Chapter 32

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Fred

After the others left and I was alone with Finn, I took a deep breath. There was so much that wasn't adding up at this point, I didn't know where to begin, so I chose to go all the way out of left field.

"What did my father tell you about me?"

Finn was clearly as shocked as I was. "Like the kind of man you are, or what?"

"Any conversation he had with you, what did he say about me?"

He shrugged. "Said you were soft, but I remember a time your old man was too. Was proud of you getting an education."

I snorted. "Finn, he's not going to walk in here and shoot you for telling me anything bad, and I'm not going to either. I need to know the truth."

Finn rested his ankle on his opposite knee. "He said you were a fairy, but he thought he could change you. So, he said he took you to a place to do that."

I nodded. That sounded more like my father. "Did he tell you that location was a dank basement he locked me up in for a year and just made sure I stayed alive long enough for him to decide how he was going to kill me and make it look like someone else did it?"

Finn rolled his eyes. "He'd never do that, Fred."

"But he did. It was actually Black, Christopher, and all the guys over at Haven Hart who saved me." I cocked my head. "But what did my good dad tell you about that?"

"Said they stole you from the place he had you."

I shook my head in disbelief. "I'm glad my father's dead. There's not a day that goes by I don't thank God he's gone. I didn't love him, and he didn't love me. I am gay, Finn, so gay. Like I have unicorn pajamas, gay."

"Fred, whatever you are, keep it quiet. No one has to know. Only Rowan, Oscar, and I know."

I slammed my hand on the table. "No. I'm not going to be quiet about it, so you all can either get with it or I promise, I will replace every one of you. I have the support."

"Why you gotta tell the world?" Finn sneered. "The three of us don't give a shit what you do behind closed doors, but keep it there."

I hummed. "Maybe you wanted to make sure it stayed a secret, and that's why you put the hit out. And knowing my uncle Sean supported me, you'd all be left with him and he'd continue to push Aine into the head seat. Were you three old fucks afraid everyone else might truly like evolving into the twenty-first century?"

"You got some messed-up shit in your head, Fred. I don't agree with what you are, but blood takes the seat at the head of this family, and that's what you are."

I chuckled. "That's an outdated rule, and you know it. Haven Hart is insanely successful and powerful, and every head of every faction there is queer."

He waved me away. "It's not our way."

I stood abruptly, my chair crashing to the ground and making a clang. "It's our way if I say it is. I'm the boss, that's what you all wanted and so here you have it. Me, Frederick Brennan, queer mob boss for the Brennan family."

"This won't end well." Finn growled.

"You mean worse than someone trying to kill me?"

"I had no part of that, and I didn't take anything more than I was supposed to. Someone cooked those books, but it wasn't me, Rowan, or Oscar."

I leaned closer. To Finn's credit, he never flinched. "Tell me who I should have my sights on."

"I don't know. The three of us handed our shit to you or Sean. Whoever does your books, that's who you need to talk to."

I couldn't do that, because it was Aine who'd dealt with that, and she was dead. But there was no way she would have fucked me over. It wasn't her style.

"You know, Finn, I will figure all of this out, and you better hope for your sake, you're right."

"I am. I got nothing to hide."

"I suggest you get real comfortable with my queerness because as long as I sit in this chair, it's your new reality." I tsked. "Maybe you all should have embraced letting Aine take the lead. Is a woman better or worse than a queer man in your ignorant brain?"

He didn't say anything, but judging by his expression he wasn't happy.

"You're dismissed." I looked away from the old man and moved to the other side of the table so my back wouldn't be to him as he left.

Rowan and Oscar's responses were almost identical to Finn's, as I expected they would be. I wasn't so much afraid I'd put another target on my head. What those three may not have realized was, they needed to be the ones checking over their shoulders.

For the first time ever, I understood why they would never just let me walk away. Letting someone like us leave our organization left a loose end, and a possible enemy down the road. No matter how much Finn, Rowan, and Oscar would claim they hadn't and wouldn't ever harm me, I wouldn't feel safe as long as they had air in their lungs.

I chuckled at the thought. Who knew I'd finally understand one of their archaic rules?

"What's so funny?" Vincenzo asked as we were driving to the house.

"Just going over my meeting with my lieutenants."

"How'd it go?" Aiden looked over from his seat in the front. I noticed once I stepped out he was in a better mood, and he and Vincenzo were actually talking nicely to each other… Wonder what that's about.

"Horrible for them, I imagine. I told them I was gay, that I didn't believe them, and that they better hope they're right and they better be okay working for a queer boss, or I'd replace them."

Aiden's eyes widened and Vincenzo snorted.

"Jesus, Fred, did you need another challenge?" Aiden shook his head. "Keeping you alive is becoming an Olympic sport."

"Maybe leaving you alone with people is a bad idea." Vincenzo squeezed my arm. "But I'm proud of you."

"Uh, thanks?"

"You're welcome."

Smug little asshole. I rolled my eyes and rested my head on the back of the seat. I was exhausted but that meeting, while uncovering very little, made me feel free. I wasn't sure what the three men would do with this information, and right now I couldn't find it in my heart to care.

Vincenzo's phone buzzed, and I listened to the rumble in his voice as I began to doze. I was almost completely under when the glass beside my head shattered and gunshots rang out.