That’s Lieutenant Mobster to You
Chapter seventeen
That's Lieutenant Mobster to You
WRAITH
Igive instructions to Dagda to contact the parents involved while I'm in a meeting with Mick and his lieutenants.
That meeting blows my mind. Not only will the Boss of the Shaughnessy mob, Brogan, be stepping down in the fall, but he's removing the rank of lieutenant from his cousin now.
Mick suggested me for the promotion and the mob boss agreed to my taking over Kenneth's position.
Me.
I'm fucking flummoxed and honored, by Mick's faith in me and Brogan's willingness to promote me.
My crew and I will be taking over his businesses and mob activities, while purging the ranks of the bad actors on what used to be Kenneth's crew.
My gut tells me there's going to be more than any of us are going to be happy about. Kenneth Shaughnessy is a cancer that's been spreading through the body of the mob for years and none of us knew it.
Fucking traitorous asshole.
He's all about the power and the money, not the brotherhood he has the privilege of being a part of. The Shaughnessy Mob doesn't operate like other syndicates. At least not the ones I've been exposed to. They expect their people to have integrity, even if they are routinely breaking the law.
They don't see the rank and file as cannon fodder, but as family. Not always close, but always important.
How the fuck he wants to screw that up is beyond me. I've worked for people that would have cheerfully left me rotting in a pit in enemy territory despite all their rhetoric about loyalty and honor.
Mick doesn't preach it. He lives it.
I've met plenty sociopaths in my life. There are a hell of a lot more of them living in society and passing off as normal than anyone wants to admit. He's the only one who never uses his lack of emotions or regret as an excuse to betray the people who rely on him.
His wife and kids come before the mob for him, but that just means he wants the mob to be stronger so Kara and the children can be protected.
I understand that now.
This promotion puts a bigger wall between áine, the girls and her mom and danger. Mick says you protect best from a position of strength.
And I'm a lot more like my boss than áine ever wants to know. The stronger my position, the safer she and our family are.
After the congratulations are done and Mick and Kara have stood side-by-side promising a better and stronger mob for all our futures, everyone starts filing out.
When only Mick, Kara and Fiona are left, he says, "Brogan told Kenneth about his retirement and admitted his cousin's been talking shite about me taking over as boss one day since we made the agreement over Fitz."
That explains a lot. "Did he tell you who else Kenneth had been spouting his garbage to?"
"He didn't know. Thought his lieutenant was just letting off steam when he'd had one too many."
"Sometimes, da refuses to see what's right in front of his face," Fiona says with a sigh.
Mick inclines his head in agreement.
Kara frowns and nods. "Like that you needed therapy after seeing your uncle shot and killed in front of you and being shot yourself."
It's nothing I don't know, but I'm still a little surprised they're talking family stuff like this in front of me. Not that Kara's ever held her opinions in when the security team is around and I was on that team for a long time, but this feels different.
More like I'm being accepted into their confidences.
It feels like the right time to say, "My daughter told me something disturbing this morning."
His daughter? Fiona mouths to Kara.
Ignoring the byplay, I tell them about Neeve's trouble at school, who that trouble is with and what I plan to do about it.
"It could be a coincidence," Kara says and then sighs. "But that's not likely. I really hate that parents use their children this way."
Yeah. Not a coincidence. Not when one of the girls and one of the boys that have taunted my daughter the most are siblings to two of the boys who attacked Sadie.
I confirmed that while getting the full list of names of the kids who had been calling Neeve names. Lily relished telling me every single kid's name who used the word bastard in reference to my daughter.
That little girl is out for blood. She'll make a good soldier one day. Hell, she'll probably end up a lieutenant.
Like me.
Damn. I'm about to become one of the mob's top lieutenants. Reaching that rank in the Army would never have felt this right.
"Even da wouldn't have done that," Fiona says, revealing a wealth of information about what it was like to be raised as Brogan Shaughnessy's daughter.
"Not when we were kids anyway," Kara agrees with a cynical twist to her lips.
Fiona frowns at her sister. "He's worked really hard to change his relationship with us."
"He has," Kara agrees. "But that doesn't negate the way he treated us before."
"You're meeting with them and their parents after school?" Mick asks.
"At St. Patrick's Elementary," I agree. "I'll be done in time for the sentencing."
Which is when I confront the fathers of Sadie's attackers and make sure they pay for raising their boys to be little asswipes.
I'll handle her principal after the emergency board meeting Kara called.
Where I'm damn sure he'll be removed from his position and whoever takes his place will be someone willing to institute antibullying training for staff, as well as a program for the students to receive their own training.
