Page 27 of Shattered Empire (Shattered World)

“And then you killed him.”

There was no regret on Dante’s face. Nothing. Not that I would judge him for that. Dante’s father was a horrible man.

“Did Seamus McDonough want the merger?”

“It was his idea.”

“I sense a but coming…”

Dante clicked his tongue and let out a breath. “But when we arrived in Boston to negotiate with him, he had no clue what we were talking about. Told my father he would never align himself with anyone whose shipment involved human cargo.”

“Is that how the war started?”

He gave me a grim nod.

The Italian-Irish war was carved into Seattle’s history as the bloodiest gang war on the West Coast. There were so many lives lost on both sides as hails of gunfire littered the streets day after day. Nowhere was safe. The police were at a loss, and gang violence rose until the day Dante had put an end to it.

By putting a bullet through his father’s skull.

“Here’s the thing.” Dante rolled his shoulders back to ease the tension that was no doubt gathering there. “The initial conversation took place here in Seattle. In person.”

“Wait…” I blinked rapidly several times, trying to process what he just told me. “But you said…”

“That’s why my father was so upset,” Dante told me with a small shake of his head. “He had a face-to-face encounter with him. Sat down and had coffee. Fucked a few whores.”

Well, I could have lived without that information.

Wait.

“No, it couldn’t have been him.”

“Trust me, Ava,” he assured me. “It was. I saw him myself several times over the two days he was here in June 1996.”

“You don’t understand,” I argued as I combed through my phone. One of the crime scene pictures Libby had of my mother’s trashed dorm room held a photo. It hadn’t meant anything before, but now that I was putting dates together, it couldn’t have been him.

“What were the exact dates?” I asked frantically as I pulled up the photo.

“June fifteenth was the day he arrived. He left two days later.” He frowned. “Why is that important?”

“Because—” I turned the phone around to show him the photo. “This is my mother’s graduation photo, taken with my grandmother and grandfather.” I zoomed the phone in so he could see the date on the bottom of the picture.

“It’s dated June fifteenth, 1996.”

Dante checked and rechecked, as if what he was seeing might disappear if he kept looking away and back again. “That’s impossible,” he whispered. “If that’s him…who the fuck met with my father all those years ago?”

“That’s what I need you to find out.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Five. Three. Seven. Nine.” Seamus called out number after number as he worked me through the paces in the gym beneath McDonough’s. It had been nearly two weeks since my meeting with Dante, and still nothing but radio silence. To keep Christian from getting suspicious, we agreed not to contact each other unless it was absolutely necessary.

He wanted Christian dead for what he’d done to Libby. As much as I didn’t want to stop him from putting that asshole’s head on a spike, we needed him alive still.

Only for a little while.

“Focus, Ava,” Seamus reprimanded when his kick made contact with the side of my head. I stumbled to the side, wincing at the pounding pain before cracking my neck and hunkering back into position. “You’ve been too distracted lately.”

“Got a lot on my mind,” I mumbled before throwing my uppercut at the pads.

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