I smile sweetly, despite the blinding pain in my jaw. Climbing to my feet and walking until his finger is pressed against my chest. “You’ll need a lot more strength and control than that, Black. We’re talking about the Irish. You’re a fool if you think you’re capable of running the streets. ‘They’ won’t let you.” I use my fingers to emphasize, to incite him some more because his emotional outburst is a sign of his weakness. One I plan to exploit.
He leans closer, quickly grasping a hold of the anger that had made him lash out, but his voice still breaks when he speaks. “We’ll keep taking things of importance until the last of our opponents fall to their knees and swear their allegiance.”
I somehow keep a hold of my own thrill surging through my system off my face and out of my voice. Finally, we’re starting to get somewhere. I tip my head to the side, looking as confused as possible. “Things?”
“Tally, you occasionally have these sparks of insight, and I think they’re a sign of your intelligence. In the next word you say, I am reminded, again, you could well be one of the stupidest people I’ve ever met.”
My mouth falls open, and I bring tears to my eyes. And the fucking idiot believes the sincerity of my tears because they fall. Did no one teach this twat about sticks and stones? With a wobbly chin, I swipe my cheeks dry, glaring daggers at him. “What an awful thing to say.”
“The facts speak for themselves. A smart person might have been able to save their cousin. I’m embarrassed for you even now. I read over the interview notes you did with one of the local Garda, and despite it all being right in front of you, you gave them not one solid lead. Although, between you and me, Liam was always going to die, the same as Noinin. His case file in the department was going to go missing too.”
The impact of his words is immediate. The tears that fall this time are as real as the air I breathe.
When the door swings wide open, my memory of that day unlocks like an avalanche. I stare at the group, trying to breathe through the gaping hole left behind from Oscar’s deceit.
For years, I couldn’t remember the day, but now as Oscar stands with a woman in an expensive designer dress and flawless makeup, and Father O’Leary in an equally expensive suit, everything falls into place.
Everything.
All it took was a man in a suit and not a cassock and vestment, a bitch with great hair, and my uncle’s hateful stare at seeing me.
Oscar left me in the car to go into the market, supposedly to look for Liam, but I followed him at a distance, wanting to help. I even called out his name, but he didn’t turn around. Before I could catch up, he walked through a gate marked “staff only” and that struck me as wrong.
I counted up to a hundred before a feeling descended over me, clawing me from the inside out, like I was suffocating. Liam left, and then Oscar disappeared, leaving me alone. I remember feeling even smaller because no one saw me falling apart. In a crowded market, no one stopped to help. I was invisible.
I can’t even remember how long I stood there, because when an older man, Father O’Leary, and Oscar walked back out of the gate, they were both laughing and fondling a woman, kissing her face and nibbling her neck. The three of them walked straight past me.
“Come say hello to your uncle, Tally,” Black croons happily, like a snake about to bite, snapping me out of my memory.
He’s waiting for me to fall apart. One day, I will. But not in front of any of these people. No fucking way.
I use Oscar as the reason for my shock. It makes the most sense. But I need a moment to prepare. Leaning forward with my hands braced on my knees, I heave loud and deep breaths for a few moments, letting the noise of them quieten with each round I take, until I tilt my head to look at Oscar. “I thought you were dead.”
My uncle laughs cruelly, the others joining in. He goes to talk, and only a harsh rasp comes out. From where I am, I can’t hear what he’s saying, but his lips are moving.
The time I spent getting my head together helps immensely. Instead of snatching Black’s gun and killing all these idiots, I act as brainless as they think I am.
“What happened? Why can’t you talk?”
Black steps forward again. “The O’Connors happened, which is why you’re now a part of this song and dance. It’s kind of fitting, isn’t it? The men you are married to cut Oscar’s throat and left him for dead. Since the world we live in, Tally, is an eye for an eye, you’ll be the one we’re taking as our revenge. At the same time, there is always good money to be made. You’re going on a trip to be a hole for an angry man, who hates the O’Connors as much as we do, to fuck. Oscar negotiated proof of your death, however it is delivered and whenever. We can only have one miracle survivor in the family.”
I clutch a hand to my chest as he speaks, letting my expression fill with horror and disbelief. “I’m not married to them. It was child's play.”
“Yet, they’re the ones who killed Des Kelly and his son.” Black remains the spokesperson.
I lose grip of the act at his accusation. Swinging around, I jab a finger in Black’s direction. “No. They wouldn’t do that. They don’t hurt children.”
Black laughs again. “You’re even more of an idiot than I took into account. Perfect match for them, in a lot of ways. We’d notbe here if they’d jumped on board with Oscar’s suggestion we branch out into trafficking in the first place. Thankfully, Arthur could see the untapped opportunity. Oscar’s loyalty to the Kelly’s and our vision of taking the Irish, was ironically repaid by Arthur Kelly himself on the day your uncle was all but murdered. Arthur had the right person on hand, a surgeon of all people. Oscar survived, met his pack, and the rest is history.”
The way they stay close to each other adds weight to Black’s allusion—they’re packed. But in his big unveiling, he also outs himself. It’s pretty clear that, no matter how hard he’s worked for them for all these years, he’s still not a part of the inner circle. He’s the grunt of the group. And that’s fucking hilarious.
I nearly blow my cover again and laugh. Only just managing to keep my head in the game and continuing to act as stupid as they’ve decided I am. “I’m confused.”
The woman rolls her eyes and talks under her breath, her ridicule stinking the air as much as her expensive perfume.
Oscar leans over and talks into O’Leary’s ear before straightening back up and leveling an awful lot of hate my way.
O’Leary says, “He said he wishes he sent you to the trafficker instead of Liam.”