I'll make sure the board knows what I expect before the meeting happens, so áine doesn't have to deal with any arguments against it they might feel like making.
It wouldn't do for Mark Bentley to go missing beforehand. Someone might think the mob was responsible. He's leaving New York though. Whether it's of his own accord, or in a body bag will be determined by how he reacts to the little talk I plan to have with him.
Bentley isn't going to work in education ever again. If he accepts that and moves out of state immediately, he'll live. If his death becomes necessary, there won't be a body to find, and Mick won't be forced to punish me for the unsanctioned hit.
He told áine he would kill me if I killed Kenneth before it was sanctioned. I don't believe my boss would do that, but exerting that extra bit of pressure to get her to agree to the speedy marriage was smart.
Punish me? That he would do. And I would submit to it because that's how the chain of command works when your loyal to your CO.
The men he's sentencing tonight don't understand that.
There's a lot they don't understand. They think tonight is going to be a meeting, but it's not.
It's not even really a trial, though Mick will be passing judgment and sentencing both the boys and their parents.
Charges will be laid though and Mick may even give the conspiring fathers an opportunity to speak before he does it.
No words on their part will change the outcome that has already been determined and approved by the boss. Brogan will be on standby to join us via video call if the mobsters dare to question their underboss's authority.
It's his first step in handing over the reins to Mick at the Labor Day picnic.
"When you're on your way to the estate, call me with your report on the meeting at St. Patrick's," Mick orders.
"Copy that." I head out of the room.
I get a flurry of texts from Ethan, Torch and McLaren on the way to my SUV.
Ethan: KS just arrived at the mall in Queens where your family is shopping with McLaren.
Ethan: Do you want me to follow him inside?
Wraith → Ethan: Affirmative. Maintain low profile.
Torch: KS just arrived at the restaurant your family is having lunch at. Instructions?
McLaren: KS is here.
Wraith → Torch: Intervene.
Wraith → McLaren: Get them back to the apartment.
Wraith → McLaren: Have they eaten?
McLaren: No.
Wraith → McLaren: Order lunch delivered to the apartment.
Wraith → Ethan: Stay on KS.
Wraith → Torch: Wand the apartment.
Wraith → McLaren: Check phones for trackers.
McLaren: You thought I wouldn't? Seriously? Do you know me?
McLaren: áine is laying into KS. Let her have her moment.
Wraith → Torch: Why the fuck is he still talking to her?
The plan was to have Dagda pick up áine and Neeve and take them to St. Patrick's so I could get some work done. Yeah. That's not happening.
I head straight to áine's place as soon as I put my SUV into drive, calling Dagda on the way and telling him to handle the issue with the Greek mafia.
I'm taking the stairs two at a time to the second floor when my phone chimes with a text.
I read it on the way up.
Torch: The apartment is clean. Your new daughters are chatty.
I see Torch as soon as I come out of the emergency stairwell.
He slips his gun back into its holster when he sees whose coming through the door. I'm not surprised he heard me coming up the stairs. I wasn't trying to be quiet. Just fast.
And unlike what áine seems to think, you don't have to have the hearing of a bat to have superior situational awareness. Just enough life and death situations to enhance it.
All three girls are slurping noodles from big white bowls and watching a movie when I enter the living room.
Sadie notices me first. "Kieren!"
Joy and Neeve both look up and smile at me.
"We gots lots of new clothes and I got a Minnie Mouse suitcase!" Joy jumps up from the couch. "Want to see?"
She doesn't wait for my answer, but runs down the hall.
"We all got Minnie Mouse luggage," Neeve says.
"Mine's rose gold." Sadie waves her hand toward Joy as she rushes back toward us towing a suitcase behind her. "Joy's has polka dots."
"What about yours, Neeve?" I know what they all look like because McLaren sent me pictures, but I want the ten-year-old to know she always has a voice.
And I always want to hear it.
"It's got polkadots like Joy's but not Minnie, just her name on the front. Do you want to see?"
"Yes."
Smiling, she hops up and walks more sedately than Joy did down the hall toward their room. Joy is showing me the way she can zip her clothes into one side, "So they won't get messed up," when Neeve returns.
Hers is the only soft-side case, but it has more pockets and she seems to like that.
"Want to watch our movie with us?" Neeve asks.
My plan had been to check in with áine and Maureen, but I find myself nodding.
I sit on the couch behind the girls and Joy leans back against my left shin as Sadie starts the movie again. A few minutes later, Neeve leans back against my right knee. And I sit there watching a Disney movie for the first time in my life, feeling…strange.
Like for the first time since my mom died, I have a family that wants me again.