Page 22 of Honorable Sins

She goes on to tell a story that would be unbelievable if I didn't already know Kenneth Shaughnessy is trying to set himself up as an alternative to me becoming the next boss.

That ship sailed the day Brogan and I added the addendum to the blood contract.

Kenneth didn't just tell the widow that I killed her husband, but he gave her chapter and verse on how I tortured Troy beforehand. The feckin' asswipe.

Wraith's stony expression says he's pissed about it too. As he should be.

That kind of information in the wrong hands could be bad for the mob. Not that there's any physical evidence anywhere linking me to Troy's death or corroborating the torture he endured.

But there were witnesses. Men who should be loyal and trustworthy not to turn rat, but it happens.

And that much detail for a crime of that nature catches law enforcement's attention, giving them a hardon for a case they'll be sure they can make. They'd be wrong but it would still put a spotlight on me that I don't need and make it harder for the feds we have in our pocket to smooth things for us when we need them to.

Bleedin' feckin' hell.

It doesn't take us long to figure out that Kenneth telling Áine the things he has is part of his plan to oust me as the next boss.

"Then why did Kenneth tell me any of it?" Áine asks, expressing her emotional upset in a way those of us raised in the mob are taught not to do.

She's betraying way too much vulnerability and she's damn lucky Wraith already agreed to protect her. She needs watching out for by someone who understands our world.

"He was setting you up as a patsy," Wraith explains to her, reflecting my own theory.

"A patsy? For what?" she asks, her bewilderment showing her innocence of our world.

"For him getting rid of a rival without it blowing back on him." Quiet fury darkens my wife's hazel eyes. "Not that he is a rival, but in his own head, he thinks he's in competition for the position of boss with my husband."

"There is no competition," I promise the only woman in the world that matters to me at a cellular level.

"He's going to rat you out." Wraith sounds angry.

Because he takes his oath seriously and would never betray me or Brogan while Kenneth is clearly prepared to do both.

Kara gives Áine a pitying look. "And make it look like Áine did it."

"But then why try to force me to have sex with him?" Áine asked with the shocked naivete of an outsider. "Wouldn't that point the finger toward him too?"

Fury infuses Wraith's muscles with rigidity. "He tried to rape you?"

"He tried to coerce me. I told you he makes passes at me at least once a week. Kenneth said I had to prove my loyalty to the mob. That's why I had to work for him and his snobby family. Lately, he's decided me spreading my legs for him would be stronger proof of my loyalty." The disgust in Áine's tone leaves no doubt how she feels about that possibility.

Kara grimaces with the same emotion.

I run through scenarios for why Kenneth would use that tactic.

Lust. Áine's nothing special like Kara but she's got bangin' curves.

Control. He believes he'll have better control over her if she's his mistress.

Plausible deniability. If she's his mistress with the run of his home, it's conceivable Áine would have access to information that could get me arrested. Thereby making it more believable that he didn't rat me out.

Especially if he broke up with her before turning rat. He could claim she acted out of anger at both him and me for the wrongs she believed we did her.

If I'm not giving him too much credit, Kenneth isn't bad at strategizing. Too bad for him, I'm better.

Wraith's face sets in implacable lines. "He's dead."

After replying to something Áine says, I tell my soldier, "You have to wait to kill him until we know who else is complicit in his plans."