Page 125 of Forced Vows

"He wasn't willing to risk the truce he'd reached with the Shaughnessy Mob." The don should have offered his soldier over as restitution, but the mob boss didn't ask for that. "No one doubted that Derry Shaughnessy was responsible."

"Is that why they killed him?"

"The Bonanno don swore a blood oath to your grandfather that he had not ordered the hit."

"He could have been lying. A blood oath is only as trustworthy as the man offering it."

"He offered his own grandson in restitution if any proof could be found linking the Bonanno to Derry's death."

"What a horrible thing to do!" For a moment, she's the innocent twenty-year-old I met that night in Portland. "Even if he wasn't guilty, someone could have manufactured evidence to get rid of one of his heirs."

Okay, not so innocent. "It convinced your grandfather."

"He never said. He let us believe it was another flare up with the Bonanno Family."

"I don't know why he did that."

"He was devastated by my dad's death, nearly comatose with grief at losing his oldest son. But he was still the boss." She sighs with a world weariness that does not belong on my feisty wife-to-be. "He would rather we believed it was the wrong syndicate than admit he had no idea who had killed his son. I always assumed he didn't go to war with the Bonannos because of his own failing health."

"It was no secret that your grandfather had serious health issues at the end. Whoever killed your dad wasn't targeting your grandfather," I voice the only theory that makes sense. "They shot who they meant to."

"Because they didn't want my dad to become the next boss?" she asks, quickly drawing the same conclusion I did.

"Yes."

"But why? My dad's death wasn't going to weaken the mob. My uncle was ready to step into his shoes." A look of horror comes over her features. "You don't think it was Uncle Brogan?"

"No." But if it was, I will kill him slowly for all the grief his ambition caused my woman.

She shakes her head. "No. Even Uncle Brogan has to draw the line somewhere."

It's not a ringing endorsement of her uncle's familial loyalty, but I agree with her. I don't believe the older man's honor would allow him to order a hit on his brother.

"What if it was bad aim again?" She looks sick. "What if my grandfather took out the hit on himself so he would die a legend, not a sick old man?"

Unfortunately, from what I know of the deceased mob boss, it's not a farfetched theory.

"I'm not ruling anyone out. Including the Bonannos until I find the sniper who shot your father and make him tell me who ordered the hit."

Once I find her father's killer and dispatch him to hell, Róise will see that I can be trusted. That I'm not the enemy.

"It could be a her."

"Yes." Some of the deadliest snipers are women, but they are a tiny percentage of a small population.

"Dad was always there when I needed him." She hugs herself. "Until they took him away from me."

"Sev needs the alliance between us and your mob to go public."

Róise sighs. "Time to make the engagement official."

If only it was that easy. "Yes, and when we do, we will be announcing our upcoming wedding."

"Okay." She stares out over the water, but she's not looking for potential threats.

Brogan must have security measures against attacks from the waterfront that Róise doesn't know about. He would not allow his daughters and niece into the backyard without a full security team otherwise.

Even if he would, he would not risk his grandson and heir.

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