“Or no one,” I said softly, mind whirring as I processed all this information.
“Michael said he involved Ma in this because he wanted something over Da,” Conor murmured. “Probably wanted his support when he pulled that coup. There’s a reason he’s still alive, so I have to figure that reason is Da.”
“Maybe he’s the one who needs the extra guards, then.” Brennan grimaced.
“If he’s the reason the power struggle happened, then he sure as fuck does.” Finn ran a hand through his hair.
“So, let me get this straight,” I stated. “We have a president with a love child who happens to be our sister-in-law.
“His First Lady is in bed with a bunch of terrorists. Or was at some point. And seeing as Davidson’s backing a unified Ireland, I think she’s the one who encouraged that.
“Finally, we have a newly released ex-con who may or may not be looking to get his revenge after what happened to his sister… am I missing anything?”
Forty-One
Finn
“No, you’re not missing anything, but I think we need to get some shit out into the open.”
Junior arched a brow at me. “More shit?”
“There’s always shit,” Conor declared. “If we get everything out in the open, then we’ll be here all day.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Declan said on a huff.
Staring at Junior, I ground out, “There’ll come a day when you’re in charge, Aidan, and this is it. It’s us. We’re the council.”
“That’s gloomy.” Brennan frowned. “Da ain’t in his grave, yet.”
“No, but he would have been if I hadn’t dragged him from the cathedral when he and your ma tried to burn themselves to death.” I shot him a pointed look when his mouth gaped. “See? This is the kind of stuff we need to be transparent about.”
“Ma tried to kill herself?”
I wasn’t surprised that Brennan focused on that. He had a better relationship with Lena than the others, but that was forged on guilt. Guilt he only had on his shoulders because his father had given a man’s job to a teenager.
Declan, on the other hand, demanded, “Da was behind the arson attack on the cathedral? Do you know how many pieces of art were lost in that fire?”
Eoghan murmured, “And the Archbishop? Da killed him?”
“Ma tried to kill herself,” Junior rasped, staring down at his shoes. “Da killed the Archbishop, but the Valentini Don kidnapped him for us—”
Brennan snapped, “When were you thinking of telling us all this?”
He shrugged. “When it was important.”
“Jesus Christ,” Brennan hissed.
“Your folks both set fire to the cathedral,” I tacked on calmly.
“But why?” Eoghan muttered. “What the hell made them do that?”
Before I could answer, Conor stated, “I think it’s my secret to tell.”
“What secret?” Eoghan inquired.
“A couple months before Paddy disappeared—” Disapproval laced Kid’s tone at his uncle’s behavior. “—a priest groomed me.”
Tension had Brennan’s shoulders stiffening. “Groomed you?” he repeated, his words like ice.
By contrast to the threat of danger in Bren’s voice, Conor sounded conversational as he explained, “Yes. He raped me multiple times over a period of about six weeks.”
I closed my eyes at that news. After that day, we’d never spoken about it. What we’d seen, what we’d done, I knew it fucked us all up.
Aidan had gotten real angry, so much so that his da had whupped him to ‘beat the devil out of him.’ Unsurprisingly, that didn’t help with his anger issues. Conor had turned to his computers. I’d just tried to ride through it by studying as much as I could, knowing that one day, I’d be able to leave wetwork behind.
“Conor, fuck, you—” Declan rambled, sitting forward like he wanted to do something but couldn’t.
“Who was the fucking piece of shit bastard son of a bitch?” Brennan growled, jerking to his feet to loom over the lot of us.
“Give me his name,” Eoghan whispered. “I’ll kill him. No one has to know.”
Conor smiled, but it was a weird one. Neither edgy nor gleeful, mostly… entertained? Satisfied? “It’s okay. He’s already dead.”
“He is?” Brennan started pacing. “He better have suffered.”
I cleared my throat. “Aidan made sure of that.”
Their heads whipped around to glance between Aidan and me.
“You knew?” Declan barked. “And didn’t say anything?”
“You and your fucking secrets. You’re always keeping things from us,” Brennan spat.
“And that’s why we need to do this,” I said as calmly as I could. “Haven’t you noticed? Your parents aren’t doing well, and what’s going to happen now… it could be the nail in their coffin.
“Aoife came today out of spite. She wanted to hurt Lena by hurting something she loved. But why the fuck would she come next week? Or the week after?
“You think I’m going to make her come eat chicken and potatoes when I’m clinging onto my marriage—” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Senior won’t like it, but he ain’t got a choice. I’m protecting my woman, and I’m taking her out of a toxic environment—”
“You don’t have to explain,” Brennan said. “It makes sense.”
“Total sense,” Declan agreed.
“Of course it does,” Junior concurred.
Eoghan gave me a nod, but actions always did mean more to him than words.
“After our last call,” Conor admitted, “I was surprised when you came today.”
“So, you don’t know everything,” Brennan mocked.
I held up a hand. “Don’t start arguing. We’ve all got a lot of ground to cover.”
Clearing his throat, Conor continued, “He’s right. While I was being raped, Aidan and Finn entered the church, grabbed McKenna—”
“That fucking pedo? Jesus, I remember him! I knew he was a piece of shit—” Brennan snarled while Conor ignored him, saying:
“—and Aidan clubbed him to death. We called Paddy in, and he got rid of the body.”
Junior rubbed his chin. “I’ve known Paddy wasn’t dead for five years.”
Declan’s mouth gaped. “You gotta be shitting me?”
“Savannah discovered the truth.”
“Five years ago?” Eoghan asked. “You’ve known her that long?”
“Yeah. It’s complicated. Ain’t seen her for most of that time.”
Conor hummed. “Wondered why there were guards allocated to my building that weren’t on me.”
Aidan rolled his eyes but murmured, “Da threatened to kill her. She was digging into sensitive family secrets, and he didn’t like that.”
“That’s how you met?” Declan questioned.
“Yeah. She worked out that Paddy wasn’t the person on the slab in the morgue.”