Page 216 of Sins of Arrogance

“That’s enough talk about mur­der boxes,” Sheila says. “Tell me more about Mick and your lives to­gether in New York.”

We stay in Dublin for two weeks while Mick gath­ers in­tel and we all get to know his fam­ily bet­ter. Most im­por­tantly, they start to get to know Mick.

MICK

I don’t know what Kara said to my mam and sis­ters, but they treat me dif­fer­ently.

The wari­ness that’s al­ways been there is gone. Be­fore we came to Dublin, I would have said it didn’t mat­ter, but I find that I like it.

That it makes me happy.

Not happy like I am with Kara, but not neu­tral ei­ther.

My fa­ther and broth­ers are the same and that doesn’t bother me, so I haven’t had some epic emo­tional epiphany.

Still, I like not scar­ing my mam and sis­ters.

Maybe it’s see­ing me with Fitz too. I show ten­der­ness for him and Kara that I don’t show any­one else.

Once I’ve got­ten the in­for­ma­tion I need on Nevan’s sched­ule and so­cial pat­terns, I’m able to nab him and in­ter­ro­gate him us­ing the benzo com­pound.

I dis­cover no one else in the Nor­thies is privy to his plans to kill my fa­ther. I also learn that he’s do­ing busi­ness that his fa­ther and mine know noth­ing about.

I as­sign his as­sas­si­na­tion to Rory with the in­struc­tion that his death should lead to the dis­cov­ery of those be­hind-closed-doors deal­ings.

Rory makes it hap­pen on the night of Samhain.

Just in time for Kara to go off her birth con­trol and us to start try­ing for that daugh­ter she wants so badly. If we have an­other son, we’ll re­joice in his birth and en­joy the hell out of try­ing again.

Be­cause Kara and me, we’re that epic love story I al­ways be­lieved was a fairy­tale.

The one where the so­ciopath in tar­nished ar­mor lives hap­pily ever af­ter with his mob princess.

And kills with prej­u­dice any­one who so much as breathes a threat to­ward that hap­pi­ness.

The End