Tiernan Prologue-A Month Prior

Some things were getting back to normal. Danvers Kelly, aintín , Aunt Maeve’s half-brother, was out of our lives for good. It had been a couple of weeks since he and the assassins he’d hired to kill my sister had been eliminated with extreme prejudice. Anyone coming after my family was asking to be killed. Every member of the family and our people would ensure it. However, in Aisling’s case, she had a crazy Scotsman who was head-over-heels in love with her. He would slaughter anyone who even thought of hurting her. It took years for her and Alistair to confess how they both felt. Once they did, nothing stood in the way of their love. Alistair had been in love with Ais for nine years, and Ais had loved him even longer.

While other things disturbed the tranquility of our lives, we weren’t allowing those to disrupt the upcoming happy occasion. Immediately after Alistair asked Aisling to marry him, they decided not to have a fancy, big, blowout wedding. They wanted a simple family affair with the crucial parts—a beautiful dress, a fantastic reception, and a honeymoon.

Mam , Mom, the cailíní , the girls, and the aintíni , aunts, were all busy ironing out all the details for the big day. Considering this was the fourth wedding they had to arrange in just over a year, they weren’t sweating it. They had become experts, and what they didn’t know, they had people who they could hire or consult with who did.

I couldn’t be happier for my sister and oldest brother, Aidan. They’d found what the rest of us desired more than anything—their comhghleacaithe anam , soulmates. So had my cousins Darragh and Cian. I was beyond thrilled for them and the families they were starting with the loves of their lives. It just made it harder for the ones like me, who had no such person in sight. I tried not to be pessimistic and wonder if I wouldn’t be one of the lucky ones.

Intellectually, I knew I had time, and it hardly seemed fair that I would get mine before my other two older brothers, Cathal and Shane, did, but I still dreamed I’d be next. I was the next-to-last child in our group. In age, Aidan was thirty-eight, Cathal would be thirty-six, Shane thirty-five, me thirty-four, and Aisling was twenty-seven. Hell, Darragh hadn’t met Ashlynn until he was forty, and Cian was thirty-nine when he found Miranda.

Shoving those thoughts, both happy and depressing, aside, I tuned back into the meeting I was a part of. The whole family was gathered, or I should say, the men were. We were again reviewing the terrible revelation we’d been hit with a few weeks ago. One of the top Irish Mafia families in the States, a contemporary who we saw as semi-friendly, was involved in the disappearance of young girls and women. The revelation that people within the Brynes family were mixed up in it was a blow.

While none of us were angels, the other families—the Brynes, Bragans, Connallys, Kilkennys, and Doyles—were still very much on the illegal side of things. Well, less so the Doyles since we’d all but eradicated their family over the past year. Ivo, the former head of the Doyle family, and his prominent people had targeted my family one time too many. The only way to make them stop was to hit them hard. We didn't wage war on innocent men, women, and children, but those who were involved were removed permanently. We’d tried to teach them a lesson by only taking out Ivo and his closest enforcers. When that didn’t work, we trimmed even more away. The residual wasn’t anyone worth worrying too much about, though we did keep our eyes and ears open, just in case. This essentially left five critical Irish Mafia families in the United States.

Technically, ours shouldn’t be in the mix since we’d left our illegal money-making ways behind years ago. However, we remained the biggest and wealthiest of the families. We may not make our fortune from selling guns, extortion, and a variety of other illegal activities, but we didn’t shy away from getting our hands dirty either. Our history was enough to keep the other families respectful and cautious not to anger us. Even when we were criminals, we had morals. We didn’t sell flesh, harm women and kids, along with selling hard drugs. If you went up against us, we’d make it rain blood.

It was the desire to see certain boundaries weren’t overstepped that our family, even back then, had formed the Cúnna Ceartais , the Hounds of Justice. They were an ultra-secret assassins-for-hire group. Only the Hounds had rigid ethics, and they wouldn’t compromise them. Those in the know could contact them and, if lucky, hire the Hounds. The fact that the O’Sheeran family was behind the group was a closely guarded secret.

There were ways to get in contact with us through the dark web to ask for help. One such request had stirred up this whole mess. There were definite indications that part of the Brynes family was involved in this reprehensible business. That was what we were discussing.

Cody, our computer guru and head of our investigative team, had found evidence that the missing women and girls were, in fact, missing and not just false rumors or runaways. It had been brought to us by the Bragans. The fact one Mafia family was accusing another put us on alert. We had to be sure it wasn’t a way to eliminate competition so they could take over their territory or that it wasn’t a way to suck our family in and destroy both of us. That meant both sides were being thoroughly investigated. It was a long, tedious, and meticulous process, but early indications were that the Bragans were doing the right thing.

Our certainty this was so was helped by the revelation that the leaders of the Bragan family had approached Darragh, Daid , Dad, and the uncaili , uncles a few months back, asking for help in going legit. Tonight, we were having our weekly meeting to find out what new information had been discovered, if any. We were taking our time, even though the initial reaction was to run out and take out the Brynes and rescue the poor people who had been taken.

“Anything new?” Darragh asked Cody.

“I’m afraid it’s more of the same, Dar. Suspicious deposits are going into hidden accounts of certain Brynes family members. I can’t rule out that Christopher is in on it or at least knows it’s happening, even if he isn’t directly a part of it. Another woman went missing. It’s a tangled mess trying to unravel who’s involved, where the people are going, and what has happened to them. There’s no way those involved are pulling it off without a lot of help.

“Add to it the manpower it’s taking to try and track down where these people have disappeared to and if they’re even still alive. The Bragans brought it to the Hounds’ attention, but they’re not the only ones with missing people within their territories. There’s chatter about it in the Kilkenny, Connally, and even the Brynes territories. The Brynes involved are being smart and making it appear that someone outside their people is perpetrating these disappearances,” Cody informed us. He wore a dark scowl.

This news made the rest of us glower and mutter darkly under our breaths. The thought of what was happening made us all sick and thirst for blood. When the time came to take down those involved, there was no doubt it would be more than the Hounds doing it. I looked forward to it.