Page 96 of Sins of Innocence

"They wouldn't have raped her," Casey assures us, wiping at the nervous sweat on his brow with a handkerchief.

"Is that what he told you?" Mick asks the other man.

Casey nods vehemently. "They were playing around. They weren't going to do anything to really hurt her."

"Which is it?" Mick asks. "Did she lead them on, and they went into that locker room planning to fuck her, or were they bullying her with no intention of actually raping her?"

Casey's skin takes on a sallow tone. "That's not what I meant, I—"

"Stop." Mick says in an even tone, his hand raised, palm out. "Wraith is already bulling for a fight. If you want to see him bleedin' ragin' keep talking shite."

He's not wrong. "Your sons put their hands on my daughter." Reiterating my familial claim on Sadie, I push away from the desk and loom over the seated men. "They terrified her." My hands fist at my sides. "They hurt her."

"They didn't know you were claiming her as family," Duffy says gruffly.

I grab Duffy by the lapels of his custom tailored suit jacket and yank him up from his chair, so my face is only inches from his ugly mug. "You think that matters?"

"They weren't going to hurt her," he chokes out, trying to squirm from my hold.

I knee him in the groin. "They did hurt her."

Duffy howls, grabbing his junk.

"Did that hurt?"

"Yes, you psycho," he gasps out as he drops to his knees on the carpet.

"But I could have shoved my knife up your ass instead. Why are you whining when I only kneed you in the nutsack?"

"You've got a talent for object lessons," Mick praises as I lean back against the desk again. "Does anyone else need a demonstration of the concept that not raping an innocent young woman does not in fact negate the other damage done to her in the attempt?"

"I'm saying, my boy was never going to rape that b…the girl," Kenneth quickly changes what he was going to call Sadie.

He must want to keep his tongue.

"She leb theb ob," O'Grady claims again, his words easy to understand despite the impediment caused by his broken nose.

"That's not what Fitz says." Mick drums a tattoo on the desktop with his fingers. "Are you calling my son a liar?"

Kenneth visibly swallows. "He misunderstood what he walked in on."

"Let's find out, shall we?" Mick texts something on his phone.

Less than a minute later the door to the office opens and Kara walks in, Fitz right behind her, then Brice, followed by the four boys who attacked Sadie, each one accompanied by a guard.

Even Brogan's oversized office is starting to feel crowded.

To a one, the men who had just been spouting off about how their sons didn't do anything wrong, are looking less confident. Sure, some of it's from getting knocked around by me, but the fact their sons are here, in the room, sends a message they can't ignore.

If Mick wants to mete out justice right-fucking-now, whatever he promised them, Kenneth won't have time to ask Brogan to intervene. None of these men thought their sons would face any real punishment for what they did to Sadie, much less be called before the underboss without Brogan's presence.

The men might look worried, but more tellingly than anything said in this room so far, is the fact that the only boy who tries to go to his father is Jasper Casey and the only man who tries to get to his son is Graham Casey.

Mick doesn't allow it and Jasper starts crying. "I d-didn't m-mean to," he stutters out. "I'm s-sorry."

Fuck me. These are just kids. And their waste of space fathers got them into this mess.

Listening to Fitz lay into Jasper is a lot like listening to Mick do the same thing to his men when they've fucked up in a big way. Kenny Jr. tries to say my new daughter asked for it and impotent rage boils inside me. I can't hurt a kid no matter how much of a little shit he is.