It was a reasonable question, and in her world, an expected one. “No,” he vowed. “I told you, both you and your daughters have nothing to fear from me.” Steel sat forward more. The heated plastic of the bench in the spring sun seeped through his coat. Or maybe it was just that his blood was so full of ice that everything seemed warm to him. “Iamgoing to kill your husband Eoin.” Though the name was spelled E-O-I-N, it was pronounced like the popular American name ‘Owen’. “And I am here to offer you a deal, Roisin.”
The rocking of the stroller stopped. With the blanket covering the opening, he couldn’t see inside, but there was no reason to believe the occupant was anyone, or thing, other than Roisin and Eoin’s five-month-old daughter, Ciara.
“Are ya now? And woot sorta deal would that be then?” Her accent thickened slightly, betraying her nerves. Her green eyes continued to flick between Steel and her oldest daughter.
“I am not a monster, Roisin. I am here to offer you what your husband denied me, a chance to say goodbye. Should you wish it, I can arrange for you to see him one last time.” Steel inclined his head towards Ciara and Maebh. “Let them see their father one more time. Make no mistake, Roisin, your life is about to change very drastically. The protection and the organization you’ve known in your married life is about to come to an end. I can leave you here, let you return to your home, and you live out your life as Eoin Gavigan’s widow. Anyone who is left to pick up the pieces may choose to use you or your daughters as pawns, either for power or as examples.”
Her jaw tightened. “Or?” Roisin prompted.
“Or you can come with me. I’ll set you up with new identities, new lives. No one will ever know that you had ties to the Gavigans or who your daughters are. A chance to start over, a chance to live the lifeyouwanted, something neither your own father nor your husband has ever offered you.”
Roisin was silent for a long moment. Both her and Steel watching as Maebh finally decided she was done with the slide and headed towards the plastic blue hollow tube in the shape of an S. “And how do I ken I can trust ya?”
“It’s a fair question. I’m a stranger, and I have admitted that I will be killing your husband, and likely most of your in-laws,” he added for the sake of honesty. “But the fact of the matter is, Roisin, that you’re vulnerable. Not just because my men took away your guards. You’ve been vulnerable for days. I’ve been here, watching you and your husband. There were countless times when I could have killed you or your daughters if that was my intent. And I didn’t. I don’t have to be talking to you now. I could have just taken your guards, and you would have turned around to find them gone, never to know the truth of what happened to them or your husband.
“I’m aware that what I am offering is a huge leap of faith, but Iamoffering it. And unlike your husband, I am a man of my word. You and your daughters will be protected, I promise you that.”
Roisin’s eyes cast down to the blanket protecting her daughter from the brisk spring breeze. “Forgive me if I struggle ta believe ya when ya couldna even protect yer own daughter now.”
Steel’s soul yowled like a tortured animal at her words. And not because of their harshness, but because he couldn’t deny that they were true. “I failed my daughter,” he admitted. The words were ash on his tongue, each breath like inhaling acidic gas. “I will not fail you or yours, Roisin.”
Taking her eyes off her daughter for a long moment, Roisin stared at him. “I’ma sorry about yer daughter. I couldna believe it when I heard what they’d done.”
Not wanting to say anything to that, Steel just nodded.
“It takes great courage ta admit yer wrong, Mr. Duncan. Tat alone makes ya a better man than me husband, see. So I’ll be takin’ ya up on yer offer ta leave wit me daughters and get a new life. Betta than the life we’ll have here without Eoin’s protection.”
Turning, Roisin put her fingers to her lips and let out a very shrill whistle. Many on the playground paused, turning to look at them. Steel averted his head. Without hesitation or complaint, little Maebh came running over to her mother at the obvious summons. Cheeks pink from the afternoon sun and wind, Maebh’s smile fell from her face as she noticed Steel sitting next to her mother.
Roisin said something in Irish, to which her daughter quickly nodded. Collecting the diaper bag and placing it in the bottom of the stroller, Roisin stood. One hand on the stroller handleand one hand clutching Maebh’s, she looked down at Steel expectantly.
He stood, towering over the woman and her daughters. “You’re making the right decision, Roisin. I swear to you.” At a signal from Steel, a man and a woman came over. They’d been nonchalantly sitting on another bench, acting like they too were watching a child play on the playground. “Roisin, this is Elijah and Brooke. They’re going to get you back to your place to pack what you need and then take you away. Don’t worry about your husband or anyone else being there. They’ll never bother you again.”
Though she still looked uncertain, Roisin squared her shoulders and held her chin high.
“Hi, Roisin. My name’s Brooke,” the blonde woman introduced herself. “You’ll be safe with us. And my boyfriend is great with kids,” she added, sending a smile to the brunette man at her side. They both looked to be in their late thirties, early forties.
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 seatingarea 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 comerolling 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 theNon Crasand theVia Daemoniamembers 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.
