Page 74 of Merciful Lies

My wife is sitting home swollen with our baby, and I have to play up to this prick and it is making me furious.

But Angel and Luc just confirmed what I already suspected. Anna’s brother. That fucking prick baker. The arson at her old place. My warehouse explosion. All of it leads back to Sanchez. And Sanchez has already proven he will kill people.

“So, you see, Mr. Fury. I can’t help you, not unless perhaps a merger can be made,” O’Doyle says, gesturing to his daughter.

She’s sitting beside him, wearing a bright green spandex dress and looking like she belongs in a St. Patty’s Day parade or something.

Inwardly, I cringe. Outwardly, I show no emotion.

But I need to end Sanchez. To eliminate the threat against me and my wife and unborn son. And I need to do it sooner rather than later.

But this old Irish mafia douchebag is protecting him. Suddenly I am not feeling so patient. My phone buzzes again.

I glance down and see twenty messages in the last five minutes. The last one is from the guard I left in charge of Anna’s security team.

“Fury, are you hearing me? Maybe this isn’t a good time. Maybe your mind is elsewhere,” he says, but I am already on my feet.

I ignore him and I reread the text without understanding.

Something happened. Something went wrong. I don’t know what, and I can’t fucking breathe.

Thunder is roaring in my ears as I race down the hall to find Angel and Luc.

“What?” my cousin says.

I toss the phone at him and jump into the SUV. Angel and Luc get in after me as I order Tommy to drive to the private airport.

My world is crashing down around me. If anything happens to Anna or the baby—no, I can’t allow myself to spiral down that motherfucker of a rabbit hole.

It’s like fate is laughing at me. I finally have the one thing I wanted, a real home, and I might lose her while wasting my fucking time here.

I am so mad. I am so goddamn mad. But I can’t focus on that.

My Anna is in an ambulance. She’s probably scared. Probably hurting. And I’m in this shithole of a town talking to some washed up mafia chump while he dicks around with me.

Motherfucker.

“Sever ties with the O’Doyle’s,” I bark out the order.

“What?” Angel asks.

“I want you to cut them off from every fucking port we own, every connection we have. He’s hiding Sanchez, and that makes him my enemy, too. Do it now,” I command.

“Yes, Boss,” Luc says.

My Council grabs his phone to get things rolling on his end. I see Angel do the same and I should feel some sort of mollification, but I don’t.

Fuck this.

I close my eyes and force my boiling rage to a low simmer. My wife needs me and I have to get to the Jersey City Medical Center as fast as possible.

“Tell Gio to get the plane fired up,” Angel says into his cell phone.

Good thing he remembers to call ahead.

I can’t even think, let alone speak. But ten minutes later we board the plane at the same time Anna arrives in the Emergency Room.

I’m so fucking mad. And I’m afraid. Really afraid.

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