Chapter 14 #4
Roisin took a step towards them before pausing and then looking back at Steel. She was so young, and utterly alone in the world. Yet her bravery in the face of the unknown was unyielding, and that in and of itself garnered respect. “Ya said yer were gonna kill him, yeah?”
Steel didn’t blink, not for her blunt question or the fact that she asked it in front of her children. That was her business. “Yes.”
She had not said whether she wanted a chance to say goodbye to Eoin first, and he thought that was what she was going to ask, or perhaps for him to kill her husband quickly.
Instead, she squared her jaw and said harshly, “Make the bastard suffer.”
Steel’s lips twitched as his nostrils flared, releasing a puff of hot breath. “I intend to.”
The main seating area that in any other house would have been called a living room was lined with clear tarps.
The floor, the walls, and even the high ceiling.
Portable work lights on yellow stands graced three of the four corners of the room, casting ominous shadows on the twelve captives.
All bound to metal chairs, only two were not gagged.
Kelly Gavigan was an underboss of the local Irish mob, the patriarch of his little syndicate.
Though the man was married, he had a number of mistresses and an unknown number of illegitimate children.
The five sons borne to him by his wife, Ellis, sat on either side of him, Seamus, Fergal, Eoin, Declan, and Tadgh.
They served as his lieutenants, each running their own schemes and trades to gain the family money but also favor with the other syndicates in the area.
While each of the five sons had their own runners and employees under them, only Eoin’s six soldiers were present, Keefe, Phelan, Sean, Riordan, Brian, and Desmond.
The twelve occupied chairs were spaced out in a perfect circle so each would be able to see the other eleven.
In the room just outside the living area stood Steel.
He was not alone, though he paid no attention to the others behind him.
Keys was outside in his van, having openly admitted that he wanted no part of what was to follow.
Bulldog had gone home a week ago, needing to be with his pregnant wife and to help her with their kids.
Steel did not hold his absence against the SAA.
He’d sent reinforcements in the form of the club’s sister MC, Non Cras.
Poison, Kitty, Scissors, Wendigo, Phoenix, their Ghost—who was going by his surname of Mercer to keep things from getting confusing—Gypsy, Tabs, and Viper had come rolling up to the IRS-seized colonial home the day after Bulldog departed.
Sissy and Wendigo’s Knightmares stayed behind on the VDMC property as none of them were fighters.
With their assistance, the VDMC was able to subdue and kidnap the twelve members of the Gavigan crime family without drawing attention to the fact that the syndicate was under attack.
So while the Non Cras and the Via Daemonia members were collecting the Irish mobsters, Steel had set out to talk to Roisin.
He could have sent another club member to do so, but something in him had needed to be the one to talk to her.
Keys had informed them that Roisin had been a bargaining chip, an offering from one crime family to another.
She’d been sixteen when she’d practically been sold to the Gavigans and meant to marry Seamus, the oldest son.
But then Eoin had made a play within the organization that had gotten his father’s and Roisin’s father’s attention.
In doing so, Roisin’s father had demanded a change of grooms, not caring that his daughter was still sixteen years old and expected to marry a man fifteen years her senior.
That had been five years ago. It sickened Steel, who couldn’t imagine ever offering any of his children up as trade to make a business deal.
Even when he was President, it had been inconceivable.
He knew it was tradition, and many clubs did it.
That didn’t make them bad clubs, nor did he judge them for how they ran their MCs, but that was not how he had run his.
Steel didn’t know if Roisin was going back to Montana with Elijah and Brooke or if they were going to set her up elsewhere.
The Mountain Mutineers had a lot of resources available to them, and their connection to the VDMC was not well known.
Even if someone connected the club to the Gavigans’ demise, they would not know to look for Roisin and her daughters with the Mountain Mutineers.
There was a sense of peace sitting on that bench with Roisin earlier.
Something serene. And he knew he’d made the right decision in being the one to offer her an escape.
Fuck him, because he didn’t want to leave that park.
Memories of Melanie and her brothers playing in similar locations had bombarded him.
He recalled scraped knees and endless laughter, the feeling of joy that could only be found in the arms of his wife and children.
And as painful as those memories had been, they’d also been cathartic. Like Melanie had been sitting on the other side of him on that bench, praising him for rescuing Roisin, Maebh, and Ciara from the lives they’d had no choice but to be born into.
Ghost stepped up beside him. “We’re ready when you are.”
Steel reached into his front pocket and pulled out his silver cigar cutter.
Pulling the corona gorda from between his lips, he snipped off the cap.
It landed unceremoniously on the floor at his feet.
The torch lighter blazed blue as Steel expertly rolled the foot over the flame.
He toasted the end until it was a bright red before placing the cut head back to his lips to give it a good puff.
Melanie’s murderer sat in the next room. He knew who had issued the order, but not who pulled the trigger. Without saying a word to his compatriots, Steel stepped forward into the tarped room.
It was time to get some answers.