say. I'm her mother."
Wraith is as unimpressed with áine's lack of logic as I am and doesn't bother to answer her.
"Which is the point, I think," Kara says like she's trying to smooth the waters. She's so much more patient with people than I am. "Kenneth is setting everything up to make it look like you have a reason to resent Mick enough to turn him into the feds."
"Why would I resent Mick for what happened today?" áine asks. "I'm more likely to despise Kenneth and his miscreant son."
Kara tells áine that Kenneth probably plans to make it seem like what happened today was somehow my fault. And I'm sure she's right. My wife is a highly intelligent woman with a good head for strategy.
Look at how she handled that issue with Dierdre Kelly six years ago. It pissed me off at the time, but later, I had time to think about it and her promise never, ever to leave me. Her asking for a divorce before she demanded we kill the other woman was good strategy.
It undercut any belief her father and I might have had that her request was born of jealousy.
I did kill Dierdre but no way in hell was I ever giving my wife a divorce. Even thinking about it now fills me with rage and the need to cuff her to our bed until she promises again never to leave me.
Kara says something else and áine frowns with resentment. "What you are saying is that I don't have a choice. If I want to protect my daughters and myself, I have to marry into your mob." She adds in a mutter, "Marry the man currently pressed up against me like an overprotective gargoyle."
"You could do a lot worse than a gargoyle as your protector." Kara tells áine, her eyes warm with love for me.
She told me once that the monster inside me is a gargoyle, dormant until he needs to protect the people important to me. Which means my inner gargoyle is on constant alert because between her and the chislers, I always have to be ready to fight to protect them.
"You do have a choice," I remind áine. "Both options have consequences. You decide which ones you can live with."
Then I tell her that if Wraith kills Kenneth without my permission, I will have to kill my loyal soldier. And I can't give that permission until we have determined who else is a traitor to me
"If Kieran killed Kenneth Shaugnessy without your sanction, you would kill him, even though you're the one who approved him claiming us as his family?" she asks in disbelief.
Outsiders have a hard time understanding the rules we live by in the mob. "Aye."
"But why?"
"We need to find out how deep Kenneth's traitorous rot has spread. Killing him would make that a lot harder than it needs to be."
"So, let me get this straight. First, you tell me that I have to marry Kieran to protect myself and my daughters." She gives Wraith a nasty look. "Then you tell me that if I don't marry him and he does what he well…does to protect us, then you'll kill him?"
"Aye." Isn't that what I've been saying?
"You're not giving me any choices, no matter what you say," she accuses.
"I will keep my family safe, whatever it takes."
The dread that fills her eyes tells me áine understands that if it comes between her safety and that of my wife and chislers, they will always come first. She needs to accept the protection Kieran offers if she wants to make it out of this alive.
Because a dead patsy can't tell tales.
In a move I approve, Wraith lifts áine right up off the couch and onto his lap. "You are a strong and compassionate woman. I knew another woman like you a long time ago, but I was too weak to protect her. I am not too weak to protect you."
My mob brother is a man of few words, but he says what he needs to. And none of his words now come as a surprise to me.
Unlike me, even though he's good at keeping them under wrap, Wraith is driven by his emotions.
"Would a strong woman have tolerated everything I have from Kenneth Shaughnessy and his family for the past six years?" áine demands of Wraith.
He says, "Only a strong woman could."
Ain't that the truth?
A weak woman would run, knowing it would probably cost her everything because she couldn't make herself stay. áine isn't that woman.
Wraith says pretty much the same thing, tacking on that she might even try to get money out of Kenneth for her escape after telling him about my suspicions. I remind them both if áine did something that foolish, what the consequence would be.
"If I were to marry Kieran…" áine looks a little stunned she said that. I don't know why. It became the inevitable conclusion as soon as I accepted Wraith's claim on her. "Then won't Kenneth know I already told Kieran everything? That you've figured out his plan?"
"Not if you convince everyone that you and Kieran have been in a secret relationship for a while.
" It's a good cover and will give us the opportunity to trip Kenneth up further when he finds out about the marriage and levels the inevitable threats to keep áine quiet.
"If you've been dating and I haven't come for him already, he'll assume you haven't told Wraith anything that would get Kenneth in trouble. "
I'm not known for my patience when it comes to our men lying about anything, but especially about me.
"Wow, Machiavelli had nothing on you."
"There are none wilier than the Irish," I inform her.
"It will make it easier for your mother and daughters to accept too," Kara says. "Even though Fitz told Sadie that arranged marriages are common in the mob, there's no reason for her to believe this one didn't come about because of the secret relationship you and Wraith are in."
"Have you considered that if I marry Kieran, I'd hardly be the easy patsy you've asserted he wants me to be?" áine asks, showing she's got a pretty good grasp on what's going on now. "It could precipitate action on Kenneth's part."
"I'm counting on it."
"Kenneth has assigned you a part in his little drama and he's going to make sure you play it," Kara tells her.
"Was anything said today at the Shaughnessy house that would negate the fake relationship scenario?" I ask Wraith.
Wraith shakes his head after giving it some thought.
Good.
It's decision time. "What's it going to be?"
"I'll marry you Kieran Lleshi," áine says directly to Wraith. "But God help you because I gave up being the accommodating and adoring wife once I learned the truth about Troy."