Chapter 71 MICELI

"What the fuck does this mean?" I bend over Brogan's desk and indicate the text I received from him the night before.

BS : Keep a close eye on our girl. GL still wants her to marry his lieutenant .

"What it says. Róise's grandfather is one of those old-school guys who thinks the fruit of his loins as he calls it, belongs to him." Brogan sounds fed up with the man.

My feelings are more violent. "That doesn't sound old school. It sounds psychotic."

"Whatever you call it, once the wedding happens, he won't be a problem anymore."

"You said the engagement would take care of it." Not that I trusted that it would.

But there has to be a reason Brogan is more worried now than he was right after we announced the engagement.

"I thought it would."

"But it didn't."

Brogan sighs and shakes his head. "He called yesterday demanding I get her away from you and turn her over to him."

Someone just signed his own death warrant.

"And you said?"

"That he could go fuck himself. What the fecking hell do you think I would say?" Brogan's voice rises with his ire.

"There has to be a reason he believes you would do what he's demanding. "

"Other than sheer, pig-headed arrogance? The man sees women as property. I wouldn't put it past him to try to nab her himself." Brogan runs a hand over his face. "But once the wedding is done, he'll back off. His religion sees marriage vows as sacrosanct and doesn't acknowledge the legality of divorce."

"The fuck are you talking about? My woman is at risk for being kidnapped and this is the first I'm hearing of it?" He sure as hell didn't mention the possibility when he told me about the reprehensible old man's pipe dreams to marry my woman off to one of his buddies.

"I didn't think that was a legitimate threat before this. I was wrong." Brogan's admission comes from between clenched teeth.

He doesn't like admitting he's wrong? It's better than being dead if he didn't admit it and something happened to Róise.

"Your family is on yellow alert and that should be sufficient, but I wanted you to know about the escalation in Gabriel's demands. And the fact my alliance with him is on shaky ground right now."

I immediately text my team and Sev to tell them about this complication. If Shaughnessy's alliance with the AOG is shaky, then ours is now nonexistent. Our alert status is pushing toward red.

Cazzo .

I promised Róise dinner out, but until I've taken care of this threat, her security status is going red regardless of what Sev decides to do.

If I lose Róise, I will turn the world into rubble around me. I don't know when it happened, but my dolce fiore is the most important person in my life.

I would survive losing anyone else. But not her.

Managgia la miserisa! I love her.

Unaware of my disturbing inner revelations, Brogan sighs. "His phone calls and texts have been getting more strident. The engagement should have taken care of the problem. Who is stupid enough to believe they can go against your mafia and win?"

"Gabriel Lion apparently."

"There's something wrong with him. Like I said he's got this –"

"Psychotic belief that Róise is his property." She is my woman, but Róise Aisling Shaughnessy is nobody's property.

"Apparently, he promised her to Jed a long time ago. But I didn't know that."

That tracks with the things I've found out about Derry's death, once I started looking in the right places.

"Did Gabriel know your brother planned to cut ties with the AOG when he became boss?" I ask.

"What does it matter? That was six years ago. "

"Did he know?" I demand.

Brogan waves at one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Sit down."

I ignore the invitation and wait for an answer to my question.

"Yes," he finally says. "My father told him. He had some idea that if Gabriel apologized to Derry and made a pretense of remorse for how he treated his daughter Charity, business could go on as usual."

"You don't sound like you believe that was possible."

"My brother despised Gabriel and thought compromise was for the weak."

"Why the fuck haven't you investigated the AOG for your brother's death?" I know he hasn't because he would have found what I did and already killed the son-of-a-bitch.

Brogan Shaughnessy is ruthlessly mercenary, but his loyalty to his family and mob is unbreakable.

Pain too acute to deny crosses Brogan's features "It wasn't the AOG."

"It wasn't the fucking Bonannos." Brogan has to know that too because again, if he blamed the mafia, he would have been waging war the past six years, not building bridges.

"I know that."

"Then why not investigate the AOG? They had the most to gain by Derry's death." Except the man in front of me.

I know it wasn't him, unless he was in on it with Gabriel.

He must see the suspicion on my face. "It wasn't me. I loved my brother and I have always been loyal to this mob."

I don't say anything. Silence is a better form of interrogation than questions with a certain type of man.

Either he'll tell me, or he won't.

"I was going to take this with me to my grave," he says after a long beat. "But I know it wasn't Gabriel. Or me."

"You sound certain." Of something entirely incorrect.

"Trust me, I would much rather believe Gabriel Lion ordered the hit than live with the truth."

"And that truth is?" What lie has he accepted as fact?

"My father took the hit out on himself. He wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. And it ended up costing him his oldest son. It broke him."

"Why do you think that?" Yes, Róise and I floated that idea, but why would his own son be so sure of it?

"He told me, at the end… Da said it was all his fault."

