Page 39 of Merciless Promise
“I know where I’m parked,puisín.”
Kingston sneered as he said my nickname and continued to pull me along until we reached the wall of the parking garage. He then thrust me between it and him, and forced my head down to see how high up off the ground that we truly were.
“I should’ve known I couldn’t trust you. My grandfather told me as much, but I....It doesn’t fucking matter. I should toss your ass off this parking garage right now. A cat has nine lives, or so they say. If you live, I’ll hand deliver you to Aram Grigoryan to deal with the other eight of them.”
“Please, Kingston.Don’t.I can explain.”
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Ekaterina had promised she could explain, but the ride home had been spent with her alternating between fake, alligator tears and more lies. Here I was forcing myself to... My thoughts ceased to exist in that moment as fucking the deceitful little bitch was nothing I had to force myself to do, as much as I oftentimes wished that it was. Still, I had been fucking her night and day, only for her to have been takng birth control all along.
The fury inside of me would not subside. It had taken every ounce of restraint that I’d had not to toss her onto the street from the fifth floor of that parking garage. Seeing her guts splattered all over East Fifty-Third Street might’ve made me feel better in the immediacy, but it would’ve only complicated things further for me afterward. And another truth was that I hadn’t wanted to end her life.
I had ended the lives of dozens of those who threatened my family in one way or another. If I had been smart, I would’ve done so at the time of Princeton’s death. Something had stoppedme then, but it wasn’t the same thing stopping me now. After Ekaterina had gotten away with murder, she’d been dragged back to Russia, where she was under constant security.
Yesterday, I could’ve so easily just gotten rid of my problem and fulfilled a sacred vow in the process, but I froze. While she was the one my grandfather would least want me to ever marry, and whose children he would hate most for me to bring into this world, another truth altogether struck me on the flight to Boston. Even now, when at the Brannington estate in the heart of Beacon Hill, I knew that sometime over the months we had been together that I had grown to actually like her.
“You look like hell, King,” I heard, and when I looked over my shoulder, my cousin was leaning against the door.
“I’m getting tired of these fucking summons,” I muttered, and he stepped into the room.
“You know what it’s about, right?” Cillian asked.
“I’m assuming it’s to let us know what colossal failures we are, and?—”
“And you would be correct, Garmhac. Only, there is also business to discuss that isn’t of a personal nature. Shall we sit and discuss that first?”
We both threw our hands up at our grandfather’s question, then took our seats. Once my grandfather did the same, he let out a long, drawn sigh. It was in that moment that I realized the dark circles under his eyes and the wear on his face. Age had crept up on him, and while his ultimatum made sense, seeing he was facing his own mortality, that should’ve been my cousin and my problem to worry about instead of his. “It’s Leon Barganella.”
“From Palermo?” Cillian asked.
“Yes, he’s hijacked a shipment of ours out in the Mediterranean.”
“And you know it was him for a fact?” I asked, even though I knew my grandfather would’ve done his due diligence first. Our family wasn’t the largest amongst the Irish Mafia, so we often had to pick our battles more wisely than others.
“I do, and we cannot let him get away with this,” he responded.
“What do you need me to do, Daideó?” I asked.
“Do you need one of us to head to Sicily?” Cillian asked him.
I looked over at my cousin. He appeared to be sober today, and very much wanting to be involved in the business when, in recent years, the only thing that had interested him was the whiskey found inside a bottle. He had never confided about what drove him to it, and I’d never pushed as he was fragile enough mentally. Today, he was alert and ready to be called to action. I was proud of him, and I could see by the smile on our grandfather’s face that he was also pleased.
“Not yet, although it wouldn’t hurt to send some additional men there. I already have a crew, and with any luck, they’ll find the bastard and I can get our comeuppance.”
“And you couldn’t have just called and told us as much on the phone?” I asked, as irritation now set in. I’d dropped everything to come rushing to Boston for something he could’ve sent in a text message.
“I also wanted to let you know that I intend to stay here in Boston for the foreseeable future. When our strike takes place, Dublin is the first place they’ll go. I have a little something waiting for them when they do get there. After, they’ll hit New York City.”
“Which is where we come in,” I replied.
“Yes, I want Cillian to return to Ireland by nightfall, and you to return to New York City.”
“I can’t wait to get out of this fucking country. It’s a fucking cesspool,” Cillian muttered under his breath.
“You’re to oversee the crews in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick. Kingston will oversee the Brooklyn and Manhattan ones. We’ve lost over a million dollars in drugs and weapons. I expect there to be no casualties to anyone in our empire. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Daideó,” both Cillian and I responded.
