Page 94 of Honorable Sins

When he says my name, I stand.

"What you’re about to hear is Kenneth Shaughnessy in his own words." I play the recording of his conversation with Agent Fisk.

The voice filling the gym is Kenneth’s. No distortion. No edits beyond cutting away everything the men do not need to hear. He promises a federal agent evidence against me. He talks about using Áine. He promises Fisk money and advancement after he becomes boss.

Kenneth watches the men instead of the screen. He's looking for doubt. He finds shock first, followed by anger as I move through the rest of the evidence.

The call with the head of the Swedish mafia changes the room. Men who shifted restlessly during the recording go rigid when they hear Kenneth offer our weapons technology in exchange for Brogan’s murder.

Kenneth laughs and accuses me of believing the Vanta belongs to me.

"It belongs to the mob and currently accounts for forty-two percent of our income from weapons dealing," I tell him. "You were willing to give that up to hire a hitter."

His face reddens.

I put the ledgers on the screen.

Áine’s work is meticulous. She found the first irregularities in records Kenneth assumed no one would ever digitize. McLaren followed the corporate filings. Wraith’s men traced the transfers through the shell companies and into businesses connected to the Hollow Point Kings.

I explain the structure without embellishment.

Kenneth used legitimate Shaughnessy companies to launder money from human trafficking. He profited from women and girls being sold. He approved the plan to put Wraith’s daughter into that same pipeline.

The men understand what I am telling them.

Some of them do not want to. I note every face. Disgust is easy to recognize. So is disbelief. There are men in the room who will need time to reconcile the Kenneth they drank with at weddings with the man who sold children.

Then there are the others.

Three men avoid looking at the screen when the records appear.

One of them is O’Grady. He sits near the aisle in the fourth row, his arms folded across his chest. He does not look at Kenneth either.

Interesting.

I continue through both attempts on Áine’s life.

The hospital photograph of Allison appears behind me. Bruising covers one side of her face. A cut near her hairline has been closed with sutures, and one arm rests in a sling.

"Allison Shaughnessy was used as cover for the timing of the second attempt on Áine’s life."

Kenneth’s head snaps up. "Leave my wife out of this."

"If you’d left her out of it, she wouldn’t be in that condition," Kara says, her voice sharp with fury and disgust.

Her anger is a feckin' turn on and I have to think of firing range statistics to keep my cock from stretching out the front of my trousers.

The door at the side of the gym opens.

Allison enters with one hand on a soldier’s forearm. Her hair is pulled back, exposing every bruise along her cheek and temple.

Each step is slow and halting, but she does her best to hide her physical pain. Allison looks at Kenneth once.

He looks away.

That is the first evidence of shame I have seen from him.

He did not care that his son helped target a girl for rape. He did not care about selling Sadie or arranging Áine’s death. He did not care that his plans would leave his uncle dead and put me in a federal prison.