"And you took that to mean he'd taken out a hit on himself that went wrong?"

Brogan stares at me. "What else could it mean? "

"I don't know, maybe that he realized if he hadn't told Gabrieal about Derry's plans to cut ties with the AOG, or had cut ties himself, the bastard wouldn't have had a reason to kill your brother."

"If my da had wanted me to cut ties with the AOG, he would have told me. And if he believed Gabriel was responsible for Derry's death, he would have."

"You sure about that? What would you have done if your dad told you the hitter was AOG?"

"Gone to war." No hesitation.

I nod. "Maybe he thought losing one son was enough."

The AOG are paranoid religious fanatics, but they are also a formidable force made up of military trained soldiers. Would the Shaughnessy mob have won that war?

Without a doubt, but not without casualties.

"Your father made peace with the Bonanno don only weeks after your sister-in-law's death," I point out.

"He did what he thought was best for the mob."

I shrug. "Sometimes what's best for the syndicate isn't what's best for your family."

It's a tightrope we all have to walk.

"You're one-thousand times better an option for my niece than that fucker Jed. And you are strong enough to protect her from the AOG."

Brogan's words show defensiveness about his decision to offer his niece for the blood alliance. They also indicate that he might have been thinking of Róise and her safety as much as growing his powerbase when he offered the alliance to Sev.

"I am," I agree.

He sighs. "I will open an investigation into Derry's death. I should have done it six years ago."

But he'd believed his father was responsible.

"There's no need." I tap twice on my phone. "Look at the attachments I just sent you."

One is the statement for Jed's bank account. It shows five $9,999 deposits (staying under the mandatory reporting limit) each a month apart starting the day Derry died. The payee is the AOG. Taken independently, that money could be payment for anything.

But the other attachments condemn Jed.

"That parking garage has line of site for a competent sniper to where your brother and grandfather exited the building on the day of Derry's death."

"Let me guess," Brogan says, fury deepening his tone. "Jed is a trained sniper. "

"He racked up one of the top scores for kill shots during Desert Storm. Those videos show Jed driving into and out of the parking garage on the day of Derry's death. He'd been there twice before."

"Recon."

I nod. "He paid a toll on I-80 shortly before receiving a speeding ticket on his way back to the AOG compound. The timing fits for the shooting."

Brogan's face twists with agony only another made man with family who have died at the hands of our enemies can understand. "You're telling me …"

"That Gabriel had your brother murdered so your mob would continue to do business with him."

Rage replaces pain on the older man's features. "That's when Gabriel promised Róise to Jed. I'm going to kill him."

"No. That is my privilege. Gabriel and Jed are threats to Róise and she is mine to protect."

"He had my fucking brother killed. He's mine."

"Are you saying you want to be part of the operation?" I'm not offering more than that and it will be my hand that ends Gabriel Lion's life.

Brogan nods grudging agreement. "I knew you were the right man for Róise."

"Are you saying you set up the blood alliance for the sake of your niece?" Supposing is one thing.

Knowing another. And if it is true. Róise deserves to know.

"I have alliances with mobs all over this country and Europe. I have alliances on every continent with other syndicates. So, no I didn't need this alliance. But I wanted my niece protected."

"And it didn't hurt that you probably figured my brother was going to be godfather one day."

He doesn't attempt to deny it. "There is that."

I respect him more for not pretending his intentions were entirely altruistic.

"Does Róise know about Gabriel killing her dad?" he asks.

"Yes." No way would I tell her uncle before telling my fiancée.

Her temper flashes hot and big when she's riled. And while that can be fun, hurting her isn't. Being the last to know who killed her father would do that.

"She's probably down at the boathouse telling Kara and Fiona everything." Brogan grimaces. "Once my mother finds out…"

He just shakes his head morosely, not finishing the thought.

"How many underwater guards do you have on duty?" I ask over my shoulder, heading toward the door.

Even if the number is half a dozen, I'm not comfortable with Róise hanging out in the boathouse without me right now.

Hell, probably never. It's just too damned exposed.

"None. I told you we don't need them. I ran tests on our sonar's detection levels and nothing is getting past it. Even if it could, it would take a plasma torch to get through the net."

Which Róise and Kara paddled right over in their dinghy.

My gut twists. If the sonar had alerted to the women during their great escape, they wouldn't have gotten away.

No one can approach the boathouse during the day in a dinghy without being seen. Not with the men Brogan has patrolling that part of the property and watching water.

My men make four more sets of eyes. With Brogan's security, it should be enough, but my gut is screaming it's not.

I send a text, instructing my men to converge on the boathouse and pull up Róise's tracker just because.

Relief surges through me at the steady dot located at the boathouse. She's going to be pissed when they crash the party with her cousins, but better safe than sorry.

I'm halfway to the boathouse when I hear a scream. I start to run.