Page 79 of Pitiful Lies

“Two people were found dead last night in the alley behind the Iron Cage,” Luc says.

The Iron Cage is a bar about ten minutes away from the Den.

“So what?” I ask, because unfortunately, dead bodies aren’t exactly hard to come by in Jersey City.

“So, they OD’d. They both had empty baggies with a G emblem on them.”

“Fuck,” Nico growls.

“Ghost. It has to be,” I tell them.

No, Ghost hasn’t been a problem for us before, but without Sanchez around, the illegal drug market is down one major player.

It’s possible the Asian gangster thinks he can fill the void.

A thought he is likely to regret.

I am already texting one of my team leaders to scope out the motherfucker’s known haunts.

If Ghost needs a message from the Vipers just to be clear that this town is off limits, he’ll get one.

And soon.

“On it,” I interrupt Luc, and the Council dips his chin.

“Good. Now, let’s talk about our new agreement with Margaret O’Doyle,” Nico says.

“She’s got balls,” Luc replies. “Already she’s dismantled the prostitution ring her sleazebag father was involved in and put those who wanted jobs to work for her.”

“I bet that was shocking for a lot of people,” I say.

“Yeah. She’s really turning that old Irish mob family into a female-strong organization.”

Luc grins. I just grunt. Margaret O’Doyle is smart and daring, but she is young and inexperienced. A lot of folks won’t like what she’s doing.

“How are the boys taking it?” Nico asks, and he’s smirking.

My cousin always liked rooting for an underdog, but if there is one thing I learned in our dealings with the new head of the O’Doyle clan, it’s that Margaret O’Doyle is smarter than people think.

I guess that’s what makes her the perfect dark horse. She’s a twenty-two year-old woman who’s already established she won’t take shit from any man. Not even her pops.

That piece of shit had to go.

But his redheaded firecracker of a daughter coming out as bi and slaughtering half the original members of her old man’s organization?

Well, that’s just sheer audacity. Margaret O’Doyle is ballsy. I will give her that.

By inviting the Vipers to her ascension as head of the O’Doyle clan, she is proving smart.

Very fucking smart.

Because Margaret O’Doyle is telling the whole fucking world who she’s in bed with.

Metaphorically, of course.

None of us are touching anyone but our women ever again. We know it. And for the most part, they know it.

My Koukla needs some assurances, and I’m gonna give them to her. I was planning on it this weekend, but now we have to go to Boston, and I’m hoping she is okay with it.

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