Not Boss Material
Chapter forty-two
WRAITH
Kenneth Shaughnessy is exactly where I told McLaren and Nathan to leave him.
Kenneth starts yelling as soon as he sees us. "You can't do thish! Brogan won't let you. I'm hish cousin. I'm hish blood."
His slurred speech tells me the drug cocktail I had my people administer is already working.
"Too bad you didn't remember that when you negotiated with the Swedish mafia to assassinate him." Mick Shakes his head in emotionless disbelief. "You bleedin' stupid fecking gobshite. You were willing to give away the keys to the kingdom."
"He thought he could make more money selling humans than he could selling whisper guns." Disgust drips from every word I utter. "You were wrong."
I reel off numbers áine compiled. The income total for two years make my stomach turn, but it's nowhere near the profit we make off the whisper guns in six months.
"Why the feck would you think that even makes sense?" Mick demands scornfully. "You thought trying to elbow your way into a trade that's already saturated with gobshites that don't deserve to live was better than controlling the market on a new technology?"
"Don't try to play a moral…mor…moral shanktimonioush prig with me, Mick. You have no consciensh. You don't care if we sell people."
"Wrong. I refuse to do business with syndicates that make their money trafficking humans, and you know it. That's why you want to get rid of me."
"I want to get rid of you be-cush you should never have been under boss. That job belonged to me. I'm Brog…Bro…Brogan's flesh and blood."
"McLaren and Ethan already administered the drugs, huh?" Mick asks me.
"Yeah."
"The combination is working a treat."
"I wrote down the dosages for you already. They're on a post-it inside the door of the drug locker." I knew he'd want them for future reference.
Like me, Mick's a fan of mixing drugs and pain to get the answers he wants.
He favors the Reid interrogation technique, while I use a slight variation developed by the Mossad, I learned while working for the CIA.
In the end the interrogation is something of a letdown. Kenneth talks way too easily and I don't even think we needed the Greek's compound to increase his pain.
He kept analog records to hide the laundering of the human trafficking money through his legit businesses. Knowing it was unlikely Brogan would order an audit of them.
We don't use our legit businesses to launder money from our illegal activities. They're fronts and yes, they're connected to some of the businesses we use for laundering but not in any direct way.
We opened our own digital bank for laundering funds because it was easy to capitalize on access to thousands of small accounts to move the money through without their owners being any the wiser.
We also invested in the Cosa Nostra's nightclubs and have been able to launder a few million that way, but laundromats and dry cleaners are still good businesses for money laundering and we have dozens throughout the city.
Our mob is a mix of old ways and new technology. Just as it should be. Progress tempered by tradition and sticking with the things that work while letting go of the things that take too many resources.
Kenneth's resentment towards Mick started when Mick signed the contract to marry Kara.
He talks a lot about being Brogan's blood, but Kenneth thought he should have been considered as a potential husband for Kara.
Apparently, since there are no laws against second cousins once removed getting married, he saw the alliance as a way to keep it all in the family.
Very Ancient Egyptian of him.
I'm pretty sure Kara would throw up if she heard this bullshit spewing out of Kenneth's mouth right now. I don't think Allison would be much impressed either.
But it's clear Kenneth doesn't care about the woman he married and who gave him his only son. He let Allison drive right into that accident without a single qualm. He never even considered giving her a heads-up for a fear she would let something slip during her tea with Kara and áine.
Initially, his years-in-the-making plan was to wait at least a year after Mick was arrested by the FBI to kill Brogan and stepping into his cousin's shoes. Brogan's plans to retire early forced Kenneth to act ahead of schedule and to change his plans.
"I can't believe he really thought you'd end up in prison." Standing side-by-side with Mick at the interrogation room's sink, I scrub the blood from under my nails while Mick does the same.
"He's that guy. The old boy network is all that he can see. He has no clue that Kara would have hacked into the FBI database and deleted the records after arranging for all physical evidence to be destroyed in a digital SNAFU."
"Your wife has mad skills. Even McLaren thinks she's all that and a new hard drive."
Mick's and my mouth both tilt up at the corners in shared amusement.
"Brogan shouldn't have told him about his retirement plans early." Mick yanks two paper towels from the dispenser and dries his hands.
I follow suit. "Better that it's all out in the open now and we know who needs to be disposed of before you take over."
It'll make for a smoother transition.
"And who needs to be tormented for the next few years," Mick mutters under his breath.
Not for the first time, I'm glad that Mick is my friend and not my enemy.
"Brogan approved me being the executioner at the tribunal?" I unlock the door and we walk out, leaving Kenneth passed out in the chair.
Mick nods. "He wanted to do it himself, but I pointed out that Kenneth tried to kill your wife, not once but twice and kept her trapped working for him for several years. The kill should be yours."
That's the thing about Mick. He's fair. A lot of bosses would have demanded the right to take the kill to cement their reputations. Mick doesn't need that kind of bolstering to his.
We all know he's not a man to cross.
Too bad for him, Kenneth didn't get the memo.