Page 45 of Honorable Sins

Kenneth loses some of his overweening confidence, but he's still acting the maggot and says, "He misunderstood what he walked in on."

"Let's find out, shall we?" I send a quick text to Kara telling her it's time.

The door opens not long after and my beautiful wife walks in with Fitz. Brice and four guards accompany the boys who attacked Sadie Gallagher.

Kenneth and Graham both stand, but Bill doesn't and Paul only manages to get himself off the floor and into his own chair.

"What are they doing here?" Kenneth demands, his belligerence laced with fear he can't hide.

Flicking a glance to my second, I ignore Brogan's cousin.

Brice shoves Kenneth back into his chair. "Sit the fuck down."

Glaring at Graham Casey, Brice points toward his chair. Looking sick and not taking his eyes off his son, Graham sits.

Jasper Casey launches himself toward his father. "Dad!"

His guard grabs the back of his shirt and reels him in. Gaham jumps to his feet and rushes toward his son.

Brice stops him with a hand against his chest and shakes his head. "Sit."

"My son needs me." Casey tries to step around him.

"You should have thought of that when you raised him to break our code of honor," Fitz says, his tone filled with contempt.

"We weren't going to hurt her," Jasper claims with a lot more conviction than his father managed earlier. "Sadie's nice."

My son glares at the older boy. "You already did."

"I d-didn't m-mean to." Jasper's crying and his words come out stuttered. "I'm s-sorry."

"Pussy," PJ Duffy mutters under his breath.

Kara crosses her arms over her too damn-distracting tits and frowns at PJ. "When you can push a baby out of your penis, then you can use pussy as a pejorative term."

"Pejorative means insult," Fitz says with disdain when PJ looks confused. "And watch your mouth around my mom."

PJ, who is sporting a black eye courtesy of my son, gives Fitz a wary look and then says, "Sorry, Mrs. Fitzgerald."

"If you'd shown those manners with Sadie, none of us would be here, would we?" Kara asks chidingly.

"She asked for it!" Kenny Jr. claims loudly.

Fitz is having none of it. "That's a lie!"

"No, she didn't!" Jasper turns and punches Kenny Jr. in the stomach before either of their guards can stop him. "Sadie didn't do anything wrong."

Now, that's interesting. Quick reflexes and he might actually have enough of a budding sense of honor and loyalty to be a good mobster one day.

"Then why did you go along?" my son demands, still pissed at the older boy.

Jasper swipes at his wet cheeks and breathes in hard, sniffing back more tears. "Because I'm stupid." He hangs his head. "Tell Sadie I'm sorry."

Casey turns to Mick. "My son made a mistake, but he's only a child."

"Are you trying to say that because he's a kid, there should be no consequences?" I ask, unimpressed.

"No. But I am his father and ultimately, I'm responsible for his actions. I will take the punishment."